Disney's CARIBBEAN BEACH RESORT Information & Questions

[cassidy57]

Thanks so much for the information! I am glad to hear that the mornings are not a problem, and I do not mind waiting at all on way back to resort. Thanks again!

 

[camnhan]

I asked a CM at the Custom House, what would be going on at the resort next spring construction wise. She pretty much told us what we already know--it's gonna take about 18-24 months to complete this massive project. That CBR is experiencing the most extensive construction of any resort on the property. Shutters is going to be down by the beach and check in will be at the new OPR (or whatever they decide to call it). The gondola station will be where the Custom House is now, yada, yada, yada. So apparently those going next spring, looking at you GoofyGraham, will most likely see new stages of construction, as it's gonna take almost two years to complete. I'm thinking it will be around the halfway point by then, going by the timeline given. You may see/experience something different than those of us who went this summer/fall, maybe more structures going up. OPR is still standing but the roof is kinda torn up, not sure what they're gonna do there. TS, near the pool, is undergoing some kind of maintenance/construction as we saw backhoes and workers, don't what they're doing and I didn't ask. Why? I don't know For us, the construction wasn't a problem, but like anything else, it's subjective. We ate at the buffet twice, breakfast both times, on our first and last mornings there. All other days we ate at the food truck. Food was fine, and what we expected, again subjective. We stayed at TS pirate room, it's a fun room, but it does have full beds, not queen. We stayed in building 35 with a water view, nice but it was a small hike from the parking lot, not bad though. If I had to make a request for a building in TS, I think I'd pick 34. It contains that much heralded and sought after freestyle machine We hiked over there every night and morning, and that wasn't a problem, but I envied those who had rooms near it One night, most of the beverages were out, so we had to hoof it to building 38 to the other freestyle machine--pretty far from 34. This is why I thought 36 should have one but they don't, at least not yet. This walking all over shouldn't have been a problem for us, as we had already walked about ten miles everyday at the parks not that my feet felt like lead or anything...yep my own little first world problem there We got a gift card for seven nights and it covered most of our meals/snacks. Five of us ate at the Biergarten for dinner (The three of us and two family members who live in the area). We only had to pay $18 out of pocket for the mealWe also ate at Marrakesh and Liberty Tree Tavern. We killed the card at Biergarten, but it went a long way. We didn't get the cooler bag, but we got the little pins. We had a blast and sorry it's over. We have zero regrets staying at CBR and would do it again. As I said, everything is subjective and others may see things differently. People have to experience it for themselves and form their own opinions. Chances are, we will stay at a different resort on our next trip, but only because we like to change around. It's a very pretty resort overall, there are fences up and lots of construction equipment, but I never heard any noise. When you guys go, watch where you walk, there are lizards everywhere, and they don't always make it across the sidewalk For those of you heading to CBR, have a great trip and happy trails

We will be staying in a Pirate room in about a month...we will have a special needs stroller for our son which is kinda large. We have requested to be on the ground level as trying to haul that thing up the stairs will be a bit difficult. Will the pirate rooms have enough space to push the stroller in? Imagine a regular stroller and double the footprint of it.

Thanks!

 

[dansdad]

We will be staying in a Pirate room in about a month...we will have a special needs stroller for our son which is kinda large. We have requested to be on the ground level as trying to haul that thing up the stairs will be a bit difficult. Will the pirate rooms have enough space to push the stroller in? Imagine a regular stroller and double the footprint of it.

Thanks!

Yes, there will be room for it.

 

[JessicaW1234]

Hi- new to CBR - thinking of booking last minute trip end of Sept. in a pirate room- are pirate rooms in every building? I did try to read the thread at the beginning, but not having been there, what will be impacted by construction at end of September?

 

[LadyRayado]

Hi- new to CBR - thinking of booking last minute trip end of Sept. in a pirate room- are pirate rooms in every building? I did try to read the thread at the beginning, but not having been there, what will be impacted by construction at end of September?

Pirate rooms are only in Trinidad South.

