Stayed at Carribean Resort.. Not Impressed..

[skipperkim]

Sorry you had such a bad stay, but if you knew they had no elevators why would you stay there? It's the major reason I won't stay there. Is there a reason you didn't stay at the Swan or Dolphin? I am handicapped and while I can walk, sometimes it's just so hard to. Which brings up the next question, why didn't you look into getting a scooter for yourself? There are companies that will deliver it to your resort.

I'm not trying to throw you under the bus. It's just food for thought for next time you go. I'm sure you don't want a repeat of this trip.

The whole reason I stay at a moderate is for the hot tub. It does help relieve the pain I have.

 

[bambam007]

I am so sorry they did not make your stay better. My mom was on dialysis three times a week. It was awful for her. With all the rooms at that resort someone would have been able to help if they truely tried.

I stayed for a week in May. The service to vary quite a bit. At one point the concierge in the food court was not helpful to put it nicely. There was a supervisor nearby who suggest a way she could help. The supervisor was great and helpful, however the concierge was horrible. It's funny....Isn't it the concierges job (their only job) to help guests.
My request was basic info for rental car and directions.

She couldn't even pull out a phone book.

Others at the resort were very nice.

On our next trip I will try to rent an apt. either onsite or off site.

I also had a bad experience with small world travel. It's the last time I use them.

 

[adell557]

I am so sorry they did not make your stay better. My mom was on dialysis three times a week. It was awful for her. With all the rooms at that resort someone would have been able to help if they truely tried.

I stayed for a week in May. The service to vary quite a bit. At one point the concierge in the food court was not helpful to put it nicely. There was a supervisor nearby who suggest a way she could help. The supervisor was great and helpful, however the concierge was horrible. It's funny....Isn't it the concierges job (their only job) to help guests.
My request was basic info for rental car and directions.

She couldn't even pull out a phone book.

Others at the resort were very nice.

On our next trip I will try to rent an apt. either onsite or off site.

I also had a bad experience with small world travel. It's the last time I use them.

I had this same problem! I waited in line for 30 minutes at the concierge desk to get my park tickets and KTTW card connected. (Which I had done on previous trips at the POP) and she told me she couldn't do it, but could give me a voucher card. With the voucher you still have to stand in line at GR at the park, so what was the point of the voucher? The lady said that was all she could do. When I explained I had done it on all of our previous trips, she said sorry I am not sure how you had that done and handed me the vouchers. She wasn't rude, but definitely not helpful.

 

[eyeheartgoofy]

I'm sorry you had a lousy stay!

I really think location can make or break a stay at a moderate. I stayed at CBR with a room in Trinidad South - building 39. I didn't care for it at all. The busses were often full before they even arrived at our stop. We visited the food court one time b/c it was just such a hike (and I don't even have medical issues!).

After that stay, we avoided WDW for several years. Really, I was so turned off by our stay at CBR.

But, last fall, I stayed in POR in Magnolia Terrace and it was great. We were 5 minutes from the main pool and food court area (maybe 5 minutes ...). The busses were great as well.

 

[AKLforever]

May I suggest booking with the special needs department next time you stay on property? It makes the requests soo much easier to obtain and special needs will make sure you get the room you need. I'm not criticizing..just offering some help for next time. Also, call or fax in a request ahead of time if you aren't booking with special needs. I'm a room assignor at Disney and I can assure you that we do take requests seriously.

I'm sorry to hear about your stay. Have you written to guest communications?

This is basically the same idea as the guy who said "do your homework".
And it show that the OP did not do any prep work for this stay.
Defend the OP if you must, but the facts do point this out.

If he called a long time in advance , months even, and talked to someone about his condition , Im more then sure they would have told him about the closer room rates with info on maybe even staying at a different resort with elevators and so on. If I had a bad stay at a resort ,of course I would have a 100% right to be very mad, but only at my self if I didnt do my homework.

 

[fall08CP]

I just want to clarify some things about front desk cast members. We do not pick your rooms. If you leave a request until check-in, it is unlikely that it will be fulfilled, especially if the resort is filled. You need to call up the reservation line and they will put a note on your reservation. Then the back office at each resort goes through all the reservation and assigns rooms based on requests. Some of them can be fulfilled, some cannot. When you check-in, your room is already assigned, so don't take it out on the front desk CM if you're not pleased. Also, the front desk CM does not have the authority to upgrade your room. Technically we are required to have a manager switch the room for us, so we will not just ask you if you want to be bumped up or do it just because. We cannot make rooms become magically available either. If all the first floor rooms are gone, we can't change that.

