Caribbean Beach Resort FAQ's Part II

[lazidazi07]

Hey everyone! Just got back from CBR, visting 6/26-7/2. It was fabulous! We got "upgraded" from a standard room to a king room, which was nice because the room was HUGE. We had a nice corner room facing a courtyard in.....Jamaica, Building 42! It was very nice and quiet. We hardly saw anyone while we were there unless we went to OPR, very surprising for summer time! We had one towel animal the day we arrived, but none after that.

We had a nightmare with bell services. Be prepared to wait forever for your luggage. We arrived about...430ish. When we pulled up they immediately took our luggage and told us to hit the luggage button when we arrived in our room. When we finally got in our room, (our room wasnt ready until 5.30!) we immediately hit the luggage button and was told it would be there in 10 minutes. We were hoping to head right to MK. To make a long story short, about 3 hours later and 2 phone calls later, we FINALLY got our luggage. When we were leaving, we made an appt. for them to pick up our luggage at 9.50 and they werent there until about 10.30. Kind of stressful when we were trying to make it all the way over to OPR to refill our mugs one more time and then catch the Internal to the Custom House.

We were a short walk to the bus stop and we could practically walk into the village pool from our door. OPR was a bit of a walk, but DBF enjoyed the walk to refill our mugs every morning. He said he made a a friend with a bunny that was always in the same place at the same time. This was one of the only times we used our refillable mugs because of the walk, which we were much too tired to walk after a day at the parks.

Transportation was okay, sometimes we waited very long for a bus at a park...but it wasnt unbearable. If we were going to/from Epcot or MGM we were ALWAYS the first stop. That was nice.

The food court wasn't really that busy when we stopped in (about 7 or 8 AM). The day we checked out it was the busiest we had seen it (about 11AM). The main pool was always crowded and pretty small, so we enjoyed our village pool much better. The gift shop was really nice, they had alot of cute CBR apparel. I searched all over DTD for a souveneir, only to go to our gift shop and find pretty much the same things.

We really enjoyed our stay at CBR, the only reason we probably will not stay here again is because we weren't really there enough to truly enjoy it. We spent an hour on the beach the first day we were there (waiting for our room to be ready), and 20 minutes at the pool one day (it had started to rain/thunder). We thought it was absolutely beautiful, but we just werent getting our moneys worth because we were only there for naps and sleeping at night. Definently a great place if you are looking to relax, get away from the hustle and bustle of the parks.

My TR should have pictures up very soon if you would like to see some.

 

[cheesehead7]

Just returned from CBR 6-29 through 7-7. Overall it was a great stay. We got our room request in Jamaica 45. Bell services was great for us. Mousekeeping did a fabulous job, left us 7 towel animals and arranged our DD's animals on the beds every day. The walk to OPR was quick so I would not see a real need to upgrade. IMO the prettiest buildings at the resort would be Jamaica and Martinique. Busses were pretty good the majority of the time. I would highly recommend a stay at CBR!

 

[kelleigh1]

lazidazi07 ~ Thanks for the info. Your luggage issue makes me glad that we are renting a car so I won't have to rely on delivery. Nice mini report!

 

[pamouselover]

Thanks for the post!
We will be driving to CBR in August.

 

[mineeme22]

Just finished reading the ENTIRE THREAD, WHEW, talk about a lot of infomration! I will be at the CBR for my birthday and free dining September 12-16 and can not wait!!!!! This board has been so helpful and I appreicate all of the work that goes into keeping it updated!!!! Keep up the good work! I do have one question......do you get to keep the towel animals?

I'm going the exact same dates and staying at the CBR! How fun!

 

[safetymom]

I was told no when I asked a manager. Others have reported that they asked and were told they could take them. I suggest asking when you are there and you will be ok.

 

[mickeystoontown]

I was told (by mousekeeping) during our first CBR stay and our second CBR stay that it was okay to take the towel animals.

Lisa

 

[AnnaS]

My dd and I are back. We really enjoyed our stay here. Spacious and very clean rooms (very important to me). We were in the Aruba building. I did not request one of the closer/preferred bldgs to Olde Port Royale simply because all of us who were attending the AAU Championship were in the same building. My dd loved having her friends very close by.

Even though the resort is huge and spread out, we learned to navigate the resort pretty well. The only thing is that Guest Check-in is not in the same area as the food court/shop, main pool, etc. I found that out the next morning when I went to buy milk and was at check-in). You can take any park bus and get off at Barbados village/bldg. and walk right across to check in. It was also a very short walk to the Aruba quiet pool and only a few minutes extra to get to Old Port Royale.

I am so sad to be back and can't wait for our next trip. Check-in was a breeze and all the cms were extremely nice and helpful.

