POP or CBR?

[alyssa18o6]

Pop is our safety, we’ve stayed there our last 2 trips after changing from moderates that were undergoing refurbishment. We’re planning our March 2019 trip and can’t decide between CBR, or Pop. It’ll be my husband, our 11month old daughter and I. Our favorite mod is POR, which we’re staying for “special” trip in May 2020. I hate to spend the money on a “nicer” resort while my daughter is still young and won’t notice. I also HATE the one bus stop at Pop! Since CBR is the cheapest mod, and including discounts I’m throwing it on the table.

 

[anniemae]

We love CBR. It has such a nice tropical feel. The pool is amazing and the food court is good. We have been very happy at CBR.

 

[Magical2017]

It truly depends on your schedule. We have never stayed at CB but have stayed at POFQ, AKL, POP, and the Contemporary. We just booked a four night trip for next month and will stay at POP. We arrive late afternoon on a Tuesday, spend three days in the parks, and head home early Saturday morning. We had not planned to go back to DW until Star Wars Land opened, but with TS Land opening, well, you know how it is! Other than a mid-day swim, we are only using the room to sleep. We did not feel it was worth the extra money to upgrade to a moderate or deluxe.

On our last trip in 2017, we stayed a full week and built in rest days. We definitely wanted to enjoy our resort so booked AKL and took advantage of all the amenities.

Here are things to consider:

The rooms at the moderates are larger than the values, so you would have more space at CB. CB looks beautiful and has slides at their pools. I have read that the busses stop at each of the CB villages and may take awhile, but if you are driving then it is not a factor. We have never stayed at CB but would definitely try it in the future on a longer stay.

I was told some room at POP have been refurbished and have 2 queen beds instead of 2 doubles now, as well as coffeemakers in the rooms. I am not sure if/when all the rooms will be refurbished. The pools don't have slides, but POP has its own bus service and we have found it to be decent on past stays there.

Edited to add that you can also look into renting DVC points. We did so for our stay at AKL and paid the same as we would have at a moderate. David's DVC Rentals is the company we used.

 

[Lollipop's Mom]

I vote Pop. We have stayed at nearly all the resorts in Value and Mod category, and some deluxe.
Pop just had a nice refurb. Beds are queens now
CBR has a ton of construction going on.
We don't find much difference from value vs. moderate. Both have food courts, both have outdoor corridors. We never eat sit down at our resort, as we use our table service in the parks for the most part.
The rooms at mod are a bit bigger, but honestly how long are you in the room?
There are slides at the pools, but think about how much time you will spend at the pool and how many times they will go down the slide vs. $100ish savings per night.
I honestly think my daughter when young went down the slides 4-5 times total.
The grounds at the mods are nicer with more greenery, but the values have fun stuff to look at and we love exploring all the 'big' stuff.

Pop has a dedicated one bus and one stop. CBR goes all the way around the resort and can add another 10-15 mins to your bus every day, especially if they stop to pick up a scooter or 2.

I find Pop is great, newly refurbed, great pools. We love to stay at a poolside preferred room. We come back midday, have a swim right outside our room, maybe a quick nap and back out for the evening.

I can't justify another $1000+ on my trip for a waterslide and a slightly bigger room!

We have stayed at deluxe and thats a whole other ballgame of upgrade - but the funny thing is we really disliked Yacht Club for various reasons. Id love to stay in the monorail hotels for the ease of the monorail, but just can't justify the cost. I would rather put my money in savings!

 

[Haygar2]

Your post made me laugh. Because I was about to post the same thing! I was reading through before posting and I am glad I did. LOL. We are going in August of 2019. At first, it was supposed to be a mom and dad only trip. Well, things changed and we decided to take the kids with us. We will be celebrating quite a bit while we are there. Our 25th wedding anniversary, our daughter's graduation from college, and our son's 16th birthday. I have always wanted to stay at Caribbean Beach and I'm wondering if the lower prices will still be showing when the packages come out later this summer (hopefully in the next couple of weeks). Add to that we were planning on staying at the Poly so I will still get my "beach-y" feel. Buuuuut....we book two rooms so would it be smarter to stay at Pop? The difference is $230 for the week (based on this year pricing). We do spend time in our rooms or around the resort. We have stayed at POR, FW cabins, CSR, and AKL. I am interested to see the responses that you get.

