I need some advice. We are planning a short 4 night trip the last week of August and I can decide where to stay. Here are my three choices Caribbean Beach, Port Orleans Riverside, or Dolphin. I can get all three for the same price and its in our budget. Also any of the All Star or Pop resorts would be in their too. We are only going to Animal Kingdom and Magic Kingdom one day each and just relaxing the other two days. So any advice would be helpful. I am leaning towards POR just what I have read seems relaxing. Thanks in advance.
I split my trip last month between CBR and Dolphin and stayed last year at POR so I can give you advice on all 3, IMHO.
CBR - I enjoyed it, I don't mind the walk or the busses though which are the most frequents comments. I stayed in the Barbados section which was a short walk from check in and my beach and pool were very quiet. (Spent a lovely afternoon in a hammock on the beach reading a book and drinking lemonade....ahhh. Not another person there the entire time.) Walk to the shopping/dining was maybe 7 minutes tops, likely closer to 5. I only went to the main pool to look around, wouldn't swim there, personally because it was so crowded and the pool in my section was usually quiet - 6 people at the most and that was only on 1 of my 5 or 6 visits.
Busses ran fairly frequently, I never waited more than 10-15 minutes. Internal bus system was never used since I don't mind walking around the resort.
POR - my favourite moderate resort. Love the pathways and little bridges - I usually stay in Alligator Bayou. I also love the option of taking the boat to DTD. Room is basically the same as CBR so no better/worse there. I have also taken the boat for POFQ for a walk around or to visit their pool instead. the pool situation is about the same as CBR - smaller pools are quieter and main pool is filled with screaming rugrats and usually avoided by me. I like the dining room here better than CBR.
Dolphin - this is very much a Starwood resort and definitely not a Disney one. This is a conference hotel. I was there for a conference and it seemed 75% of people there were as well. The lobby and lobby bar (which is in an odd spot between the escalators and lobby) was always full of people in business dress and name tags. This resort has a superb location! Best in the parks in my opinion. I walked to Epcot and DHS on several occasions. Both walks are easy, DHS took maybe 10 minutes - seemed to go by fast, anyway and I got there before my friends who were waiting for the boat transfer.
I walked to the Boardwalk bakery everyday for a quick breakfast. It's gorgeous in the morning and not very crowded. Evenings were spent at the parks, usually Epcot since I enjoy the dining and the drinks. If I still wanted some fun I gathered a group and headed to Jellyrolls.
Now - all that being said - if you are not doing Epcot or DHS, I don't know if I would recommend it. It was run down in areas, I had a few issues with things (no chair in the room at the desk, no towels left from housekeeping, packages misplaced at their package pickup) nothing major and they were eventually fixed but it got to be that each day I wondered what would go wrong. Also keep in mind while you say this is the same price you still have to pay a resort fee and if you are driving add the parking fee as well.
Dolphin might be slightly better for the two non-park days since you could enjoy the swan boats (tacky fun for everyone!) and the Boardwalk area but for visiting MK and AK I think either of the other two would be better.
