Disney's CARIBBEAN BEACH RESORT Information & Questions

[Airship Ariadne]

I am soooo with you @dansdad !
I actually even like it better than the Poly, (I know blasphemy!)
After many, many WDW trips, I believe we have our "forever home"!
I truly love how peaceful and quiet it is!

For me POR and CBR are about equal...but I guess I will give CBR the edge since at POR I would only stay in a preferred room, where CBR we would be fine with standard...but I like the POR pool better.

 

[MissDisney21]

Some people like them for the theme, but that is their only perk. They are the farthest away from the main pool and food court, and the last bus stop on one of the routes (I can't say it is the most often used bus route, but it is a common route).

Personally, I wouldn't book a Pirate room if I had the choice for preferred. That is my opinion...We rarely spend much time in the room if we aren't sleeping (though last trip DW was feeling poorly and did spend more time in our room...I do need to finish that trip report!) so that isn't a huge perk for us.

If you book preferred your boys might be able to spend more time in the pirate themed main pool...you can get to the food court much quicker, and won't ever be the "last stop" on any bus route.

Thank you. Looked into preferred and it is a bit more $ than we want to spend. We may roll the dice on a standard room. If we get stationed the furthest from OPR how long is the walk? My mother is joining us and she has bad knees so I'm worried about the distance. Do they have golf carts or anything for transportation in the resort? Also are there any renovations planned for April? Thanks again!

 

[Rivergirl2005]

What is the best way to travel from CBR to the AoA? And back? staying at CBR but I want to see the new resort and maybe just walk around....

 

[dansdad]

What is the best way to travel from CBR to the AoA? And back? staying at CBR but I want to see the new resort and maybe just walk around....

Cheapest - Bus from CBR to Epcot or DHS then bus to AoA. Then reverse to come back.

Easiest and Quickest - Taxi or Uber from CBR to AoA. Then reverse to come back.

 

[Airship Ariadne]

Thank you. Looked into preferred and it is a bit more $ than we want to spend. We may roll the dice on a standard room. If we get stationed the furthest from OPR how long is the walk? My mother is joining us and she has bad knees so I'm worried about the distance. Do they have golf carts or anything for transportation in the resort? Also are there any renovations planned for April? Thanks again!

This is easier if you open the map from the first post from this thread in another window to look at as you read on.

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The pool and food court are at Old Port Royal Centertown in the center of the map...pirate rooms are trinidad south...the section to the top right off by itself. If you book a standard room you will be in Aruba, Jamaica, Barbados, or the left most Martinique buildings.

You can see most of these are not too far of a walk to the main building. The farthest would be 5 minutes of walking...there are no golf carts, but they run buses internally, so if needed you would just walk to a bus stop and take a special bus around to the main building.

I can't answer the renovation question

 

[dizzyr]

When my friend went in the summer and stayed st all-star movies she was emailed a inn to the schedule of activities at the resort. Is there anything like that st CBR and if so does anyone have the link for Jan? If not is anyone there now that can tell me what activities are scheduled from the 23-29. Trying to plan a bit of resort time around our ADR's and fast passes. Only a couple more weeks - can't wait!

 

[dansdad]

When my friend went in the summer and stayed st all-star movies she was emailed a inn to the schedule of activities at the resort. Is there anything like that st CBR and if so does anyone have the link for Jan? If not is anyone there now that can tell me what activities are scheduled from the 23-29. Trying to plan a bit of resort time around our ADR's and fast passes. Only a couple more weeks - can't wait!

Here you go.

http://www.themouseforless.com/tripplanning/resorts/wdw/pdf/CBR-Calendar.pdf

 

[dansdad]

Thank you. Looked into preferred and it is a bit more $ than we want to spend. We may roll the dice on a standard room. If we get stationed the furthest from OPR how long is the walk?

The furthest standard room is 7-8 minutes at a very leisurely pace.

My mother is joining us and she has bad knees so I'm worried about the distance. Do they have golf carts or anything for transportation in the resort? Also are there any renovations planned for April? Thanks again!

No golf carts as the resort is not big enough to need them. 85% of the standard rooms are 2-6 minute walk to OPR and the Main Feature Pool. My 95 yr. old gramma with 2 replaced knees and 1 hip had no problems navigating CBR when she stayed back at the resort for the day.