 

[fla4fun]

Why do you hate the bus stop at Pop? I prefer the way the buses have designated queues at the values instead of the free for all that happens at the moderates when a bus shows up. I would rather have a nice organized line of people waiting so I know who is in front of me and who is behind me (I don't want to cut in front of anyone, but don't want anyone cutting in front of me either). I also prefer not to have to take the grand tour of the resort every time I get on a bus, which happens not only at CBR, but at POR and FW Cabins.

Don't get me wrong - I like the moderate resorts, and depending on why I am going on the trip and how long I will be there, I may stay moderate or I may stay value, or I may stay deluxe.

The room renovations at Pop are getting very close to being finished. I expect them to be done by my next trip in August 2018. I have stayed in a renovated room on my last four Pop trips. They are great for two people, OK for three, but depending on how much people like sharing beds, it can start to get tight after that. The beds are queen size (same as CBR) and very comfortable. There is a lot of storage, and there are coffee makers in the room now. Most of my trips are solo, so I don't need to use the Murphy bed, but I have stayed in one with two other adults, and it was fine.

Both resorts have gondola construction going on, so that is a wash. Until OPR reopens, I would give Pop a slight edge on dining, even if it is only a food court. I haven't had anything bad there, and have eaten there many times. I wouldn't be interested in the temporary buffet at CBR (I don't like buffets for hygiene reasons) but once they get OPR back up with TS dining, the edge would go to CBR.

Only you know what you need to make your vacation complete. Either resort would allow you to have a fun WDW vacation.

 

[alyssa18o6]

Why do you hate the bus stop at Pop? I prefer the way the buses have designated queues at the values instead of the free for all that happens at the moderates when a bus shows up. I would rather have a nice organized line of people waiting so I know who is in front of me and who is behind me (I don't want to cut in front of anyone, but don't want anyone cutting in front of me either). I also prefer not to have to take the grand tour of the resort every time I get on a bus, which happens not only at CBR, but at POR and FW Cabins.

Don't get me wrong - I like the moderate resorts, and depending on why I am going on the trip and how long I will be there, I may stay moderate or I may stay value, or I may stay deluxe.

The room renovations at Pop are getting very close to being finished. I expect them to be done by my next trip in August 2018. I have stayed in a renovated room on my last four Pop trips. They are great for two people, OK for three, but depending on how much people like sharing beds, it can start to get tight after that. The beds are queen size (same as CBR) and very comfortable. There is a lot of storage, and there are coffee makers in the room now. Most of my trips are solo, so I don't need to use the Murphy bed, but I have stayed in one with two other adults, and it was fine.

Both resorts have gondola construction going on, so that is a wash. Until OPR reopens, I would give Pop a slight edge on dining, even if it is only a food court. I haven't had anything bad there, and have eaten there many times. I wouldn't be interested in the temporary buffet at CBR (I don't like buffets for hygiene reasons) but once they get OPR back up with TS dining, the edge would go to CBR.

Only you know what you need to make your vacation complete. Either resort would allow you to have a fun WDW vacation.

My reason for not liking the one bus stop is because depending on which building you end up it can be quite a walk to and from your room. I like that at the mods the extra bus stops makes them a little more convienent. I always request 80s & 90s and have only received my request once. We LOVE Pop but the one bus stop and smaller rooms can be a hinderence depending on our plans.

Something I thought of after was the room size at Pop.. I know it’s hard to get a king room. I’m worried that even with the Murphy bed up that there wouldn’t be enough room for a pack n play in the room, plus the stroller etc.

 

[alyssa18o6]

Your post made me laugh. Because I was about to post the same thing! I was reading through before posting and I am glad I did. LOL. We are going in August of 2019. At first, it was supposed to be a mom and dad only trip. Well, things changed and we decided to take the kids with us. We will be celebrating quite a bit while we are there. Our 25th wedding anniversary, our daughter's graduation from college, and our son's 16th birthday. I have always wanted to stay at Caribbean Beach and I'm wondering if the lower prices will still be showing when the packages come out later this summer (hopefully in the next couple of weeks). Add to that we were planning on staying at the Poly so I will still get my "beach-y" feel. Buuuuut....we book two rooms so would it be smarter to stay at Pop? The difference is $230 for the week (based on this year pricing). We do spend time in our rooms or around the resort. We have stayed at POR, FW cabins, CSR, and AKL. I am interested to see the responses that you get.