 

[kmc8826]

Hi- new to CBR - thinking of booking last minute trip end of Sept. in a pirate room- are pirate rooms in every building? I did try to read the thread at the beginning, but not having been there, what will be impacted by construction at end of September?

Yes only Trinidad South for the pirate rooms. Trinidad South is at the far end and not next to some of the major construction. As far as impact at the end of September I imagine it will be the same as recounted in the first pages and links of this post. (I.e. I don't think the food tent and trucks are going anywhere any time soon).

 

[Grace1987]

Yes. There are 6 on each floor.

Thank you that's great

 

[Grace1987]

We were in a second floor King room in Jamaica. It was also a corner room by the stairs. I think 4633.

Thank you I appreciate it

 

[Grace1987]

We also booked a King room and I would be interested to hearing this answer as well.

When are you arriving? We arrive in 18 days.

not until next year

 

[phil1914]

mini review for aug 16-21

background
first timers at CBR. we'd only been to WDW as a family once 7 years ago and stayed at AKL. kids are older now (DD12 and DD15) and priorities for us = budget and spending time at parks. being west coasters, we weren't planning on rope dropping like we do at DL/CA, but planned on closing the parks out. this thread helped us decide on CBR and we booked after the GC promo ended.

construction
since we didn't spend a whole lot of time enjoying CBR, the construction didn't impact us. the updates in this thread helped set our expectations.

rooms
we originally targeted CBR due to the pirate themed rooms and originally booked that. then switched to a standard room because wanted bigger beds. sounded like a good call after speaking to a few others on the bus who did have pirate rooms. we got aruba 53 1st floor. i didn't like the 1st floor locale but my feet/knees appreciated it at the end of the day. we were close to the laundry room and village pool, which made both laundry and morning swims easy. pins were on the table in the room. wasn't offered the option to decline housekeeping.

negatives i have is the walls are pretty thin so you can hear a lot. i'm blessed with the power of sleep through everything so it didn't bother me. but a nearby guest would smoke outside her room. yes we called it in, but it didn't stop. you can even see she'd put out her ashes directly in front. and ugh the smell would easily permeate. i wonder what it smelled like next door. if you plan on enjoying the main pool (looks awesome btw), it's a nice walk from aruba, but i'd personally want to be closer.

tip: it's been noted on here that there's no way to walk from CH to your room. you essentially have two options. option 1 = "splurge" and have the bell desk bring a van over to bring just your party over. option #2 = head thru the back of the lobby to the internal shuttle...

buses/transportation
bad part about aruba is you're the last stop so sometimes the buses fill up before getting to aruba. happened to us twice. the first time, we were just lucky timing as another group was waiting 30min+, but we got there mins before the backup arrived for HS. second time we weren't so lucky waiting the 30min+ for AK. both times, the bus stop CM attendant wrote us all fast passes. then coming home, if you're standing on the bus, you're likely standing through a few stops at CBR if not all the way to last stop = aruba. this never seemed to be an issue when we stayed at AKL. it also seemed pretty cool how pop century and animation studios had dedicated stops/queues for each park.

food
i mention above that from aruba, it's a nice walk...without food. with food, it's a nice arm workout. yay total body fitness! we did the food trucks one morning opting for breakfast sandwiches & coffee. sammiches were awful. sausages/bacon undercooked while the muffins/croissants were charred on the flat top and it all fell apart against the runny eggs. we skipped it and opted for in the park brekkie the rest of the days until we left. we did the tent buffet the day we left and that was much better.

misc
we resort shipped a purchase and had to go to the pop up concierge in 3109 to pick it up. coulda sworn last time at AKL we got a VM saying we had a package. no such notification this time. oh and there's a pin trading board in there.

overall - pleasantly surprised at how big the resort is and would love to see it when the construction is done. this thread immensely helpful in setting expectations.

 

[SimonSez]

Just the beds. They weren't always Pirate Rooms.....

Yep, beds are full size in pirate rooms as opposed to queen size.

 

[SimonSez]

We are here on a bounce back booked from August 2016, so yes, we were booked well before anyone had word of the construction.

