CBR is was not my favorite place to stay. It was the only mod with rooms under the military discount when I booked our June trip. It was one of the resorts we thought we'd like to try someday.....but loved our stays at POR too much to try another resort. We'll I figured fate was making us try something new....so OK.
True that the resort is very pretty. Tropical and relaxing. We got the location (Jamaica) that we requested. I tried to change to a preferred room all the way up until we left.....never opened up. The walk to OPR is long. It may not be as bad as some make it out to be, but it is a bit of a walk even crossing over the island. I would have hated to be any father out than 1 building away from that bridge. My mom and I are both smokers and I did like the nice DSA's they have. Nice in the courtyards with umbrellas for shade. There were 2 within a minute of walking from our room. Much nicer than at POR or ASSP where you are baking in the sun.
Our bus service was overall good. Some days the buses were awesome, some days the wait was long. Overall, no better or worse than any other stay we've ever had. Jamaica was often the first stop so we always had seats. Trinidad South- where the pirate rooms are- I felt bad for those people. 99% families with small kids and usually last to be picked up= SRO most days. Sometimes we got off first and others we were towards the end. The stops make the trip longer, but it's really not that bad and will be similar to the other mods with multiple stops. As to the parks, CBR seems to have nearly the farthest stops at most of the parks. The other mods have stops slightly closer to the exits, but CBR is usually last or almost last. Makes leaving after walking all day just that much more not fun.
The room was fine. Clean and in good shape. I don't care too much one way or another for the theme of the rooms, but there was nothing wrong with it. Our TV had some problems. Of all channels......Disney kept freezing up. But I hated it when we had satellite TV at home too.
I also did not like that the lobby building was very disconnected from the resort. They also didn't make it clear at check in that you MUST reserve your shuttle pick up time the day BEFORE you check out. I called in the a.m. and was almost told too bad, but they said they'd "try" to squeeze us in best they could. My kids and I went to the food court to get us lunch to go while my mom waited for the shuttle and our luggage. The 11 am pick up was almost 1 hour late. The line for RAC was out the door and our bus was scheduled to be there at 12:30.....meaning we had to drag our bags on the bus with us and through the airport. But dragging 5 cases all the way to the custom house was just not an option with my mom and 2 kids.
The food court was OK. Only ate there twice and the food was fine. It's cute, not that crowded while we were there, but the variety of food offered was not that good. I thought the menus at POR or the All Stars was much better. We did not do the TS place. I also did not like that the food court closed at 11. At 10:55 they would not let us in the building at all to get drinks. I really think that when parks are open late and pools are open 24 hours........one should be able to at least get your mug filled somewhere. At least POR and the values were open until midnight, and you could often still get a refill later than that due to the building being open with the lobby inside and the bar at POR.
We only got to the pools twice in our 8 day stay. Once to the main pool, once to the quiet pool in our village. Every other time we attempted to take a break and hit the pool, a storm came. Not CBR's fault of course, but we didn't get to enjoy much of the pools due to weather. The kids liked the main pool, but it was late and the slides were not open. We never did get to try them.
I had one bad experience with a CM at the gift shop. I went to pick up a package I had sent from HS, 3 days previously. She couldn't find it. Suggested it hadn't arrived yet. Three days ago? Blamed me because I didn't have my receipt for her to match it......though had told me my room key was sufficient 5 minutes before. Argued with me for about 5 more minutes. I could see there were no more than 8 bags in their cupboard. Another CM came over, looked at my room key, opened the door and picked out my bad in 30 seconds. No apology offered.
The property manager was really great. My son's stuffed animal was lost with the bedding. He personally came to our room to help look and explained how the laundry service worked and offered to check the truck that had not yet left. He offered to replace it, but it was not a Disney item. I thought that was above and beyond. Unfortunately......all we got was a post card with a "sorry we can't find your item" from CBR when we got home.
My only other problems with our stay really had nothing to do with the resort. First, one morning there was a snake at the bottom of the stairs! I hate snakes like Indiana Jones! I know it's FL and they are plentiful, but we've been to WDW many times and I never came across one. The other was just weird. While at the DSA a complete stranger approached me and asked me for Vicodin.
Overall, I wouldn't say I hated CBR or would never stay there again....but it wouldn't be the first choice I would make next time. I wouldn't however stay there without having a preferred room.......and possibly a car. We've just enjoyed the things about POR much more.
regards
I am sure staying there in Dec. will be awesome
We have always stayed in the Jamaica buildings.
