I thought I would post a review of our visit to the Caribbean Beach Resort, May 15-22.

In the past we have always stayed at the deluxes, but I must say that we were very surprised by how much we enjoyed the CBR. I requested and got building 45 in Jamaica and found it to be a very pleasant walk across the bridge and over the island to Old Port Royale. The room was very nice and the size was comparable to the WL and AKL rooms, only with double beds. The room was a very short walk to where we always parked our van. Since we always came and went a couple of times a day, this was very convenient. The only thing I really missed over the deluxes was the daily newspaper delivery and the bed size.

OPR met our needs quite well. The food court and grab n' go areas had plenty to offer. We ate there twice for lunch and once for breakfast. The only thing that I thought was missing was a freezer for ice cream bars or ice cream sandwiches. The shops were very nice as well. We didn't visit Shutters since we have our own vehicle and are able to easily visit other resort restaurants.

The pool area was great. I would personally rank the CBR main pool on par with the WL, AKL, and Poly pools, and I would rank the children's 'pirate ship' area far better than the children's areas at those deluxes. The many beaches were also nice, but the playground sets were just okay.

Overall we thought that the CBR was great and will stay there again (in fact, we are planning on staying two nights there before DW and I take a cruise next year). The short distance from the parking lot to the room and the nice walk to OPR are actually things that we thought were better at CBR than the deluxe resorts.