Category — w. Most Recent Stuff

Update: this deal has been released for the general public.

Disney Visa cardholders were offered two deals today, and these are expected to be released to the general public Thursday.

• One is a “Stay, Play and Dine” package discount. For Disney Visa, it has eligible arrival dates of 12/14-12/20/2014 and 1/5-3/7/2015
• Another is a room rate discount applicable most nights from 1/5-3/28/2015

Room only discounts are expected to be as follows:

Value Resorts:

• Little Mermaid rooms at Art of Animation: excluded
• All Star Sports, All Star Music, Pop Century and Family Suites at Art of Animation: 15% off on weekends, 20% off on weekdays
• All Star Movies: 10% off on weekends, 15% off on weekdays

Moderate Resorts:

• Coronado Springs, Caribbean Beach, Port Orleans Riverside, Cabins at Fort Wilderness: 20% off on weekends, 25% off on weekdays
• Port Orleans French Quarter: 10% off on weekends, 15% off on weekdays

Deluxe Resorts:

• Yacht Club, Beach Club, BoardWalk Inn, Polynesian, Contemporary, Grand Floridian, Wilderness Lodge, Animal Kingdom Lodge (except Savanna view): 30% off all nights
• Animal Kingdom Lodge Savanna View: 20% off all nights

DVC Resorts:

• Excluded: Bay Lake Tower, Villas at Grand Floridian, Polynesian Villas, all Grand Villas
• Saratoga Springs, Old Key West, Beach Club, Boardwalk Villas, Wilderness Lodge Villas: 30% off all nights
• Villas at Animal Kingdom Lodge: 20% off all nights

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

AMENITIES AT DISNEY’S CARIBBEAN BEACH RESORT

In early October 2018, Disney’s Caribbean Beach resort (mostly) emerged from an almost 18 month long construction project that has greatly improved the layout and usability of the resort, and added new and/or easier to access to its amenities.

I will have much more to say (and more lousy photos to post) after my November stay at Caribbean Beach, but here’s the basics on most of the amenities (treated separately: the main Caribbean Beach pool is covered here, the minor pools in Caribbean Beach’s villages are covered here, and dining at Caribbean Beach is covered here).

But here’s the basics

• Check-in and concierge services are now located in the Old Port Royal area–the old, distant, and inconvenient check-in facility, Custom House, is no longer being used.
• The same building area also includes the re-imagined gift shop and most of the counter-service dining (one bit of counter-service dining, Spyglass Grill, is in the Trinidad area).
• Just outside this building you’ll find the new table service venue, Sebastian’s Bistro, the bar Banana Cabana, and the main pool–the best among Disney World’s moderates.
• The Island markets in Jamaica and Aruba are still in place–at least for the moment. These means guests in these more distant buildings don’t have to make their way to Old Port Royale for coffee, tea, and simple snacks.

Once you are settled, check the map.  At Aruba and Martinique a different bus stop than “yours” may be closer to your accommodations building–for some Aruba buildings, the Jamaica stop is closer, and for some Martinique buildings, the Old Port Royal stop is closer

There’s fishing holes on Caribbean Cay, just outside Old Port Royale.

On Caribbean Cay is one of the many playgrounds scattered around the resort.

DINING AT DISNEY’S CARIBBEAN BEACH RESORT

This review continues here. 

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DISNEY WORLD NEXT WEEK: OCTOBER 4 TO OCTOBER 12, 2014

The material below details operating hours, Extra Magic Hours, parades, and fireworks.

The same stuff is in the image, but organized by park, not by topic.

For more on October 2014 at Walt Disney World,, click here.

[Read more →]

What I expect to be the last Disney World special offer for 2014, a room rate deal, needs to be booked no later than October 3.

Yesterday I got some really nice rates out of this deal for our upcoming family visit in December for our fourth stay in the Family Suites at Art of Animation and our fifth stay at Old Key West.

Disney World typically releases deals for the first part of the upcoming year in early October. So I expect we’ll see a deal going into March 2015 to come out within the next week or so.

As soon as the next Disney World discount offer drops, I’ll post about it, and also link to it here!!

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

PHOTO TOUR OF A QUEEN AND MURPHY BED ROOM AT DISNEY’S CARIBBEAN BEACH RESORT

Most rooms at Caribbean Beach sleep four on two queens, five on two queens and a fold down bed, or, in the Pirate rooms in Trinidad, four on two fulls.

This photo tour is of a five person room with two queens and a fold down bed. (For four person queen rooms, see this, and for four person full bed Pirate rooms, see this.)

Five person rooms at Caribbean Beach have queen beds, and a Murphy Bed as well.

The bed side of the room has the queens and a small bedside table between them.