 

[luvthemouse71]

I'm asking this out of pure curiousity...if a guest does have a medical problem, does Disney try to work with them when they book if the guest mentions the issue? When I read that the OP goes to dialysis and still travels and works, I was impressed, I have to say. Dialysis can kick the crap out of you-many patients on dialysis do not work for that reason. I can see the OP's point about all the walking being hard.

But, by the same token, like someone else pointed out...there are people that paid for the preferred rooms ahead of time and if you're showing up at a busy time..then you may be out of luck.


OP, I'm sorry the resort didn't work out...maybe next time one of the monorail resorts may be a good choice. I'm taking my dad in September and sometimes his legs bother him-I'm hoping the Poly will be a good fit.

 

[Lilolvr]

Ok.. I checked out today from CBR this morning and headed toward the aiport. Here is my thoughts of CBR.

Very nice atmosphere.
Too much walking
Not worth the price.

Here is some detail.

I checked in late on Sunday night (aproximately 9:30pm). Only a couple of people manning the windows. No problem, I kinda expected that. Upon checkin, I asked that I be on the first floor since there are no elevators, and I also asked to be close to the conference bus stop. I was attending an IBM conference, and they provided a shuttle to the Swan and Dolpin. I had a medical reason for the requests. Well, the shuttle picked us up at the building that contained the food court. Guess where they put me.. Jamacia, building 41, room 4132, the very furthest corner in that building away from the food court. And they refused to move me!! I am on Dialysis, and after my session(s), I have some issues with walking due to weakness, and it just makes you tired. I told them about it, but they did not seem to care. The "internal shuttle" was not very convienient, not real reliable of when it was going to pickup. I actually only saw one of them. So, I ended up walking to make sure I was ontime for the conference shuttle. It typically took me 20 to 30 minutes to walk from the room to the food court after a morning of dialysis.

The food court was pitiful. Not much of a real choice, as compared to Pop Century. At lunch, when I ate there, you had the choice of some type of sandwich (burger, chicken etc..) and pizza. There were 4 sections, 2 of which were closed at lunch. Not real impressed. And the resturant there, just too expensive!!

The room was average. A little larger than a value resort, and it did have 2 sinks and a refridgerator.

Overall, I would choose any of the value resorts over this one.

Just my opinion..

Sorry about your experience.

 

[Princess Amy]

Having only stayed at two moderate resorts and visiting the other two, CBR is hands down my favorite moderate. And this is not only based on the fact that the rooms are bigger and the double sinks. It is the only mod resort that has made me feel like I was transported to some place other than Disney. It truly feels like you are on another vacation in a vacation.

Everyone has different tastes and likes for a particular resort. Though, you should not base your negative opinions on the fact that you didn't get what you wanted on your vacation, which could have been prevented if you would have done your homework. And on top of that, now offering a negative view of CBR to all other posters based solely on your reasoning mentioned above, will then make it look like a bad resort for those that have never been to Disney and are trying to decide where to stay. Your problems could have happened at any other of the bagillion resorts Disney has to offer.

I work in an Emergency Room and I know that dialysis is tough on the body. I also congratulate you for being able to work while being sick. But that doesn't mean that I feel that the CM treated you poorly at check in or could have done anything better to accomodate you on such a short notice.

 

[lsytman]

I am with you. I stayed at CBR last August (7 night stay) and we stayed in Barbados (i think) which was the furthest away from the food court, main pool. I did not care for this hotel at all so on our second day there, we switched to CSR which in my opinion is nicer.

 

[soccerdad4]

To answer some of your questions, and implied questions:

1) I was not given too much of a choice where I stayed, 3 out of the 4 of the resort choices were booked up.

2) I never asked for a "perferred" room. I just ask to be close to the shuttle bus and food court. I was in Jamaica, room 4132. Look it up. It is at the far corner of that building!!! I had a friend attending the same conference, checked in later than I did on Sunday, and got in a closer building, building 44, and paid the same!! I checked in at 9:30pm, he checked in at 10:30pm. So you can't tell me that room was not available at that time.

