Caribbean Beach FAQ part V

[Dan183]

Hi all, we will be staying at CBR march 3-10 and I have 3 DD's ages 7, 5, and 2. We are booked for a preferred room in Martinique, just wondering if anyone has any time saving or "wish we would have done that" tips they could share.
Thanks!

 

[RHMH]

Hi all, we will be staying at CBR march 3-10 and I have 3 DD's ages 7, 5, and 2. We are booked for a preferred room in Martinique, just wondering if anyone has any time saving or "wish we would have done that" tips they could share.
Thanks!

Good Morning - Is this your first visit? If so I would advise you and the family go through all of the Character involved dining opportunities you are wanting to experience and make reservations asap.

My DD and I love Mickey's Backyard BBQ and Chef Mickey at the Contemporary.

 

[Dan183]

First time at CBR but we went down last Feb. and stayed off property. We have a lot of character dinings lined up because we got the free dining plan in our package. My girls love Akershus in Epcot and Chef Mickeys of course. Looking for more of insider Resort tips. Thanks for the response!

 

[safetymom]

Woo Hoo!!!! Is this going to be permanent?

Yes it is.

 

[mickeystoontown]

First time at CBR but we went down last Feb. and stayed off property. We have a lot of character dinings lined up because we got the free dining plan in our package. My girls love Akershus in Epcot and Chef Mickeys of course. Looking for more of insider Resort tips. Thanks for the response!

If you have some time to spend at the resort, I'd suggest renting a surrey bike or bicycle from the resort marina. We usually rent the surrey bike for a half hour and that allows us to make two loops around the resort. We rented both a surrey bike and a bicycle this past trip and my son rode around the resort at least a half dozen times within the hour rented time.

At night, you can see the higher Epcot fireworks from Old Port Royale, the Martinique beach, the island and from several other spots in the resort. We like to watch from the picnic tables at Old Port Royale.

As far as the food court goes, our favorites are the Reuben sandwich, the soup and breadsticks from the pizza station and the fresh baked items from the grab n go section.

 

[pyrxtc]

3 days til we check in for our first visit. I can't wait ! Just booked a late lunch in Japan for Christmas day since we are spending the day in Epcot and yesterday we booked the "Me Pirate Adventure" for our two boys and they will set that up on the 26th while we spend the majority of the day at DisneyQuest. I will be writing on my blog or at least posting pics daily and then will transcribe the trip report here from there, or at least links to it. Woohoo !! getting away from this cold !

 

[skier_pete]

Here's a quicky review of our stay. We were there from November 10th to the 20th. I finally got to our resort day on my TR, and thought I would post an excerpt here:

Now is as good a time as any to talk about this resort. As anyone following my TR knew, I was a bit skeptical about staying here. Realistically I was concerned about three things versus our preferred location at POFQ – the multiple bus stops, the size of the bed (full instead of queen), and size of the resort. The first two were not even remotely an issue, there was one time that the multiple bus-stops seemed to really slow us down, but otherwise it was not a problem at all.

In the end, the size of the resort was completely canceled out by the fact that we were lucky enough to be upgraded to “preferred” location in Martinique. We were so close to the center of the resort it was ridiculous. Here are two shots I took standing in one spot, the first I faced one way and took a picture of our room. The second I faced the other way and took a picture of Port Royale (just behind the trees in the middle).

It was probably about 60 seconds from our room to the food court, and maybe 2 minutes to the main pool. We were probably closer to the main pool than the quiet pool. However, after staying preferred, I would have to say this might be a case where I would pay for the same privilege in the future. We walked around the resort a bit on our last day, and there are quite a few room locations that would be very, very far from the main hotel, and even quite a few that would far from a bus stop.

To the positives, we really liked the Old Port Royale set-up. The food court was very good for lunch/dinner with quite a bit of selection. Breakfast at usual was wholly mediocre (our one main criticism). The pool was very nice, and the activities they staged at the pool were great and went on for a good portion of the day (from 1 PM pool games, to a marshmallow roast, to into the evening with movies on the big screen each night). There was also some other activities such as boat/bike rentals that we didn’t take advantage of. The staff was absolutely wonderful, and we never had any problems at all.

DD also tried the Pirates adventure cruise on our last day. I have not yet posted pictures of this, but will come back and do that at a later date.