This side will also have the connecting door (at left) if present, and a coat rack near the door.

The fun light fixtures.

A closer view of a queen.

Further back is the bath. The sink area of the bath is separated from the rest of the room by sliding solid doors–rather than the fabric curtain you will find at Port Orleans Riverside and French Quarter (and in Pirate rooms at Caribbean Beach). The sliding doors improve the trapping of both light and noise from the bathroom, plus make it feel more private.

Here’s the sinks themselves…

…and next to them the clothes hanging area.

In their own separate space you’ll find the toilet and tub/shower combo.

More of the shower curtain.

The other side of the room has a table and chairs and a TV/dresser/bench/Murphy Bed/mini-fridge combining thingy. TVs are larger than the one in my photograph, which is from a couple of years ago.

A closer view of the table and chairs…

…the lamp overhead, styled like the ones at the heads of the beds…

…and the window curtains.

And then there’s the thingy…

The right side has a couple of drawers.

There’s three more drawers underneath the green bench.  These are basically inaccessible when the bed is down, as it is shown here.  Even so, this is a much better design than the Murphy Bed rooms at Port Orleans Riverside, where all the drawers in the room are inaccessible when the bed is down.

The object at the far left that looks like two more drawers is in fact the mini fridge.

And then there’s the Murphy Bed…

…another angle.

I measured the Murphy Bed mattress as 30″ wide by 64″ long.  The way it is positioned on top of the bed frame (rather than inside it) and related to the back framing means that, unlike many such beds, it does not sleep much shorter than this. I’d put a five foot tall kid on this and expect great results. The cushion is 5 inches deep. Note also Mickey and Pluto!

There’s not much in the way of decoration–the textures, lamps and curtains already noted, and just a couple of fruity art things (with, I think, some Hidden Mickeys) on either side of the TV object–see them above and below.

PHOTO TOUR OF A FOUR PERSON FULL BED PIRATE ROOM AT DISNEY’S CARIBBEAN BEACH RESORT

This review continues here.

PAGES IN THIS REVIEW OF DISNEY’S CARIBBEAN BEACH RESORT

• Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort: Overview and Summary
• Theming, accommodations and villages at Caribbean Beach
• Photo tour of a four person queen bed room at Caribbean Beach
• Photo tour of a five person queen and murphy bed room at Caribbean Beach
• Photo tour of a four person full bed Pirate room at Caribbean Beach
• Amenities at Caribbean Beach
• Dining at Caribbean Beach
• The main pool at Caribbean Beach

OTHER KEY PAGES FOR WHERE TO STAY AT DISNEY WORLD

• Where to stay–the Basics
• Where first-timers should stay
• Reviews of all the Disney World resorts, based on my 160+ stays in them

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OVERVIEW: DISNEY’S CARIBBEAN BEACH RESORT FOR FIRST TIME VISITORS

Hey! A MAJOR refurb is kicking off at Caribbean Beach in May 2017.  See this for issues and my advice.

Note: Caribbean Beach room refurbs that ended in the fall of 2015 replaced the full beds that used to be here with queen beds in all standard rooms.

Pirate rooms had a different refurb, kept full beds, and sleep four.

Many (but not all) queen rooms have a Murphy Bed now as well–see the image at right. These rooms now sleep 5.

Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort is the best Disney World moderate resort for first time family visitors who may never return, especially those who avoid the Trinidad South (“Pirate rooms”) and Barbados sections.

You can have a wonderful visit at any Walt Disney World resort hotel.

However, this site recommends that first time visitors to Walt Disney World who can afford it should stay at Disney’s Polynesian Resort, a deluxe resort, and that those who can’t should stay at Disney’s Art of Animation Resort, a value resort.

It also suggests that first time visitors should avoid the moderate resorts, while noting that these resorts are wonderful for visits after the first. See this for why.

Compared to other Walt Disney World owned and operated resorts, the moderate resorts are distinguished by having nicer settings and landscaping, and much bigger rooms, than the value resorts, while being less comfortable than and having not nearly as good dining as the deluxe resorts.

Among the moderate resorts, Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort’s positives in kid appeal outweigh its negatives in convenience, and give it the first ranking among the moderates for first time family visitors.

(Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort is second, Disney’s Port Orleans Riverside is third, Disney’s Port Orleans French Quarter is a very close fourth, and The Cabins at Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort are last. The rankings of the first four are very close, and sensible people can differ on them.)

(See this for much more on resort distinctions by price class–value, moderate, deluxe, etc.)

FLOOR PLANS AT THE CARIBBEAN BEACH

While many websites and books (but not all) claim that Caribbean Beach rooms have 340 square feet, every room I have measured at the Caribbean Beach has come out at pretty close to 314 square feet–nearly the same size as the rooms of the other moderate resorts (except the cabins.)

