Poly VS Caribbean Beach

[pumpkinjl]

I am trying to talk myself into staying at the CB for our upcoming vacation, Thanksgiving 2016. We are 2 adults and two girls ages 5 and 9. 6 days w park hopper. Probably 2 MK; 2 Epcot; 1 HS; 1 AK.

We have stayed at the Poly before and we loved it! It's a beautiful resort. However, we spend so very little time at the resort that I am trying to justify the extra expense. We are not interested in the pool. I know that the obvious perk is the monorail. We love the monorail, but it is not always convenient. We have had it go down, weather delays, etc.

I understand that the CB was recently renovated. Any comments on the bus at CB? Does it share buses or do the buses fill up fast?

What are your pros and cons for each?? Thanks!

 

[connie1042]

We love CBR.. A lot of people say it is to big, but if yoou book a preferred room, it is still a lot cheaper than the poly. Never had a problem with the bus. Covered bus stop and chairs to sit on while you wait. There are times you can walk and not see anyone. Great pool and food court. Never stayed at Poly.

 

[dansdad]

CBR is our favorite Moderate and 2nd favorite resort in all of WDW, right behind BWI. We have always had great bus service. Every village has it's own bus stop and leisure pool so you are never far from one. As @connie1042 stated, there are times at CBR where we feel like we're the only people in our building. And we have been going during Free Dining when the resort is at capacity. It never feels like it. It is centrally located so quick trips with no stops at any other resorts. I think you'd find CBR to meet your needs nicely.

 

[Sue M]

With 4 to a room, and 2 days at MK & 2 at EP, I'd stay at Poly. The monorail or boat to MK and walk to TTC for Epcot monorail can't be beat. Plus larger rooms, balcony, seeing the castle from resort, just can't be beat.

 

[AllieBoo]

We have stayed At both and did not like CBR at all. We thought the buses were terrible and we ended up driving our car to the parks several times because we got tired of waiting. If you can afford the Poly, I would stay there.

 

[maxiesmom]

I wouldn't go from the Poly to CBR. No way. It is my least favorite out of all the moderates. I didn't like the buses and I hated the size of the resort. Are there any other resorts on your radar? The Contemporary is nice. It is a smidge cheaper than the Poly and you can walk to the Magic Kingdom. Or even CSR. It is centrally located, and many people refer to it as Deluxe Lite, as it has a fitness center and a great pool area. Plus it has doors separating the sink area from the sleeping area, which is nice.

 

[raddisneyfan]

i'm sure the price will be a big difference between the 2. That said though, if you are going Thanksgiving week--Thur, Fri, Sat and Sun will be crazy busy. I would stay at the Poly if I were going at such a busy time. I'd rather wait for the Monorail then waiting for bus after bus. If you were going at a less busy time, I'd say, if concerned about $$$, go for CBR.

 

[wdw4rfam]

We just stayed at CBR for 10 days this past thanksgiving. We loved it, it was our favorite resort yet. The buses were awesome- I don't know if they added them because of the crowds, but we never waited more than 10 minutes. The only downside was the amount of stops, but it wasn't as bad as we thought. The atmosphere, poll, foodcourt, etc were great. We are trying the POLY this year, so I can't compare the two yet. But we loved CBR!!

 

[dpswift]

We stayed at CBR the week before Thanksgiving this past year during Free dining. The buses were horrible. We had better bus luck at POFQ during NYE weekend. One morning we waited over an hour for a MK bus to come to our bus stop at CBR. When one did finally arrive it was nearly full. I spent the week missing POP. The manager at CBR was great however. When he realized how unhappy I was would have moved us to a different building but we only had 1 day left so we stayed where we were.

If you are used to Poly it would be a big step down for you.

 

[nilla]

Sounds like the two big things for you are price and transportation.

Since CBR blows Poly away in price and Poly blows CBR away in transportation (due to the monorail - busing's not bad at CBR), it sounds like you can base your decision on which of those two things is most important.

 

[MrInfinity]

I agree w those who said you can't really go from the Poly to CB and compare them in terms of experience. You'll lose the Polynesian feel, the nice pools (which you said don't matter), the walk to the TTC, monorail, boat to the MK, bus with lower ridership to the other parks, the Water Pageant, fireworks, nicer restaurants that are all right there w/in a 5-min walk, and Trader Sam's bar.

On the plus side, the CB does have a sand beach, and nice theming...

But to me this is a cost issue. First decide on your budget -- if you are doing Deluxe or Moderate. Then, pick your resort. But CB vs Poly would not be an amenities tradeoff for me, this is a budget decision first and foremost. CB vs POR or Poly vs Contemporary would be an amenities decision.

