Carribean Beach Resort

[mom2morgan]

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).

[SlinkyDog]

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,

[MrPeetrie]

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

[Dsnygirl]

This is our favorite moderate, and we will be there in a little over 3 weeks!! 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!!

[PirateLover]

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.

[DizNut42]

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.

[MNNHFLTX]

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.