Caribbean Beach FAQ Part IV

[momthechauffer]

We were there from the 11th-18th. The only things we saw in the lake were the soft shelled turtles, fish, ducks. The only alligator we saw was in the Magic Kingdom by Tom Sawyer Island.

We were in Aruba building, room 5516. It was great. Near the beach, steps away from it actually, our daughter loved the hammock. The pool was just outside also. Quiet.....nice and quiet........

Mouskeeping was great, room was straighted up every day when we returned in the afternoon from the parks, which was usually around 1 or 2. When we stayed at the AKL that past two times, the room was even touched yet by that time.

I'll post pictures when I get a chance. This is by far our favoriet resort. Though the AKL is great because of the balcony and the animals, we love the CBR because you can actually walk around outside and relax. Plus there were lots of smoking areas, which is great for my husband. One was right outside our room, which was good, we didn't even know it until a few days into our stay!

The foodcourt was ok, we did miss the variety of foods offered at the AKL, but we always missed getting something from the broiler or deli. We did have breakfast there our last morning, Mickey waffles and my husband had the breakfast bounty. TONS of food.

We will definetly return here again for a third stay.

 

[kellybean85]

Hi,

I'm sorry ~ just saw your question this morning! Yes, we have had a roll-away twice at CBR - last time, in 2005, the fee was $15.00 a day and we found it best to call housekeeping when we arrive a our room and they bring it up pretty quickly.

Still only 4 allowed in the room, with one under 3, but we had pre-teens who preferred having their own bed. Worked great both times for us. We've also had a roll-away at POFQ.

Hope this helps! Have a great trip!

thank you so much, i have been looking for this answer for weeks!

 

[Bibbidy Bobbidy Boo]

Does anyone have the floor layout- not the room layout of the buildings at CBR? You know, so you can see where each specific room is and where ice machines are?

 

[annejulie]

Hi everybody,
Sorry, if this question has been asked before.
I would like to know if the bus stops for Caribbean beach are far from the main entrance of the parks?

Thanks!

 

[MKB419]

Hi Guys,
A quick question about room requests. I am traveling 10/18-24 with 6 of us 4 adults and 2 children. I am wondering what building to ask for because we will have a double stroller and I would like to board the buses while they are less crowded. We have 2 waterview rooms booked as there were no standard rooms avail. Do you think the resort is that full? Any info is appreciated.
Mary Kay

 

[catbertdave99]

Hi everybody,
Sorry, if this question has been asked before.
I would like to know if the bus stops for Caribbean beach are far from the main entrance of the parks?

Thanks!

While I would love to tell you they are the closest to the park entrances, they actually tend to be among the farthest from the park entrances. Not sure why. Bus service is frequent and we've never had to wait too too long.

 

[momto2GAgirls]

Thanks for all of the great information! I upgraded my reservations yesterday thanks to free dining.

Does anyone have any pics of the resort with Christmas decorations? We will be there the Dec. 5th-11th for DD's 4th birthday!

 

[safetymom]

http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=22755216&postcount=2

 

[momto2GAgirls]

Thanks!

 

[MKB419]

Hi Guys,
A quick question about room requests. I am traveling 10/18-24 with 6 of us 4 adults and 2 children. I am wondering what building to ask for because we will have a double stroller and I would like to board the buses while they are less crowded. We have 2 waterview rooms booked as there were no standard rooms avail. Do you think the resort is that full? Any info is appreciated.
Mary Kay

Anyone?

 

[catbertdave99]

Hi Guys,
A quick question about room requests. I am traveling 10/18-24 with 6 of us 4 adults and 2 children. I am wondering what building to ask for because we will have a double stroller and I would like to board the buses while they are less crowded. We have 2 waterview rooms booked as there were no standard rooms avail. Do you think the resort is that full? Any info is appreciated.
Mary Kay

Waterview rooms can have a view of a quiet pool just as easily as a view of the lake. There are water view rooms in every village.

Having said that, sometimes the buses enter the resort and stop first at Jamaica. Sometimes they enter and stop at Martinique first. But when they enter, they may also be dropping people off (depending on the time of day), so they may already have a lot of people on them. It's just hit and miss. But those are the two villages that would be the first stops, depending on the entrance they take into the resort.

 

[MadilynnsMomma]

http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=22755216&postcount=2

I love the gingerbread tiki bar!!!

 

[Born 2B a Princess]

We really loved OPR. In fact, DH said he would never stay at POP again, and my parents are already planning a trip back for later this year (this was their first trip to WDW) and are planning to stay at CBR, even though I suggested that they could stay at a deluxe...they said they liked CBR so much that they want to stay there again.

I had requested a room with a king sized bed for them, and also had requested Jamaica 45 or Aruba 51 (or is it Aruba 45 and Jamaica 51? LOL)....but we ended up in Barbados 14, and my parents' room did not have two king sized beds. I asked my Dad at check in if he wanted me to talk to the CM about it but he said they would be fine with two double beds so we just left it. I didn't ask at check-in to see if they could move us to Jamaica or Aruba. Honestly, we ended up really liking Barbados. There were a lot of empty rooms so it was very quiet. We had a corner room, parking lot view, but there were so many trees and plants blocking most of the parking lot view that we couldn't really see it. We were on the 2nd floor. The walk to OPR was not bad at all -- it was quite lovely in the evening and at night, and the bus stop was very close to our building.

We arrived at about 9 pm and check-in went very smoothly and quickly. I had not done online check-in. They got us checked in right away -- no waiting.

