Is CBR worth a try???

[Savanna]

We stayed at CBR in June and we had a fantastic stay! The resort is big but the walk to OPR was not bad at all and my 3 kids never complained once. Another plus is that the walk is very scenic with beautiful surroundings. It was actually refreshing! We were in Jamaica and the walk was only around 5 minutes. The pool was great and the kids really enjoyed our resort days. We never had much of a wait to get on a bus. The busses were crowded but I expected that. We are at Disney! The refurbishments that have taken place are nice. The room décor matched the Caribbean theme and the beds were comfortable. We have booked CBR again for next June as well. We originally booked the Poly for our next trip but I could not justify spending all that extra money on a room. With switching to CBR we were able to extend our vacation from 7 to 10 nights and we still saved a lot of money!

 

[nkereina]

I would stay wherever you can afford to stay without going into debt for it, assuming postponing the trip until you can afford CR is not an option. If you can swing CBR, I think it's a great option. If it's Pop, another viable option. You know going in that you won't be staying at the Bates Motel since it's a Disney owned resort, and at worst you may not like the theme or have to ride on the bus a little longer. Its certainly worth it to not have to stress about money!

 

[hammie59]

Staying at CR is on my bucket list, but not if I have to go into debt, which is why it's still there .
Having never been to CBR, I can't really comment other than I've never had a desire to stay there. Maybe because of the size, I don't know. I'm not against trying it, but so far other options have worked out. If you are still considering BWI, I have to tell you that we had the best stay there. The ability to just walk to EPCOT and DHS was priceless. (The boat was nice too, but hardly used it). Even though we had a car, we took the bus to MK 2 days in a row (mid day breaks back at the hotel included) and also to DTD. Our bus experience was so good it was scary. Maybe not the norm, who knows. The grounds, the pool, the Boardwalk with the performers, the food, EVERYTHING were just great. My kids still talk about how much they loved it there.

Someone else mentioned doing a split stay at CR and CBR, which is an excellent idea if you can work it out. That way your kids get their monorail and you save some money. Hope it all falls into place for you!

 

[GillianP1301]

I have stayed value, mod and deluxe and I can say that my son was just as excited to be in a standard room at POP as he was in a bunk bed at Wilderness Lodge, so for the OP, I wouldn't assume that your kids excitement for CR wouldn't still exist in a non deluxe room, children just generally aren't that classist.

We did stay at CBR and to be honest I didn't find a huge difference between it and POP (in room size/quality). Certainly it had a nicer pool and grounds, but we didn't really didn't take advantage of that enough for it to make a difference. That was also pre-refurb at CBR and in a pirate room (so double beds). In a newer room with queen beds, then I think CBR is a great choice. You can book preferred and request close to main building to help cut down on the concern of it's size.

The other option I'll throw out there is a suite at AoA, we loved our Nemo suite and I would stay there again in a heartbeat. Such a fun resort and the room was great.

 

[englishteacha]

I'm with the folks who say to rent a car and stay at a moderate. Then you have your own transportation and can go wherever you want to go, whenever.

 

[gaudioli]

I'm with the folks who say to rent a car and stay at a moderate. Then you have your own transportation and can go wherever you want to go, whenever.

It comes in handy too for early morning reservations...you don't have to allow the extra time of walking to the bus making stops etc. We've taken the car to the park in the am, bused back in the early afternoon and then bused back for our night time fun...it was fantastic, after the fireworks and the masses are leaving to the monorail and bus lines, we were back in our hotel in no time.

 

[kwbrad]

We stayed at CBR in June and we had a fantastic stay! The resort is big but the walk to OPR was not bad at all and my 3 kids never complained once. Another plus is that the walk is very scenic with beautiful surroundings. It was actually refreshing! We were in Jamaica and the walk was only around 5 minutes. The pool was great and the kids really enjoyed our resort days. We never had much of a wait to get on a bus. The busses were crowded but I expected that. We are at Disney! The refurbishments that have taken place are nice. The room décor matched the Caribbean theme and the beds were comfortable. We have booked CBR again for next June as well. We originally booked the Poly for our next trip but I could not justify spending all that extra money on a room. With switching to CBR we were able to extend our vacation from 7 to 10 nights and we still saved a lot of money!

If you do not mind sharing, what building in Jamaica were you in?

 

[Savanna]

We were in Jamaica 45 in a standard view room.

 

[Dina]

I LOVE CBR! The one thing I miss when we bought DVc is we don't stay there anymore I've stayed there 5 times....my favorite moderate. Love the theming, and the rooms are pretty spacious. I did usually pay for preferred location though...it is big. when we didnt pay for preferred, I requested Aruba or Jamaica

 

[dansdad]

We were in Jamaica 45 in a standard view room.

That is our favorite location!

 

[kwbrad]

We were in Jamaica 45 in a standard view room.

Perfect! That's exactly where I planned to request (we are in standard room as well). Bridge should be open when we go. Thanks!

 

[jolene63]

I wasn't trying to sound rude...I changed the title. I am mostly concerned about the transportation. We love pop because it has one bus stop. Boardwalk is also available and would save us some (not as much as CBR) but at least we could walk to Epcot. I think the busses would drive us crazy, but still is worth looking at because of the savings.

We just got back from CBR. This was our first stay there and probably our last. I know a lot of people love it, but it wasn't for us. We loved our room, but the bus situation drove us crazy. We ended up driving most of our trip. We just couldn't stand all the bus stops in the resort. The first day it took 11 minutes to circle around the resort after boarding. This wasn't horrible. The second day, it took 23 minutes to circle around the resort after waiting a very long time for the bus to even show up. That was a very frustrating night.

 

[maxiesmom]

We just got back from CBR. This was our first stay there and probably our last. I know a lot of people love it, but it wasn't for us. We loved our room, but the bus situation drove us crazy. We ended up driving most of our trip. We just couldn't stand all the bus stops in the resort. The first day it took 11 minutes to circle around the resort after boarding. This wasn't horrible. The second day, it took 23 minutes to circle around the resort after waiting a very long time for the bus to even show up. That was a very frustrating night.

That was pretty much my experience too. I was really hoping to like CBR as I often travel with my sis and her family of 5. Having another moderate where they could have all stayed in one room (besides POR) would have been nice. But the number of bus stops and the time it takes to make all of them was a big turn off.

 

[perchy]

I'm not sure I'll ever experience a deluxe resort for more than one night. Everything Disney is expensive, and I'd rather have the money for the parks than the bed and shower.

Definitely don't go into debt for a vacation.

 

[eddnandee]

I'm not a moderate lover - however - we will be there in 60 days and had also planned for CR. My DH's job was eliminated recently (it's a good thing) so we told our girls (16, 13) we can still go, but we'd like to watch our costs so how would they feel about not staying at CR this time. They took one look at the pool at CSR (where we chose) and didn't even care. They just want to be at WDW!

Our Deluxe choices in the past were mainly because DH and I are spoiled. I really don't think the kids care all that much - because they are kids! And if they did care, they could stay home.

It may teach the kids a good lesson about budgeting. Disney is a huge part of our lives, but I'd never go into debt for it. When DH starts working again, we'll see if we can do CR. Or maybe we try POR Riverside. After all, it's our goal to stay at as many resorts as we can.