Resort Thread Disney's CARIBBEAN BEACH Resort

[dansdad]

Thanks so much!!!

 

[HHMcG]

View attachment 228814 Arrived today! Part of the parking lot just southeast of the main pool has been blocked off for construction staging, including a trailer. Should not affect anyone's experience for now.

Thanks for the picture.

We arrive in 2 days!

 

[DanInMN]

I can see why they are reworking the main building. The food court is inefficient when busy. People placing orders while others waiting for their food, crowded and disorganized while cast members yell out people's names. Also, difficult for them to know who has/hasn't paid for their food since the registers are across the hall. It looks nice, but not an effective design for operations.

Similarly, having the check-in building separate and far from everything makes no sense to me. On arrival we waited 45 minutes for a van to bring us to our room. Extra cost for Disney, wasted time for us. I can't think of a reason to set things up this way.

 

[makochibi]

HI! My family and I are booked for CBR for the first time for our next trip. Taking advantage of the Gift Card offer that was going on. I am so excited to try a new resort. The past two trips (only ones as a family) we have stayed at Pop. While I love Pop, it will be nice to try someplace new. We will be going in Feb 2018 to celebrate our youngest's 3rd birthday. This will be her second trip and the 3rd trip for our oldest who will be almost 7.5 years old. Our last trip was Sept/Oct 2016. we are all looking forward to this next trip.

 

[mickeystoontown]

That is inaccurate. We just arrived home and were there for 10 days. The only vehicles that were out around the hotel, were mechanical lifts that were cleaning and doing paint touch-up of the cornices of the buildings. They would keep them in garden areas overnight. Basic maintenance. There are a few small sections of parking lots sectioned off that I guess will eventually be used for construction. I did not get to Trinidad South but we toured each section and there was never "construction vehicles all over"

This is correct, there is very little evidence of construction here. Unless you look for it you won't notice anything. I am here now and can post photos of whatever you like.

Just goes to show you how people's perceptions vary. The guy that I spoke to is a local and visits the parks and various resorts on a near daily basis. We have stayed at CBR when they were doing a total refurb on the rooms and the construction never bothered us and I didn't feel like there were lots of workers around either. And, we were in the building right next to the one that was being worked on at the time.

 

[emmabelle]

I'm contemplating staying at CBR with the quick service plan because of the passholder discounts that just came out. I'm confused as to what Centertown is? I thought the Port Royale food court was in Centertown and it's closing? Does anyone know if this buffet would be quick service or a sit down credit?

"Centertown, a dining location, will serve an all‐you‐care‐to‐enjoy buffet for breakfast and dinner"

 

[Sharongal74]

If I am going to go to ds before leaving on my departure day. Will bell services come and get my luggage and hold it? Do I need to go with it or just tell them to hold it? Last time we were flying so I was checking it. This time we are picking up a rental and headed to Miami.

 

[dolewhipdreams]

Can anyone who is there now or has been recently comment on the location of the Coke Freestyle machines for the refillable mugs? Wondering how many there are and what general locations.

 

[AngiTN]

If I am going to go to ds before leaving on my departure day. Will bell services come and get my luggage and hold it? Do I need to go with it or just tell them to hold it? Last time we were flying so I was checking it. This time we are picking up a rental and headed to Miami.

Yes, Bell Services will hold your bags, no matter why you need them to be held. You can either take it up there to them or call for them to come get it. You do need to remain with the bags so they can give you a receipt

 

[Suzanne74]

Can anyone who is there now or has been recently comment on the location of the Coke Freestyle machines for the refillable mugs? Wondering how many there are and what general locations.

They are only in Old Port Royale, where the food court seating area is. I think 4 soda machines, multiple coffees, iced tea, hot tea, and 2 cocoa dispensers. It is very close to the main pool but you need to be dry with shoes and shirt on, to go in there for a refill.

 

[dolewhipdreams]

They are only in Old Port Royale, where the food court seating area is. I think 4 soda machines, multiple coffees, iced tea, hot tea, and 2 cocoa dispensers. It is very close to the main pool but you need to be dry with shoes and shirt on, to go in there for a refill.

Thanks! That's a little disappointing since they made it sound like they will be all over the resort. But it's better than nothing

 

[AngiTN]

Thanks! That's a little disappointing since they made it sound like they will be all over the resort. But it's better than nothing

I believe they will be eventually. Or at least somewhere else. Old Port Royale isn't closed yet but when it does close they'll have to be somewhere else.

 

[marie1981]

Can anyone who is there now or has been recently comment on the location of the Coke Freestyle machines for the refillable mugs? Wondering how many there are and what general locations.