4) I did call the reservations and made the request ( I think I said this before ).

 

[mom2taylorandemily]

To answer some of your questions, and implied questions:

1) I was not given too much of a choice where I stayed, 3 out of the 4 of the resort choices were booked up.

2) I never asked for a "perferred" room. I just ask to be close to the shuttle bus and food court. I was in Jamaica, room 4132. Look it up. It is at the far corner of that building!!! I had a friend attending the same conference, checked in later than I did on Sunday, and got in a closer building, building 44, and paid the same!! I checked in at 9:30pm, he checked in at 10:30pm. So you can't tell me that room was not available at that time.

4) I did call the reservations and made the request ( I think I said this before ).

Let me state for the record, any of the buildings close to the Food Court are considered Preferred Rooms and they require a ressie and they cost more. They are not given on a request basis. If you want one, you must pay for it, so simply making a request may not have been enough, they may have wanted you to pay for it and they might have been all sold out of Preferred Rooms.

 

[maxiesmom]

To answer some of your questions, and implied questions:

1) I was not given too much of a choice where I stayed, 3 out of the 4 of the resort choices were booked up.

2) I never asked for a "perferred" room. I just ask to be close to the shuttle bus and food court.

4) I did call the reservations and made the request ( I think I said this before ).

You should have booked a preferred room. Then you would have been closer to the food court and main bus stop. That is why those rooms are preferred! But you do have to pay extra for that perk. You can't just request to be placed there, you have to reserve and pay for it.

If you had a friend attending the same conference, couldn't you have switched rooms? No ideal, but it would have helped you out, so I think a friend would do that for you. I have no idea of why or how Disney assigns rooms. Maybe they were still cleaning the one your friend got when you were checking in.

Sorry you didn't enjoy your stay, but it sounds like you were a little confused on the whole requesting versus paying for a good location thing.

 

[Mickey23]

Ok.. I checked out today from CBR this morning and headed toward the airport. Here is my thoughts of CBR.

Very nice atmosphere.
Too much walking
Not worth the price.

Here is some detail.

I checked in late on Sunday night (approximately 9:30pm). Only a couple of people manning the windows. No problem, I kinda expected that. Upon checkin, I asked that I be on the first floor since there are no elevators, and I also asked to be close to the conference bus stop. I was attending an IBM conference, and they provided a shuttle to the Swan and Dolphin. I had a medical reason for the requests. Well, the shuttle picked us up at the building that contained the food court. Guess where they put me.. Jamaica, building 41, room 4132, the very furthest corner in that building away from the food court. And they refused to move me!! I am on Dialysis, and after my session(s), I have some issues with walking due to weakness, and it just makes you tired. I told them about it, but they did not seem to care. The "internal shuttle" was not very convenient, not real reliable of when it was going to pickup. I actually only saw one of them. So, I ended up walking to make sure I was on time for the conference shuttle. It typically took me 20 to 30 minutes to walk from the room to the food court after a morning of dialysis.

The food court was pitiful. Not much of a real choice, as compared to Pop Century. At lunch, when I ate there, you had the choice of some type of sandwich (burger, chicken etc..) and pizza. There were 4 sections, 2 of which were closed at lunch. Not real impressed. And the restaurant there, just too expensive!!

The room was average. A little larger than a value resort, and it did have 2 sinks and a refrigerator.

Overall, I would choose any of the value resorts over this one.

Just my opinion..

That's terrible that they wouldn't work with you to get you closer.

 

[maxiesmom]

That's terrible that they wouldn't work with you to get you closer.

What should they have done? The OP checked in at 930 pm. He didn't have a reservation for a preferred room, but expected to be put in one. It is possible that they were all booked by people who PAID to be in them. Should they have bumped someone who had paid for their room location to accomodate someone that hadn't? Even having physical limitations, you can't expect to walk up at check in and get a room right by the bus stop or main building. At almost every resort that is a room catagory that costs more, and the OP hadn't booked one.

