Disney's CARIBBEAN BEACH RESORT Information & Questions

[dansdad]

looking for some guidance ... trying to decide between YC and CBR We love YC but I really do not want to spend that much $$ since we are staying for 10 nights this trip. We will be there Jan 19th-29th Will we be disappointed, our main reason for choosing YC is the walkability to DHS and EP. We are quiet pool people so as much as we love stormalong Bay we won't miss it much. I'm also concerned with the size of the convertible couch/bed in YC vs CBRs Murphy bed. My 6'1" 14yr old plans on sleeping on it or a inflatable bed I bring; can we get a roll away? Thanks in advice for any insight

You've made an excellent choice to save some $$ for a longer trip. We have stayed at YC 4 times and BC 3 times and we prefer CBR because we just can't justify the extra $$. CBR is a great bargain and we feel is the best bang for our buck on property. Every Village has its own leisure pool so you will be very close to one no matter where you are and we really like the leisure pools too.

Having said that, your son will definitely not be comfortable on the Murphy Bed. The Murphy Bed is 63" x 30" so your son is 10 inches taller than the bed is long. And at only 30" wide it will be very tough for him to curl up so his feet aren't hanging off the bed. An air mattress is the way to go. We have always put the air mattress between the bed and the window and it fits just fine. When we're not using it we stand it up against the wall so it's out of the way.

 

[BABY_EINSTEIN'S_MOM]

Any chance the food court has more gluten free snack options this year? I loved visiting AOA because they had the Erin Mckenna cupcakes! Hoping CBR starts offering them!

 

[dansdad]

Any chance the food court has more gluten free snack options this year? I loved visiting AOA because they had the Erin Mckenna cupcakes! Hoping CBR starts offering them!

According to my Aunt they were there last week.

 

[MonaMN]

5 total and everyone is 5'11" or taller We know that no matter where we stay its going to be tight.... we are a family that only sleeps in their room I guess we better bring an inflatable mattress.

DD really wanted to sleep on the Murphy bed, but she fell off the first night... so after that, we just pulled the mattress off the platform and put it on the floor. Feet might stick out past the end, but doing that would save you from packing an air mattress.

 

[Tia1977]

Sorry if this has been asked (I'm sure it probably has a gazillion times), been trying to keep up with the thread... We'll be there in 18 days. Standard room. Our requests were Jamaica close to transportation. Course you never know about requests. Especially booking Standard, popular section, almost capacity... It's our 1st CBR stay. My only concern being a newbie of course is the size and time frame for the bus. We can def adjust and deal though. We're used to Pop only. While the double beds always bugged me, I really liked there being one bus location/when you leave you're on your way to your destination. While I know the actual wait for a bus to arrive depends on variables, I've always budgeted about an hour from getting to the bus stop and arriving at the park we're going to. (Which has always given us a cushion of time so to speak). Do you guys think this is still a safe estimate from any Standard choice village at CBR without cutting it close enough to worry? If not, what would you recommend? I'd rather arrive earlier than expected than deal with any stress of being late. Stress is why we escape the "real" world right? Lol

 

[dansdad]

Sorry if this has been asked (I'm sure it probably has a gazillion times), been trying to keep up with the thread... We'll be there in 18 days. Standard room. Our requests were Jamaica close to transportation. Course you never know about requests. Especially booking Standard, popular section, almost capacity... It's our 1st CBR stay. My only concern being a newbie of course is the size and time frame for the bus. We can def adjust and deal though. We're used to Pop only. While the double beds always bugged me, I really liked there being one bus location/when you leave you're on your way to your destination. While I know the actual wait for a bus to arrive depends on variables, I've always budgeted about an hour from getting to the bus stop and arriving at the park we're going to. (Which has always given us a cushion of time so to speak). Do you guys think this is still a safe estimate from any Standard choice village at CBR without cutting it close enough to worry? If not, what would you recommend? I'd rather arrive earlier than expected than deal with any stress of being late. Stress is why we escape the "real" world right? Lol

IMHO, a request of Close to Transportation is kind of a wasted request. Every Village has its own bus stop so you are never more than a 1-2 minute stroll to one. Being at the bus stop an hour before wanting to be somewhere has NEVER let us down at CBR. We have made every early AM ADR, rope drop, dinner ADR and lunch ADR with time to spare when at the stop an hour before. And we have over 55 nights total at CBR. The vast majority of our trips have been during Free Dining when CBR is at capacity and it never feels like it. That's one of the things we love about it.