We’ve now stayed at 4 Disney Resorts (AKL, POFQ, Pop Century and now CBR). I would in fact recommend all four to anyone, as we had great experiences at all of them. To rank them would even be difficult. Pop Century is obviously for a more modest budget, and while we had great stays there, I would certainly prefer the mods, but would not object to going back. AKL is of course an amazing experience, but there were a few negatives there and would only recommend that stay as an extravagance. Of the two mods, I still would say I prefer POFQ personally, but if I were coming again with young children (a likely prospect) I would probably pick CBR for having a better pool and more activities surrounding it. It was propably DD second favorite after AKL.

The stairs up to the big (dark) slide.

The view from the parapet:

Coming out of the slide:

The bigger slide exit:

The smaller slide:

There was also a “splash” area designated for little kids. DD never actually tried to go there, but later in the trip we noticed you had to be under 48”, which she wasn’t anymore, and there wouldn’t have been able to go.

Christmas decorations went up when we were there. They were somewhat sparse, but I thought appropriate…it’s not a resort that screams “Christmas!”

Thank you for all the great posts on this thread. I read them extensively when deciding whether to jump from POFQ to CBR to save some money. In the end, I was very glad we did, and we would even keep this on our list for a possible return trip.

SkierPete

 

[CamoMama]

I'm so excited! My girls and I are going to stay at CBR for 9 nights in February, in a pirate themed room. We're all pirate junkies, and are very excited about the theme. After reading the posts here and seeing the pictures I'm even more excited! Thanks everyone!

 

[Tinkerbellie16]

Thank you skier_pete! I also have the same concerns about CBR and it's great to hear your honest opinion. I MIGHT be staying here next July - we are still working it all out. If we are able to go, I want to stay here so I'm keeping an eye on the thread and all the great info. Thanks!

 

[WallE]

We booked CBR a few weeks ago. I was concerend about the size of the beds compared to POFQ. It looks like a great child-friendly resort though.

 

[RHMH]

Thank you skier_pete! I also have the same concerns about CBR and it's great to hear your honest opinion. I MIGHT be staying here next July - we are still working it all out. If we are able to go, I want to stay here so I'm keeping an eye on the thread and all the great info. Thanks!

Good Morning - Hope you will get to stay at CBR, you will really enjoy the resort. !!

 

[LSUfan4444]

We are staying at the CBR in March for the first time. We did not request any specific village, but seeing how far it is from building 39 back to Centertown, we might spend the extra $15 a night to stay in the Martinique.

I don't mind walking, and either does the wife, but I know March weatehr can be unpredictable, so with the two year old in tow, we might want to stay as close to dining options as possible.

 

[Redarrow5150]

I liked the resort but like others have said the buses were bad and not just because we were here during Christmas. It's a good thing my expectations were reigned in because if I didn't read the board threads about transportation at CBR I'd be mighty pissed off.

 

[Tinkerbellie16]

Good Morning - Hope you will get to stay at CBR, you will really enjoy the resort. !!

Thanks - I hope I get to stay at CBR too!!

I liked the resort but like others have said the buses were bad and not just because we were here during Christmas. It's a good thing my expectations were reigned in because if I didn't read the board threads about transportation at CBR I'd be mighty pissed off.

Ah, the ever controversial buses The worst was at All Star Movies for me but I also had some pretty long waits and long rides from AKL and Beach Club. In general, I've found it is really hit or miss. You may have just missed a bus or are traveling at a 'peak' time so it is a longer wait and more crowded.

But I am curious - for those that have stayed at CBR and other Disney resorts, how have you felt about the buses compared to your other resort stays?

 

[dansdad]

But I am curious - for those that have stayed at CBR and other Disney resorts, how have you felt about the buses compared to your other resort stays?

We were just at CBR this past October and the busses were great. Even leaving MK at closing time was a short wait because there were 2 buses at a time showing up. In the mornings we never waited more than 10 minutes. My DW thought I was a nut job because I timed our wait every AM because I saw so many people complaining about the buses on here.

I have stayed at POR and All Star Sports back in the 90's, and don't remember there being any major issues with busses.

 

[mickeystoontown]

Thanks - I hope I get to stay at CBR too!!



