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The Caribbean Beach Resort - a review

For this wonderful 5 day, 4 night trip, we stayed in the beautiful and relaxing Caribbean Beach Resort. This was the resort that I stayed in with my best friend for our trip in 2009, but the last time Kristin was here was our first trip in the glorious year of 1989! So much has changed since then! Before going on our trip, I took the opportunity to write up a brief profile of the resort so that we had a great idea of exactly what we would be encountering during our stay.

The Caribbean Beach is considered an EPCOT resort because of its close proximity to the park; however, you cannot walk between the CB and EPCOT. CB is split up into 9 sections: the Customs House, Old Port Royale Centertown, Caribbean Cay, and the 6 “islands” of Barbados, Martinique, Trinidad North, Trinidad South, Jamaica and Aruba. The Customs House, OPR and Caribbean Cay are common areas for all guests; the 6 islands house the rooms.

The Customs House is probably the one part of the resort where you will spend the least amount of time. In here you will find check-in/out, Magical Express drop off/pickup, airline check in, bell services, concierge, storage, restrooms and a bus stop. The contents are nothing special, but the atmosphere is great! In all honesty, you should only need to use the Customs House at check-in and check-out, especially if you’re using the Magical Express. You can check any luggage or large items with bell services for any length of time during your stay. Most of the islands are a bit of a walk away; however, there is an internal bus that literally drives around the resort all day, with a stop at the Customs House.

As with all other Disney resorts, check-in officially begins at 3 PM. Of course, you can check-in at any time of the day; however, there is no guarantee that your room will be ready. Especially during the busy seasons, I would plan on carrying your essentials on your person. This way, if you do find yourself waiting for your room, you are prepared to take a walk around the resort, go for a swim or even head directly to a park while the hotel staff readies your accommodations and delivers your luggage to your room. Check-out is at 11 AM; as the clock strikes that hour, your room key is deactivated and you will be unable to squat in your room with the hopes of becoming a permanent Disney resident. If you are paying with a credit card, you can opt for express check-out which allows you to by-pass the line at reception. You will receive an itemized bill on your doorknob by 8 AM on the day of your departure. If you have payed in full at check-in, you will not receive this bill; however, you can request one at the front desk before you leave.

In all honesty, when you are not in your room, you will most likely be spending most of your time at the CB in Old Port Royale. This “Centertowne” contains almost every public amenity you will need during your stay. It includes the Market Street food court, Shutters restaurant, shops, another concierge desk, an arcade, the large pirate themed pool with hot tubs, bike and boat rentals, a beach volleyball court, a bus stop and a parking lot. Every island can access OPR by walking or taking a bus. Those guests staying on Aruba or Jamaica can most easily access OPR by taking a shortcut through Caribbean Cay: a small grassy island in the middle of Barefoot Bay with picnic areas and great landscaping. Even if you don’t need to cut through, you should head on over to Caribbean Cay and sit for a spell. The surroundings are relaxing and could give you that little bit of “me” time that you may desperately need.

Five of the islands have six buildings each, while Trinidad North has only three, for a total of 2,112 rooms. Each building has 2 floors; however, the second floors are only accessible via stairs. Anyone who would need a wheelchair accessible room or has difficulty with stairs should request a room on the ground floor. Each room can accommodate up to four adults and one child under 3; they come equipped with two full size beds separated by a night stand holding a phone, phone book and the customary hotel Bible. The dresser supports the TV (hooked up to Disney cable), complimentary coffee pot and coffee, and house the mini-fridge; a dining table with two chairs is nearby. The bathroom area is separated from the sleeping area by a themed curtain. A double vanity with shelving, glasses, and a hair dryer is right next to a closet of sorts with hangers, laundry bags, an iron and ironing board and a safe. The shower and toilet are house in a separate room all together. Extra towels, blankets, pillows, cribs and roll away cots can be requested from housekeeping free of charge. Every room opens out directly on to an open air corridor.

Every island has a beach along the bay where guests can relax on hammocks and chairs, but absolutely cannot swim! This is because boats are available for rent that utilize the same bay. There are 9 pools in total: one in each of the six villages, the main “pirate themed” pool, a kiddie pool and a hot tub. Only the main pool has lifeguards up until 9 PM - after that, you swim at your own risk. There are also 3 playgrounds on resort property; they are located in Barbados, Jamaica and Trinidad South. The path around the bay is equivalent to1.4 miles and is great for running!

Room rates start at $149.00 and vary by season. You can access official room rates, including Florida taxes, on the official Disney Caribbean Beach website. http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/resorts/caribbean-beach-resort/

Now that you have (almost) all the facts about this hotel, it’s time for us to talk about our experiences!

First impression

In all honesty, the resort does not make that big of an impact when you first get off the Magical Express. You almost sneak up on the place. When you enter the grounds, there are two understated signs with pineapples on them (which mean “welcome,” for anyone who is wondering) and you drive down a tree lined road to a small, unimpressive building. The customs house, though perfectly themed, is fairly unimpressive. Don’t let the first impression fool you, though. Wait until you get to the main part of the resort.

Welcome to the Customs House...

