Disney's CARIBBEAN BEACH RESORT Information & Questions-Old Thread-New Thread Link in Post 1

[dismom73]

I booked this resort for the first time for our upcoming February trip. I debated long and hard because we've been to CS and loved it! But, I thought it would be fun to try something new, and since the refurb the rooms looked on par with CS. I'm starting to get a little worried about my decision with all these "not so great" reviews, especially the bus situation. Anyone there have any better experience? We are going in February, it's not the free dining, but we did get the discounted dining package. I'm wondering if that will make a difference in crowd levels?

 

[Toffeewoffy]

Our room did have the Murphy bed, although no connecting door, and we were able to get my ECV in without an issue. We always left the seat and basket in the car and free wheeled into the room, but I think you could probably drive in easily too. We were first floor Jamaica 41, and we always parked the ECV to charge in front of the right hand sink so it didn't obstruct people getting in and out of the bathroom.

Ooh, no! I wouldn't want to drive right into the dressing area to park! I was more than happy to park between the table and the window. There would have been room to park in the large space by the bed, but that space will be over a foot narrower once the queen beds are in.

I also wouldn't want to freewheel the scooter from the car park: if I'm in pain with my knees, the extra force required to push the scooter hurts even more - I don't know whether privately owned scooters are different, but the hired ones won't push for more than about 3 feet without stopping, and it needed a fair bit of force to push it through the natural brake.

Also, I think we used the Disney buses more than we used the car for visiting the parks.

 

[tiggerjenn]

Does anyone know if you can park the ECV outside of the room and charge it overnight? That's what we did at Pop when we stayed there in 3/2013. Thanks in advance!

 

[nkereina]

Morning, all. Headed to CBR next week and DH raised a question about bringing breakfast foods: we're wondering if we can take a bagel from our room to the food court area to toast. Is the toaster near the drink machine (ie- out in the open)? Is butter or cream cheese available or can it be purchased in individual packs? I would only do this if it's "allowed"- don't want have to try sneaking anything. I'd appreciate any guidance. Many thanks!!

Yes toaster is out in the open and so is the butter, individually packed. Not sure about cream cheese.

 

[obxlvr13]

I'm currently sitting in OPR waiting for our room to be ready so we can store all our luggage, change for the Xmas party and then hit the road lol. I'm a bit disappointed that our room wasn't ready when we got here but I suppose that can be expected this time I year.

 

[mrsS.Gerrard]

I booked this resort for the first time for our upcoming February trip. I debated long and hard because we've been to CS and loved it! But, I thought it would be fun to try something new, and since the refurb the rooms looked on par with CS. I'm starting to get a little worried about my decision with all these "not so great" reviews, especially the bus situation. Anyone there have any better experience? We are going in February, it's not the free dining, but we did get the discounted dining package. I'm wondering if that will make a difference in crowd levels?

I was there for 3 weeks in July and the buses were fab! We usually waited no more than 10 minutes and obviously July is a busy time of year. Try not to think about the negative reviews, we LOVED CBR & are booked again to stay there in 2015 X

 

[RustyPelican]

Just speaking for myself and my family here, but we just returned from CBR and had an AWESOME time. Absolutely loved it, no problems, complications or complaints. We stayed in Trinidad South -- yes, it is far away from OPR, but there are distinct pros that come with that, including a relaxing, gorgeous stroll to OPR. The view from the beach at Trinidad South is beyond compare -- all natural undeveloped vegetation. Full disclosure, we had a car so we didn't have to rely on busses, therefore I can't speak to the bus issue except to say there were lots of them rolling through the stops every time I passed by.

 

[hey_jude]

Thanks for the honest review. We're planning on staying in September to hopefully *fingers crossed* score free dining. We were looking at Jamaica building since it didn't look that far from everything on the map. Might be looking into POR more closely after the review.

I'm sure time of year makes a difference. We were in Martinique 25 this past September during the first week of free dining. It was perfect. Never waited more than 10 minutes for a bus and almost always got a seat. Also barely a one minute walk to the bus stop or the food court.

 

[nkereina]

Full disclosure, we had a car so we didn't have to rely on busses, therefore I can't speak to the bus issue except to say there were lots of them rolling through the stops every time I passed by.

You must have great timing then. The buses are the sole reason we likely won't return. One morning we were at OPR stop waiting for an MK bus, around 9am so a busy time of morning. Took 18 minutes for the first bus to come around and it passed us due to it being full. Second bus came about 5 mins later and only about half the people waiting at the stop got on. Everyone was furious and throwing their hands up. To me, that's unacceptable for a resort that size that was likely filled to capacity.