$230 would be a tough one for me, but if you think you’ll be comfortable in the rooms at Pop I’d definitelty book it. It’s perfect for my husband and I, and I wouldn’t hestitate if it was just us. But having multiple rooms would help too. Is definitely consider Pop!

 

[alyssa18o6]

We’ve stayed twice in a refurb room and really enjoyed it. I do find the beds, even though they’re queens to be kind of smaller compared to our queen at home. But it’s doable, and not a deal breaker.

My reason for disliking the one stop is just that depending on the building your in the one stop can be quite a distance. We liked the 80/&90s sections because of their conscience to the bus stop and have only gotten lucky and put in one of those sections once.

Sometimes we do use the pools, but it literally depends. When we went in Feb/March we never got to use the pools because they closed very early. Definitely something for us to keep in mind though!

My new concern that I didn’t think of was the sizing of the room. I’m worried that putting a pack n play in the room could make it feel very crowded. I think we’re going to end up going with Pop just because of the savings. I can’t justify spending more money that we could use for our trip the following year.

I vote Pop. We have stayed at nearly all the resorts in Value and Mod category, and some deluxe.
Pop just had a nice refurb. Beds are queens now
CBR has a ton of construction going on.
We don't find much difference from value vs. moderate. Both have food courts, both have outdoor corridors. We never eat sit down at our resort, as we use our table service in the parks for the most part.
The rooms at mod are a bit bigger, but honestly how long are you in the room?
There are slides at the pools, but think about how much time you will spend at the pool and how many times they will go down the slide vs. $100ish savings per night.
I honestly think my daughter when young went down the slides 4-5 times total.
The grounds at the mods are nicer with more greenery, but the values have fun stuff to look at and we love exploring all the 'big' stuff.

Pop has a dedicated one bus and one stop. CBR goes all the way around the resort and can add another 10-15 mins to your bus every day, especially if they stop to pick up a scooter or 2.

I find Pop is great, newly refurbed, great pools. We love to stay at a poolside preferred room. We come back midday, have a swim right outside our room, maybe a quick nap and back out for the evening.

I can't justify another $1000+ on my trip for a waterslide and a slightly bigger room!

We have stayed at deluxe and thats a whole other ballgame of upgrade - but the funny thing is we really disliked Yacht Club for various reasons. Id love to stay in the monorail hotels for the ease of the monorail, but just can't justify the cost. I would rather put my money in savings!

 

[nkereina]

I agree with PP - with the bus stops, you'll go from one extreme to the other from Pop to CBR. While you'll likely have a bus stop near you at all times at CBR, there are a total of 7 bus stops and if you get on at one of the first ones, it's pretty time consuming before you make it out of the resort. If you're at one of the last ones, you can expect full buses to pass you by or to be standing on the way to the park. We often got on at Old Port Royale and experienced such long waits and inconsistent buses that we wrote CBR off our list for future consideration.

I think the bus stops are configured a little differently now since the construction changes which may help, but it doesn't change the fact that it's a massive resort. It was even too big to walk from the front desk to our room and we had to be shuttled. The only positive of the resort for us was the food court, and I'm not sure what the current status of that is now after the construction.

 

[dansdad]

I agree with PP - with the bus stops, you'll go from one extreme to the other from Pop to CBR. While you'll likely have a bus stop near you at all times at CBR, there are a total of 7 bus stops.

Actually with the removal of Barbados there are 6 stops.

And if you get on at one of the first ones, it's pretty time consuming before you make it out of the resort. If you're at one of the last ones, you can expect full buses to pass you by or to be standing on the way to the park.

Now they send 2 buses for each destination. One hits 4 stops and the second hit the other 2. No more trips all the way around the resort. And no more Full buses leaving guests behind.

I think the bus stops are configured a little differently now since the construction changes which may help, but it doesn't change the fact that it's a massive resort. It was even too big to walk from the front desk to our room and we had to be shuttled.

Yes, CBR is large. But the furthest room from OPR and the Main Feature Pool is about a 10 minute stroll. And that's at a leisurely pace and taking pics along the way.

The only positive of the resort for us was the food court, and I'm not sure what the current status of that is now after the construction.

It won't be completed until December 2018.

I only mention these points for people who haven't stayed at CBR yet. Not trying to change anyone's mind that have already stayed. It's not for everyone.

 

[nkereina]

@dansdad thanks for clarifying - I knew some things have been re-configured since our last stay. Sounds like changes for the better.

