Disney's CARIBBEAN BEACH RESORT Information & Questions

[katiz]

Are microwaves and refrigerators standard in all rooms at CBR? And, ironing boards?

 

[Airship Ariadne]

I think the towel animals are mouse keeper dependent, when we were there in Dec 2014 the mouse keeper we had for the first 4 days made towel animals and kept leaving us notes in response to our origami animals with the tip money...then the last two days we had someone else clean the room, no nice notes and no towel animals.

 

[blackpearl77]

Are microwaves and refrigerators standard in all rooms at CBR? And, ironing boards?

No microwaves. There is one in Old Port Royal (where the food court is) you can use. All rooms have refrigerators.

 

[katiz]

Thanks for the info.

 

[blackpearl77]

They all have irons too. I can't for the life of me remember if there are ironing boards but there must be since there are irons! Hehe

 

[dansdad]

I asked earlier today to be added to the list of people staying. I just looked for the list and couldn't find it. Is there not a list anymore? Did I miss it?

Here is the link to the Official 2016 CBR Beach Bum Roll Call

http://www.disboards.com/threads/the-official-2016-cbr-beach-bum-roll-call-thread.3410295/

I have added your dates!

 

[dansdad]

They all have irons too. I can't for the life of me remember if there are ironing boards but there must be since there are irons! Hehe

Yup, there's an ironing board too!

 

[dansdad]

Anyone that has stayed recently, did you get towel animals and such? Read somewhere that they didn't do this anymore and my girls loved that last time we were at DW.

I believe the "towel animal" subject can be very touchy (don't ask me why -- I don't really get it), but I will report that I stayed at CBR in late October/early November last year (2015), and had a towel animal (bunny, rose, elephant, etc) pretty much every night when we got back to the room.

We were there last month and no towel animals.

I think the towel animals are mouse keeper dependent, when we were there in Dec 2014 the mouse keeper we had for the first 4 days made towel animals and kept leaving us notes in response to our origami animals with the tip money...then the last two days we had someone else clean the room, no nice notes and no towel animals.

Here's the scoop on towel animals:

My aunt was a housekeeper at WDW for 14 years, she retired about 6 months ago. The towel animals were meant for guests to take home. The towels/wash cloths that were used to make the animals were towels that were going to be taken out of "service" due to fraying, looking ragged etc. That's why they were not always left for guests because there had to be some that were going to be "retired". Not only did there need to be towels available to be made, the housekeeper had to have the time to make them up. They were always meant to be something special, not expected. And as the guests started complaining that they are paying $$$ for the room or tipping $$$ and not getting towels animals every day, they have since decided to stop the practice. Though there are some housekeepers that enjoy doing it so much that they will still do it. But as a whole, they are not encouraged to any longer.

In other words, quite a few "bad apples" ruined a really cool thing.

 

[momdisfan]

You will not get a room with a Water View if you booked a Preferred Room. Rooms are classified as one of the following:

Standard
Preferred
Water View
King
Pirate Themed
Pirate Themed Water View

As you can see there is no Preferred Water View room type so requesting a Water View during Online Check In would be a waste of a request.




We have always had great success by calling the Main Reservations line and adding our room requests to our reservation. Requests are just that and not guaranteed but we are running at about 90% success rate at CBR.

Thanks dansdad for the response. I am a little disappointed that I paid about $450 more for a preferred room than for a water view room, thinking (incorrectly, my mistake) that I could have both. I have read that people have booked water view and been placed in preferred buildings. guess I should have went that route. I did already do online checkin and chose ground floor martinique and water view I have already called reservations desk and added those three requests. I guess I just hope for a little extra pixie dust? We are celebrating our 15th wedding anniversary and birthdays for myself and DH - if I add that perhaps it will help

 

[dansdad]

Thanks dansdad for the response. I am a little disappointed that I paid about $450 more for a preferred room than for a water view room, thinking (incorrectly, my mistake) that I could have both. I have read that people have booked water view and been placed in preferred buildings. guess I should have went that route. I did already do online checkin and chose ground floor martinique and water view I have already called reservations desk and added those three requests. I guess I just hope for a little extra pixie dust? We are celebrating our 15th wedding anniversary and birthdays for myself and DH - if I add that perhaps it will help

You're welcome. I hope you can get a great room for your trip. One trick that I've tried to advertise on the thread here is that if you book a King Bed or a Water View you could get a room in one of the buildings that also have the Preferred Rooms. Buildings are not classified as Preferred, only rooms can be classified as Preferred. All the buildings in Trinidad North along with Martinique 24, 25 and 26 all have 3 room types; Preferred, King and Water View rooms. Most people are under the false impression that those buildings are preferred. But it's the rooms that are classified as such, not the buildings themselves. Whenever I see someone post that they booked a Water View room and got "upgraded" to a Water View room in a preferred building I try to correct that so as not to confuse others reading their post.