 

[DisBuckMan]

OK....here's what we're talking about here. The OP stated they don't spend a lot of time at the resort, and they're not interested in the pool. So, really we're talking about transportation and cost here.

The monorail is unbeatable for both MK and Epcot from Poly. It's fairly dependable, but does go down from time to time...which can lead to Poly guests being on buses to both parks. When that happens, as well as for transportation to AK and HS, you're sharing buses with WL, GF, and CR/BLT.

In several stays at CBR, I believe the bus situation there is greatly over-exaggerated. We've never had much problem catching a bus to any park or DS. Our last stay there, about 3 years ago, was during a very busy spring break week...and we still had no problems with bus service. Since the refurb, it now has doors separating the sink area from the rest of the room, as well as two queen beds and a murphy bed. If I remember correctly, the rooms at CBR are the largest amongst the moderates, as well.

So, for your situation in which you're not really taking advantage of resort amenities anyway, I'd save the money and stay at CBR.

 

[MonaMN]

I would also add that as long as you go in knowing that you will at times be doing a longer bus ride due to the multiple stops at CBR, then it is fine. Just set your expectations accordingly - and remember how many Dole Whips you can buy with the $$ you are saving.

And for what it's worth, we loved the pool at CBR. DD must have gone down the two water slides about 20 times per pool visit!

 

[dizzyinwdw]

We did a quick trip to CBR on Memorial Day weekend last year (4 days/3 nights). Wasn't planning much resort time (half afternoon at the pool) and mostly parks (MK/DHS/Epcot). We had a renovated room for 5 people (we were 3 adults and 2 children) and it was very nice. 2 queen beds and murphy bed--room was large enough for us. We were a standard room in Jamaica next to the bridge to OPR. It was a beautiful walk--maybe 5-7 minutes to Old Port Royale. We loved the island and the play area, hammocks, beachy feel, and the food court was good for breakfast. The kids loved the pool area and the pool party our first day. I did not like that the check in was away from the rest of the resort though. We were close to a bus stop and were first to be picked up and dropped off.We never waited more than 10 minutes. I think the $$ we paid for those 3 nights would have probably been the price of 1 to 1.5 nights at Poly. Did we miss Poly? Of course, and we did a later trip in Nov with Poly/AOA split stay. That trip we enjoyed the pool and the Poly amenities and did 3 MK days. But for a park intensive trip CBR was terrific for price and amenties vs Poly. We have stayed CBR before in a pirate room--those I would not do again. But SV was great!

 

[GreggW]

We stayed at CBR Easter 2016 in a preferred room. For us the bus situation was a bit of a pain. Waiting for a bus in the morning was only an issue if we were trying to make an early breakfast reservation or get to the park at open. It seemed the busses did not run as frequent so you have to allow a solid hour door to door for any park if you want to be sure to make your reservation in time. If you are having dinner at any of the deluxe resorts you easily have to allow 90 minutes total transportation. The other issue was leaving the park, the least wait time i would say was 10 minutes but we waited 20 plus on a couple occasions. Aside from waiting for the bus we typically did not have a seat. when we arrived back at the resort jamaica was always the first stop and we had to wait 5 or 6 stops before we got off the bus. For us it got to a point where we started paying for a taxi rather than deal with buses. for example a taxi to Poly for dinner cost us 25 with tip and took us 20 minutes door to door where the bus easily about 60-90 minutes.

If you simply go to the park in the morning and leave late in the evening than CBR is feasible but if you are using buses more than 1 round trip per day i would no doubt go for poly.

 

[Bree]

I enjoyed our stays at both resorts last year. They both have their pros and cons. What I didn't like about the Poly was the amount of traffic from non-resort guests. It was busy all. day. long. The GCH was always crowded. The monorail was always crowded. The beach was always crowded. CBR just has a calmer feel to it. If you need to get to the main building at either resort you've got to walk outside whether it is sunny or pouring rain. CBR has an internal shuttle and a bus stop is close by in every village. The food court has a better set up at CBR. It's bigger and has a heck of a lot more seating. We ended up taking our food to our room 99% of the time at the Poly because there was nowhere to sit. I'm seeing a lot of complaints about CBR buses, but we waited nearly an hour for a HS bus on two separate days at Poly and ended up taking a cab back to Poly once. I have had cruddy bus service at every resort from value to deluxe. It's just luck of the draw. We usually drive to the parks now (except MK). The biggest con at CBR is ending up in a room that is far from Old Port Royale. My inlaws and I ended up in Jamaica 41 about as far removed as you could possibly get. If you look at the CBR resort map our room was located underneath the 41 in the blue circle.

I have a 9 night stay coming up in June at CBR before we move over to the Beach Club and I am so looking forward to it. I love laying in the hammocks while my DD builds sand castles. Don't worry...if you don't have a pail and shovel they serve kids meals in them at the food court!

