We just arrived home about 12:30 this morning from a great week at Disney! It was just my DH and I and we stayed at CBR, Jamaica room #4152. This was the first time for us at CBR and because we knew how large it was, we wanted to try it without our kids first in the event that it might be too large.
We arrived using Magical Express-wonderful service! We may have been lucky, but it was so easy and painless. We arrived at the airport in Orlando at 5:55 pm, went to the Disney Welcome Center on the first floor of the main building, waited a few minutes in line to check in and we were on our bus, headed to the CBR by 6:20. We checked in at the hotel, threw our carry on baggage in the room and we were at MGM by 7:15. You just can't beat that! When we arrived home that night after the EMH at MGM, our luggage was in our room-not a problem at all!!
Since this is the resort board, I will try to keep this about CBR.
Our impressions......
First, what we determined to be negatives:
CBR is VERY large! We love to walk, but after a long day, I can see where that would be a drawback. We were in a convenient area-Jamaica, but it was still a long walk from our room to Old Port Royale for a drink. Old Port Royale was very quaint inside but I have to say it definitely lacks a good food court. We ate there twice-once around lunch and once around dinner. We both felt our food was subpar and we're really not picky people-we like to mix up counter service with sit down restaurants, but after those two experiences, we left the resort for food. That was pretty disappointing because we've been at both POFQ and POR and felt that their food courts were much better. We were really shocked that there was no ice cream section in the food court like at POR and POFQ. You could get the typical Mickey bars and such from a little freezer in the Grab and Go section, but we were both really craving a cone with hard serve ice cream one night!
. On to bus transportation....yikes! 
I have never seen busses so crowded before! If we didn't have to stop at every island it would have been more bearable, but because we didn't rent a car, we were relegated to using the bus. It took about 45 min to an hour to get to MK one morning. We usually had to wait 15-20 minutes or more for a bus for our destination, but sometimes we got lucky and waited less than 10 minutes. Of all the times we were on the bus, we only had a seat twice, but that was 50% our own doing too because we always give up our seats to a woman (in my DH's case), anyone who needed special assistance or anyone with a stroller or a child in tow (we have a 2 yr old and know how hard it is to stand on a bus with a dead weight child!)
Now for the positives:
What a beautiful resort! The landscaping and the flowers are just incredible! The theming is top notch. Mousekeeping was great, also. We utilized the quiet pool in Jamaica many times because the major theme pool was always so crowded. The quiet pool maybe had a maximum of 20 people in it at it's peak time. The Banana Cabana pool bar was a lot of fun and we enjoyed just hanging out on the patio and drinking the signature Banana Cabana drinks! Walking around the islands at night was a great, romantic experience. You have to love the white sand beaches, the hammocks and the moonlight glistening over the lake at night. We also ate at Shutters and had a very nice meal-great food!
Our overall impression-CBR is a beautiful Disney resort! If you want a relaxing vacation resort and don't want to hit the parks too hard on your vacation, this is a perfect place to be-aside from dealing with the unimpressive food court. We felt compelled to relax-you couldn't help it, just by being there! If you plan to go to the parks all day or come back from the parks midday and plan to return later, it would be a hassle if you didn't have your own transportation. We were glad to have the opportunity to try out CBR and would have regretted it if we hadn't!
This is where we spent our week-if you have any questions, please feel free to ask (here, if they're resort related) or PM me.
5/15 Arrive using DME; MGM extra magic hours 9-12 pm
5/16 MK; Crystal Palace-breakfast, Richard Petty Driving Experience for DH (Rookie Experience), 'Ohana-dinner
5/17 Epcot; swam at CBR; MK evening, Pecos Bill's-dinner
5/18 Animal Kingdom and MGM; Downtown Disney and midnight premiere of Star Wars 3
5/19 MK & Epcot
5/20 MGM for Star Wars Weekend; came home in the evening
Amy
We arrived using Magical Express-wonderful service! We may have been lucky, but it was so easy and painless. We arrived at the airport in Orlando at 5:55 pm, went to the Disney Welcome Center on the first floor of the main building, waited a few minutes in line to check in and we were on our bus, headed to the CBR by 6:20. We checked in at the hotel, threw our carry on baggage in the room and we were at MGM by 7:15. You just can't beat that! When we arrived home that night after the EMH at MGM, our luggage was in our room-not a problem at all!!
Since this is the resort board, I will try to keep this about CBR.
Our impressions......
First, what we determined to be negatives:
CBR is VERY large! We love to walk, but after a long day, I can see where that would be a drawback. We were in a convenient area-Jamaica, but it was still a long walk from our room to Old Port Royale for a drink. Old Port Royale was very quaint inside but I have to say it definitely lacks a good food court. We ate there twice-once around lunch and once around dinner. We both felt our food was subpar and we're really not picky people-we like to mix up counter service with sit down restaurants, but after those two experiences, we left the resort for food. That was pretty disappointing because we've been at both POFQ and POR and felt that their food courts were much better. We were really shocked that there was no ice cream section in the food court like at POR and POFQ. You could get the typical Mickey bars and such from a little freezer in the Grab and Go section, but we were both really craving a cone with hard serve ice cream one night!
. On to bus transportation....yikes! I have never seen busses so crowded before! If we didn't have to stop at every island it would have been more bearable, but because we didn't rent a car, we were relegated to using the bus. It took about 45 min to an hour to get to MK one morning. We usually had to wait 15-20 minutes or more for a bus for our destination, but sometimes we got lucky and waited less than 10 minutes. Of all the times we were on the bus, we only had a seat twice, but that was 50% our own doing too because we always give up our seats to a woman (in my DH's case), anyone who needed special assistance or anyone with a stroller or a child in tow (we have a 2 yr old and know how hard it is to stand on a bus with a dead weight child!) Now for the positives:
What a beautiful resort! The landscaping and the flowers are just incredible! The theming is top notch. Mousekeeping was great, also. We utilized the quiet pool in Jamaica many times because the major theme pool was always so crowded. The quiet pool maybe had a maximum of 20 people in it at it's peak time. The Banana Cabana pool bar was a lot of fun and we enjoyed just hanging out on the patio and drinking the signature Banana Cabana drinks! Walking around the islands at night was a great, romantic experience. You have to love the white sand beaches, the hammocks and the moonlight glistening over the lake at night. We also ate at Shutters and had a very nice meal-great food!
Our overall impression-CBR is a beautiful Disney resort! If you want a relaxing vacation resort and don't want to hit the parks too hard on your vacation, this is a perfect place to be-aside from dealing with the unimpressive food court. We felt compelled to relax-you couldn't help it, just by being there! If you plan to go to the parks all day or come back from the parks midday and plan to return later, it would be a hassle if you didn't have your own transportation. We were glad to have the opportunity to try out CBR and would have regretted it if we hadn't!
This is where we spent our week-if you have any questions, please feel free to ask (here, if they're resort related) or PM me.
5/15 Arrive using DME; MGM extra magic hours 9-12 pm
5/16 MK; Crystal Palace-breakfast, Richard Petty Driving Experience for DH (Rookie Experience), 'Ohana-dinner
5/17 Epcot; swam at CBR; MK evening, Pecos Bill's-dinner
5/18 Animal Kingdom and MGM; Downtown Disney and midnight premiere of Star Wars 3
5/19 MK & Epcot
5/20 MGM for Star Wars Weekend; came home in the evening
Amy
