CABANA BAY BEACH RESORT Thread..........

If I book a standard room, what views would I likely have? How many floors up do standard rooms go? (I don't want a first floor room) Pool view is $5 more and volcano view is $10 more a night. It's my first trip, so I don't know much about any of them them.

I asked before about the refillable mugs, but forgot to ask, is coffee, hot chocolate, and hot water chipped? I am a former Disney AP person and they didn't chip theirs, so I didn't buy a new cup every trip since that is all I drink.
 
basic rooms...are the family suites mingled with these around the property? or by themselves? If we have a basic room booked, is one area of the property better than the other? DO they take room requests here?
 
asked before about the refillable mugs, but forgot to ask, is coffee, hot chocolate, and hot water chipped? I am a former Disney AP person and they didn't chip theirs, so I didn't buy a new cup every trip since that is all I drink.

I don't believe they're chipped but they are next to the chipped drinks. I think ethically, I'd pay to reactivate your cup in order to use the coffee and hot chocolate.
 


If I book a standard room, what views would I likely have? How many floors up do standard rooms go?

If it's just a Standard, it will be a parking lot view. You can be higher than a level one since I've seen videos where a guest showed the view and obviously was not on the first floor.

Other than that I cannot answer your other questions as I'm not an expert. I'm going to be figuring things out this weekend when I go. I got a Poolside Standard so I guess it'll be interesting to see how that works, especially since I didn't make any room requests since I'm not with my family. Usually they're more specific, but I'm more laid back.

As for room requests @hsmamato2 traditionally what I do at any hotel (other than making the right selection of tier level room, making my selections online of the requests they give me, or calling ahead of time if there is something more specific) I arrive early (really early), let them know, or remind them of the room requests, and let them know I'm willing to be patient and wait for the kind of room I'm requesting.

They always say they "cannot guaranteed it" no matter how many times you request it. However, if you show up early enough and willing to wait for what you want it will highly increase your chances of getting what you want.
 
If it's just a Standard, it will be a parking lot view. You can be higher than a level one since I've seen videos where a guest showed the view and obviously was not on the first floor.

Other than that I cannot answer your other questions as I'm not an expert. I'm going to be figuring things out this weekend when I go. I got a Poolside Standard so I guess it'll be interesting to see how that works, especially since I didn't make any room requests since I'm not with my family. Usually they're more specific, but I'm more laid back.

As for room requests @hsmamato2 traditionally what I do at any hotel (other than making the right selection of tier level room, making my selections online of the requests they give me, or calling ahead of time if there is something more specific) I arrive early (really early), let them know, or remind them of the room requests, and let them know I'm willing to be patient and wait for the kind of room I'm requesting.

They always say they "cannot guaranteed it" no matter how many times you request it. However, if you show up early enough and willing to wait for what you want it will highly increase your chances of getting what you want.

I am interested to hear about your trip when you return! It is my first time. I hope you have a great time!
 


We stayed for the first time a couple of weeks ago, Columbus Day weekend for HHN. Stayed in an exterior entry family suite in the Starlight Building. Had a first floor room which was great as we parked the car right in front of our room. Got lost a couple times walking around but that's on us for not paying attention.. The suite was great, 3 of us so there was plenty of room. Had friends come over, let the kids bowl and hit the arcade while us adults walked to the Bar 17 on top the Adventura Hotel for dinner one night. Which is a really great place, drinks are strong, foods good and that view....Wow!
anyway, back to our stay... it was great, everything we wanted out of this resort. Did not really hit the pools, but did eat at Atomic Tonic one afternoon with mixed reviews. Overall staff was very friendly, eager to help if needed. Really impressed with the Busses, always seemed to be a bus waiting either to leave CB or at Citywalk. One morning we wanted to arrive at the opening for Hagrid's, and CB had the double Volcano Bay busses lined ready up to take everyone. One time we took the over pass and walked to Shapphire Fall for the boat, easy peasy. We'll be back to stay here again, it's really a fun resort.
 
We stayed for the first time a couple of weeks ago, Columbus Day weekend for HHN. Stayed in an exterior entry family suite in the Starlight Building. Had a first floor room which was great as we parked the car right in front of our room. Got lost a couple times walking around but that's on us for not paying attention.. The suite was great, 3 of us so there was plenty of room. Had friends come over, let the kids bowl and hit the arcade while us adults walked to the Bar 17 on top the Adventura Hotel for dinner one night. Which is a really great place, drinks are strong, foods good and that view....Wow!
anyway, back to our stay... it was great, everything we wanted out of this resort. Did not really hit the pools, but did eat at Atomic Tonic one afternoon with mixed reviews. Overall staff was very friendly, eager to help if needed. Really impressed with the Busses, always seemed to be a bus waiting either to leave CB or at Citywalk. One morning we wanted to arrive at the opening for Hagrid's, and CB had the double Volcano Bay busses lined ready up to take everyone. One time we took the over pass and walked to Shapphire Fall for the boat, easy peasy. We'll be back to stay here again, it's really a fun resort.
good report..... so would you say the buses are better run than disney onsite? (heresy I know, but there have been times when their buses fall short,and times when they're fine) so you can walk over a bridge to grab the SF boat too? this sounds ideal
 
good report..... so would you say the buses are better run than disney onsite? (heresy I know, but there have been times when their buses fall short,and times when they're fine) so you can walk over a bridge to grab the SF boat too? this sounds ideal
When we stayed at CBBR in late September, we relied exclusively on the buses the whole week we were there and never had to wait on a bus even once, including after park close. Fantastic bus service at Universal!
 
good report..... so would you say the buses are better run than disney onsite? (heresy I know, but there have been times when their buses fall short,and times when they're fine) so you can walk over a bridge to grab the SF boat too? this sounds ideal
Not heresy around here! I am not a fan of Disney transportation and usually drive to the parks. I always take the CB buses to the Uni parks, I often opt to walk back to CB, or sometimes take the boat to SF and brave crossing at the light (no crosswalk so need to be alert).