 

[Crazy Kanga]

Unfortunately spotty bus service has happened to us at almost every resort we have stayed at on property, and that includes almost all of them. I only say that to reassure people that even though you may have had better luck with bus service at one resort over another, on any given day bad luck can happen anywhere in our experience. I really feel like Disneys transportation system overall has become less efficient over the last several years .

 

[bafleyanne]

Ooh, no! I wouldn't want to drive right into the dressing area to park! I was more than happy to park between the table and the window. There would have been room to park in the large space by the bed, but that space will be over a foot narrower once the queen beds are in. I also wouldn't want to freewheel the scooter from the car park: if I'm in pain with my knees, the extra force required to push the scooter hurts even more - I don't know whether privately owned scooters are different, but the hired ones won't push for more than about 3 feet without stopping, and it needed a fair bit of force to push it through the natural brake. Also, I think we used the Disney buses more than we used the car for visiting the parks.

I don't push the scooter myself, my much more able bodied husband does. We were right on the circle in the Jamaica 41-42-43 area, so we just pulled the car up to near our door (and the ramp) for unloading and then I would drive to the (really quite close) parking lot and walk back. My main issue is with my back and walking/standing for long periods, and so as long as I'd been riding throughout the day, that walk wasn't an issue for me. With two kids in our room we needed to maximize floor space so the dressing area worked well to park.

 

[Donald - my hero]

Thought i would put my 2 cents in on the subject of buses. We were there from October 26 - November 8th. When we checked in we were told the resort was at capacity (prolly since that was the 1st day of free dining) The longest wait we had for a bus was when we were heading to DTD for a lunch reservation. It took FOREVER ... over 30 minutes but in that time period there were at least 2 for every other destination .. countless internal shuttles as well.

Food court ... we never had a problem finding a seat anytime we tried. 1st day was around 7:30 a.m. after we checked in. Next day was about 7:00 (1st time in 30 years hubby woke me snoring ) and both times i managed to sit in the same spot and there were several empty tables even when i left at 8:30. Only problem we had with the food there was that it was NEVER warm. After 2 breakfasts & one pathetic burger we never ate food that we didn't grab that was ready to go.

Our last day we spent about 2 hours in either the food court or just outside on the patio near Shutters, must have been around 3:30 when we got there. You could have shot a cannon in either spot and not hit anyone!

Wasn't uncommon to see massive lines at the cashiers in front of the food "stations" but the one in the "grab & go" section rarely had more than 2 in line so we always went there. Same goes with the store .. cash inside the store could have aline 10 deep but the one out behind the concierge we could easily stand and have a conversation with the CM for over 5 minutes and no one would come to pay.

 

[shana398]

I hate to be a downer, but this trip was not very magical for us.

Some background: We have visited annually for the last four years and once years ago. We stayed offsite twice, once at WL, once at POFQ and this last time we are at CBR. We have had great trips every time except this last one.

For this trip it is myself, DH, DS3, DS24 And Niece 12. This was DN's first trip and we were celebrating her birthday and DS24's birthday.

First thing that kind of put a damper on the trip was my son was given a birthday card with his first name and my last name on it and inside it said Happy Birthday my niece's name - not that big a deal, but still.

Next thing that happened was we were given connecting rooms in Martinique Building 23. I had requested connecting rooms so that was great, BUT our rooms were filthy. And I don't mean just a little dirty. They were filthy. They were not the refurbished rooms, which was fine, but there was hair in the tub in one room, one room's toilet was dirty - I won't go into detail here, but it was very bad - the carpets looked like they had not been vacuumed, very dirty, and the carpet was actually coming up in places, there were bobby pins that weren't ours all over the dressing area floor with hair in them, just really dirty.

I have never called to complain, but I did this time. I felt I had to. They told me CBR was booked to capacity so I couldn't get new rooms but that they would give the rooms a thorough cleaning while we were out for the evening. This was about 4:30, and we left for dinner at Biergarten.

When we were at Biergarten and went to pay our bill, our PIN number didn't work for our Magic Bands. We had two rooms so our credits were on two sets of bands, which caused confusion and multiple mixups that I had to visit concierge about, but that's another story. Anyway, they had to call CBR and have me speak to concierge. The cast member rudely told me that I should have made sure this issue was taken care of at check-in. I thought my number was the same one I used for My Disney Experience, and no one at check-in even mentioned our PIN numbers. He took care of the PIN number by resetting it. When I asked if we would be using the same PIN for the other room, he told me that was for the guests in that room to take care of, not me. I politely told him that the guests in the other room were my son and niece and he took care of their PIN number too as if it were a huge chore and I was an idiot - extremely rude. I have never before been treated this way at Disney.
By now we were all frustrated and tired.