 

[choirfarm]

What should they have done? The OP checked in at 930 pm. He didn't have a reservation for a preferred room, but expected to be put in one. It is possible that they were all booked by people who PAID to be in them. Should they have bumped someone who had paid for their room location to accomodate someone that hadn't? Even having physical limitations, you can't expect to walk up at check in and get a room right by the bus stop or main building. At almost every resort that is a room catagory that costs more, and the OP hadn't booked one.

She told them she needed to be close and they didn't TELL her she needed to pay for a preferred room. How would she know that.. GRRRRRRR
You guys expect people to be psychic!!!

 

[aubriee]

I agree with CleveRocks. Everyone has different requirements for their resort stay. The great thing about WDW is there are many resorts for different tastes.

I agree! I am another one who stayed at CBR once and did not like it at all. I reserved (and paid for) a preferred room and also requested bottom floor. I was placed in a preferred room, but it was on the back side of the last preferred building in Martinique (as far away from Port Royal as you could get and still be considered preferred. I might as well had booked a standard room. I was also placed on the upper floor. At check in, I again requested bottom floor and closer to Port Royal and explained why. The CM was too busy talking to the CM next to her about a friend who stole her boyfriend to care. She wouldn't even look to see if another room was available. This was at 10:30am, by the way. The food court was terrible as far as choices and service. It seemed like anytime I wanted to order something, I had to wait for a group of CMs to finish their private conversations. Transportation was worse than at any resort I've ever stayed at. It took forever to just get out of the Carribean Beach complex. I came back from the park one night to find the door to my room propped open. I panicked and called the front desk for assistance, in case someone was still in there. When someone finally showed up and walked me into my room, it was empty. The guy just made a casual comment that housekeeping had apparently propped it open and forgot to go back to close it. Excuse me, but why was my door propped open, then left while housekeeping went into another room? I called the night before to schedule luggage assistance for my check out morning. The next morning 30 minutes after they were supposed to be there, I called to check and was told no one had made a note, but they'd send someone right over. Over 45 minutes later, I called again and it was still another 30 minutes before someone showed up (total of 1 hour and 45 minutes after they had been scheduled). CBR was just not a pleasant experience for me. However, I know others have had better luck and love it. For me, I'll never go back.

 

[jerseymom473]

[QUOTE=maxiesmom;25314001
So are you saying the OP should have been given a complimentary upgrade because of his medical issues? Just curious.


I am sorry but I was not implying that the OP should be given something that he did not pay for, only that he should have been given a better standard room like his friend. He stated that they did not seem to care about his condition and that seemed unfortunate. I realize that they are not always available and that resorts overbook, I wish he they may have tried harder to look for a solution (maybe another resort??) or least been sympathetic toward the situation. I felt the OP was blamed here for not knowing every last detail for this resort, but in fairness, that is hard to do. The average person booking may not know that some of these resorts are so hugh that they need internal buses to get from one end to the other and like you, paid preferred and still not gotten it!! It is just unfortunate and I give him and others alot of credit for manuevering around hugh resorts in tough situations.

 

[aarmando20]

She told them she needed to be close and they didn't TELL her she needed to pay for a preferred room. How would she know that.. GRRRRRRR
You guys expect people to be psychic!!!

Look I think that it was horrible that He had a bad stay and was upset, but to answer Choirfarm it is called doing your homework. If you know where this site is then you can find out anything you want about the hotel just by posting the question.

 

[choirfarm]

Look I think that it was horrible that He had a bad stay and was upset, but to answer Choirfarm it is called doing your homework. If you know where this site is then you can find out anything you want about the hotel just by posting the question.

But how in the world would you know to post that question. Personally, if I told them about my medical condition and the person taking my reservation said they would mark it down, then I wouldn't think another thing about it and would assume it would be done. That is one thing I HATE about Disney.. you can't just go. And so many of you here take a superior attitude that everyone has the time and inclination to do the gobs of research that we do. (Yes, I am an obsessed planner.) The last time I went to Disney was 9 years ago and I did research, but had a few problems that now I understand due to faster internet and more research. But what ever happened to just picking up and goin and doing what you feel like. But that is another rant. I guess my point is that I get SO tired of people posting things and so many people making them feel like they were stupid or it is all their fault for not doing something the "right" way. Good grief...we are all people just doing what we can. I am trying SO hard to get everything perfect for our upcoming vacation... I'll just be sure that I don't post here if I have any problems as many of you would tell me how dense I was...