I've stayed there twice. It's beautiful. We didn't pay extra for a view, or for a room closer to the food court. I'm told the bottom floors don't have much of a view anyway because the folliage is pretty high.
First trip we were in Jamaica and it was a short walk across a bridge over to Port Royal (food court). We got Barbados this last trip. Barbados seemed a bit farther to the food court. We were close to the bus stop, laundry room, and quiet pool. Boy was I glad. We walked to that busstop many many times, but only had to walk to the food court once per day (early morning for breakfast). So it actually worked out better. There's an internal bus that goes in a circle. I suppose we could have taken that to breakfast each morning, but we didn't really want to wait for the bus.
Also the laundry room was very nice and clean. I think I washed about 3 loads and then split the loads into about 5 or 6 dryers so they would dry quicker (used high heat setting also). The laundry room and quiet pool seemed pretty deserted most of the time. Next time I won't bother taking soap or dryer sheets. There was a vending machine in there with a couple different detergents and some dryer sheets.
The buses were convenient. At the parks, the moderates' bus stops are much closer than the values' busstops, however, it's still a pretty good walk into the parks and back out. We did get a little stressed when we'd see a bus that was waiting. We didn't want to miss the bus. So we'd fly into action, grabbing the kid out of the stroller, grabbing the tote bag, folding up the stroller. They will not let you bring a stroller on and then fold it up. They make you fold it before getting on.
There are no elevators. So lugging a stroller, our tote bag and a toddler up the stairs to the 2nd floor got a little tiring.
We loved the food court. It had big screens over each station to show what that station had. Loved the mickey waffles. Yum. There's a picture of the waffles, and a photo of CBR in our trip report below. The gift shop was nice too. We used our snack credits to buy a half gallon of milk, a large bottle of water, and some bread in the gift shop.
Also with the beautiful decor and landscaping, it feels like you are really on a tropical vacation at CBR. The only disappointment was the sand. I was hoping our son could play in the sand. But it was really dirty. We did see it groomed once, but it just raked around the stuff, not really removing it. Our previous trip, the sand was really nice so not sure why so filthy on this trip.
We took a chip clip and ended up using it to hold the drapes shut. They didn't quite close all the way.
Next time we are hoping to try the Wilderness Lodge. It will be a shorter trip, so maybe we'll splurge for the resort.
Have fun on your trip!