 

[mickeynut1]

I am trying to talk myself into staying at the CB for our upcoming vacation, Thanksgiving 2016. We are 2 adults and two girls ages 5 and 9. 6 days w park hopper. Probably 2 MK; 2 Epcot; 1 HS; 1 AK.

We have stayed at the Poly before and we loved it! It's a beautiful resort. However, we spend so very little time at the resort that I am trying to justify the extra expense. We are not interested in the pool. I know that the obvious perk is the monorail. We love the monorail, but it is not always convenient. We have had it go down, weather delays, etc.

I understand that the CB was recently renovated. Any comments on the bus at CB? Does it share buses or do the buses fill up fast?

What are your pros and cons for each?? Thanks!

We've stayed at both and while the Poly is our favorite out of all the resorts we've stayed at, we also loved CBR. If you are looking to save some money, I think CBR is a great choice. With that said, I agree with Sue M that you can't beat the Poly for a much larger room, the monorail to MK, walk to TTC for the Epcot monorail, and seeing the castle from the resort grounds. My first choice would be the Poly since that's our favorite resort, but CBR (IMO) is a great alternative for a moderate. Good luck with your decision, but I'm sure you'll have a great time no matter which resort you choose .

 

[loves to dive]

Like others I've stayed at both and am usually a deluxe person but I'd have no problem staying at CBR again. We were there in March for a split stay with Swan and were actually kind of sad to leave. We wished we had had more time to enjoy the resort. We were in Jamaica, which is not a preferred and as others have said the walk to the main building and pool wasn't more than 5 minutes and was so peaceful. I got up every morning and walked the entire resort and it took less than 20 min. There are conflicting reports about the buses, some say they now send two buses, one that serves one side and one the other. While we were there (again early March this year) that did not happen, we rode the bus early afternoon around 3, morning around 9, late around 9:30 and mid evening around 6:30. All times the bus went to all the stops. I timed it and it took exactly 10 min. to hit all the stops, just so happened that the first time we rode it (the afternoon) it stopped at Jamaica stop first, the next morning we at the the food court and hopped on it then and wouldn't you know it, that was the first stop. Coming back from both MK and Epcot Jamaica was the first stop to let off on. They have the little TVs that tell you when the bus is coming for each park, I'm not sure just how helpful that is since we did watch it change 3 times the morning we rode but each time it really only changed about a minute or two. If you are already at the stop, knowing when the bus is coming doesn't seem to be an advantage to me but I might just not be getting it. Yes, we did have to stand just about every time but I also had to stand on the bus coming back from MK to Swan one night as well. As far at the monorail, the only advantage to that is MK, it takes just as long as a bus to Epcot so you really aren't gaining a whole lot of advantage there, plus they don't provide buses to Epcot so you are stuck using it even if you don't want to. Last few trips, the few times I've taken the monorail I've had to stand on it as well and it has had to stop for a few minutes on the way to Epcot.

 

[JoWilly]

I am trying to talk myself into staying at the CB for our upcoming vacation, Thanksgiving 2016. We are 2 adults and two girls ages 5 and 9. 6 days w park hopper. Probably 2 MK; 2 Epcot; 1 HS; 1 AK.

We have stayed at the Poly before and we loved it! It's a beautiful resort. However, we spend so very little time at the resort that I am trying to justify the extra expense. We are not interested in the pool. I know that the obvious perk is the monorail. We love the monorail, but it is not always convenient. We have had it go down, weather delays, etc.

I understand that the CB was recently renovated. Any comments on the bus at CB? Does it share buses or do the buses fill up fast?

What are your pros and cons for each?? Thanks!

Just for the transportation we will never stay at CBR again. 30 plus minutes waiting for a bus was the norm when we were there.

 

[Shellyb84]

We actually did a split stay at Poly (2 nights)/CBR (3 nights) last month. We wanted to save some money since we are taking a much longer trip in July staying at BC. We did not like CBR at all. The bus stops were crazy so we ended up driving everywhere while there. The food court was also crazy crowded (DH waited in line for at least 20 min to get a bagel for me one morning), as was the pool. To me, the buildings are laid out in a confusing way, I normally have a very good sense of direction but I kept getting lost wandering around trying to get to the parking lot or beach area! I wouldn't stay there again. If I had to stay moderate again, I would try out POFQ.

That being said, we are not rope drop to close people and spend several hours in the afternoon and evenings enjoying the resort and pool.

Have you considered YC or BC? They are less expensive than the Poly and you can walk to Epcot and HS, that would be convenient since you mentioned you would be at those 2 parks for 3 days of your trip. The buses there are fine too.