Requesting a Room at CBR

[dave2822]

Hey guys -

Staying at CBR this summer for the first time, and I'm wondering if there is a building I should request. I don't want to be too far away from everything, so the Trinidad's are out of the question, but everything else is in play.

The guide books seem to say Aruba or Jamaica are the best bets, does anyone have experience with these buildings and their proximity to the pool/beach/food courts?

Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Vernonpush]

We are staying there in May, for the first time. Would like to hear any feedback.

 

[Kristia]

We have stayed at CBR a number of times. Actually Trinidad North is quite close to the food court and main pool. Trinidad South is far away. We also liked Aruba. It was a short scenic walk over the bridge for the food court and main pool.

 

[Princess YaYa]

We stayed there in 12/05. We requested Martinique as per the PassPorter's suggestion. We were very happy. When we stayed there our "Island" was the 1st or 2nd bus stop at the end of the day which was perfect. It was a little walk to Old Port Royale (food) but again being one of the 1st off at the end of the day was well worth it!!

 

[saltmom1]

Depending on the bus route, ( there are 2 ) , Jamaica is either the first or last. We stayed in Jamaica 4403 ( building 44) We could literally see the bus stop from our room. The quiet pool, which has a playground nearby, was about a 2-3 minute walk from our room and the pool/ Food Court/ "gift shop" were a nice 5 minute walk over a bridge where you could feed the wildlife-turtles, fish,etc. The walk was through a tropical atmosphere. There was not the noise level from being near the pool and Food Court and there was no extra charge for the room because it is NOT close to the pool and Food court. The bad thing was that you are very far away from the check-in lobby but there is an internal bus you can take and get off at Barbados. You don't really need to go there except when you check in and there are golf carts to bring you to your room from there. Aruba is the village right next to Jamaica and is very similar to Jamaica.Hope this helps ! :wave:

 

[miles1]

Trinidad North is actually one of the closest buildings to Old Port Royale, where the shops, food court, and main pool are. (Since it's so close, it doesn't have its own quiet pool.) We found it to be a really convenient location, but the water view side of the building was a little noisy because of the proximity to OPR. I can't comment on the bus service as we had our own car for that trip.

Although we enjoyed the CBR, we greatly preferred Port Orleans French Quarter. It's spread over a smaller area, so everything is convenient to get to. The food court was much better, and the bus service was great.

Have a great trip.

 

[maelstrom]

Martinique and Trinidad North are the closest islands to Old Port Royale and are also preferred rooms and therefore cost an extra $10 per night. My favourite building is Martinique 26.

 

[jfries10]

I will be staying there in April. When is a good time to call and request a specific location?

 

[MaxsDad]

CBR Rooms

We stayed in Jamaica in 2004. Our room number was 4524. It was a "standard" view room, so no extra charge. This room is great. It is a corner room, so you only have one neighbor (less chance for disturbance). Also, it is the room closest to the bridge that takes you across the lake to the food court, gift shop, and main pool. The quiet pool is also very nearby, about one building length away.

Looking back, the one draw back I see is being close to that bridge means you are further from the parking lots, and hence the bus stops, than the folks on the parking lot side of the building. Still, it wasn't too bad.

 

[maelstrom]

I will be staying there in April. When is a good time to call and request a specific location?

Once you've made your reservation, you can call CRO at any time to add requests to your reservation. You cannot call the resort directly and they apparently no longer accept faxed requests.

 

[CleveRocks]

Sorry, but I've read some misinformation in some of the posts above.

First of all, Trinidad Noth most certainly has its own quiet pool. I know, I've been in it. Each of the 6 villages has its own quiet pool.

"Preferred location" costs between $15-$26 extra per night, depending on the season. Preferred location means any room in one of the 6 buildings closest to Old Port Royale. Those buildings are Martinique 24-25-26 and Trinidad North 31-32-33. Trinidad North has only those 3 buildings. Martinique has 6 buildings; the other 3, 21-22-23, are NOT preferred location buildings.

Preferred location is something you reserve and pay for. Sure, you could simply REQUEST it, but keep in mind that everyone who paid for it will be in line ahead of you, and even if there is a preferred room available to you, its not unlikely you will asked to pay for it if you want it at time of check-in. A free upgrade is by no means unheard of, but certainly can't be counted on.

