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For the first page of this review of the Caribbean Beach, see this.

MORE STUFF ON DISNEY’S CARIBBEAN BEACH RESORT

Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort is one of 5 moderate resorts at Walt Disney World:

• Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort, the first to be designated a moderate, which opened in 1988
• Disney’s Port Orleans French Quarter (opened in 1991 as Disney’s Port Orleans Resort)
• Disney’s Port Orleans Riverside (opened in 1992 as Disney’s Dixie Landing Resort)
• Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort (opened 1997) and
• The Cabins at Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort, officially classed as moderate in 2008, but opened (as Wilderness Homes) in 1986. (Fort Wilderness Campground opened much earlier, but precursors to the Cabins did not arrive until 1986.)

The moderates have much more room than the value resorts, more amenities, and (except for Fort Wilderness) much better landscaping. See this for what you get by Disney World price class.

Although the typical moderate rooms, at ~314 square feet (the cabins have 508 square feet), sound much smaller than the rooms available at the deluxe resorts, differences in hall/entry layout make the living space of the typical moderates much more comparable to many Walt Disney World deluxes than raw square footage would imply.

See this for more on square footage and livability.

Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort is officially “a tropical beachside paradise set on the beautiful 45-acre Barefoot Bay.”

Its 200 acres include an arrival building, where you check in, make dining reservations, buy tickets, etc., called the Custom House; a central area with shops, food, another reservations and ticketing point. and the main pool called Old Port Royale; and 2112 rooms divided among six “villages”– Trinidad North, Trinidad South, Martinique, Barbados, Aruba and Jamaica.

Each village is painted a different vibrant tropical color, and most have both their own beach and their own “quiet pool.” (Barbados shares beaches with Martinique.)

(“Quiet pool” is Disney lingo for a small, unguarded pool that is closer to most guest rooms than the large, guarded, main pool.)

The six villages are scattered about. (See the map.)

Martinique and Trinidad North are closest to the resort’s central facilities at Old Port Royale–where you’ll find the main pool, shops, and dining. Rooms in these villages incur an extra cost because of their location.

Trinidad South–where you’ll find the Pirate rooms–and, to a lesser extent, Barbados, are furthest from these facilities.

Jamaica and Aruba are in between, and the best choice for most first-time visitors.  Not overly distant from Old Port Royale because of a bridge, they best balance convenience and cost.

Each village has three to six buildings and its own bus stop.  When you arrive, note your building carefully on the map–the bus stop, beach, or quiet pool of another village may in fact be closer to you than that of your own village.

The buildings have 64 rooms each, laid out in a variety of ways.

See the image for the layout of Building 51 in Jamaica. (Since starting this site, I’ve also stayed in Jamaica another time, plus Trinidad South and Barbados.)

Just as the best bus stops aren’t always the first that come to mind, same for the stairs to the 2nd floor.  If you are in a second floor room, check out the fire escape map on your door to figure out the best stairs for various purposes.

Some of these buildings have spaces designed with interior courtyards, punctuated with fun multi-colored umbrellas.

Others laid out in different ways have other landscaping approaches, but all the settings are quite lovely…and so are the beaches!

This review continues here.

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DISNEY WORLD TICKET PRICES GO UP (MOSTLY)

Disney announced Friday a set of new Disney World ticket prices effective yesterday.

You can find the effective new Disney World ticket prices here.  For even more detail, see this.

CHANGES IN WALT DISNEY WORLD TICKET PRICES

All prices except one are rising.

In particular, the after tax per person per day cost of days after the fourth has gone up ~33%, from around $9 to around $12.  This is after a 50% increase last year from about $6 to $9 per day.

This is still a bargain compared to the $80-$90 per person per day costs of the first three days of a ticket, so it doesn’t affect any of this site’s recommendations.

On the more positive side, the cost of doing both a park hopper and a “water park fun and more” pass has dropped.  Each separately (for more than one day tickets) is $57, but adding both is in total now just $79 (both pre-tax).

This is interesting, but also does not affect any of this site’s suggestions, as there are no water parks in them…

OVERVIEW: WALT DISNEY WORLD ADMISSION TICKET PRICES 2012 TO SUMMER 2013

(This page is sponsored by Undercover Tourist.)

Three types of Walt Disney World prices are important to think about:

• Walt Disney World theme park admission ticket prices—the tickets that grant you admission to the parks
• Walt Disney World resort hotel prices, and
• Park and hotel food prices

This page focuses on Walt Disney World theme park admission ticket prices from summer 2012 until the summer of 2013, when, based on past practices,  they will go up.

MORE DETAILS ON WALT DISNEY WORLD ADMISSION TICKET PRICES 2012 AND 2013: HOW THE TICKETS WORK

There are multiple types of Walt Disney World theme park tickets, but the one most relevant to most first time visitors is the Magic Your Way ticket, with the Park Hopper option.

You buy one theme park ticket for each person who will be three years old or older at the time of your visit (kids younger than three enter the parks for free.) The tickets have two pricing levels: one for kids who will be younger than ten at the time of your visit (but 3 or older) and the other for people ten or older.