On a sad note, today is checkout day. On a good note, we already booked a bounce back for 2 weeks next August!!!!

Ooh, check out day is rough, but at least you're set for next year Ugh, we never know when or where our next vacation will be, as we never make plans until 3-4 months out Probably won't be back to Disney for another two years, so will be having serious withdrawals at that point

 

[Grace1987]

I'm so excited to see what has been finished by our stay from 24th September 2018.. I'm hoping the dining and table service restaurant will be done and the skyliner gondolas.

 

[Grace1987]

I'm so excited to see what has been finished by our stay from 24th September 2018.. I'm hoping the dining and table service restaurant will be done and the skyliner gondolas.

 

[Stephen Burch]

We're staying there in January on our night before a Disney Cruise... What's the word on the splash pad area? I understand it hasn't been under construction at all, but wanted to double check.

Second question: With the dining changes going on due to construction do they have good allergy friendly dining options? We have a dairy allergy in our party, so I'm hoping we can eat on site relatively easily, since Disney is usually really good about that.

 

[oj01]

Well it's official. We return to CBR in 424 days!!

The only availability (booking direct with Disney UK) for Oct 2018 was Standard King for my parents and Pirate Room for the three of us. (No Preferred or Standard Queens available)

Included in the price, from the UK, are :
QS Dining Plan (including alcohol!)
$100 Disney Spending Money
14 Day Ultimate Tickets
Memory Maker
12 months subscription to DisneyLife

Now get on with finishing the new food court please.

Just on a hunch, I checked the website today then called Disney UK and managed to swap our Pirate Room for a Preferred Room. And save £150 into the bargain.

 

[tink20]

Is the buffet outside (no AC?)
Is Disney offering a discount due to construction?

We stayed here several years ago and liked it.
Going back in June 2018, trying to pick a resort....

 

[WEDWDW]

Is the buffet outside (no AC?)
Is Disney offering a discount due to construction?

Centertown Buffet is inside a huge "tent" and has AC.

Disney was giving Guests a $75.00 Gift Card per night,but no longer.

The only Discounts would be the "normal" discounts if available.

I don't have a picture of Centertown Buffet,but this is a picture of the "tent" that The 15s were using-Centertown Buffet looks similar.

 

[cyndiella]

mini review for aug 16-21

1)tip: it's been noted on here that there's no way to walk from CH to your room. you essentially have two options. option 1 = "splurge" and have the bell desk bring a van over to bring just your party over. option #2 = head thru the back of the lobby to the internal shuttle...

2)buses/transportation: we weren't so lucky waiting the 30min+ for AK. both times, the bus stop CM attendant wrote us all fast passes.

3)misc
we resort shipped a purchase and had to go to the pop up concierge in 3109 to pick it up. coulda sworn last time at AKL we got a VM saying we had a package. no such notification this time. oh and there's a pin trading board in there.

4)overall - pleasantly surprised at how big the resort is and would love to see it when the construction is done. this thread immensely helpful in setting expectations.

Loved your report! but I have a few questions. 1) what do you mean "splurge"? Did it cost to use a van? Isn't that the same as the internal shuttle???
2) There are bus stop CM attendants????
3) Pin trading board at concierge?? I thought earlier in this thread it was at the food tent.. was it moved? or in addition to now?
4) Totally agree! This thread is amazingly informative. We will enjoy our first stay at CBR in 62 days!! FP day coming this week!! yay..

TIA

 

[dansdad]

Loved your report! but I have a few questions. 1) what do you mean "splurge"? Did it cost to use a van? Isn't that the same as the internal shuttle???
2) There are bus stop CM attendants????
3) Pin trading board at concierge?? I thought earlier in this thread it was at the food tent.. was it moved? or in addition to now?
4) Totally agree! This thread is amazingly informative. We will enjoy our first stay at CBR in 62 days!! FP day coming this week!! yay..

TIA

1. Though you asked @phil1914, let me try. When we've used the Bell Services can we have them help bring our luggage up to the room so section them. Maybe that's what splurge meant here. Luggage is not allowed on the Internal Shuttle.

2. Usually, yes.