By the way, other possible upgrades that you can reserve and pay for are water view and king-size bed. Water view might not be a view of Barefoot Bay, it might be a view of a quiet pool. King-size beds are sprinkled throughout the resort, they aren't segregated in a certain spot or in a certain type of room. And surprisingly enough, Disney will not allow you to pay for two or more upgrades (in other words, you can't pay $15 extra oer night for preferred location AND pay ANOTHER $15 per night for a king-size bed in that preferred location room). They will only allow you to reserve and pay for one of them. If you want two or three, you gotta choose which ONE is the most important to you, and then reserve and pay for that one, and put down the others as requests if you want.

People who don't want to pay for preferred location but want to be as close as possible to OPR can request Aruba or Jamaica, which are across the lake (Barefoot Bay) from OPR. The non-preferred buildings of Martinique aren't bad, either. Barbados is the next farthest, but the very farthest of all is Trinidad South.

Each village has its own quiet pool, its own bus stop, and its own beach. So NO ONE can be too far from a pool, bus stop, or beach. OPR has its own beach, its own pool (the main pool!) and its own bus stop. OPR has one food court and one table-service restaurant.

 

[CleveRocks]

I will be staying there in April. When is a good time to call and request a specific location?

The very best way to handle ANY requests is to have it noted on your reservation. If you booked directly through Disney, call NOW and have the requests noted on your reservation. If you booked through a travel agent, call your travel agent NOW and ask that the request be noted on the reservation.

The room assigner will see the request at the time of room assignment; the reosrts don't even get reservation info from the Disney Reservations Center until about 5 days in advance. I can't imagine any advantage to waiting until closer to your trip. I think having the request noted on the actual reservation is much more reliable than trying to call and leave a message for someone who may or may not get it. Actually, calls to the resort don't go to the resort, anyway, they go to a call center. The only time a call gets put through to the resort is when it's a question or business that can ONLY be handled by a CM who is physically at that resort (such as setting up a new room charge after you've met/exceeded your limit on your existing room charge).

 

[tunaman68]

We stayed in one of the non-prefered buildings in Martinique (23?) and had a view of the garden at the center of all the buildings. It was very quiet, the village's pool was on the other side of our building so it was close, but we didn't get any of the noise (not that there was ever anyone in there). In fact, after one day at the "big" pool, we opted to use the quiet pool everyday. It had a deep end, and most of the time we had it to ourselves.

The bus stop was very close, and the walk to the food court was a very short one and really pleasant. Just follow the sidewalk that travels around the edge of the central lake.


Have Fun!!!

 

[maelstrom]

"Preferred location" costs between $15-$26 extra per night, depending on the season.

I have only been quoted an extra $10 per night for a preferred room as recently as a month ago.

 

[Tiggerfanatic]

We asked for a room close to a bus stop - any bus stop - when we checked in. We ended up in a first floor corner room overlooking the quiet pool in Jamaica. Absolutely loved it. Could see the bus stop from our room, and were usually the first stop in the morning. Evenings we usually got off at the Food Court because of package pickup or to grab a quick drink, and it was only a 5 mintue walk over the bridge to get back to our room.

 

[CleveRocks]

I have only been quoted an extra $10 per night for a preferred room as recently as a month ago.

Consider yourself very lucky!

If you check out the rates on the official Disney site, as well as at allearsnet.com, you'll see the range of $15 + tax extra per night (value season) to $26 + tax extra per night (holiday season). It's been this way for many months, it's not a very recent change, certainly not within the past one month or so.

Did you maybe book through a travel agent? It might have been a promotion they were running, perhaps cutting into their commission.

Or it could have been a math error.

Please, share your secret to the CBR $10 upcharge and help your WDWMAGIC.COM brethren save some bucks!

 

[Kristia]

We booked a preferred room at CBR through AAA. We are staying in early August. When I made the reservation, they told me the cost of the preferred room would be $90 extra for our stay of 7 nights. This works out to be close to $13 a night. We decided to go for it. The other times I have stayed at CBR, we were lucky enough to stay in Trinidad North and Aruba. Both were convenient but we didn't want to take the chance of staying in Trinidad South! I thought $13 was a reasonable price for a little convenience

 

[jooleejul]

I stayed there in 2005 in Martinique, I believe it was building 25. It was a preferred location, so cost a little more, but not much. I loved that location. It was close to the food courts and the first bus stop, which really helped at the end of a long day. It also wasn't too far from the pool, which is behind the food court area. I'd definitely choose that building again.