Even so, Caribbean Beach rooms are quite spacious.  The bedroom area is particularly ample, and is bigger than the bedroom spaces at several of the deluxe resorts. (See this.) The floor plan above is for a two queen refurbed room…

…and this is for a refurbed Murphy Bed room.

The refurbed rooms have a new look, and, as you can see at the back right, also now have sliding “barn doors” separating the bath area from the bedroom, rather than the fabric curtains here in the rooms. before the refurb.

And for many, the key feature of the refurb is the addition to many queen rooms (not king rooms) of a Murphy Bed, which gives another sleeping spot and a new option for five-person families.

I measured the Murphy Bed mattress as 30″ wide by 64″ long.  The way it is positioned on top of the bedframe and related to the back framing means that, unlike many such beds, it does not sleep shorter than this. I’d put a five foot tall kid on this and expect great results. The cushion is 5 inches deep.

You can add to this capacity of four or five a child younger than three who sleeps in a crib.

Pirate rooms had a different refurb, kept their full beds and the cloth curtain between the bedroom and bath areas, and sleep four. The beds of a refurbed Pirate room are above.

DISNEY’S CARIBBEAN BEACH RESORT

Resorts are ranked on this site for first time visitors based first on their kid appeal, and then on their convenience.

On this basis, Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort is the best moderate resort for first time family visitors to Walt Disney World.

Kid Appeal.

• Three of the deluxe resorts–the Wilderness Lodge, Animal Kingdom Lodge, and Polynesian Resort, in that order–have spectacular kid appeal.
• None of the moderates has strong kid appeal, but Caribbean Beach has the most
• All of the value resorts–Disney’s All-Star Sports, All-Star Music, and All-Star Movies, and its Pop Century Resort and  Art of Animation–have strong kid appeal.

The kid appeal of the Caribbean Beach Resort comes from

• The vibrant and playful colors that form the basis of its Caribbean theme (the other moderates are dull to a kid’s eyes)
• The beaches that ring the lake it is built around (Coronado Springs is the only other “traditional” moderate with any beaches, and those in only one of its three sections; the Cabins at Fort Wilderness also have a beach, about a mile away)
• The kid friendly theming of many of its rooms, with Mickey and Pluto in the five person refurbed rooms, and rooms in the not-recommended (because too distant) Trinidad South section themed around pirates. No other moderate has theming designed to appeal to kids in so many of its rooms
• The quality of its main pool, the best among the moderates—for example, no other traditional moderate has such a fully themed little kid pool.

Convenience.

This distinctive level of kid appeal is sufficient to make up for the resort’s inconvenience—among the moderate resorts, only the Cabins at Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort are more inconvenient.

The Caribbean Beach Resort was Walt Disney World’s first moderate, and Disney made one mistake that led to this inconvenience: designing the resort with seven bus stops. This is 2 or 3 more than it could have had, and almost doubles the amount of time it takes for buses to get around the resort compared to the other large moderates which, designed later, have 4-5 bus stops.

Moreover, a couple of the areas at Caribbean Beach–Barbados and Trinidad South–are quite a hike from the main central services, and the check-in building the Customs House isn’t really convenient to anything except Barbados.

Other distinctive features.

The Caribbean Beach Resort is the only moderate with no elevators at all, and with no indoor bar/lounge (there’s a bar at the pool).

Best places to stay. 

This site suggests that first time visitors stay in standard rooms, not preferred rooms (because they won’t be spending much time in their rooms, or going to the main resort food area often; the single exception is visitors to the Animal Kingdom Lodge, who should always pay for savanna views).

See the map (as always on this site, click it to enlarge it.)

Standard rooms on the ground floors (because no elevators) in the southern part of the Aruba section (buildings 51-53) and the northern part of the Jamaica section (buildings 44, 45 and 46) are the best balance between cost, tranquility, and closeness (via the Caribbean Cay bridge) to the main pool and food area. 

Avoid Trinidad South and Barbados (too distant).

Here’s the current online check in form. Look at the map carefully before you click “Near Transportation.” At Aruba, that will put you distant from the bridge; at Martinique, it’s not necessary as there’s two nearby bus stops.

BEST FOR:

Any typical first time visitors who insist on staying, or only can stay, in a moderate.

WORST FOR:

Families with mobility issues (lack of elevators, spread out; multiple bus stops).

PHOTO TOUR OF A NEWLY-REFURBED QUEEN AND MURPHY BED ROOM AT DISNEY’S CARIBBEAN BEACH RESORT

This review continues here.

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