Complete Guide to Disney's Caribbean Beach Resort

 

It's been a very long time since we've stayed ( or even visited) Disney's Caribbean Beach resort.  

                          How beautiful is this view?

Last year we visited Disney's Riviera resort and from Topolino's Terrace, we could see Caribbean Beach resort and noticed how beautiful it was. Last year when I went to book a room, I was told from a Disney Reservationist that I could not walk from Riviera to Caribbean Beach. According to the map I saw, it looked like I could, but I took the cast member's word for it and assumed I could not walk between the two resorts.

It turns out that when we got to Riviera, we saw that you can very much walk between Riviera and Caribbean Beach resorts.  I don't know why the cast member told me that we couldn't.

Anyway, after seeing it again last year, we decided we would stay here this year!

At 4:48 pm, we got a text that our room was ready. We were on our way over to Caribbean Beach from the Magic Kingdom. We made our way to our room and called for our luggage to be delivered.  We were hoping to get our luggage in a timely manner because we wanted to change our clothes for our upcoming dinner reservation.  It was rainy but not currently raining ( it had just finished raining).  We were told that our bags would not be delivered to our room because of the weather.  What?  If there is a chance of lightening, they will not bring the bags.  We were also told if we wanted them, we would have to come get them ourselves.  So we made the trek from the Aruba section of the resort to the bell hop station at the front of the resort.  Once we got there,  a cast member took us and our luggage in a van and drove us back to our room.  This was a very nice gesture but it made no sense. Why did we have to go up there to get our luggage if they could have easily just brought it to us in a van?  Anyway, we were happy to have our luggage.

Our room was #5604 and we were on the first floor in the Aruba section.  I did not request this room or this section but it was a perfect location.  It was not that close to the main building ( Old Port Royale) and  main pool, but that is okay because we didn't spend a lot of time in that area.  We had a view of the skyliner and we were super close to the skyliner station at the Riviera resort.

 

I would joke and say I could tell what the weather was going to be like by looking up at the Skyliner. If it was stopped then it meant it was going to rain or thunder. If it was running, than it would be sunny skies! 

Okay, now the inside of the room.  Like most of the moderate resorts, I've found them to be pretty "generic" after the remodels.  

I think what makes them look generic is that they no longer have the colorful bed spreads on them . They are all just white sheets now.  Our room still had carpet in the bedroom area which I kind of liked.  

The room had a neutral color pallet to it and the panels of the dresser and sliding doors had some rattan on it to give it a beachy feel.  We did have a mini fridge ( or what they now call a cooler).  Some rooms have that third bed ( the little murphy bed) that pulls down under the tv, but ours did not have that, nor did we need it.

I appreciated the table and chairs area but what I most appreciated was the bathroom.  We had recently come from Wilderness Lodge, Boulder Ridge Villas and had a less than ideal bathroom set up. 

 I loved the huge vanity and the double sinks ( something we did not have in our room at Boulder Ridge).  You don't know how much the little details mean until you don't have them! 

                                     View from the skyliner.

Caribbean Beach is a rather large resorts.  If you want to travel by skyliner you have two options. You can get on the skyliner at the Riviera station ( like we did because that was the station closest to our room) or there is another skyliner station that is the Caribbean Beach Station and also the main hub (located beyond the Jamaica section of the resort). This is where you would exit to go to Hollywood Studios or Art of Animation and Pop Century. 

So if you are staying at Caribbean Beach you can take the skyliner to Riviera resort ( or walk there), Epcot, Hollywood Studios, Art of Animation, and Pop Century. Note: you can not walk to any of these other resorts or parks, just Riviera. 

If you choose to take a bus, there are 6 bus stations throughout the resort, one at each village and one at Port Royale ( the main stop). When picking up or dropping off from the parks, the bus will stop at each one. There are 5 villages.  Aruba is the last one.  Our room was super close to the Aruba bus stop which was nice.  

The main hub of the resort, Port Royale is where check in is, where the quick service, gift shops, main pool, pool bar, and sit down restaurant are located.

For food and drink options:

Banana Cabana is an outdoor dining area with a full menu but also has a walk up bar that has some fun non- alcoholic beverages as well as your normal bar libations.  We had lunch here on our last visit and you can read about that HERE.

Sebastian's Bistro is the indoor sit-down dining location. We enjoyed a fabulous meal here during our stay and will be sharing our review soon.

Center Town Market is the resorts quick service location. We did not get a chance to eat here during this visit.

Spyglass Grill is a walk up counter service located in the pool area in the Trinidad Village. This had some tasty looking taco an taco bowl options. I am sorry we didn't get to try this one. If you don't know about this location, you may miss it as it is not located near all the other restaurants. 

Recreation Options:

Campfires each night from 6:30 -7:30 pm.

Movies under the Stars each night at 8:30 pm.  The one evening we walked past they were playing "A Goofy Movie". 

There is pole fishing here and I believe fishing excursions since there are boats docked here.

There is a beach volleyball court and a jogging trail.

The main pool looks like it is a pirates playground complete with 2 water slides and a play area. The pool is called Fuentes de Morro pool and is designed to be a Spanish Fortress!  This pool has easy access to the pool bar for refreshing beverages and snacks. 

The resort also has a 12 person spa pool and 5 other leisure pools, one located in each village.

If you are feeling energetic and have some time on your hands, you can try the skyliner scavenger hunt. Grab a map at the front desk!  We did this on one of our non park days and it actually took us a little longer than we thought! 

One thing I did not know before we booked this resort was that you can indeed see Fireworks from this resort! I had no idea until we saw them while at dinner one night at Sebastian's Bistro. 

I think just the over all ambiance of the beach resort is reason enough to stay here. Who wouldn't  want to put their toes in the sand or relax in a hammock?

You might also like to read our review of Disney's Coronado Springs Resort. or you might like to take a peek inside the Royal guest rooms at Port Orleans Riverside.

To see more reviews of other Disney Resorts click HERE

We will be back soon with out review of the Skyliner Scavenger hunt! 

See you next time!  M & L