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Need advice: We are staying at the Carribean Beach resort in Nov. I see several comments about it being so big and having to take shuttle to front of it to get to busses for the day? has anyone stayed in the Pirate themed rooms and are they close to the food court/pool or close to the lobby area?
The pirate themed rooms are actually the furthest away from everything. But, it's all manageable. Not too big of a deal and it is a beautiful resort. My family enjoys it.
It is pretty big and spread out, but you don't need to take a shuttle to get to the busses. There is at least one bus stop in every "village", it's just that the bus will makes the rounds within the resort before heading out. All park buses stop at all bus stops. You don't need to take the internal shuttle at all if you don't want to, but depending on where your room is, there could be a fair amount of walking involved, so you want to look over the resort map if that is a concern and request, an area accordingly.Quote:
Originally Posted by minnielove
It is a beautiful resort though. I just felt the need to utilize my rental car more when I stayed there.
The pirate rooms are about a 10-15 minute walk from the main pool/food court if you dont want to wait for the bus. We just took the back way by the water and never had a problem walking, but if you have little ones would just wait for the bus. They are never a long wait since all it does is just drive around the resort.
It is a large resort laid out in 6 "villages" surrounding a lake. The check-in building, Custom House, is off by itself at the entrance of the resort - you must then cross 2 internal resort roadways to get to the resort buildings. Each village is made up of several buildings. They are color-coded to be all the same color in each village. Each village has a bus stop and a quiet pool. The building that houses the food court, restaurant, shops, and main pool is Old Port Royale. It's located near the center of the lake and has it's own bus stop as well. There's an island in the middle of the lake with bridges on either side so that the villages across from Old Port Royale have fairly easy access. The playground is also located on the island. The Pirate-themed rooms are in Trinidad South which is across a roadway from the other villages and is a 5-15 min walk to Old Port Royale depending on your room location and how fast you walk. The Pirate-themed rooms are awesome and worth the bit of extra distance if you enjoy the theming. Bell Services has vans and carts to help you move your luggage if you need such assistance. We walked ours from Jamaica to Custom House and it was a long, hot, tiring trip!
We have stayed in both Jamaica and Martinque sections. We loved Jamaica because it was a very nice walk over the bridge to get to the food court and the main pool.
As mentioned, the pirate rooms are the furthest from the pool and food court - BUT that's why there are shuttles. If you don't want to hike, take the shuttle (I would - it is all I can do to manage all the walking at the parks without adding on extra at the resort). But as for busses to the parks, they stop in every village so no longer wait at all, nor any need to take an internal shuttle to get to them. I booked a preferred location right by the main building because I was worried about that too, but now that I understand the shuttles it wouldn't have been THAT big a deal. one weirdness, though, since I'm used to POR is that the check in "the Custom house" is in a separate building - NOT where the food court, souvenir store etc. are. I would NOT walk from there to anywhere - it was pretty isolated! And just as a further nuisance - you can't take luggage on the shuttle bus, so if you arrive with any carry on (which we had, even though our main bags went by Magical Express) you HAVE to use bell services (and tip, of course. At por we've never needed bell services).
I stayed once and would never stay again, the resort is way to big, the buses take forever to drop you off, I didn't like taking short cuts through the parking lots,
This is a beautiful resort and we've stayed at both Martinique and S. Trinidad. The former was right next to the food court and main pool, while the latter was in a Pirate-themed section
We stayed at S Trinidad for my son (then 2YO). The room was cute and the location was picturesque. But here are a couple of caveats about staying in that section:
We were on second floor and as of 2011 there were no elevators. We had to carry our stroller up and down steps every day.
Our room was the farthest on property from Centertown. Each night, we'd need to stop for milk or to retrieve packages. While that walk seemed beautiful in the morning, I can't tell you how laborious it felt after a full day of "parking."
The bus situation was another issue. If you look at a map, you'll see S. Trinidad is set off by itself off the main loop. It's on the other side of the bridge. On busy mornings, the Magic Kingdom bus would be filled to capacity before reaching our bus stop. Some times, the bus would turn, cross the bridge, and exit instead of driving straight to our stop. There was a CM at our stop every morning, monitoring the bus situation. After several buses (presumably filled to capacity) turned and exited, bypassing our stop, the CM called and requested a private bus for just our stop.
Just some things to keep in mind
This is our favorite moderate, and we will be there in a little over 3 weeks!! :D We have stayed in Aruba, Martinique and Jamaica, with Jamaica by far being our favorite - we love the coloring of the bldgs (each "island", aka group of bldgs, has it's own color and the architecture is just a bit different) and the fact that we can easily take the bridge across to the pool and Old Port Royale, the main bldg that houses the food court, restaurant and gift shop.
We've never stayed in a pirate room, although they look really cool... we have heard the beds are not all that comfortable, to be honest. They are located in Trinidad South, the furthest "island" from everything... but like other posters have stated, if you have small children, you can catch a shuttle to the main bldg/pool rather than walking.
