Disney's CARIBBEAN BEACH RESORT Information & Questions

Just switched from AOA to CBR for Thanksgiving week. Hopefully I made a good choice!
 
Stayed at CSR 9/4-9-13, enjoyed it but much preferred CBR and our room there last year! We booked a bb for next September back at our favorite! Booked a preferred room! Can’t wait to experience all the new they will have up and going by this time next year!!
 
Can anyone guess as to how much construction will remain at the end of January 2019? Also, is Trinidad North a good request? Ideally I would request Trinidad South, but I have read it is all pirate rooms (we are a party of 5)? TY so much!
 


Can anyone guess as to how much construction will remain at the end of January 2019? Also, is Trinidad North a good request? Ideally I would request Trinidad South, but I have read it is all pirate rooms (we are a party of 5)? TY so much!

Finishing up the Skyliner Gondola station and the Riviera Resort Tower is all that will be left. Neither of which should be of much concern to guests, if at all.
 
Oh, that is great news! TY! I guess that seals the deal for CB. I need to do a bit of research to see if there may be future discounts :)
 
As of now, all Preferred rooms are in Trinidad North. Trinidad North has Preferred, Water View, and King rooms.
I have a package booked for next Dec 2019 but I was hoping to convert that booking to a bounce back when we are in the World in 2 weeks.....I wonder if I can do that or if I will have to cancel the original then book the bounce back? I'm also wondering about the Prefered. Would the areas closest to the gondola station be prefered too? I know we don't know yet, just speculating.
 


I have a package booked for next Dec 2019 but I was hoping to convert that booking to a bounce back when we are in the World in 2 weeks.....I wonder if I can do that or if I will have to cancel the original then book the bounce back?

I'm pretty sure you'll have to cancel and rebook. But ask the CM when you call the Bounceback line. You may have to switch room type.

I'm also wondering about the Prefered. Would the areas closest to the gondola station be prefered too? I know we don't know yet, just speculating.

I'm thinking no, but like you said that's pure speculation.
 
Just booked CBR for mid June! Was surprised there weren't any preferred rooms left to reserve! Could that be just because we are late to the game or because Disney is messing around with what's preferred? Was able to get a "pool view" but nothing better than that. Will need suggestions of what to request to be close to bus and food!
 
Just booked CBR for mid June! Was surprised there weren't any preferred rooms left to reserve! Could that be just because we are late to the game or because Disney is messing around with what's preferred?

Probably a little of both. Right now, the only location for Preferred Rooms is Trinidad North which is 3 buildings. There used to be 6 buildings that housed Preferred Rooms.


Was able to get a "pool view" but nothing better than that. Will need suggestions of what to request to be close to bus and food!

Every Village has its own bus stop so you will not be more than a 2 minute stroll to one no matter where your room is. For close to food, I would request Trinidad North (any building), Martinique(any building), Jamaica 45 or Aruba 51.
 
Aruba 52, a little hike to bus stop. Waited forever for a HS bus today, but 2-3 of the others & the internal bus!! Its godawful hot today. The walk from bus drop for me not too bad. Blazing sun out...lol CBR stop is # 3--almost to the Very End. So be watching out for the little ones & older folks. Toy Story Land is neat, but with no to little coverage, ur gonna melt. And for goodness asked why are there sooo many babies?! They look just miserable!! and hot...lol
 
Currently staying at CBR for the first time. Not impressed, unfortunately. The construction mess/noise isn't the issue (I've actually loved watching the progress!) but the lack of food options is a HUGE negative for us (due to construction). We ended up buying pizza from Papa John's tonight because after three days here, we're out of decent options. Not ideal.

The positives: We lucked out by getting a room in Martinique Building 24. We practically have a private pool with the quiet pool next door. We are super close to the shuttle stop. Staff are great. Internal bus system works fine (but it takes a long time to get anywhere in the resort). The main, fun pool is darling! Great theming. Grounds are pretty nice. Bed is comfortable.

The negatives: This resort is huge, spread out and currently the food options are poor. Our room is very mediocre. There is no big gift shop right now, either. We had to go to the Polynesian to get a half gallon of milk. Meals from Spyglass Grill were small but tasted decent. The breakfast we had was practically a joke it was so small. These negatives are enough for everyone in our party to give the resort a thumbs down.

We much prefer Coronado Springs for moderates. Happy to be switching to Animal Kingdom Lodge tomorrow.
 
Currently staying at CBR for the first time. Not impressed, unfortunately. The construction mess/noise isn't the issue (I've actually loved watching the progress!) but the lack of food options is a HUGE negative for us (due to construction). We ended up buying pizza from Papa John's tonight because after three days here, we're out of decent options. Not ideal.