If I were you I would call and change my requests to "Jamaica 45 or Aruba 51". Both of those locations are a lovely 3-4 minute stroll across the bridge to OPR and the Main Feature pool. Don't worry that those are popular requests by people here on the DIS as we are such and extremely small sample of people compared to total guests that you should have no trouble getting one of those 2.

 

[Tia1977]

IMHO, a request of Close to Transportation is kind of a wasted request. Every Village has its own bus stop so you are never more than a 1-2 minute stroll to one. Being at the bus stop an hour before wanting to be somewhere has NEVER let us down at CBR. We have made every early AM ADR, rope drop, dinner ADR and lunch ADR with time to spare when at the stop an hour before. And we have over 55 nights total at CBR. The vast majority of our trips have been during Free Dining when CBR is at capacity and it never feels like it. That's one of the things we love about it.

If I were you I would call and change my requests to "Jamaica 45 or Aruba 51". Both of those locations are a lovely 3-4 minute stroll across the bridge to OPR and the Main Feature pool. Don't worry that those are popular requests by people here on the DIS as we are such and extremely small sample of people compared to total guests that you should have no trouble getting one of those 2.

Thank you very much!!! So helpful!

 

[tmal14]

IMHO, a request of Close to Transportation is kind of a wasted request. Every Village has its own bus stop so you are never more than a 1-2 minute stroll to one. Being at the bus stop an hour before wanting to be somewhere has NEVER let us down at CBR. We have made every early AM ADR, rope drop, dinner ADR and lunch ADR with time to spare when at the stop an hour before. And we have over 55 nights total at CBR. The vast majority of our trips have been during Free Dining when CBR is at capacity and it never feels like it. That's one of the things we love about it.

If I were you I would call and change my requests to "Jamaica 45 or Aruba 51". Both of those locations are a lovely 3-4 minute stroll across the bridge to OPR and the Main Feature pool. Don't worry that those are popular requests by people here on the DIS as we are such and extremely small sample of people compared to total guests that you should have no trouble getting one of those 2.

Do you have any recommended locations for a preferred room? I will going with my family for the first time to Disney next week, just trying to get the best possible room location/view.

Also, do you suggest we call and make this choice vs the online check in choose two options?

Thanks in advance.

 

[lufty]

Looking for some advice. I am going to Disney for my bday in Oct. My boyfriend has never been to disney so wanted to get a decent room without breaking the bank. I have it narrowed down to CBR or french quarter? We will be spending more time at Disney Springs at night, so liked the idea of the boat, but don't like the shared busing to everywhere else. Not sure how big a deal that is though. Any thoughts?

 

[Kevin355]

Any chance the food court has more gluten free snack options this year? I loved visiting AOA because they had the Erin Mckenna cupcakes! Hoping CBR starts offering them!

My wife is gluten, soy, and dairy free due to allergies...she had no problem with the snacks.

 

[kaybird]

Looking for some advice. I am going to Disney for my bday in Oct. My boyfriend has never been to disney so wanted to get a decent room without breaking the bank. I have it narrowed down to CBR or french quarter? We will be spending more time at Disney Springs at night, so liked the idea of the boat, but don't like the shared busing to everywhere else. Not sure how big a deal that is though. Any thoughts?

