Just back from CBR.

[epd0407]

Just got back from CBR and have made these general observations. Flew SWA out of Boston and into Orlando.

1, I will never fly SWA again, I have almost 300 dollars in credits that I will use but the policies of this airline are just horrendous.
2.CBR. Customer Service at this resort is non existent. I was lied to by staff several times.
3.CBR is a nice looking resort however its WAY too big to be comfortable. Depending where your staying on the resort you have a LONG walk to get to the food court. Also there are too many bus stops in the resort that makes a long day at the parks even longer.
4.CBR food court is nice looking but in my opinion is way too cluttered. Its a bit confusing and its put together just too busy. Im a fan of the Pop where its down to the point, no frills.
5.CBR Gift shop was nice
6.CBR house keeping is excellent. Especially the woman who cleaned my room.
7.CBR main pool is awesome.

Disney Transport

The bus service receives an F. I have learned through my experience not to take the bus service to parks and this trip confirmed it, even made me go one step further. I normally only took it to the MK. No more, ill drive to the Contemporary

1.Saturday night we were only about 30 people back and it took 45 mins just to get on a bus.
2.One couple in our group left the park right after wishes (same time as me) and they didn't get back to the resort till 1am. I personally observed the line for CBR all the way back to the Disney Transportation kiosk in the square.
3.Out of 6 Bus trips to and from the MK I found only one nice driver. Granted a few of the times the bus was packed. Others we were the only ones on the bus. Only one said hi.
4.Whats up with the back doors of the bus? You need to ask to have the back door open? Why?
5.Do Disney buses take the long way to the resorts? Why does a trip to or from the MK take damn near a twenty minutes?

Disney CM's

1.Many were not friendly and appeared to be in bad moods. One snapped at my mother in law when she was holding my crying daughter during the spectromagic parade because she was in the walkway. My mother in law tried explaining she would only be there for a few seconds to calm my daughter. I understand people cant stand outside of the roped off area but she could have been a bit more understanding by at least suggesting a place to go.
2.In the years Disney has been in existence have they learned anything about crowd control? It didn't appear as such. I watched as thousands of people tried to enter the MK park and thousands tried to leave. Where these two converged was just a plain mess. The spectacle I saw here was troubling as if there was an emergency in the park of some sort and a mass evacuation needed to happen, im afraid a lot of people will get killed.
3.I watched CM's in Epcot make fun of guests.

Restaurants
1.Thursday Night – Starlight Cafe – Great Meal
2. Friday Morning – Akershus , Great breakfast, great food and a great experience. Our waiter was not really on the friendly side but all the others were. Ill do this again
3.Friday Night – Germany – As always great meal and the CM's were awesome.
4.Saturday afternoon – Plutos (MK) Ok Food, nothing great about this place. It was very loud
5.Saturday Night – Colonial Harbor House – Good food, their Chowder was EXCELLENT especially being in Fla.
6.Sunday Morning Boma (AKL) – This seems to be a little known gem. Buffet and great food. The Jungle juice is great. We had a problem with our waiter disappearing for long periods of time.
7.Sunday Night Starlight Cafe (MVMCP). As always a great meal, there was a dance party going on which just made the experience even better.
8.Monday Night – Garden Grill. - Awesome Awesome Awesome. Waiter sucked but anytime you can eat with Chip, Dale, Pluto and Mickey is a good day.

Parks

Decorations seemed down this year. Epcot seems very baron without the LOW. I heard they were replaced by carolers but I never saw them and i was in Epcot two days. MK had no tree, no garland across Main St. It just didnt feel as Christmasy as years past.

Security

I noticed that security was much older than I remember. There were a lot of retirees working security which is a bit concerning to me. Being in LE I know the value of someone older however in this role I think it should be a younger mans game. I saw very few security guards that made me feel comfortable. I would have liked to see more Police but I guess this is working for now.

After many bad experiences on this trip I chose not to book a bounce back. Hopefully my mind forgets about the bad and ill look forward to going again.

 

[Khill]

Maybe you will run into a shower of Pixie Dust, that will wipe out the bad things that happened and keep only the good, so you can contiue your Disney Magic.

 

[dbgripp]

We are just back from CBR too! Dec. 2nd- 7th. We loved our pirate room, bldg. 39, so it was far from the food court, walked it once about 15 minutes, the rainy days we took the internal shuttle. I have to agree the busing was not what we were use to after staying at POP a few years back. We didn't like having all the multiple stops at each village. AND Sat. night after Wishes was CRAZY in the park and then back at our bus stop, I couldn't believe the line, met very nice people while waiting though. We think we will go back to POP because of busing.

 

[rileyroosmom]

I was there Thanksgiving week. I agree a lot with what you said, except I saw garland hanging on Main Street.

 

[Wis2InTink]

We just returned from CBR also (Nov. 30 - Dec. 7). The food court seemed much more crowded in the mornings than previous years past. We found room in the adjoining dining rooms. I believe the garland on Main Street was missing due to the taping of the Christmas parade and may be up later. Sorry that it wasn't your best experience. We still enjoyed the holiday decorations that were there, music and warmer weather.