 

[ohboyx3]

Just got back from our first stay at CBR. We stayed from 12/30-1/6. It was AMAZING! We have stayed in all of the moderates and I have to say that I loved CBR so much! We were in a standard room. Building 45 in the Jamaica section. It was super close to transportation and just a short walk to the pool/hot tubs where we visited daily. I thought our location was great... It's a big resort, but nowhere near what people make it out to be. The food court was great. We utilized it a lot and had no problems exchanging snacks for beverages since we had the resort mugs. Everything there was tasty. I had the pasta several times and it was very filling. My husband enjoyed the salmon at dinner one evening. We met Big Mama at the deli and she was so nice and remembered us by name! The pool area was fantastic. We swam or used the hot tub almost every day when we took a break from the parks. The life guards were very attentive and plentiful! My kids are too old for the children's activities, but they always had entertainment for the kids and it looked like fun! I loved when the lifeguards would dance when they were changing out. Transportation was flawless and I had my doubts after reading some of the reports on here. We never waited more than 5 minutes for a bus. No lie. Maybe we were just lucky? Most of the time we walked up on one. I loved being the first stop after a long day at the parks. I wouldn't want to stay anywhere but Jamaica! All in all our stay was great. If I had one complaint it would be mousekeeping. They didn't go above and beyond at all... and I tipped! They didn't even replenish the shampoo/conditioner. However, that was very minor IMO. I love CBR, because to me it seemed like a vacation within a vacation. Plenty of relaxing places to get away from the crowds. If you're questioning staying here... give it a try!

 

[Kevin355]

Cheapest - Bus from CBR to Epcot or DHS then bus to AoA. Then reverse to come back.

Easiest and Quickest - Taxi or Uber from CBR to AoA. Then reverse to come back.

Take the taxi. Quickest. Bus is the cheapest.

 

[dansdad]

Just got back from our first stay at CBR. We stayed from 12/30-1/6. It was AMAZING! We have stayed in all of the moderates and I have to say that I loved CBR so much! We were in a standard room. Building 45 in the Jamaica section. It was super close to transportation and just a short walk to the pool/hot tubs where we visited daily. I thought our location was great... It's a big resort, but nowhere near what people make it out to be. The food court was great. We utilized it a lot and had no problems exchanging snacks for beverages since we had the resort mugs. Everything there was tasty. I had the pasta several times and it was very filling. My husband enjoyed the salmon at dinner one evening. We met Big Mama at the deli and she was so nice and remembered us by name! The pool area was fantastic. We swam or used the hot tub almost every day when we took a break from the parks. The life guards were very attentive and plentiful! My kids are too old for the children's activities, but they always had entertainment for the kids and it looked like fun! I loved when the lifeguards would dance when they were changing out. Transportation was flawless and I had my doubts after reading some of the reports on here. We never waited more than 5 minutes for a bus. No lie. Maybe we were just lucky? Most of the time we walked up on one. I loved being the first stop after a long day at the parks. I wouldn't want to stay anywhere but Jamaica! All in all our stay was great. If I had one complaint it would be mousekeeping. They didn't go above and beyond at all... and I tipped! They didn't even replenish the shampoo/conditioner. However, that was very minor IMO. I love CBR, because to me it seemed like a vacation within a vacation. Plenty of relaxing places to get away from the crowds. If you're questioning staying here... give it a try!

So glad you enjoyed your stay! And thanks for coming back and letting us know how it went. I completely agree with you, Jamaica 45 is a fabulous location and our favorite.

 

[dizzyr]

Here you go.

http://www.themouseforless.com/tripplanning/resorts/wdw/pdf/CBR-Calendar.pdf

Awesome thanks!!

 

[lovethattink]

Just got back from our first stay at CBR. We stayed from 12/30-1/6. It was AMAZING! We have stayed in all of the moderates and I have to say that I loved CBR so much! We were in a standard room. Building 45 in the Jamaica section. It was super close to transportation and just a short walk to the pool/hot tubs where we visited daily. I thought our location was great... It's a big resort, but nowhere near what people make it out to be. The food court was great. We utilized it a lot and had no problems exchanging snacks for beverages since we had the resort mugs. Everything there was tasty. I had the pasta several times and it was very filling. My husband enjoyed the salmon at dinner one evening. We met Big Mama at the deli and she was so nice and remembered us by name! The pool area was fantastic. We swam or used the hot tub almost every day when we took a break from the parks. The life guards were very attentive and plentiful! My kids are too old for the children's activities, but they always had entertainment for the kids and it looked like fun! I loved when the lifeguards would dance when they were changing out. Transportation was flawless and I had my doubts after reading some of the reports on here. We never waited more than 5 minutes for a bus. No lie. Maybe we were just lucky? Most of the time we walked up on one. I loved being the first stop after a long day at the parks. I wouldn't want to stay anywhere but Jamaica! All in all our stay was great. If I had one complaint it would be mousekeeping. They didn't go above and beyond at all... and I tipped! They didn't even replenish the shampoo/conditioner. However, that was very minor IMO. I love CBR, because to me it seemed like a vacation within a vacation. Plenty of relaxing places to get away from the crowds. If you're questioning staying here... give it a try!

