Pirate Rooms at Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort

(For the first page of this review of Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort, see this.)

THE PIRATE ROOMS IN TRINIDAD SOUTH

Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort is this site’s top-rated moderate resort for first-time family visitors to Walt Disney World.

It gets that position because it has a little more kid appeal than the other moderate resorts.

For example, it has

• The most widely appealing setting, beaches
• The best main pool among the moderates
• And light Disney theming in many of its rooms–e.g. Mickey and Pluto in the five person refurbed rooms

Moreover, rooms in its Trinidad South section have deep nautical and pirate theming.

This pirate theming is pretty cool, and includes ship-shaped structures around its full beds, but, given the inconvenience of Trinidad South, is not worth the extra $60-$85 a night it costs.

Moreover, by so deeply theming these beds, Disney made it too expensive to convert these rooms to the queens that have replaced all the fulls elsewhere at Caribbean Beach. As a result, even after their 2015 refurb,  these rooms have kept their full beds. Also, they still sleep only four–unlike the five person rooms available elsewhere at Caribbean Beach

REVIEW: THE PIRATE-THEMED ROOMS AT CARIBBEAN BEACH

Caribbean Beach was the first moderate resort at Walt Disney World, and shows a few first-time mistakes.

• Some sections of the resort–particularly Trinidad South, and, to a lesser degree, Barbados–are simply too far from the rest of it.
• The resort was designed with more bus stops than it could have had, partly related to an isolated check-in building
• No elevators…

Trinidad South in particular has always felt isolated from the rest of Caribbean Beach–over a bridge, out of sight. (For a map, click here.)

In response, a few years ago, Disney World tried to turn lemons into lemonade, and redid the rooms in Trinidad South to a pirate theme, at a higher cost to reserve–for example, standard view pirate rooms are (including tax) $277 a night on weeknights during the Fall 2015 price season, compared to $204 then for standard rooms elsewhere at Caribbean Beach.

This review is based on my October 2015 stay in such a room–my third pirate room stay.

Like Disney’s other moderate resort rooms, these pirate-themed options are spacious and livable.

One side of the room has two full beds. Note the ship theming!

The bed side from the back of the room.

A closer view of the beds. Note the skull and crossbones pillow ,and the detailed wheel, mizzen mast, yard, shrouds, ratlines, and lanterns aft, and the bow chasers forward.

A closer shot of the aft superstructure.

The bedside table takes the form of a barrel, and has a storage shelf underneath…

…as well as a drawer that can hold your important books.

Added to the top of this barrel in the 2015 refurb of these rooms was a set of standard and USB power points.

The TV side of the room continues the nautical theming, adding crates to the barrels..

The TV side from the back of the room.

A new rug is part of the 2015 update, replacing the old one that imitated ship decking.  The old one never made sense–ships sailing on wood?

The new rug is more overtly nautical and somewhat sea-like. It, combined with the new blue (a light sky blue) wall colors, makes the “ships at sea” bed concept work much better. It’s subtle, but a real improvement.

I did not spend enough time with this rug–once again, I write a phrase that no one else has ever written before–but suspect that if I had, I’d find lots references to  the movies and a hidden Mickey or two

Back to the TV side, a closer view of the table and chairs. A compass rose tops the table.

The dresser resembles a pile of crates.

This, incidentally, yields four good-sized drawers.

The coffee service is on top of a barrel…

…which encloses the mini-fridge.

Added to the top of this barrel in the 2105 refurb is another set of power points, one of which is occupied by the coffee maker’s cord.

At the end of this side is a treasure chest with hanging hooks above.

The chest has a large storage drawer.

Note that this room is really more nautical than piratical, with a few exceptions. One is the skull and crossbones pillows on the beds, another is the art on the wall between the beds and the bath, featuring Captain you know who…

…and another is the curtain separating the bath area from the main bedroom area. Seeing this is a cheery way to start your morning.

Behind the moveable curtain, the bath has two sinks.

More skulls decorate the sinks.

At the side there’s a closet area. Note the beam above.

Separated into their own little room are the tub/shower combo and the toilet.

The shower curtain…

…is covered with ships.

The extent and depth of the nautical theming is remarkable, and the less pervasive pirate theming is fun too. The 2015 refurb added a bit more pirates and better ties together the whole theme. Back when I was a boy, I would have loved this room.

But Trinidad South is still a ways away from the center of the resort and its main pool, shops and dining. For the price, unless all your kids are really into pirates, I can’t recommend it.  The value of the theming itself is not enough to offset the isolation…add the extra cost, and you are paying to be inconvenienced.

(Note that during my October 2015 visit a food truck was parked by the Trinidad South pool. If this becomes a reliable feature, then some of the inconvenience of these rooms will be moderated.)

 PAGES:  Previous  |  1  |  2  |  3  |  4  |  5  |  6  

Follow yourfirstvisit.net on Facebook or Google+ or Twitter or Pinterest!!