We went back to our rooms where balloons and chocolate and two birthday cards were waiting. Unfortunately the cards were made out to two of us who were not having birthdays and our rooms were still filthy!

Now we realized our TVs were not working. We realized the cables were not plugged into the wall nor into the TVs themselves. The clocks weren't plugged in either. The blow dryer in one of the rooms literally shot flames out as I was drying my hair - luckily out the opposite side from the one facing me and the little round thing on the end of the dryer shot across the room. I called to ask for a new dryer and was not sent one by the next day so I called again. Still no dryer after 48 hours. I called again. I never did get a new dryer for that room. I just used the one in the other room.

Our rooms were cleaned the next day after I called again so that was good. On two occasions we did not receive any fresh towels. And, like I said, on six different occasions we had problems with our dining credits on our Magic Band where our credits would not show up on the bands and we would have to charge our meals to our room and then visit concierge and have them credit us back and charge the meals as dining credits. I spent several hours taking care of dining credit problems.

Even with all of this, we did manage to have a good time. I mean, hey, we are in Disney World. On the positive side, the buses were good and we didn't mind the extra stops. We only had to wait five or ten minutes on most occasions. A couple of times we waited a little longer but it wasn't bad.

I think that maybe our room may have been set up to be refurbished with everything being unplugged and the mess. And then maybe they were overbooked and decided to give us these rooms after all. That's just a guess of course.

Anyway, I think we just had a few unfortunate mishaps on this trip. It was enough to make us decide not to come back for a few years, but not enough to make us give up entirely. I did speak to another family on the bus and they had the same reaction as us. They were staying in Martinique as well. They said their room was also very dirty and that they were happier staying at Pop Century last year.

Just for everyone's information this was Martinique standard. I would definitely request some other place if you're staying standard.

 

[Toffeewoffy]

Sounds disgraceful, Shana. However, given that they have apparently begun work on Martinique 21, your assumption that they hadn't originally intended to let out those rooms may be correct.

I'm desperately hoping that they've done 25 and 26 by 1st March when we check-in. There's no way I'm staying in a disgusting room for 14 days - my DD (who as Asbergers and OCD) will go mental!!

 

[nkereina]

Unfortunately spotty bus service has happened to us at almost every resort we have stayed at on property, and that includes almost all of them. I only say that to reassure people that even though you may have had better luck with bus service at one resort over another, on any given day bad luck can happen anywhere in our experience. I really feel like Disneys transportation system overall has become less efficient over the last several years .

I definitely agree with this and even mentioned earlier that I'm a firm believer that any resort can have good and/or bad bus service on any given day. I do think it's worth noting how poorly the buses were handled at a resort this large, filled to capacity no less. It's as though they were operating as they would during a slow time of year - sending a bus once every 15-20 minutes. That doesn't cut it when the bus depot crowd has now overflowed to the sidewalk behind the bus depot. Insane.

Now we realized our TVs were not working. We realized the cables were not plugged into the wall nor into the TVs themselves. The clocks weren't plugged in either. .

Ironically, we came back one day to find our TV not working. It was fine before we left and thought maybe housekeeping inadvertently hit something. I was just about to call maintainence when my fiancé fiddled with a cord and got it to turn on.

 

[bafleyanne]

From what you all are saying I feel fortunate we had our car and didn't even try using the buses! We stuck with driving to and from parks and taking the monorail between MK and Epcot a few times. We had thought to take a bus to DTD one day but ended up canceling our dining reservation there and skipping it this trip.

CBR is still one of my favorite resorts in spite of the issues we had this time, but it's going to be hard to convince my DH to stay there again after this trip. He was very irritated.

 

[PrincessesX3]

tonight I was able to book for a party of 5 in a preferred room for our February stay and was able to apply our AP discount.

 

[twinspluscade]

tonight I was able to book for a party of 5 in a preferred room for our February stay and was able to apply our AP discount.

Thanks for posting this! I just "fake booked" online for my family of five, and was able to book a package, too.

Now, I have to decide for sure if I want to stay at CBR, POR, or maybe two rooms at POP...the recent negative posts about CBR have me a bit leery, especially since we loved POR so much on our other trips.

 

[Dug720]

Thanks for posting this! I just "fake booked" online for my family of five, and was able to book a package, too. Now, I have to decide for sure if I want to stay at CBR, POR, or maybe two rooms at POP...the recent negative posts about CBR have me a bit leery, especially since we loved POR so much on our other trips.

Never had a problem in over 5 stays at CBR. Only mod I will stay at ever.

 

[CTPacky]

Has anyone noticed whether there is some type of heat out at the pool bar recently? They were talking about eliminating the patio heaters during the spring.