We have truly never really felt like the buses take that much longer to get places d/t the fact that they have to stop in each "island"... although I will say our very first time there, it was a bit of an an eye-opener as we didn't quite know what to expect. But once we got used to it, we enjoyed the ride seeing the other areas, and just got used to 5 extra minutes relaxing. :) Enjoy!!
It is now going on 7 years since we stayed there but I was not a fan. Some things that we had gripes over (like the room) may have improved, but I found the bus situation frustrating. One morning we waited an hour for a bus to MK because we were the last stop and the buses were already full when they got to us. In that hour only 2 buses for MK came, meanwhile 5 empty AK buses came. It was a scene because everyone at the stop was getting frustrated. Also if your village is one of the last stops after a long day in the parks, it is tedious to stop and unload at the other villages. I know there are many people who have never had a problem, but were never as unhappy with the bus system as we were when we stayed at CBR.
We've stayed there 5 or 6 times and at all of the islands except Aruba. We really like the theme of the resort and being spread out. Getting to Old Port Royale has never been an issue for us as we enjoy going for a walk around the lake.
Also, never had an issue with the bus service. I think this can really depend on the time of year though, as we generally visit at off peak times (Sept./Oct.). I can see the busses being very crowded at peak times of the year.
Caribbean Beach is the one moderate resort where I would recommend booking a preferred room, for the location factor. Fortunately, the preferred rooms usually cost the same as a regular (non-preferred) room at any of the other moderates, so it isn't that much extra. I was not a fan of the resort until a trip two years ago where we did stay in a preferred room and it really was so convenient and made staying there much more enjoyable.
Hi! We are strongly considering Caribbean Beach for the theming. We are taking a 4 day trip - 2 sisters looking to enjoy F&W and some QT! :) We will have a car and have been known to shell out cash for a taxi when we can't stand the bus wait.
Question is... what buildings are the "preferred rooms" - if we want a nice view, close to parking lot and/or the main Old Port Royale building, which rooms should we request?
Thanks in advance!!
and... anyone know how long it has been since they did a re-furb? Is there a chance we will get a stinky, desperate-for-a-refurb room? :)
Preferred rooms are in Trinidad North buildings 31, 32, 33 and Martinique buildings 24, 25, 26. We were in building 25 and also just happened to get a water view (we did not book or request it). While it was pretty, I don't think any of the moderate resorts merit paying extra for the view. Since the windows also overlook the walkways between rooms, there is no privacy to sit and enjoy the scenery.Quote:
Originally Posted by disneykidsince1970
Hi. We stayed in the Pirate Room in 2009. It was one of the reasons we wanted to stay at CB (we have stayed at POR, POFQ prior to that). I absolutely hated it because of the transporation issues we had. The room looking "cool" was not enough for us to forget the hassle of the resort. The kids were too tired from the parks to walk to the pool. The buses took forever to get us to the main pool and to the parks. We waited almost two hours for a bus to MK (all the buses were full by the time they got to us). It was the worst experience at Disney:thedolls: We took our car to go eat at the restaurant on site. What a mess and a hassle.
We stayed at CBR for the first time, earlier this year. I loved the theming and how quiet the resort was (I guess because it is spread out). We stayed in Aruba so we were close enough to walk to the food court and pools. My only complaint about the resort was our room was sooo humid. We switched rooms (same bldg) and it was humid too! I hope they have /will work this out. I would love to go back.
I stayed at the Caribbean Beach Resort once, and personally wouldn't recommend it. I would, however, recommend allocating a decent amount of time to waiting for the bus to the park you want. It takes a while, possibly around an hour.
I've stayed at CBR several times and have never had any issues with transportation. Some years we have stayed in a preferred building and other times we have not. Most of the complaints wouldn't happen if people would take the 5-10 minutes before they make their reservation to do a little research on the resort. Is the resort large? Yes, but not to the point I would never stay there or recommend it to others. Will you have transportation issues? You might, but it isn't due to the resort. We've always gone in peak season and never waited more than 5-15 minutes for a bus to a park. It's Disney World, you won't be the only ones there so busses do fill up. Advice? Stay in the preferred rooms, but even if you can't get one of these you will still enjoy the resort. It's one of my favorites!
We just returned from a week at CBR and really enjoyed it. We found it very quiet and peaceful! The bus service was very good--I don't think we waited more than 10 minutes for a bus at any point. I would definitely recommend a room in the Jamaica section; the buses often stop there first/early in the loop, and the walk over the bridge to Old Port Royale was very pretty. We're definitely considering staying there again!
My family LOVES CBR! We have stayed twice in the past and will be staying there again this coming November!:mickey:
We've stayed at CB a few times, once when the 2 DS' were "stroller" age but never had a problem getting from point A to B to C etc. Unless someone in your party has a situation that makes it hard getting around or you have a small army of little ones in tow, you'll be fine. Look over the maps, figure out the bussing schedules - a little advanced planning will make everything go smooth. Oh, and we really liked the resort too!! :cool:
I stayed here last fall with my parents, sister and a friend. I loved it. Loved the pool and the walk from Jamaica to the food court in the morning.
Planning a trip for next fall. We should stay at a value but all I can think about is this hotel and bringing my kids here.