We have stayed at both. POFQ is great, Boat to DS, and we have never had a bus issue. CBR is beautiful, some of the bus routes go thru the resort for a while, but the resort is centrally located and not far from any of the parks. Think you would enjoy either one, we find POFQ very easy to navigate as it is the smallest of the resorts, and if you are planning on a lot of time at DS, it may be your best bet.

 

[wdw4rfam]

Looking for some advice. I am going to Disney for my bday in Oct. My boyfriend has never been to disney so wanted to get a decent room without breaking the bank. I have it narrowed down to CBR or french quarter? We will be spending more time at Disney Springs at night, so liked the idea of the boat, but don't like the shared busing to everywhere else. Not sure how big a deal that is though. Any thoughts?

The PO resorts don't share buses to parks except at down times when there aren't many people traveling back and forth and to DS. In the am and pm they never share. CBR is my favorite with The PO resorts closely behind, so I don't think you can go wrong either way.

 

[Shellyred8]

We will be there Dec 10th-16th, last time we were there at the end of May and there were storms every afternoon, typically are there still rain/thunderstorms in December? They were always super quick but we aren't sure whether we should bring ponchos or not.

We have gone in early December a few times and the weather has always been great! 70's to 80's and sunny. I know it isn't that way every year, but chances are good that you will have some pleasant weather. And if it does rain, it usually passes quickly. Have a great trip!

 

[Shellyred8]

Sorry if this has been asked (I'm sure it probably has a gazillion times), been trying to keep up with the thread... We'll be there in 18 days. Standard room. Our requests were Jamaica close to transportation. Course you never know about requests. Especially booking Standard, popular section, almost capacity... It's our 1st CBR stay. My only concern being a newbie of course is the size and time frame for the bus. We can def adjust and deal though. We're used to Pop only. While the double beds always bugged me, I really liked there being one bus location/when you leave you're on your way to your destination. While I know the actual wait for a bus to arrive depends on variables, I've always budgeted about an hour from getting to the bus stop and arriving at the park we're going to. (Which has always given us a cushion of time so to speak). Do you guys think this is still a safe estimate from any Standard choice village at CBR without cutting it close enough to worry? If not, what would you recommend? I'd rather arrive earlier than expected than deal with any stress of being late. Stress is why we escape the "real" world right? Lol

In my experience, and this applies to all of the Disney resorts I've stayed at, if the bus transportation is slow on the first day, it's usually slow for most of the rest of my stay. So, if you find that the busses are running slow on your first day, I would plan to allow more travel time for the rest of your stay.

 

[Shellyred8]

Looking for some advice. I am going to Disney for my bday in Oct. My boyfriend has never been to disney so wanted to get a decent room without breaking the bank. I have it narrowed down to CBR or french quarter? We will be spending more time at Disney Springs at night, so liked the idea of the boat, but don't like the shared busing to everywhere else. Not sure how big a deal that is though. Any thoughts?

We stayed at CBR earlier this year for the first time and I was pleasantly surprised at how short the trip was to DS. I don't know if it's shorter than the boat trip or not, but I don't think it's much longer. On the other hand, I love that boat trip to French Quarter from DS!

 

[SPOERLX3]

We will be there Dec 10th-16th, last time we were there at the end of May and there were storms every afternoon, typically are there still rain/thunderstorms in December? They were always super quick but we aren't sure whether we should bring ponchos or not.

December is our favorite time of year to go! Beautiful weather during the day and a light jacket at night.
This year all our schedule would allow is September. We will be there in one week! I am preparing myself now for the heat and daily rain showers but oh well, we will be at Disney!
Next year we will be there in December and I am already excited about it!

