In February of 2019 my daughter and I spent 4 days at Disney exploring new (to us) restaurants and attractions as well as Festival of the Arts and Early Morning Magic at Toy Story Land and Magic Kingdom. Part of whirlwind trip was our first ever stay at Disney’s Caribbean Beach. This resort has never been high on our list due to the large number of bus stops (EIGHT), separated lobby and regular housekeeping complaints. In the Fall of 2018 Caribbean Beach went through several renovations including the demolition of several buildings (for the new Riviera Resort), a brand new lobby and more! I am so excited to share with you more about our stay…and stay tuned to see if it’s now a recommendation of ours!
We arrived around 10 a.m. and like I expected, our room was not ready. We opted to not stick around very long, so after a few photos and dropping our things at Bell Services (located right outside Port Royale) we took off for the bus stop. It’s important to note that the buses always travel in the same direction and the stops don’t change. The bus stop at Port Royale is stop #2 for all parks, Disney Springs, etc.
We spent some time in the parks before returning to the resort, despite the fact that we hadn’t gotten a text stating our room was ready. At check-in I discovered they were granting ALL my room requests but that room wasn’t ready yet. Since I had been up since 1:30 am. I asked if they had ANY room ready. We quickly were given a room on the second floor in building 25 of the Martinique section.
I had stopped this resort in the fall to check out the grounds and the lobby. It’s just so gorgeous!
Our room was less than a 5 minute walk to the main building and pool. The BEST part (ok maybe not best put pretty cool), was that we had a freestyle Coke machine IN OUR BUILDING. Even though the walk wouldn’t have been too bad, it was great coming back each night and only having to walk downstairs to grab a drink!
The only complaint…if I had one at all, was the rooms could use a refresh. There was nothing inherently wrong, but I’ve come accustomed to the newer style of rooms at Disney without carpet and with updated bathrooms.
The view from our room was pretty great…although as a reminder, the window of these rooms looks out on public walkways so unless you want everyone seeing in your room, the view doesn’t mean much. We were able to catch part of Illuminations one night as we grabbed drinks!
In the end, I have to say this resort really impressed me! It liked it much more than I expected and I can’t wait to return with my whole family!! The location of our building played a huge part and I will definitely pay to book a preferred room at this resort. Martinique is the first bus stop and even though there are now six stops, resort-wide, we typically were through all of them within 10 minutes or so.
While we did have a quiet pool nearby, my daughter opted for the Pirate Pool (Sandcastle pool with nearby Pirate Splash Pad). The pool is one of the more impressive on property AND for a moderate resort! It has a zero entry area, 2 water slides and the Splash Pad.
I’d highly recommend this gorgeous resort, and it will be interesting to see how traffic of buses and people will work once the new Gondola system opens. We definitely have a new favorite moderate in our rotation!