We were practically neighbors. We were in building 44. We had the same with mousekeeping. Though I did write a note one day asking for pool towels and another day asking for shampoo and conditioner since it wasn't replenished; and did receive what I asked for.

Did you have hot water for showers? The one day, we did not, Jan 4th.

We enjoyed the food court as well.

 

[wellesleyprincess]

Okay so I've broken down, and decided I wanted to do a moderate for my next RunDisney trip in Fall 2016. I'm leaning towards CBR because its the cheapest mod and was a host resort last year, but I have a couple of questions:

Honestly how bad is walking around the resort? If I just ran a half marathon and get dropped off at the central location am I going to want a Taxi back to my room? Has anyone stayed here for a race and can tell me how their race transportation works?

Second are there coffee makers in the room? (this is a selling point for upgrading)

What about hot tubs? Are they at each pool, just the main pool or not at all?

 

[dansdad]

Okay so I've broken down, and decided I wanted to do a moderate for my next RunDisney trip in Fall 2016. I'm leaning towards CBR because its the cheapest mod and was a host resort last year, but I have a couple of questions:

Honestly how bad is walking around the resort? If I just ran a half marathon and get dropped off at the central location am I going to want a Taxi back to my room? Has anyone stayed here for a race and can tell me how their race transportation works?

Second are there coffee makers in the room? (this is a selling point for upgrading)

What about hot tubs? Are they at each pool, just the main pool or not at all?

Every village has its own bus stop so you'll be close to one no matter where yourroom is.

Yes, there are coffee makers in every room.

There are 2 hot tubs and both are at the main feature pool.

 

[mickeystoontown]

 

[soniam]

Okay so I've broken down, and decided I wanted to do a moderate for my next RunDisney trip in Fall 2016. I'm leaning towards CBR because its the cheapest mod and was a host resort last year, but I have a couple of questions:

Honestly how bad is walking around the resort? If I just ran a half marathon and get dropped off at the central location am I going to want a Taxi back to my room? Has anyone stayed here for a race and can tell me how their race transportation works?

Second are there coffee makers in the room? (this is a selling point for upgrading)

What about hot tubs? Are they at each pool, just the main pool or not at all?

Every village has its own bus stop so you'll be close to one no matter where yourroom is.

Yes, there are coffee makers in every room.

There are 2 hot tubs and both are at the main feature pool.

I think the transportation for the runs is not the same as the regular park transportation, at least where it picks up/drops off. I suspect there is one spot, maybe the main bus stop, where they do the run buses. Hopefully, someone who has actually done the runs and stayed at CBR will answer your question. The boards really need a Run Disney forum. We are considering the F&W runs in 2017, so I have started to try to find info. It's hard. Good luck.

 

[dansdad]

I think the transportation for the runs is not the same as the regular park transportation, at least where it picks up/drops off. I suspect there is one spot, maybe the main bus stop, where they do the run buses. Hopefully, someone who has actually done the runs and stayed at CBR will answer your question. The boards really need a Run Disney forum. We are considering the F&W runs in 2017, so I have started to try to find info. It's hard. Good luck.

Sorry I forgot to specifically mention the run. I have never ran in any Disney races but my brother has. The last 2 races he stayed at CBR and the race buses stopped at every village.

 

[dis_guy]

Sorry I forgot to specifically mention the run. I have never ran in any Disney races but my brother has. The last 2 races he stayed at CBR and the race buses stopped at every village.

While not a competitor either, this has been my observation as well when we were there during Marathon Week in 2009.

 

[ctnurse]

We just returned this morning from our stay at CBR. We were there Jan 2-9. We usually stay at Deluxe resorts, but this was a last minute trip, and we didn't want to pay Deluxe price, so we stayed here, and enjoyed the resort. We would stay again, but wouldn't be our first choice only because of the ease of the Deluxe and how close they are to the parks.

I had requested Jamaica and ground floor, and we received Aruba 51, ground floor. We had room 5110 and it was a great location. It was close to the bridge and bus stop and enjoyed the ground floor because we have a 2 year old and carrying her upstairs in a stroller isn't all that much fun after a long day in the parks. The room was clean and theming was fun. The grounds of the resort are really pretty and the walk over the bridge is nice. Food at the food court was ok. We mostly used it for breakfast, and DS 12 had dinner there one night, and said his pasta was good. We didn't use the pool because it was too cold and rainy for the majority of our time here, but it looked fun. Housekeeping was fine, and we always had towels, soap, and shampoo. The bus transportation was really good, from resort to the parks, but we had a couple of issues with transportation when we weren't going from the parks to resorts, or back. The signs with bus wait times were up and working when were were there too.