I am at the Caribbean beach now.. no freestyle machine... I saw them at the Grand Floridian and the DVC lounge in Epcot.. They are amazing !!! So many choices !!!

 

[dolewhipdreams]

I am at the Caribbean beach now.. no freestyle machine... I saw them at the Grand Floridian and the DVC lounge in Epcot.. They are amazing !!! So many choices !!!

Right?? I love them!!! My DH thinks it's funny but I call them space coke machines. They just seem so...space-y.

 

[pktbMouse]

Just goes to show you how people's perceptions vary. The guy that I spoke to is a local and visits the parks and various resorts on a near daily basis. We have stayed at CBR when they were doing a total refurb on the rooms and the construction never bothered us and I didn't feel like there were lots of workers around either. And, we were in the building right next to the one that was being worked on at the time.

So glad your back! hugs

 

[Suzanne74]

We stayed 10 days and had a really great time. My 7yr old DD and I were there the whole time. My 15yr old was there with her high school softball team and met up with us the last 4 days. My DH flew in a few days after us. Here are some of our opinions of the resort.

What we liked:
1. Proximity to most other locations in Disney
2. We received our room # via text before our plan landed, about noon. We received both of our requests using just online check-in. Ground floor, Martinique. We did pay for preferred because I had a 25% room rate and thought it was worth it.
3. Our room was in building 24 and we were about 10 steps away from the M pool and laundry. 20 steps from the drop off circle for M24-26 and 30 steps from M bus stop benches. I would say the walk to Old Port was 3 minutes hurry thru the building walkways and 5min relaxing around the lake walkway. All very ideal.
4. Because we shared a Magical Express bus, we went to Pop and Art first, but our line filled quickly and we only waited at MCO for 5 minutes before getting on a bus and another few minutes for it to fill. It was by far the quickest. We also went and picked up our luggage and it really only added about 10 minutes and we were even in A terminal. It was the first time we went for our luggage first and I would no doubt do it again if I needed.
5. Our main housekeeper was fantastic. Jacqueline. Sweet, quick, efficient, and lots of towel animals and "re-enactments" with my 7yr old's stuffed animals. We always tip $5 a day so not sure if that played a part in it, but our room was done much better than our last stay at Beach Club concierge when we also tipped.
6. Plenty of indoor and outdoor seating for Old Port Royale. We liked the pool bar but thought they needed a few more tables and chairs in that area.
7. Loved the reclining chairs instead of loungers at the main pool. Much easier to get in and out of when they are stacked right next to each other. There still wasn't enough for everyone though. It was tough a few times getting just one to put our things on. They were comfortable though.
8. Loved the courtyard movie as opposed to in the pool area. And watching the fireworks from Epcot and DH afterwards.
9. We loved the corn hole game and played it often. My daughter loved the pool games (although they were very repetitive)
10. On our rest day my daughter and I rented a surrey and visited every pool but Trinidad South, which I think I heard it was not open anyway. That was a highlight for her.
11. Loved laundry by each section's pool. I rarely do laundry but I helped with the softball teams laundry and it was nice to have a lounger to relax while waiting.
12. The wood doors closing off at the bathroom are so much better than the curtain. The fan in the bathroom was awesome too! We had plenty of storage for the 4 of us.