 

[Haygar2]

I only mention these points for people who haven't stayed at CBR yet. Not trying to change anyone's mind that have already stayed. It's not for everyone.

Have you stayed at CBR? Do you like it? I know construction makes experiences a little different, but overall? I'm just trying to weight all of my options.

 

[dansdad]

Have you stayed at CBR? Do you like it? I know construction makes experiences a little different, but overall? I'm just trying to weight all of my options.

We've had 9 stays at CBR and love it. It's our favorite moderate by far and 2nd favorite resort in all of WDW right behind Boardwalk. But we haven't stayed during construction yet, trying to work one in for this October or November. We know 5-6 families that have stayed during construction and all thoroughly enjoyed their stays.

 

[Haygar2]

We've had 9 stays at CBR and love it. It's our favorite moderate by far and 2nd favorite resort in all of WDW right behind Boardwalk. But we haven't stayed during construction yet, trying to work one in for this October or November. We know 5-6 families that have stayed during construction and all thoroughly enjoyed their stays.

Excellent! Thank you! That's what i needed to hear.

 

[ALegrande]

Have you stayed at CBR? Do you like it? I know construction makes experiences a little different, but overall? I'm just trying to weight all of my options.

I have stayed at CBR literally 25+ times in my life, including during construction, so I may be a little biased. But CBR ALL THE WAY! We just stayed at POR for MDW (I know you were asking about POP but this I feel is a good comparison) and even though the resort is just beautiful, I still found myself wishing I was at CBR. We love it so much we took our engagement photos there last year! Its quiet, peaceful, but just the right amount of "Disneyness". Its our 2nd favorite resort behind Yacht Club (where we were married). The bus stops aren't that bad, and the grounds on the resort can't be beat in my opinion! I do miss the "old" CBR before the construction started, mostly the beautiful woodland walkway between Barbados & Aruba, but the resort is still great. It'll be even better next year when they get Centertown up and running and the food court open again. Good luck with your decision!!

 

[MomOTwins]

Just a counterpoint, a coworker stayed at CBR in March and said the construction was nightmare -- noisy, dusty, nowhere to eat, and just overall very stressful. She said she wouldn't stay there again during the construction at any price. You might be planning far enough ahead to escape the worst of it, but I would take a good look at various blogs on the construction progress closer to your and make sure you know what will be affected.

 

[Huff]

We have stayed at Pop every trip except our last one when we stayed at CBR. We loved it!! We stayed in Jamaica section which is near the bridge to food court and main pool. The bus usually picked us up with no more than 1 stop before heading to the parks. When returning Jamaica was almost always the first stop to drop off. Aruba section would be our next choice. We requested 1st floor because I have trouble with stairs and there are no elevators. The only downside to CBR was the food court which I felt had lower quality food than POP. However, it is being refurbished so that should change by next year. CBR is certainly nicer with small beaches at each section but the rooms themselves are about the same quality as POP.

POP is a great resort! Loved every trip there. Rooms are nice, food court is good and you can walk across the bridge to AoA whose food court is even better. Kids may prefer POP as it has more of the Disney feel to it than CBR.

We did prefer the buses at CBR. Mostly because they were covered which is nice if its raining or sunny and hot. However, POP buses were never much of a problem. If cost difference is minor then I'd stay at CBR over POP. Our last trip the difference was $100 total for a 10 night stay. This years trip would cost us $700 more for a 9 night stay. I cannot afford that so tried to get POP but could only get AsSports. I'm hoping we'll be happy!

 

[Huff]

Just a counterpoint, a coworker stayed at CBR in March and said the construction was nightmare -- noisy, dusty, nowhere to eat, and just overall very stressful.

Construction is limited to the center town area, main pool and food court and to the north. Resort is huge so other sections are quiet and removed from the construction. Trinidad South section has its own quick service food, own small pool and far enough from construction most would not notice. Can guarantee you'll get Trinidad South by requesting a pirate room.

 

[dansdad]

Construction is limited to the center town area, main pool and food court and to the north. Resort is huge so other sections are quiet and removed from the construction. Trinidad South section has its own quick service food, own small pool and far enough from construction most would not notice. Can guarantee you'll get Trinidad South by requesting a pirate room.

For clarity, Trinidad South is all Pirate Themed rooms which have to be specifically booked. You wouldn't be able to just request a room in Trinidad South without having booked a Pirate Themed room.