Caribbean Beach FAQ Part IV

[Schmoodle]

I have a reservation at CBR in January and am really looking forward to checking out this resort, new to us. I think my kids will love the decor and tropical feel. I do have a question, which may have been answered somewhere in this thread already, but I browsed through and didn't see anything. We are planning a low-key trip, and I would love to have a place (not in the room) that I could sit and enjoy my coffee and book in the morning if the kids want to sleep in. They are old enough that I don't have to be right there, but young enough that I should be nearby when they wake. Since we don't have a balcony, I was wondering if some of the buildings have nice garden areas or tables or benches with a nice view nearby. I don't care too much how close we are to OPR or main pool, and would generally not bother to make a room request, but will if there are better areas for this.

 

[safetymom]

There are courtyards in some of the buildings. They are smoking areas but they are a great place to sit and read a book. The courtyard view rooms are my favorites at CBR.

 

[daisypaisyduck]

If you are up early and your fairly close you could go sit by the pool or your villiage pool. They are open 24hours and are very quiet in the mornings.

 

[fires_grumpy]

We are thinking of staying at CBR in June. How is the bus service? And if we had an 8am ADR for breakfest should we go to Old Port Royale Towne Center to catch the bus?I stayed at CBR the 1st year it opened and loved it but only remember a little about it.

 

[Schmoodle]

Thank you Daisy and Safetymom, I will ask about those areas when I check in.

 

[poohfriend9]

We really enjoyed our long weekend at CBR and we stayed in Jamaica in a king room. I'm glad we went back and enjoyed this visit alot more than we did years ago. We road the surrey bikes around the resort right after we checked in and took our own tour. That was fun, but a bit hot to do when it's 95 degrees. The temps took a drastic drop though the next day. We ate at the food court and had the toasted turkey sandwich. Very good. Our quiet pool was pretty quiet. Hubby enjoyed a hammock. Nice stay at CBR.

 

[KimRaye]

We are thinking of staying at CBR in June. How is the bus service? And if we had an 8am ADR for breakfest should we go to Old Port Royale Towne Center to catch the bus?I stayed at CBR the 1st year it opened and loved it but only remember a little about it.

I thought bus service was great! One day we even had a personal-chaffeur driver TWICE in 1 day! He took us point to point by altering his route!! I don't think you need to go to OPR to catch a park bus tho. Waiting for the internal bus can take longer - SOMEtimes! - altho we didn't have that problem earlier this month.

I stayed at CBR when it was a Value, too!!

 

[Momof2Disneyboys]

We are thinking of staying at CBR in June. How is the bus service? And if we had an 8am ADR for breakfest should we go to Old Port Royale Towne Center to catch the bus?I stayed at CBR the 1st year it opened and loved it but only remember a little about it.

The bus service is excellent. Most of our waits were under 5 minutes. And CBR is very centrally located, making for very short trips to the parks & DTD.

You don't need to go to OPR to catch a bus. You can go to whatever bus stop your room is closest to. When we have an 8:00am ADR we usually head to the bus stop shortly after 7:00 and get to our ADR with plenty of time to spare!

We really enjoyed our long weekend at CBR and we stayed in Jamaica in a king room. I'm glad we went back and enjoyed this visit alot more than we did years ago. We road the surrey bikes around the resort right after we checked in and took our own tour. That was fun, but a bit hot to do when it's 95 degrees. The temps took a drastic drop though the next day. We ate at the food court and had the toasted turkey sandwich. Very good. Our quiet pool was pretty quiet. Hubby enjoyed a hammock. Nice stay at CBR.

Welcome back! Glad you enjoyed your stay at CBR!

 

[erinm]

I am so glad I found this thread. I just booked 7 days June 2010 at this resort and a friend told me the bus system was horrible at CBR and I was about to change to Coronado Springs. Looking at the pictures, I think I will be staying at this resort. Can someone make me feel better about the buses? Also, how far is this resort from the Boardwalk?

 

[CleveRocks]

I am so glad I found this thread. I just booked 7 days June 2010 at this resort and a friend told me the bus system was horrible at CBR and I was about to change to Coronado Springs. Looking at the pictures, I think I will be staying at this resort. Can someone make me feel better about the buses? Also, how far is this resort from the Boardwalk?

There's no such thing as a resort with a bad bus system. But isolated problems can happen. There CAN be a rough few days or a bad week. So what happens is, someone is at a particular resort during a week that wasn't so stellar as far as the bus service goes, and they conclude from that that the bus service stinks there all the time.

How can I be so sure of this? Because if you stick around The DIS long enough, you'll hear both good and bad reports about buses at EVERY resort.

In addition, there are some people that have a pretty low threshold for complaining. Two people can send the same week at the same resort and one of them might have a list of complaints and the other saw no problems whatsoever.

