What's the best room or section to be in closest to dining - pool - and bus to the parks? We're considering preferred to better our chances to get what we need. Also for anyone that's stayed here during free dining how crowded is the resort - can you swim without bumping into each other all the time? How are the dining halls? TIA for your help
Since every village has its own bus stop you are never more that a 1 minute stroll to one. There are 5 non-preferred building locations that are about 3-5 minute walk to dining and the main pool; Aruba 51, Jamaica 45, Martinique 21, 22 and 23. We personally love Jamaica 45 and have happened to get that request every time.
All of our stays at CBR have been during Free Dining and the resort has been at capacity every time. One of the things we love about CBR is the fact that even when it's at capacity it never feels like it. We always feel like we're the only people in our building even though I know we're not. We love the fact that it is so laid back and relaxed which is such a nice change from the craziness of the parks. You definitely won't feel like you're bumping into people at all. We have felt that way at both POR and POFQ in the past. Which is why we have switched our resort love from those 2 resorts over to CBR. We can't seem to go back to either of them over CBR.
Ever since our first stay here we have added a couple days to our stays in order to have at least 2 full resort days and I can say that the pool never felt packed. Now it may be a little tougher to get a chair if you stroll up to the pool around Noon, but we are usually there by 10 and have always gotten a chair. And even when there are no chairs available, most of them are "taken" by the chair piggies that leave their towels over the chair in the AM and then head out to a park.
The food court is large enough and laid out nicely as to not have that crazy feeling I have noticed at other food courts when crowded. On park days, I am the breakfast runner and get all our food while my wife and son get ready so I am there around 7AM and the place is usually empty. On our resort days we all head over there by 8:30-9 and it's more crowded but only about 1/2 the tables are full. So I just don't know what it's like between 7 and 8:30.
We have had great experiences with the buses also, even early AM. We have always gotten a seat on the way to the parks. The only time we've had to stand was at park closing time. But that hasn't happened since we've started grabbing a seat and people watching after fireworks. Our last 3 trips we haven't stood on any bus.