When you buy your tickets, you also say how many “days” you want—from one to ten. Each “day” you buy permits unlimited visits to one theme park on one day. If you also add the Park Hopper option, you can make unlimited visits to any of the theme parks in one day–one theme park, two, three, or all four theme parks.

• For example, if you buy a three day ticket without the park hopper option, you could make two visits to the Magic Kingdom on day one, three visits to Epcot on day two, and two visits to the Animal Kingdom on day 3
• If you have a three day ticket with the park hopper option, you could for example make two visits to the Magic Kingdom and one to Disney’s Hollywood Studios on day one, one visit to Epcot and two to Disney’s Animal Kingdom on day two, and one to Epcot and two to the Magic Kingdom on day three
• What you can’t do without a park hopper ticket is visit more than one theme park one the same day. For example, you can’t, on November 25th, use one day of your three-day ticket to visit the Magic Kingdom, and another day of this same ticket to visit Epcot that same day. More than one theme park in a day requires a park hopper

You do not have to use your days all in a row boom boom boom—e.g. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Once you use your first day, you have 14 days to use all the days on your ticket. So on a three-day ticket you could visit the theme parks Monday, Thursday, and Sunday.

• You can also add days at the same price that you would have paid had you bought all those days at once, but have to do so no later than the day you use the last day of your original ticket (and within 14 days of the first day)
• So if you buy a three-day ticket, and realize a few days later that you need more days, you can add two days and they will cost only the difference between what you paid originally for a three day ticket, and what you would have had to have paid for a five day ticket, so long as you add these days no later than the day you use your third day
• You can also add stuff like the Park Hopper during the same day window at the same price as you would have paid when you first bought your ticket

However, you can’t “subtract” days if you overbuy.

HOW WALT DISNEY WORLD PRICES ITS THEME PARK ADMISSION TICKETS

1. While Disney typically increases ticket prices at least once a year—typically in the summer—it does not change theme park admission prices based on the seasons of the year, the way that it increases and decreases prices at its resort hotels. You pay the same amount for admission on the busiest and the least busy days of the year.

(This material, by the way, is updated as of Disney World’s June 2012 price increase, and applies to tickets bought in 2012 through Disney’s next price increase, likely in the summer 0f 2013.)

2. Disney sells tickets by the day—one through ten days. The way it prices these days, the first three days are very expensive, while days after the third are comparatively almost free. See the image for exact Disney World prices.

For example, a three day ticket costs (including tax) an adult $258, or an average of $86 a day. A ten day ticket would cost the same adult $339. The added 7 days cost in total around $81—or less than $12 per day.

3. A park hopper costs (after tax) about $37 for a one day ticket, and $61 for all other ticket lengths, regardless of whether you add it to a two-day, ten-day or anything in between. So a three day adult ticket with the park hopper added costs $319, and a ten day ticket with a park hopper costs $400.

I have also uploaded an excel spreadsheet with the same data in it as the image, so that you can multiply by the number of members of your own family.

TIPS AND TRICKS FOR WALT DISNEY WORLD THEME PARK TICKETS

There are other ticket types than the ones discussed above—less relevant for first time visitors. For details on all of them, see this page on MouseSavers.com.

While it’s hard to find discounts on tickets, it is sometimes possible. Check sponsor Undercover Tourist, MouseSavers.com, Triple A if you are a member, and if you have military ties, this page and also MilitaryDisneyTips.com.

Since you can add on to your tickets–days, park hoppers, etc.–, but can’t subtract, it doesn’t really pay to overbuy. Start with the minimum you think you need and add on later if needed.  Remember to add no later than the day you use your current last day!

All of this site’s To-Do Lists tell you exactly what ticket type you need for their associated itineraries.

FREE TICKETS ON YOUR BIRTHDAY?

Disney world no longer offers free tickets on your birthday.

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DISNEY WORLD NEXT WEEK: JUNE 2 TO JUNE 10, 2012

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

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

(For more on June 2012 at Walt Disney World, click here .)

[Read more →]

OVERVIEW: DISNEY’S CARIBBEAN BEACH RESORT [Read more →]

HOW I SPEND MY FREE TIME: IN DISNEY WORLD HOTELS

In the four years or so since this site opened, I’ve managed to stay in, and publish a review of, every Walt Disney World owned and operated resort hotel–and a few others as well. The last review, of the Beach Club Villas, started coming out a few weeks ago.

With just a couple of exceptions, I’ve also stayed in every major  room type–for example, at Saratoga Springs, both the main resort and Treehouse Villas; at the Animal Kingdom Lodge, not only Jambo House but also the DVC villas in both Jambo House and Kidani Village; at Fort Wilderness, both in The Cabins and tent-camping in The Campsites.

This has been fun, but of course also expensive and, at times, believe it or not, even a pain. Yet I can’t see how a site like this can rate and rank hotels for first time visitors without it.  So I’m glad I did it, and I’m glad it’s done.

WHAT’S NEXT FOR RESORT REVIEWS [Read more →]