Author: Susan0326
I ended the first part of my review of the Caribbean Beach Resort after checking into the room and spying the gorgeous beach. That was just the beginning of our wonderful journey. As we walked along the promenade, the pathway around the lake, we were happy to see that there were beaches scattered all around the rest of the resort. The views were breathtaking at every turn!
We followed the winding path and took the bridge across the lake through Castaway Cay, a tropical island in the center of the lake. There were several places to picnic, rest, or play on the lush little island that serves mainly as a scenic cut-through from one side of the lake to the other.
It didn’t take us long to figure out that this resort has an abundance of wildlife, too. We saw all sorts of bunnies, squirrels, ducks, and a lot of birds and lizards!
When we reached the other side of Castaway Cay, we found Old Port Royale, which is also called Centertown.
Old Port Royale is the main hub for many activities at the resort and includes the main pool, marina, rentals, a bus stop, parking, and the building that houses the food court (Market Street), a restaurant (Shutters), shopping (Calypso Trading Post & Straw Market), and an arcade (Goombay Games).
We received free dining with our package and it also came with free refillable mugs. We picked up our mugs at Market Street and decided to get counter service for lunch. There were several different stations to pick from with a variety of fare. We all enjoyed our food but the Caribbean burger and Cuban sandwich were probably the favorites.
After lunch, we headed back to the room before leaving for Magic Kingdom. Our vacation was off to a wonderful start, thanks to the beautiful surroundings and amenities of the Caribbean Beach Resort. It was such a great week and we didn’t have any negative experiences whatsoever during our stay. It is a very relaxing resort to come back to each evening after a busy day in the parks.
Even though I’m not much of a morning person, I have to admit that the sunrises at CBR were one of my favorite things all week. On the morning of my birthday, I decided to go for a run around the resort. The stillness of the resort being bathed in morning light was incredible and such an fantastic way to begin the day of my birthday. Those colorful images and the memories of those moments will be forever burned into my mind.
In case you are wondering, we did spend a little time on the beach just chilling out on the lounge chairs and in one of the hammocks. It was never crowded and always quiet and relaxing!
By the end of our stay, the Caribbean Beach was definitely our favorite moderate resort! I’m sure the beauty and amenities we experienced there will draw us back down those winding paths in the future.
Be sure and save a hammock for me, okay?
I began to get really excited last year when Disney announced free dining for this past March. When I looked at the dates on the offer and realized that not only was it during my kids’ Spring Break, but it was also the week of my birthday. I was so excited that yet another Spring Break trip would soon be ours! How could I be denied free dining on my birthday and Spring Break? Of course, I didn’t get much of a fight and my kids were as thrilled as if it were their first trip, not their 11th! However, I did cause them to gasp aloud when I told them to pick a moderate resort since we wanted the regular dining package and not just the quick service variety that comes with the value resort package. We could’ve paid the extra for free dining and stayed at a value resort (um, Pop Century!), but I just threw the moderate thing out there to them.
We looked at all the moderates, and to be honest everyone was really struggling with not going back to Pop Century, which has become like home to us since we first went there in 2004. The only moderate we’ve stayed in was Port Orleans Riverside and no one really wanted to go back there. After browsing pictures of moderate resorts, the kids informed me that we must go to Caribbean Beach since it combined our two favorites – Disney and the beach! I made the reservation and I must admit I second and third-guessed myself for months until I was forced to stop reading comments about the resort. There are a lot of negative things out there about CBR and it really concerned me a little.
Fast forward to the day we arrived at Caribbean Beach resort. It was a beautiful day as we pulled into the gates.
We pulled into the parking lot of the Custom House and found plenty of great parking. When we stepped inside, it wasn’t crowded and the atmosphere was so relaxed. I had completed the online check-in, so I picked that line and was face-to-face with a cast member in just a minute or two. Check-in was flawless and the cast member was very friendly and helpful. As he was wrapping up, he reached over and handed me a birthday button! I’ve been to Walt Disney World several times on my birthday and have never received one at check-in. I just knew this was going to be a great trip!
Being unfamiliar with CBR, it took us a few minutes to get oriented and figure out which way to go to our village of Aruba. The resort is pretty big and the Custom House, where you check-in, is slightly detached from the rest of the resort which centers on a 45-acre lake and beach. We were able to pull pretty close to unload our luggage and we were totally surprised at the amount of available parking! We always had to fight for parking at Pop Century, but there were parking spots galore at the CBR!