The positives: We lucked out by getting a room in Martinique Building 24. We practically have a private pool with the quiet pool next door. We are super close to the shuttle stop. Staff are great. Internal bus system works fine (but it takes a long time to get anywhere in the resort). The main, fun pool is darling! Great theming. Grounds are pretty nice. Bed is comfortable.

The negatives: This resort is huge, spread out and currently the food options are poor. Our room is very mediocre. There is no big gift shop right now, either. We had to go to the Polynesian to get a half gallon of milk. Meals from Spyglass Grill were small but tasted decent. The breakfast we had was practically a joke it was so small. These negatives are enough for everyone in our party to give the resort a thumbs down.

We much prefer Coronado Springs for moderates. Happy to be switching to Animal Kingdom Lodge tomorrow.

Sorry you haven't had a great impression of CBR. Personally I love the resort but I kind of think I might be on the same page as you and would really miss a proper food service and, funny as it sounds, the gift shop! To me, that kind of pulls the whole place together - hey, maybe that's why they call it center town, haha. Yeah, and not being able to buy milk or even crackers or something... would just leave me feeling isolated. It's too bad though, in another month or two those things should all be back at the resort and you might have gotten a better impression. Bet you'll love Animal Kingdom Lodge, I've never stayed there but have eaten there a few times and enjoyed it a lot.
Enjoy your trip!!
 
The negatives: This resort is huge, spread out and currently the food options are poor. Our room is very mediocre. There is no big gift shop right now, either. We had to go to the Polynesian to get a half gallon of milk. Meals from Spyglass Grill were small but tasted decent. The breakfast we had was practically a joke it was so small. These negatives are enough for everyone in our party to give the resort a thumbs down.

Bummer. I think that this renovation, while it has been a painful process for guests there in the interim will alleviate a lot of this. I stayed at Coronado in 2009 and enjoyed it, that was large too, but all of the amenities were functional so it was good.

Just looking at Google Maps, the lobby at CBR is soooo far away from everything, plus the whole food truck/tent buffet thing is just not real desirable when paying the prices Disney charges for their resorts.

But, hopefully by next month, the lobby/check-in will be in a central location, all new food court, all new pool bar, all new table service.... plus an entire section was demolished... I think all of that will help a lot. From what I understand the entrance will also be closer? I could be wrong there. The new menu for the food court looks pretty nice too. I get your complaints and I agree -- I personally would not have stayed during construction -- I like to save my $$ and eat breakfast in the room, and just the extra hassle of not being able to grab a 1/2 gal of milk for cereal or whatever would be irritating. I hope you enjoy the remainder of your trip.
 
CBR review:
Room: Our group was DH, DS11, DS9, DD5 and myself. We checked in on 9/16 to Aruba 54. I had requested Jamaica 44 using the touring plans room request. I was pretty disappointed about not getting Jamaica but I tried to let it go. We did get a bottom floor, which was helpful with our stroller. We were very close to the bus stop. The island market and drink machine were just around the corner from us. The room itself was very nice. I was afraid that we would be cramped but it really wasn't bad. The 2 sinks were really nice! We had plenty of drawer space for our clothes and using the drawers under the murphy bed wasn't an issue for us.
Buses: We had absolutely no issues with the buses. We used the app to get bus times and they were pretty spot on. I think the only time we had to stand on a bus was leaving the parks.
Pools: We used the main pool on Sunday. It was so much fun! The slides were a huge hit for my kids. We didn't use the smaller kids area, since my daughter wanted to swim where her brothers were swimming. We swam in the Aruba pool on Mon during our park break. The kids enjoyed it. I wish we had scheduled more time to use the main pool again.
Food: The kids and I ate dinner at the buffet on Tues evening and we took a to-go plate for my DH. I thought everything was good. My husband really enjoyed the potato soup that we brought him. The cast members were very helpful and friendly. A couple of mornings my husband ate the breakfast buffet and brought back food for us. I would say the breakfast was definitely the better of the 2 meals. My favorite was the scrambled eggs with bell peppers! We never made it to Spyglass Grill.
Location: This is my only negative about CBR. Again, I was disappointed about being in Aruba. It was just so far from CenterTown. My husband said it like this, this location is great if you are here for an extended time and you want to spend some time just being around the resort. But for a "park all day" trip and we want to just grab a quick bite when we get back, this is probably not the best location. Being so far away, we just never felt like we were part of the resort. Next time, if we stay at CBR, we will pay the difference to be a preferred area. Let me say this, the construction was never an issue for us. We never heard anything when we were in our room. Of course, we saw it but it didn't bother us at all!
OVerall, we enjoyed our time at CBR. I'm excited to see it when the updates are finished. Let me know if you have any questions.
 

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