 

[mexi]

Room 4423 has a pull down bed. We were here late last night and leaving this morning to check into the BWI.

Even though we weren't here that long CBR seems like a nice resort.

 

[Sharongal74]

Here's the scoop on towel animals:

My aunt was a housekeeper at WDW for 14 years, she retired about 6 months ago. The towel animals were meant for guests to take home. The towels/wash cloths that were used to make the animals were towels that were going to be taken out of "service" due to fraying, looking ragged etc. That's why they were not always left for guests because there had to be some that were going to be "retired". Not only did there need to be towels available to be made, the housekeeper had to have the time to make them up. They were always meant to be something special, not expected. And as the guests started complaining that they are paying $$$ for the room or tipping $$$ and not getting towels animals every day, they have since decided to stop the practice. Though there are some housekeepers that enjoy doing it so much that they will still do it. But as a whole, they are not encouraged to any longer.

In other words, quite a few "bad apples" ruined a really cool thing.

Thank you for the explanation. That's a real shame. Even though my girls are older they have talked about the animals and it's been 4 years. If I worked there I think that is something I would enjoy to do.

 

[themommy]

Here is the link to the Official 2016 CBR Beach Bum Roll Call

http://www.disboards.com/threads/the-official-2016-cbr-beach-bum-roll-call-thread.3410295/

I have added your dates!

Thank you so much! I thought I was losing my mind. I kept thinking, "I know it was here before!". hehe

 

[Elliemay2]

We have a water view room booked and have it noted that we need adjoining rooms. Each room is for 5 family members, so they will need the pull down beds too. Can you tell me if there are any good location adjoining water view rooms with pull down beds? Thank You!

 

[theresaconsorti]

Can you all level with me? I've read so many conflicting reports and I'd love to hear from CBR experts. I blindly booked a pirate water view room (for a 30% discount) for our trip over Thanksgiving week. How bad is it? Will we hate walking that far? Do you feel completely removed from the rest of the resort?

We will be travelling with our 4year old (who will have just turned 5) and 8 year old. I have put in a request to our TA that if anything comes available within our budget, that we'd like a preferred room... am I crazy?

Please share your thoughts!

 

[heath92681]

Can you all level with me? I've read so many conflicting reports and I'd love to hear from CBR experts. I blindly booked a pirate water view room (for a 30% discount) for our trip over Thanksgiving week. How bad is it? Will we hate walking that far? Do you feel completely removed from the rest of the resort?

We will be travelling with our 4year old (who will have just turned 5) and 8 year old. I have put in a request to our TA that if anything comes available within our budget, that we'd like a preferred room... am I crazy?

Please share your thoughts!

My boys LOVED the pirate rooms last year. Walking with them in a double stroller, it took us 10 minutes tops to get to Old Port Royale. There was a bus stop very close to our building. The only time we wished we were closer is when we wanted to quickly refill our mugs.

 

[SJSloan]

We have a water view room booked and have it noted that we need adjoining rooms. Each room is for 5 family members, so they will need the pull down beds too. Can you tell me if there are any good location adjoining water view rooms with pull down beds? Thank You!

If you would like rooms that have an interior door that connects them, change your request to "connecting rooms." Adjoining/adjacent rooms are simply rooms beside each other.

Are the rooms booked under 2 different reservation numbers? If so (and if you haven't done so already) I would call and link the reservations. Then in your requests say something like "connecting room with (reservation #), preferably in Martinique or Trinidad North."

 

[Seattle]

Here's the scoop on towel animals:

My aunt was a housekeeper at WDW for 14 years, she retired about 6 months ago. The towel animals were meant for guests to take home. The towels/wash cloths that were used to make the animals were towels that were going to be taken out of "service" due to fraying, looking ragged etc. That's why they were not always left for guests because there had to be some that were going to be "retired". Not only did there need to be towels available to be made, the housekeeper had to have the time to make them up. They were always meant to be something special, not expected. And as the guests started complaining that they are paying $$$ for the room or tipping $$$ and not getting towels animals every day, they have since decided to stop the practice. Though there are some housekeepers that enjoy doing it so much that they will still do it. But as a whole, they are not encouraged to any longer.

In other words, quite a few "bad apples" ruined a really cool thing.

Makes sense -- we did have an exceptionally kind/friendly mousekeeper. Luck of the draw, apparently!

 

[FBandA]

Anyone know what the hours for swimming are at the smaller pools, do they lock the gates? Can you still get in to do laundry?

 

[FBandA]

Doing the MNSSHP and I was wondering if there is some place to ship your package. Was going to send our candy to our son at college.