 

[cinderella_mom]

The Pirates of Caribbean Beach have returned home.

We were there 6/30-7/7 and had a wonderful vacation. I thought CBR was beautiful. I loved the colors and DD was thrilled that our "island", Aruba, was pink and purple. She also really enjoyed the pool and slide with the island fortress theme. The food court was good at breakfast and dinner, but lacking at lunch. We don't eat meat other than seafood, so for lunch pizza was our only choice for hot food. The salmon and baked ziti and dinner were tasty and the ice cream sundae bar was a hit with DD. The store had enough CBR themed merchandise for each of us to find a resort souvenir, though the refillable mug was a generic WDW design.

The thing I didn't like, was having the Custom House away from Old Port Royale. Since we arrived in the evening, I was a bit disappointed that we had to wait for a bus to get to our room, drop off the carryons and then trek another 15 minutes to get food and check out the amenities. And on the last day, we had our luggage picked up at 8:45, headed to Beach Club for breakfast at Cape May, then went to DTD for the afternoon.

We gave ourselves an hour to get back to the resort to get our luggae from bell service and catch ME back to the airport. We just missed the DTD bus back to CBR and it took over 30 minutes for the next one. Since that bus doesn't stop at Custom House, we got off at the first bus stop past CH and trekked back. We were hot and sweaty and it would've been great if there had been place to buy a drink and maybe a snack, before getting on the ME bus to the airport.

I am happy we stayed at CBR and I hope to get the chance to try other resorts, but if I had to chose a mod resort again, I'd go with POFQ since it's more intimate and the pool is just as cool. Plus, at least there you can take a boat to DTD whereas with CBR, you have to take a bus to get everywhere.

 

[Nancyg56]

Cinderella Mom- We are going to CBR in October. We went back and forth between POFQ and CBR and decided to try CBR. POFW is a beautiful little resort, and my DGD has proclaimed it her favorite. I hope that she enjoys trying another. The transportation between the Custom House and the Islands is our concern and i appreciate your perspective on it.

 

[QTMichele]

This is a wonderful thread - thanks so much safetymom for starting it and to everyone else who's contributed! Your wise words have helped me sort through all the info that is furiously scrambling inside my head...

I have a question that I haven't seen addressed (not that it hasn't been! LOL) - how are the rooms/resort holding up in terms of upkeep? Are they showing their age? Stains on carpet, holes in linens, etc. I know this sounds snobbish, but I'm just curious. THANKS!

 

[AnnaS]

Michele,

I can only answer based on my experience here. I just came back last week and it was my first time here. I actually mentioned it also on my thread/reply. The rooms were very clean so were all the common areas I was in. This is very important and a top priority.

Housekeeping also gave us plenty of soap, towels and coffee.

 

[catbertdave99]

QTMichele, I'll agree -- when we were last there in March, everything looked great. Since the rooms were refurbished not that long ago, everything looks pretty good to me.

 

[QTMichele]

Great! I'm getting so excited!!! THANKS!

 

[2tinkerbells]

I didn't see anything about this so my questions is: Are there luggage carts at the different villages? We are renting a car and will have luggage and groceries to carry to the room and would like to use a cart if possible.
Thanks.

 

[CleveRocks]

I didn't see anything about this so my questions is: Are there luggage carts at the different villages? We are renting a car and will have luggage and groceries to carry to the room and would like to use a cart if possible.
Thanks.

I've never seen any. As a Moderate level resort, the expectation is that you would call Bell Services for help with any heavy lifting, etc.

 

[WisMom]

Hi
We will probably be getting in to CBR by 1pm on our arrival day. If our room isn't ready, we thought we would just start enjoying the resort with a light lunch and then a swim in the pool. Is there a place to change by the pool?

Thanks
WisMom

 

[mikkiwikki]

Hi
We will probably be getting in to CBR by 1pm on our arrival day. If our room isn't ready, we thought we would just start enjoying the resort with a light lunch and then a swim in the pool. Is there a place to change by the pool?

Thanks
WisMom

I also have a similar question - we are arriving at 11am and worried about not having a room ready. I *also* have never been to CBR and wondering what experienced CBRers would do on your arrival day.

 

[catbertdave99]

We've arrive around the middle of the day, and found that our room was not ready yet. We went to the main pool, and changed in the shower house there so we could swim. When we were done, we changed back into our clothes, headed to the food court (same area) and got a bite to eat, and then our room was ready.

This year our room was ready, but if it hadn't been, we were going to leave our bags with Bell Services and head off to DTD for a while.

 

[latrischler]

We are driving- and will surely get to CBR before our room is ready.... will we be able to get our tickets, etc. before our room is ready? We were hoping to spend the afternoon at Magic Kingdom!