Hints and tips for CBR

[Daisy712]

Hello,

We are going to WDW the week of July 21. We are staying at CBR, Husband, Myself, 2 teen girls, and 2 teen boys. I haven't stayed there since our honeymoon in 1989. Do you have any tips or hints for CBR? We are staying in a regular rooms. We plan to dine at the counter service at the main building.

Thanks for your help.

[minnie-mouse]

Not sure what tips you are looking for. CBR is great. Definitely try and request a building closer to OPR. Although with teens, they should be fine with the walk. Enjoy!

[Pirate Granny]

Make sure you have CONNECTING rooms on your reservation and not adjoining rooms...so you have the door between your two rooms. Kids being Kids you may want to keep an eye on their coming and goings. We've been in Jamaica and Barbados...love the CBR.

[KAT1811]

Bring good walking shoes! The resort is quite large and if you have a room far from the pool/food area you could have a good distance to walk each day. Like a pp said try to request a room close to those areas.

[DisneyDudet]

Request to be in Martinique. It isn't far from bus stops (the first stop of the resort) and from Old Port Royale, which is where the food court is. We got lucky and stayed there, and it was absolutely perfect. We were in Building 26, but building 25 isn't that much further. Our walk to the bus stop and OPR was less than a minute, plus, it was one of the quietest rooms we've stayed in at Disney!

CBR is my favorite mod!

[huslovesthemouse]

Request Trinidad North - it's right next to the food court, main pool, etc., we also stayed in Aruba which was a little further away but a nice walk across the bridge

[mickeefan]

We have stayed there many times, but not in recent years. Our favorite was always Martinique, building 26 with 25 a close second.
You are less than 2 minutes away from OPR and the bus stop is just across the small parking lot behind OPR.

[Daisy712]

Thanks everyone for the tips. We are so excited. I will look into your great suggestions.

[Gibbs]

Is there a bar or lounge at CBR?

[RedSoxandPatsfan]

One hint to remember is there is an Internal resort bus. This is just like the park buses, but it only travels to the "islands", and the Carriage House. So if you don't want to walk somewhere within your resort, you can wait 5 to 10 minutes and the internal bus will come along.

Another hint would be that they have a second concierge desk located in Old Port Royale. So if you need tix to a dinner show, or anything else that is offered by concierge, you can just go there and not all the way back to Carriage House.

[fatboy]

Is there a bar or lounge at CBR?

There is a cabana style bar at the main pool. It is opened till Midnight I believe. They also sell beer and liquor at the gift shop.

[CleveRocks]

Request to be in Martinique.

Request Trinidad North

It's important to note that 3 of the 6 buildings in Martinique and all 3 buildings in Trinidad North are "preferred location."

At CBR, "preferred location" is a separate booking category that costs more per night than a standard room, because these 6 buildings are the closest guest buildings to Old Port Royale.

If you merely REQUEST a room in one of those buildings, you are asking for a free upgrade. This not only means that you're asking for something for free, but also that your odds of getting your request met are relatively low, since everyone who paid for that type of room is, of course, already in line ahead of you for that type of room.

In Martinique, buildings 24, 25 and 26 are preferred location, and buildings 21, 22 and 23 are standard.

Regarding bus stops, every village has its own bus stop, which means there's no such thing as a village that is farther from or closer to a bus stop than any other village.

[wdwnutz]

This resort is HUGE. Just keep in mind that the main building where you catch the ME is not the same building that the food court and gift shop is in like the other resorts! We usually stop at the the food court before leaving on the ME for lunch and some last minute shopping, but at CBR it is clear on the other side of the resort! We figure out though to use the internal bus, but you cannot take your luggage on this bus. So the biggest mistake we made was the last day we were at CBR was to not have our luggage picked up from our room and stored until we left on ME. The resort is HUGE and the building that you have to drop off your luggage was on the other side of the resort so we dragged our luggage all around the resort! Crazy morning, but at least we learned our lesson! Every other time we always have our luggage picked up, but some reason we didn't this time.....

[Daisy712]

Thanks, everyone. I am taking notes as I read. Great help!!!

[ShinynewJB]

There's a little island in the middle of the lake called 'Caribbean Cay' which links Jamaica/Aruba to Old Port Royale that I definitely recommend walking through a couple of times, even if you aren't staying in either of those villages.

Look out for turtles in the lakes! I remember seeing more of these on the bridge from Caribbean Cay to Old Port Royale. I guess it depends where you're from, but being English we were certainly quite excited to see turtles swimming around in the lake!

If you decide to collect pressed coins, there's a machine in the Custom House where you check in as well as the two (I think?) machines in Old Port Royale.

Can't think of any more off the top of my head, but there are loads of nice little features that make this resort awesome!

[sherriepaul]

I'm almost 100% sold on staying at CBR for our sept 2011 trip. I did read on other board people complained that the rooms were "old". But on another board I read all the rooms were being refurbished to the nemo or pirate style. So which is it? Any thoughts?!?!

Looks like a great place for kids, and mine will be 7(DS, DD). Is it 2011 yet??!?!?!?

[sherriepaul]

oh forgot, how much are pressed coins? Do they have that in the parks too? And how much there?
Thanks!

[CleveRocks]

I'm almost 100% sold on staying at CBR for our sept 2011 trip. I did read on other board people complained that the rooms were "old". But on another board I read all the rooms were being refurbished to the nemo or pirate style. So which is it? Any thoughts?!?!

All 2,112 of CBR's rooms were refurbished during the course of 2008.

One entire village, Trinidad South, was completely transformed into Pirate theme rooms. These rooms are VERY heavily themed, and are a separate booking category from a standard room, and cost more per night.

When ALL of the rooms in the other 5 villages were refurbished, they were given a very slight Finding Nemo motif. I call it a motif and not a theme, because it's only two subtle touches, some Nemo characters on the bedspreads and some Nemo characters on the wallpaper border around the top of the room.

[princessimagineer]

when i went, my sister and i were both teenage girls, and we very much enjoyed the walking path around the lake. we stayed in Jamaica, which was nice because it is on the other side of the lake from OPR(so it was quiet), but directly across the bridge(so still close an convienient). The individual quiet pools are also nice for just chilling.