What we didn't like:
1. Bell Services. They were by far the worst of any hotel we have stayed in at Disney. No one even came up at Magical Express drop-off. Both Art and Pop had someone with an iPad greet the bus and multiple bell staff with carts come over. There was no one even there when we arrived at CBR. Everyone kinda just took their bags (if they had any), looked around and went into Customs house. Since I knew our room number, I went to the outside bell desk and there were 3 people inside talking. She asked what room number, told me it was a quick 3 minute walk and said go the the lake, pointing thru the parking lot and make a left. Seemed simple until I walked out of the parking lot and ended up not on a side walk. We started making our way down the road to a crosswalk. A white van came over and stopped and asked if I needed help. He said please get in and I will take you. I didn't even know it was bell services. LOL. He seemed very annoyed they told me it was a 3 minute walk, especially with all our luggage. It clearly wasn't. He dropped us and our luggage off at the circle, tipped and thanked him and into the room we went. Another morning my daughter was changing into our room, I asked bell services to bring her and the 2 bags to our room either walking with a cart or a van. She was in Barbados 11 and had a softball bag equipment and a huge duffle bag. Nothing that rolled. Anyway, after waiting 45min someone came, told her they couldn't take her, took the bags, gave her a slip, and said he would bring them to the room. She didn't argue, walked over herself - no big deal. However the bags never came. We waited another 30min and called. They said we had to be in the room. I told them we have been in the room waiting for 90 minutes but now wanted to leave. Went to the parks in the AM, came back at 1pm Called again. The others went to the pool and I waited in the room another hour before calling again. They finally came 80 minutes after the first call. The morning we left, they told us if we wanted to do luggage check-in at the resort, we needed to ask for a bellman at least 1 hour before our magical express bus came which was 7:10am for our 10:30am flight. We said forget it as we wanted to sleep a little more and knew there was nothing to do at the Customs House and we were going to be at the airport for hours anyway. So we chose a 6:45am pick-up and our bellman said we could still do luggage check-in as it only takes 5 minutes. We didn't ask, he mentioned it and it did take 5 minutes. So happy we didn't choose a 6:10am pick-up. But were annoyed at the miscommunications. The resort is just so big. I don't understand having the internal bus service if you can't bring luggage which is really the only reason we would use it. They have buses for parks, an internal bus that was always empty, and white vans for bell services.
2. When we arrived to our room it had an extremely chemical type of smell to it. Very overpowering. I also noticed there was Off spray in the bathroom. At the time, I didn't realize each room received one so I guess I thought there was some type of bug outbreak they worked on in our room. I called to the front desk and was told they would have someone contact me. We ended up going to the pool about 20 minutes later. When we came back, there was a message to call front desk for the room change I requested. I called and said I didn't want to move, I just wanted someone to let me know what the smell was and if it was okay to stay here. If I could air it out etc... They scheduled some air purifier to our room the next morning. I am not sure if they came while we were gone but it honestly didn't help so we just got used to it. Both my husband and daughter mentioned it when they first came too. My daughter said her room didn't have the smell. She did mention our TV was much larger than hers at Barbados. I was surprised by that. Anyway, I still don't know what it was. It wasn't mildew, it was chemical. I feel like maybe they shampooed the rugs or something.
3. The main pool. While it is very nice, it seemed very small and tight for the size of the hotel. I feel like CSR and POR were not as small or at least so crowded. I think I read Trinidad South pool was closed? Maybe that is why? It was packed to the gills every day. It reminded me of POP's flower pool. The pool also closed twice for kids pooping in it (once was 30min after we arrived the first day which was a bummer) and one day the kid's pool was closed and needed to be drained because of bird poop. At least that is what we were told. It was closed for at least 3-4 hours which didn't affect us because my youngest is 7 but it just added more little kids to the main pool and a few young families expressed their annoyance of how long it was closed with the poor lifeguards. The building pools on the other hand are empty except the two times the main pool was closed. So I would prefer there but my daughter didn't have anyone to play with, no music, no games etc... So we always stayed at the main pool. It wasn't terrible and I like the look of the pool compared to POR, but it just felt tight. It is also impossible to stay in a chair and watch your kid there. The two slides also land in water above 4' so many older kids wore life jackets. They also played the kids pool games in 4'2" water. My 7yr old can swim but it is hard to play with a beach ball while treading water constantly. I also didn't feel comfortable her going down the little kids slide in 4'7" water as it was hard to go against the current to get to a wall. So I am out there on my tippy toes (I am 5'3") making sure she is okay. The only water level shallow enough is the zero entry area and the narrow area by the canons. So that wasn't well thought out in regards to the pool games. I am sure younger kids who are in a life vests are fine and older kids that are close to 5' are okay. But it was tough for kids ages 6-9 for sure. We never had that issue at any other Disney pool.
4. Old Port Royal food court area was extremely tight. I didn't like the layout of the hallway feeling. Get a few strollers, big families, or sports teams and there is no way around. The lines to pay would go to the ordering areas and block the walkway. Most food courts were curved so you could see multiple menus at once and this one wasn't like that. Also, Shutters felt like an extension of the food court. People walking by with mugs, bathing suits, etc... We chose never to eat there. The food was really good and the seating was more than enough. I look forward to them redoing this section though and making it more efficient for the size. I like the look/feeling when it was not crowded but it was rarely not crowded. They had to push people out of there at 11pm.
5. Bus service. Oh we really wanted to like it. And yes, one late bus tends to make more of an issue than the 4 quick ones you had. I tried to remain optimistic. But morning busses were so erratic. We are rope droppers and they really stressed us out. LOL. We would arrive at the M bus stop between 60-75min before park opening. Definitely 75-80min for MK. One morning we waited 40 minutes for an Epcot bus (and saw 2-3 of other busses) and then hit traffic heading to Epcot because of road construction. Then they "kindly" dropped our jam packed bus off at THE furthest bus stop location. Of course it is the day they open earlier than 9am and Test Track was already packed as we were heading in the turnstiles at 9am. It shouldn't take 75min to get to a park that is a 10min drive away. The same thing happened at Hollywood Studios. We waited a little over 30min for a bus. For some reason it was the closer parks that were worse. Then these busses would take so long filling at each bus stop and be so packed that we couldn't even pick up half the people at Trinidad South. They were not happy. The timing of busses were never right too. I think because there are so many stops at CBR and they have to leave when they are packed, it was confusing where/when the busses should go. Add to the fact that CBR bus stops are the furthest stop at MK, DS, and Epcot and not the furthest in AK but the furthest back in the main section. The only close stop was HS which is small to begin with. It was tough. Every bus home was also packed. We waited for 3 busses after the Star Wars show at DH one night. After a 30min wait at MK one night, we watched a mom have a full-on breakdown with a bus driver because he parked in the wrong spot and then let the back of the line on the bus first. My daughter started crying because of the fighting. It was just nuts. We have never had bus issues like that before except for Pop and Pop was mainly getting home, never an issue getting there. We used Lyft/Uber a lot to get to Sports and restaurants and it was well worth it. We ended up using them at night to get home. If I didn't spend the money on Express bus passes (which were awesome by the way!!) I would have preferred a car there for sure.

