Carribean Beach Resort question.

[Julie711]

CBR is a very large resort but it is not unmanageable. People do tend to exaggerate on the size IMO. We have stayed there twice in pirate rooms....which as you would say is in exile . All pirate rooms are located in Trinidad South which is the furthest village from Old Port Royale. We didn't find the distance to be annoying, we would either walk or take the internal shuttle over to where we wanted to go in the resort. If you plan on going to Old Port Royale often to eat or are big on refillable mugs I would suggest getting a preferred room if you are worried about distance....better safe than sorry . Have a great trip!

I agree, we have stayed @ this resort 4 times before( once in the pirate rooms) and we never paid extra for a preferred room. We never have taken the internal bus, b/c by the time you wait for a bus you could have been to Old Port Royal. We have stayed in Jamacia, Barbados and Aruba and found the average walk to be 3-5 minutes!

 

[misshilda1]

I want to thank each of you for taking time to post your responses to my question! Disney peeps are the best peeps in the world I am definately going to get the preferred rooms just to be on the safe side. I have had several surgeries and I know the parks can kick your butt alone so I dont want the resort to. I often go back to the room for a rest while my family stays on at the parks and I think with 17 surgeries under my belt that when I go back to rest I dont want to be in the room thinking I sure would like to get a snack or refill my mug but I dont have the strength to make it.. Thank you all again each of your posts have been very helpful and very much appreciated

 

[CleveRocks]

If you are "waterfront", you will be close to the lake. There is a bridge that connects Jamaica and Aruba to the main area and you should be very close to that bridge. The couple of buildings in Barbados that I assume are waterfront are also not a far walk.

I think your waterfront location (is this the same as water view?) should have you in the front part of any section which means you won't be in the back near a parking lot.

Well, that's not entirely accurate. At CBR (as well as at any of Disney's Moderate resorts), the room category "water view" CAN be a view of the lake, but it CAN also be a view of a pool. At CBR, each village has some lake frontage AND each village has its own quiet pool.

Therefore, waterview definitely does NOT mean your room will be close to the lake. There is no way to reserve a lake view versus a pool view. The booking category is simply "water view."

 

[CleveRocks]

About Jamaica being a great and convenient location ...

That's only half the story. What follows is a long and geeky explanation, but it also happens to be very accurate.

Each village (except for Trinidad North) is made up of 6 numbered buildings, and each numbered building is comprised of four smaller (unnumbered) buildings. So each village is on a pretty spread-out piece of real estate.

It is true that Jamaica 45 is about as close as you can get to Old Port Royale without paying for preferred location (same goes for Aruba 51 and Martinique 22, by the way ... identical down to one one-hundredth of a mile, I've measured it from aerial photos on a runners' website).

So yes, Jamaica 45 is as close as you can get without paying extra. HOWEVER, Jamaica 41 is as FAR as you can get from Old Port Royale, except for the pirate-themed rooms in Trinidad South.

So if you request Jamaica, you COULD get the closest standard room to Old Port Royale ... but you COULD get the farthest standard room from Old Port Royale.

The same goes for Aruba. Aruba 51 is a mirror-image of Jamaica 45 ... it's exactly the same distance to the bridge over the lake as Jamaica 45 is. So Aruba 51 is as close as you can get in a standard room. But Aruba 56 is (just like Jamaica 41) as far as you can get from Old Port Royale in a standard room.

So if you request Aruba, you COULD get the closest room or you COULD get the farthest room.

That brings us to Barbados. Barbados is what I'll call a "middle of the road" location because you can't possibly get the farthest room from OPR, but you also can't possibly get the closest room to OPR. If you're not a gambler, this makes Barbados safe ... you won't "hit the jackpot" with a close room but you can't get stuck with a very very far room.

Half of Martinique (buildings 21, 22 and 23) are standard rooms. Building 22 is in the club with Jamaica 45 and Aruba 51 as the closest standard building to OPR. But since there are only 3 standard buildings in Martinique, if you request Martinique you have only half as much chance of getting your request compared with requesting Aruba or Jamaica or Barbados because those villages have 6 buildings each.

Forget about requesting Trinidad North and the other half of Martinique (buildings 24, 25 and 26) because these rooms are in the "preferred location" booking category ... they cost more per night than a standard room because of their proximity to Old Port Royale. And forget about requesting Trinidad South because those are the more expensive Pirate-themed rooms (again, a separate booking category).

As far as water view, I agree with all of the above opinions that it's not worth the cost due to the exterior corridors and the lack of a private view. Strangely, Disney does not allow you to pay two up-charges to reserve and book a preferred location water view room. If you want a water view room in a preferred location building, your only way to do it is book one and request the other and then hope to get lucky.

 

[Amy&Dan]

Well, that's not entirely accurate. At CBR (as well as at any of Disney's Moderate resorts), the room category "water view" CAN be a view of the lake, but it CAN also be a view of a pool. At CBR, each village has some lake frontage AND each village has its own quiet pool.

Therefore, waterview definitely does NOT mean your room will be close to the lake. There is no way to reserve a lake view versus a pool view. The booking category is simply "water view."

I guess I should have said "close" (which I did say) but not necessarily not" right on the lake" (which I didn't say)

My point, based on my stays at CBR and based on looking at the resort map, was that a water view room, whether it was a view of a pool or the lake, would be closer to the lake (not necessarily right on it but closer than a parking lot view) since the quiet pools are all pretty much just behind the beach of that village and therefore the lake. So I was assuming that a "water" view (and OP said waterfront which confused me a bit wondering if there was some new room view that was lake front, not just the standard water view). In any case, to me at CBR if you are looking at a pool, you are probably closer to the lake than not. Versus POR where some of the quiet pools are quite far back from the river. A POR water view might get you very far from the main area, whereas at CBR, to me its going to have you away from the back of the resort since there's no water back there whether its pool water or lake water!

In any case, I am glad OP is going to pay for preferred which will put her mind at ease and I do agree with the general consensus that at the mods, water views are not the best useage of money since you don't have a balcony to enjoy them. Although its nice to come out your room or look out the window at a lake, pool or river. I find some of the waterview rooms at POFQ for example really lovely since some of those are so close to the river and offer a really lovely view.

 

[Flight]

We enjoyed staying at Aruba. The walk from our section to the pool area and food court was a little long but scenic. The rooms with the water views were also very nice and worth the money to us.

 

[disprincessesmom1012]

I'm staying at CBR Spet 29th-Oct4th. Where would I have to call to upgrade to preferred and request a certain building?

 

[CleveRocks]

I'm staying at CBR Spet 29th-Oct4th. Where would I have to call to upgrade to preferred and request a certain building?

It all depends how you booked your trip. If you used a travel agent, you must contact your travel agent. If you booked directly with Disney, call 407-W-DISNEY and tell them you want to modify your reservation, and so on.