Grounds

 One word: GORGEOUS! Don’t believe me? Just look at the photos below. If you are like us and love to walk, this is the perfect resort to do it in. Not only is the 1.4 mile promenade around Barefoot Bay a pleasant walk that passes white sandy beaches and playgrounds and pools, but the walkways through the islands themselves are calm and peaceful. Every inch of these walkways are shadowed by gorgeous trees and feature seating areas with umbrellas for those who want to relax close to their room but can’t bare to stay indoors. The buildings of each island are painted in some typical island colors, but the choices are pretty impeccable. Although we stayed in Trinidad South, my favorite island to look at was Jamaica; Kristin’s was Martinique. There was just something about these two islands that took our breath away and calmed us down even more.

Caribbean Cay was probably the best idea they could have had for this resort. I took a detour through it early one morning and all I can say is “oh my!” When I say the entire area is brimming with lush vegetation, I mean it. Picnic tables, bench swings and play areas are quietly nestled amongst flowering bushes and tropical trees of all sorts. You get a great view of the resort from every angle and, if we had more time, I definitely would have hunkered down for a nap in this green oasis. I didn’t get too many pictures, but the one posted is a great representation of the area as a whole. I would look out for it; especially if you’re walking past the pool, you might miss it all together.

                                         

Old Port Royal

The main pool

  

The dock

  

An example of the white sandy beaches along Barefoot Bay

  

Jamaica

 

 

Martinique

Aruba

 

Trinidad

Barbados

 

 

 

 

The island pool in Barbados

An example of the street lamps and signs you will find

Caribbean Cay - even from far away it's gorgeous!

Even the parking lots are gorgeous!

Room size and cleanliness

We stayed in a pirate room. Yes, that’s right, a pirate room. Apparently, it’s a little odd for two twenty-somethings to book the pirate themed rooms at CB. I don’t know why, because it was SUPER AWESOME!!!! Just the right size for two (or even four) people who are really only using the room to sleep and get ready for the day’s events, our room in Trinidad South was always impeccably cleaned when we returned from our day at the park. I really don’t have any other words to describe the supreme fantastic-ness of these rooms, so here are some pictures! “Yo ho! Yo ho! I’m getting into bed!!!!”

Each chest is a drawer!

Inside this rum barrel is your mini fridge!!!!

Hello there, Flying Dutchman!

Food court offerings

I have a confession here – we didn’t really eat in the food court. I know, I know! Not helpful for our review. However! We did frequent the “convenience” store attached to the food court. Kristin and I aren’t big breakfast people, so what we did instead was grab a bottle of juice and a piece of fruit or yogurt parfait before going to the parks. Surprisingly, the store had a great selection: you could find everything from freshly baked muffins, to fruit cups, to milk and even some spirits. Naturally, the food court offers everything from fresh fruit to scrambled eggs to Mickey waffles and more. You will not go hungry! And if it’s late and you really don’t feel like leaving your room, try the pizza delivery service. It was pretty decent pizza, especially for Florida!

Overall decor

The entire resort was excellently themed and completely relaxing. The decor was just right. Fun and lively in Old Port Royale, while cool and welcoming in the Customs House. You already know how I feel about the grounds and, of course, I’m head over heels in love with the Pirate themed room. But, I’m just head over heels with pirates in general. The only thing that would have made it better is if Captain Jack Sparrow left a message on our phone welcoming us to our quarters.

Staff approachability and friendliness

No complaints here! On our first day, we checked our bags at bell services because our room wasn’t ready yet. Well, we left the room keys in Kristin’s suitcase and expected our bags to be delivered to our room. So, after our day at the park, we had to trudge on over to the Customs House and pick up new room keys. Good job, right? Well, the story gets sillier. Turns out that bell services didn’t deliver our bags to our room because we forgot to put our Magical Express luggage tags on the bags. Yup. Even through that, the entire staff was great, friendly and accomodating.

Transportation

Excellent! The transportation at the CB is far better than that at Port Orleans. In all honesty, they’re not that far away from each other, but the buses work much more efficiently and seem to run more often than at PO. We had two complaints with our transportation from resort to park the entire time, and this was mostly due to impatience on our part. On the day we went to EPCOT, we were waiting at the bus stop for about 10 minutes and the 3rd Magic Kingdom bus was pulling up. So, rather than wait for EPCOT (which was probably right around the corner), we hopped on the MK bus and took the monorail to the TTC and then the monorail to EPCOT. The second was that the bus stop for the CB at Downtown Disney Marketplace is not very well marked. Otherwise, no complaints here.

RATING: 9

We really loved staying at the Caribbean Beach. It is, by far, our favorite moderate resort (so far). I’m already saving up for our next trip during which, hopefully, we’ll be able to try out Coronado Springs. It’s the next resort on our list and we can’t wait to get there!

Well, that’s all for now. Please check back this week for a review of The Brown Derby restaurant and their Fantasmic dinner package.

I hope you all have a magical day!

We're back!

Well, we're back from WDW and what a great vacation we had! We have some great posts planned, and we'll begin publishing them this weekend.

TTFN!