 

[erinm]

There's no such thing as a resort with a bad bus system. But isolated problems can happen. There CAN be a rough few days or a bad week. So what happens is, someone is at a particular resort during a week that wasn't so stellar as far as the bus service goes, and they conclude from that that the bus service stinks there all the time.

How can I be so sure of this? Because if you stick around The DIS long enough, you'll hear both good and bad reports about buses at EVERY resort.

In addition, there are some people that have a pretty low threshold for complaining. Two people can send the same week at the same resort and one of them might have a list of complaints and the other saw no problems whatsoever.

Thanks for the response. Can you tell me how far the Boardwalk is to CBR? We plan on going there a couple of evenings.

 

[BebopBaloo]

CleveRocks - I think you made an excellent statement and agree with you 100% Thanks for saying what I was already thinking about a lot of what I read on buses

 

[CleveRocks]

Thanks for the response. Can you tell me how far the Boardwalk is to CBR? We plan on going there a couple of evenings.

I just realized I left that part out!

They're not terribly far from each other ... but the problem is that Disney doesn't have a quick/efficient way to move people between resorts. There are no direct buses between resorts.

The very easist way to get to BoardWalk from CBR is to take a taxi ... it'll be maybe $10 + tip (I may be off by $2 or $3 in either direction).

From CBR, you could take a bus to Disney's Hollywood Studios and then either walk about 8/10 of a mile to BoardWalk, or take a FriendShip boat to the BoardWalk dock. Walking will be faster.

I recommend the taxi ... quicker and much easier. On the road, it'll be about a 1 mile drive.

 

[KimRaye]

I don't want to confuse those asking the questions, and I know you can't go resort to resort (except on the monorail), but we found that using Disney's bus service was quite FUN!!! We would leave CBR to go to Chef Mickey's - take the MK bus! We left CM by monorail and went to GF, we left GF by bus to DTD, and then went to CBR. We also left DTD and went to Swan/Dolphin to catch the boat to Boardwalk (I know, we could've taken a direct bus, but I wanted to show my family ALL the possibilities of travel within Disney - besides buses. I LOVE the system, even if SOMETIMES there are delays or problems.

We had ONE bus driver, twice in one day, that gave us such AWESOME service and shared a LOT of knowledge as well (including the info on the ONE Disney Bus that has hidden Mickey tail lights!)! There is QUITE a system in place for covering overloaded bus stops, switching routes, etc. according to him. Our MK driver sided-tracked us directly to the Contemporary for our CM breakfast, and later that day, he picked us up from the WL and took us to MK but then he switched his route, we never left his bus, and he took us directly to CBR! I KNOW Mega Pixie Dust!!!

I think the availabilty and possibilities are wonderful, and someone who wants to see MORE Disney, should hop on the transportation - anywhere - and see where you can go!!!

 

[BebopBaloo]

Kim Raye - You're right! We've always thought of staying on Disney property as a transportation adventure!

 

[kelzab]

how is the walk from Jamaica to the bus stop and to the OPR? We are going to be there for the first time in December and I am a little fearful of the walks and transportation. Any good waterviews you could suggest? Thanks so much!

 

[jenseib]

how is the walk from Jamaica to the bus stop and to the OPR? We are going to be there for the first time in December and I am a little fearful of the walks and transportation. Any good waterviews you could suggest? Thanks so much!

Totally off topic, but I live not to far from you! I live North of Swanton. My mom is the HR person for Frozen Foods Specialty in Archbold, and when I used to work I drove a delivery route delivering car parts to all the dealerships in there twice a day!

 

[CleveRocks]

how is the walk from Jamaica to the bus stop and to the OPR? We are going to be there for the first time in December and I am a little fearful of the walks and transportation. Any good waterviews you could suggest? Thanks so much!

Every village has its own bus stop. So it's impossible to answer the question about how is the walk to the bus stop, since Jamaica has its own! How close to or far from Jamaica'a bus stop you are depends on where in Jamaica your room is.

And the same exact thing goes for the other five villages, as well.

Building 45 in Jamaica (as well as Aruba 51 and Martinique 22) is as close as you can get to OPR without paying for preferred location. But, Jamaica 41 (as well as Aruba 56) is about as far away from OPR as you can get without being in a Pirate room.

Water view means a view of EITHER the lake or the village quiet pool. You can request one or the other, but when you pay extra for water view there is no way to guarantee WHICH water you'll have a view of.

 

[KimRaye]

Kim Raye - You're right! We've always thought of staying on Disney property as a transportation adventure!

ITA!!

 

[charity]

Does anyone have a map that show the preferred rooms at CBR? I seen one for POP and it helped me decide if I wanted preferred so I would love to see one for CBR to help decide for May!!