As to your location question, all the standard rooms are in the 2 tower buildings, many trips and I have always been in Americana, there are interior entry family suites there also. The 3 buildings on the opposite side of the lobby are all exterior entry family suites. You could request to be close to the lobby or elevators, as the standard room hallways can be quite long. I don’t mind being at the far end; it just means a shorter walk to VB
 
good report..... so would you say the buses are better run than disney onsite? (heresy I know, but there have been times when their buses fall short,and times when they're fine) so you can walk over a bridge to grab the SF boat too? this sounds ideal

This was my first time to use Universal's bus transportation and it was a thousand times better then Disney's bus transportation. I actually looked forward to getting on the bus knowing that in 15 minutes I'd be back at the resort.

Yes, you can walk to Sapphire Falls to catch the boat. Walk through the lobby out to the boat launch. Only go through security once, at the boat launch. Keep walking just past Sapphire Falls is the Adventura Hotel
 
I think CB must be overbooked for my dates in Nov. (12-18) I have gotten 2 emails in the past 4 days offering me an upgrade from standard room to a family suite for $15+ tax per night. My last trip there in Feb they gave me an (unwanted) free upgrade to exterior entry suite. I was traveling solo and prefer to be in an interior entry room, closer walk to VB.

Reminds me a bit of the rental car upsell, where they try to get you to pay to upgrade to a bigger car, before eventually admitting they don't have a car in your reserved class and have to upgrade you for free.
 
As promised a trip report.

We arrived a little after 8 in the morning. It was quiet and check in was a breeze since no one is in line obviously that early. Received a coupon for free cake, pastry, or ICEE due to it being my birthday. She said I clearly had “birthday magic” since I got the only available room. So, we were able to get in our room immediately. Which I questioned whether this was “Magic”, or done purposely since we happened to get this view:

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You may have early check out (see processes below, or once 11 hits, it’s “automatic check out” which means you do not have to visit the lobby to check out, or speak to anyone)

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I suggest for those that want early check in to arrive as early as possible. As when we went to the lobby to discuss future plans on staying it had a lot of people waiting around for rooms already and it was around 11 (official check in is technically 4PM).

Another thing to randomly add is that I noticed they had a lot more smoking areas than they advertise on the map. I wanted to add that for anyone may be interested to know if they were ever worried about lack of smoking areas.

Bus service was flawless. Only waited for a bus once. All other times we never waited. The one time we waited, we waited for a minute. However, at the front desk, they inform you it’s a 10-15 minute wait for busses.

Parking is charged by how many nights you stay. We went for one night and it was $19. She said we didn’t have to leave by a certain time the next day to be charged again. She informed us we could “stay until midnight” if we wanted to.

For the big rafts it was $11, it was $8 I believe my friend said for the slightly smaller rafts for the lazy river. We noticed first thing in the morning they would throw a few empty ones in there. We never went for it, but we were wondering if those were first come, first serve, and then from there the rest of the guests would have to purchase theirs. However, it was only a few rafts.

It was one of my absolute best resort experiences. I love the theming, everything was clean, staff was nice, it was relaxing, and it was an amazing view. I truly felt as if I went back in time. I always been fascinated by the era of the 50’s. My friend who came with me thought it was amazing and wants to go for her birthday.

I have a lot of photos, but wanted to show some of the basics and wanted to edit a few photos together so I didn’t flood the page too much. I hope this helps.
 
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Thank you so much for the report! What type room did you have and where did you end up? I will be there in a week and am looking forward to a relaxing trip!

You're very welcome. Poolside Standard room. Beachside tower, on the 8th floor. Also, I believe Beachside and Bayside are the two towers that also have the Volcano Bay views rooms, as Volcano Bay was right behind the building. When you walked out of the Bayliner Diner and into the area of the pool that has the lazy river you can see the Volcano in the distance.
 
The Christmas trees are up at CBBR!
When I checked in Tuesday I was told they were charging the room balance to my card right then. This was a surprise and I didn’t have my gift cards out and ready. He said I could bring the gift cards later and they would reverse the charges (could take up to 5 days, yay!). I have never had this happen before, they always charged on checkout day.
 
Just booked CBBR for the Orlando Informer event in February. We normally just go to Disney, so we're excited to try CBBR out this time around.
 
Just booked CBBR for the Orlando Informer event in February. We normally just go to Disney, so we're excited to try CBBR out this time around.

So I looked at our reservation and this is what it is telling me regarding the room:
LOCATION: Tower Section (South Side closer to I-4) FLOORS: 7

Does this mean we will be on the 7th floor? Or, do they assign the rooms as you get there?
 

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