But overall we had a great stay and I would recommend this location for young kids in strollers and those that drive to Disney. I can not imagine walking a lot in the middle of the summer to Old Port Royale though and Trinidad South is super far. I totally get why they put the pirate rooms there. I think it would be nice to have a separate area for drinks at their pool. A few people would say they had no idea how big the resort really is. I really liked the preferred room but not sure I would pay it without a discount. We liked the look/feel much more than CSR but preferred the buses and pool area of CSR because it wasn't so packed. We like the POR combo with POFQ and boat to DS. That is a huge plus. We look forward to CBR a few years from now when the construction is done.

 

[Gitts2008]

Regarding an e-mail sent yesterday from WDW about the construction and available food options.

My questions were: 1. Center town Buffet: Cost? Menu? 2. What are grab and go meals? 3. A la Carte: types of meals? My main purpose for calling was to verify that there would be food items that I eat and can eat, along with items that my husband wants to eat. I have a possible lethal shellfish allergy and DH avoids dairy due to a minor reaction. But, he can eat foods with dairy, just not a glass of milk or pizza. I am a planner. I know before each trip where I am eating and what I am ordering. I never really need to speak with the chef, because I know to avoid items BUT just want the reassurance that in a place that serves shellfish my item will not come into contact with shellfish.

I called 407-939-1822 the number provided in the e-mail to call if I had any questions or needed assistance. The CM was very pleasant, but for each of my questions she said "dining will know". It appears that the number is only for the actual reservation and not for the questions about the resort. I was transferred to Dinning.

Oddly enough dining was really not able to help me with any of my questions. She referred me to another person at the resort.

This person was able to help me, but as much as I would have liked. She kindly listed Shrimp, king crab, crab cakes, chicken and I think a fish for dinner. This is when I explained that my main concern is cross contamination from the buffets due to shellfish allergy. She took the time to list all of the foods available. It appears that the prices will vary from around $10 - $ 34. I was frustrated by this point. Transferred twice. Everyone was nice, but I do not have the tangible and view-able menu. I was reassured that plenty of food options will be available. She did say that "a pool bar" will serve beverages when I asked about the location of the soda machines....I am a bit confused on this since the pool bar will be closed. Again, I was frustrated and actually I had been on the phone for so long, I needed to use the bathroom. So, for those that have questions like mine...Allergies should be put on Resort reservation. People will be available to assist with allergy concerns. And, it appears that CBR has a good plan in place to meet the needs of the guests. I look forward to hearing from people about their experiences once everything gets underway. Hope that this helps someone.

 

[Jillinwonderland]

I have a question and I apologize if this has been answered before.

With the construction starting in May, where will the refillable mug station(s) be? Will they have one in each village that will offer grab and go options?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Suzanne74]

I have a question and I apologize if this has been answered before.

With the construction starting in May, where will the refillable mug station(s) be? Will they have one in each village that will offer grab and go options?

Thanks in advance!

I doubt they will have them at each village since they don't even have that now but they should have them in the tent area. They haven't really said yet.

 

[Rivergirl2005]

I want to know where will the food be? I know they stated where Centerville maybe? However I do not know where on the property it is...