Ah, the ever controversial buses The worst was at All Star Movies for me but I also had some pretty long waits and long rides from AKL and Beach Club. In general, I've found it is really hit or miss. You may have just missed a bus or are traveling at a 'peak' time so it is a longer wait and more crowded.

But I am curious - for those that have stayed at CBR and other Disney resorts, how have you felt about the buses compared to your other resort stays?

While we have never stayed at any Disney resort other than the CBR, we have visited quite a few and I have to say that the deluxe resorts had some of the worst bus/travel times. We once waited on a bus from the Contemporary to DTD for almost an hour. It was ridiculous! We have also waited on the bus from Wilderness Lodge to whichever bus came first and our wait was 35 minutes. (We had no plans after dinner so we just decided to take the first bus that came.) The wait for a boat to the Wilderness Lodge to the Magic Kingdom was not as bad with just a 25 minute wait. We waited for a bus at Saratoga Springs and had to wait time of 30 minutes.

The longest wait we have ever encountered at the CBR was 35 minutes and that was the time my husband slept in and we went to Hollywood Studios without him. He decided, after lunch, to join us and he had to wait for 35 minutes for a bus to come.

Other than that one time, the buses at the CBR have always run efficiently both to and from the resort. Our travel dates are usually the last week of May through the first week of June. Other times, we traveled early to mid August.

 

[jcemom]

But I am curious - for those that have stayed at CBR and other Disney resorts, how have you felt about the buses compared to your other resort stays?

We thought CBR buses were pretty good. We only waited more than 20 minutes once in our entire 10 day stay. Most times we waited less than 10 minutes. I didn't mind the multiple stops, because they are so close together.

We've stayed at the BW and BCV, and thought those buses were horrible. They make multiple stops too, but the stops are not close together. Pulling into and out of one resort after another really started to get on our nerves, lol. At both BW and BC we've had to ask a CM to call and find out where a bus was, because we had waited over 40 minutes. At BCV it wasn't unusual at all to wait 20+ minutes.

When we stayed at POR and POFQ we had no problems. POFQ was better because the buses stop there first, but again, the multiple stops at POR did not bother us because they're fairly close together. I don't recall waiting long at either place.

We've stayed at AK, Jambo and Kidani, and never had problems with buses there. Now there are two stops instead of only the one (it was great when there used to be only the one AKL stop though), but it wasn't a big deal.

At WL, we waited a little longer on average, and many of the buses made more than one stop (at FW usually, a couple times at the Poly and GF for some reason), but we didn't usually wait too long for a bus.

At OKW there are tons of stops, and it seems to take forever just to get out of the resort. We never waited long for a bus, but still, it feels like being on a city bus with a stop every other block.

I really disliked the buses at Pop, because there was always a really long line, and pretty much every bus was standing room only.

 

[Tarheel girl 1975]

Thanks - I hope I get to stay at CBR too!!



Ah, the ever controversial buses The worst was at All Star Movies for me but I also had some pretty long waits and long rides from AKL and Beach Club. In general, I've found it is really hit or miss. You may have just missed a bus or are traveling at a 'peak' time so it is a longer wait and more crowded.

But I am curious - for those that have stayed at CBR and other Disney resorts, how have you felt about the buses compared to your other resort stays?

We've stayed at Pop century, BWI, The Poly, and CBR. Not surprisingly the Poly had the best transportation. For the most part we had good experinces with CBR and Pop. If we had to wait it was usually either the middle of the afternoon coming back to the resort or trying to leave a park at the end of the night. We had our worst experiences with the BWI buses. They have to share with the Swan and Dolphin (and those stops take a lot longer than looping around CBR) and sometimes YC and BC too. I really think most of it is just luck,although we all think the bus service to Downtown Disney is pretty bad.

 

[carly chloe]

We've stayed at CBR twice and didnt think the buses were bad at all. Last time we went to POP and it was the WORST!! Sometimes I wanted to cry it was so bad. We've stayed at all catagories- value- moderate and deluxe and I LOVE CBR (we stay preferred though). I like that the buses drop you off right outside your building too.

 

[Momof2Disneyboys]

We have always had excellent bus service at CBR! Best of any and we've also stayed at: POFQ, POR, CSR, OKW, BWI, and the Poly.