The six different sections or villages of the CBR are painted different tropical colors. They are all beautiful, but we fell in love with the pink and plum colors of our Aruba buildings. The buildings are surrounded with lush greenery and the curving walkways made it feel more like a park instead of a resort
. 
We were amazed at all the beauty as we walked along the pathway to our building. Every couple of buildings in the village had a really neat courtyard with seating areas. When we found our room in Section 55 and opened the door, we were so surprised at our beautiful corner room!
At this point, all of my fears about CBR began to dissipate. However, the fears were totally nonexistent when I walked around the corner of the building and saw the incredible beach and lake!
There were plenty of empty chairs and open hammocks on the beach begging you to come sit and enjoy the view! I’d have to fight that urge since we were starving by this time, but I made a promise to myself that I would be back to enjoy some time just sitting on that beach,enjoying that amazing view!
To be continued …
Categories
Focus on Disney – Repeat Performance
“Catching little pieces of time
making ’em yours, making ’em mine.
Great vacations and celebrations can fade away in a year,
but when we’re making memories happy days are always here.”
The Sherman Brothers
There’s nothing like a family photo to remember the good times experienced on a vacation. In Walt Disney World, you’re sure to see people taking pictures in front of Cinderella Castle in Magic Kingdom, the sorcerer’s hat in Hollywood Studios, Spaceship Earth in Epcot, and the Tree of Life in Animal Kingdom. You may have taken these same pictures in front of these icons or you might have your own favorite photo spots there or in any of the other Disney parks. Like everyone else, our family tries to take these same photos, but you’ll never guess the obscure location our family has taken a photo from each of the eleven family trips we’ve taken. The spot is a group of stacked crates near Echo Lake in Hollywood Studios that we affectionately call “The Crates.” We just happened to sit our two kids up on these crates on our first trip back in 2001. Little did we know that it would be the only spot that we’d remember to take photos each and every trip.
Another spot we have taken photos throughout the years is by the fountain in Hollywood Studios near the information board. Once again, we took a photo or two there and now we usually try to repeat the photo each year. We have missed a few years but we have enough photos to see how much our kids have grown.
Other great places to take repeat photos are on or near attractions, like by the jeep at the end of Kilimanjaro Safaris:
If you don’t have a favorite photo spot, then go through your photos from your last trip and make a mental note to repeat the shot on your next trip. If you scrapbook and you already have photos from multiple years, consider making a scrapbook layout to show changes throughout the years. If you do, you’ll not only enjoy the layout today, but you will enjoy it for years to come. Besides, you never know when one of your favorite spots will disappear, like the chair in Minnie’s House! 🙁
“Times and conditions change so rapidly that we must keep our aim constantly focused on the future.” – Walt Disney
If you’ve been to any Disney Park more than once, then chances are you’ve probably experienced the closing of one or more attractions. Since my first visit as a child to Walt Disney World in 1972, I’ve witnessed the closure of several attractions including two of my childhood favorites, Skyway to Tomorrowland/Fantasyland and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. I’ve yet to visit the Magic Kingdom without reminiscing about these and other “gone but not forgotten” attractions and feeling a little sad that they are no longer part of the magic.
Photo taken on one of my husband’s childhood trips in the 70’s.
When Disney announced that they were going to be removing an entire land due to the Fantasyland expansion, it was almost too much for me to comprehend. I mean, just like the skyway and submarines of my childhood, there were attractions in Mickey’s Toontown Fair that have been part of the lives of my own children that they will not be able to revisit with their children one day. Curiosity soon replaced nostalgia and excitement began to build as details emerged with sketches of new places to visit in this new area. It helped that the Dream Builder signs on the retaining walls in Fantasyland reminded us in Walt’s own words that Disney must move forward and focus on the future. No Disney park is a museum enshrined in the past, but an environment that must keep growing and changing with the times and with technology. That means we have to let go a little of the past to make room for the future.
As memory keepers, we have our own special way of coping with change by documenting these attractions so we can keep their memory fresh in our minds. There are many ways to document attractions in your scrapbook that are closed or are scheduled to be closed. A scrapbook layout can be made of pictures taken at or on the attraction throughout the years. Another way to document the change is to include pictures of the attraction before it closed and then another picture in the same spot after it has been replaced with something new. I made the following layout after our trip in 2010 when we knew it would be our last trip to Toontown to document all the years we visited Mickey’s Toontown Fair.
This column will be used to discuss and reminisce about favorite Disney attractions, parades, restaurants, etc. that are no longer in existence. We hope to inspire you to preserve your own memories of not just these things but for all of your Disney memories.
‘We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we’re curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.” – Walt Disney