Housekeeping was pretty good. We had towel animals two days. My only complaint was that they didn't leave soap and shampoo on our last few days and I had to ask for them. One funny thing with housekeeping -- our DDs brought pillows from home, and I hadn't thought about the color of the pillow cases. One of them had a white pillow case on her pillow, and the first morning she left the pillow on her bed. So housekeeping assumed, I guess, that it was a hotel pillow and they put a fresh pillow case on it. I feel bad that they ended up with one of our pillow cases, which was definitely not as nice as their pillow case that we brought home with us. I called the front desk about it and they said not to worry about it.

We watched the IllumiNations fireworks from the beach at Martinique and from OPR a couple of times. It was a nice view.

We ate at OPR more than I had planned on. We had breakfast there on Sunday and everyone liked it (Mickey waffles, fruit cups, french toast, eggs, etc.). DH and the girls had pizza and said it was good pizza, and I had a chicken caesar salad and it was good and fresh (made right when I ordered it). One night I ordered the Greek salad and it was awful...too much dressing, and the dressing was too strong, so I ended up not eating that. The roast turkey was very good, according to DD14, and DD10 and I liked the rotisserie chicken. And of course the chocolate croissants were yummy in the morning.

We all liked the pirate pool and were surprised that it really didn't get very crowded. I didn't remember the second hot tub until our last night there...the hot tub on the front side of the pool was completely full and I decided to walk around to take some pictures and found the second hot tub, which was totally empty, so DH and I hung out there for a little while. We actually swam more at the quiet pool in our village because the girls said the water was colder in the quiet pool, there were fewer people, it was deeper water, and it was closer to our room.

We saw lots of wildlife -- ducks, bunnies, various birds, turtles in the bay, lizards everywhere, and even a small snake.

The beaches were nice and usually not crowded at all. Loved the hammocks in the evening.

For the most part, we had no problems with the buses. I can only think of one time we had to wait 20 minutes for a bus, and that was to DTD on Sunday afternoon. A CM at the bus stop noticed that we had been waiting for a while and called to check on the bus for us. We only had to stand on a bus once, and that was on Friday heading to DHS in the morning (I had forgotten it was morning EMH there so I couldn't figure out why the bus was so crowded, LOL). We also had good luck with the buses going back to the hotel every evening. We drove ourselves to MK one morning (we had an 8 am BBB appointment), to AK one morning (the AK bus had just gone by and we didn't want to wait for another one)...I drove myself to DHS one afternoon for a DISmeet (was running late and didn't want to have to wait for a bus). Yesterday, we drove ourselves to BB and DTD instead of taking the bus -- DH and the girls wanted to sleep a bit later than we would have been able to if we had taken the bus. All in all, though, we were very pleased with the bus service. There were a few times that we were the only people on the bus and the bus driver skipped the other stops to take us directly to our stop. That was nice.

We are so happy we chose CBR, and I really appreciate all of the helpful information everyone here provided. We can't wait to go back! In fact, since we went on the special military tickets, we have 3 water park entrances left and we're thinking about doing a water park weekend in October...if so, we'll definitely be staying at CBR again!

I'd be happy to answer any questions!

 

[mickeystoontown]

Born 2B a Princess: So glad that you enjoyed your CBR stay. I've always put in a request for a specific village when we stayed there but have decided to not ask this go-round. Sounds like Barbados was a great place for you guys to stay. Now I am hoping to give that village a try.

Buses service to DTD and back from ANY resort is notoriously bad.

Thanks for your review!

 

[MadilynnsMomma]

YAY! Another rave review!!!

 

[septbaby]

OP- check your parets ressie. If they paid for a King they paid an upcharge. Unless you got a waterview or pirate room they received less than they paid for and I'd look for a credit.

Glad CBR worked out for the family. We are headed back soon!

 

[seadd67]

So we are staying here for the frist time and was wondering where they might put us?.We are just staying In a standard room and was trying get a Idea on how far from the main bldg the would stick us?

 

[CleveRocks]

So we are staying here for the frist time and was wondering where they might put us?.We are just staying In a standard room and was trying get a Idea on how far from the main bldg the would stick us?

CBR has 33 numbered guest buildings. 6 are preferred location, 6 are Pirate rooms, so that leaves 21 different buildings you could be assigned a room in if you booked a standard room. Some are closer to Old Port Royale (the complex that has the food court, main pool, etc.) than others. There's no way to know in advance where you will be assigned a room.

If you want to request a standard location that's as close to Old Port Royale as possible, then word it just like that ... "close to Old Port Royale." If you want specific building numbers, the closest non-preferred-location buildings are (in no particular order) Aruba 51, Jamaica 45 and Martinique 22.

 

[CleveRocks]

I had requested a room with a king sized bed for them,

and my parents' room did not have two king sized beds. I asked my Dad at check in if he wanted me to talk to the CM about it but he said they would be fine with two double beds so we just left it.

Just for your future reference ...

At CBR, king-size bed is a bookable room category that costs more per night. Merely requesting it means that you're in line behind everybody who reserved and paid extra for it. And even if they're not all sold out, it's asking for a free upgrade, which can't be counted on.

Secondly, there is no such thing as a room with 2 king-size beds. Doesn't exist. In fact, unless you're talking about MAYBE a 2-bedroom suite at a Deluxe, there's no such thing as a room with 2 king-size beds in all of Walt Disney World. CBR rooms have either one king-size bed or 2 double beds, no other combinations.

 

[KELLY]

Born 2 be a princess. Glad you had a great trip. Thanks for the review.