 

[SPOERLX3]

Sorry if this has been asked (I'm sure it probably has a gazillion times), been trying to keep up with the thread... We'll be there in 18 days. Standard room. Our requests were Jamaica close to transportation. Course you never know about requests. Especially booking Standard, popular section, almost capacity... It's our 1st CBR stay. My only concern being a newbie of course is the size and time frame for the bus. We can def adjust and deal though. We're used to Pop only. While the double beds always bugged me, I really liked there being one bus location/when you leave you're on your way to your destination. While I know the actual wait for a bus to arrive depends on variables, I've always budgeted about an hour from getting to the bus stop and arriving at the park we're going to. (Which has always given us a cushion of time so to speak). Do you guys think this is still a safe estimate from any Standard choice village at CBR without cutting it close enough to worry? If not, what would you recommend? I'd rather arrive earlier than expected than deal with any stress of being late. Stress is why we escape the "real" world right? Lol

I had asked a few post back about getting to PPO reservations and the consensus for travel time was 1-1.5 hours to get there on time, just to allow plenty of time. I was also wondering if you have you checked your on line check in room requests on disneyworld.com recently? The reason I ask, a couple of weeks and a few pages back some were talking that Martinique is now the only village on the "on-line" check in list and thier choice of Jamaica was now gone from their room location request. I went into mine to check and sure enough, all my room requests were gone and when I went to add ground floor room back as my only request, Jamaica was gone as an option. I was just wondering if everyone was effected or just a select few.

Have a great trip! 1 week for us

 

[ENJDisneyFan]

I was also wondering if you have you checked your on line check in room requests on disneyworld.com recently? The reason I ask, a couple of weeks and a few pages back some were talking that Martinique is now the only village on the "on-line" check in list and thier choice of Jamaica was now gone from their room location request. I went into mine to check and sure enough, all my room requests were gone and when I went to add ground floor room back as my only request, Jamaica was gone as an option. I was just wondering if everyone was effected or just a select few.

I just did online check in last week and the only option I had was Martinique.

 

[dkmulder]

Looking for some advice. I am going to Disney for my bday in Oct. My boyfriend has never been to disney so wanted to get a decent room without breaking the bank. I have it narrowed down to CBR or french quarter? We will be spending more time at Disney Springs at night, so liked the idea of the boat, but don't like the shared busing to everywhere else. Not sure how big a deal that is though. Any thoughts?

I've stayed at both and would hands down recommend POFQ. I thought the busses at CBR were a nightmare and will not stay there again because of them. There are seven bus stops at CBR, and if a bus fills quickly at the first few stops, you have to wait even longer for another bus to come. And it may be centrally located, but some of our bus rides had 20+minutes just at the resort going from stop to stop, letting people on and off. I know Disbey says to allow 90 minutes in travel time when you have ADRs, but I saw a couple get on the bus with us at 4:20, they had ADRs at 5:05 at BOG. We didn't get to the park until 5:10. They were so upset they missed their ADR (it was their first time riding the bus). I have stayed at all three all stars, Pop, POFQ, POR, CR, and AKL and have never experienced such horrible bussing. And I know people say the bussing can be horrible no matter where you stay (which I was always one of those people), CBR's bussing issues exist because of the number of stops within the resort itself. I expect to have times where I have to wait for a bus. I expect times where I will have to stand (more times than not). I don't expect the time spent picking people up and dropping people off within the resort to take longer than the ride to the parks. So if the negative for you staying at POFQ was due to possibly sharing a bus...stay at POFQ.

 

[rookie2]

You've made an excellent choice to save some $$ for a longer trip. We have stayed at YC 4 times and BC 3 times and we prefer CBR because we just can't justify the extra $$. CBR is a great bargain and we feel is the best bang for our buck on property. Every Village has its own leisure pool so you will be very close to one no matter where you are and we really like the leisure pools too.

Having said that, your son will definitely not be comfortable on the Murphy Bed. The Murphy Bed is 63" x 30" so your son is 10 inches taller than the bed is long. And at only 30" wide it will be very tough for him to curl up so his feet aren't hanging off the bed. An air mattress is the way to go. We have always put the air mattress between the bed and the window and it fits just fine. When we're not using it we stand it up against the wall so it's out of the way.

Thank you for your insight! I appreciate your comparison of YC and CBR... I keep doubting my choice. I know we would like a pool view but any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated!