I am still playing around with where I want to stay on my next trip. I read that one of the biggest complaints about CB is the bus stops and walking distance to food. I remember that was what a lot of people said about RS too. Has anyone been to both? Can you please let me know how they compare? I was thinking of something different. I need a moderate resort.
Thank you!
Pam
Personally I prefer Riverside to Caribbean Beach. I have stayed at both. Caribbean beach was beautiful but they layout seemed HUGE to me. However at Riverside the Bayou rooms are very far away too. I did not use the pool at CB so I cannot speak to that. I did prefer the food court at POR over CB. Another plus for POR you can walk to POFQ which has an amazing food court and a lovely pool. This may have only complicated things lol 
Will your trip take place while the construction is still scheduled at CB?
If compactness matters, you may want to seriously think about POFQ as an option. One bus stop and a much more compact footprint than either Riverside or Caribbean. We prefer it to Riverside personally, and have not stayed at Caribbean.
No, It should be all done by then.
I always look at other places and then end up booking at Riverside. I just sometimes wonder if we are missing out not checking out somewhere else?
I was looking there too, lol
Hmm, I have done all 3 and I do really like them all, so I don’t really think you can go wrong! I think my personal favorite is POR but my husband loved CBR and I think my DS2 like POFQ the best! (Not much help here I realize!)
If I had to categorize, I think the pool at CBR is the best. The splash pad for little kids is best at POFQ. I liked the relaxing/beachy feel of CBR and enjoyed the spread out nature of it. I liked the POR food court the best and I think that one seems more romantic to me. It felt just as big as CBR though. POFQ wins from a small size perspective. POR/POFQ have the tiny benefit of the water shuttle to DS but that seems to take forever to me.
I think that next time we go if we do a mod we might do CSR just to see what it is like! Plus I would have a really hard time deciding just like you.
I really enjoyed CSR! It is beautiful and the pool was a lot of fun.
Okay here goes my most favorite to least favorite in the moderate category:
POFQ takes the #1 spot, love the pool, love the size, love the smells, love the food court
CS takes #2 beautiful resort with a beautiful pool
POR takes #3 lovely resort however it is quite large and can be a bit of a hike to the bayou rooms
CBR takes #4 I love the Caribbean however this resort does not stack up, loud noisy food court, huge resort
My 2 cents for what it is worth 
Been to both a number of times and I only do CBR if I cannot get in a POR. I happen to love the boat ride to DS and it’s a nice side trip. Now the walk part. CBR is a big resort but getting to the main building is not that bad of a walk and if you really prefer not to walk they have an inter resort bus. All buildings are not that far from a bus stop to the parks and when leaving the parks at night if you wait until they are closing expect a crowd at the park stops. (standing room only for the most part) My wife and I stay at the POR whenever we can and mainly in Magnolia Bend. Love the old southern type mansion buildings but of coarse there mainly just for looks as all rooms are basically the same. Us the UOG room view finder and it will give you more of an ideal of the differences.
I know POR has a lot of love, but I’ll give the opposing view - if you’re not there during the construction, we really enjoyed CBR. We had 3 kids (16, 10 and 7) plus 2 adults (myself and my sister). We stayed in Jamaica which was the first stop on the bus and a very short walk across the bridge to food and the pool. The kids loved the pool and that was a major draw for us. This location was perfect and nothing ever seemed that far away (and both my son and I have issues walking - we never found it to be a problem). And we loved the tropical theme.
For some reason, the theming of POR didn’t appeal to us as much and the few times we stayed, we always ended up the furthest distance from food. And the kids last time vetoed us because they liked the CBR pool so much better. But here we really enjoyed the make your own pasta station!
I will say, I have no idea what adding the new buildings into CBR will do once the construction is finished. How that will impact traffic, bus routes, etc.
Do you mean the Touring Plans room finder? How to Send A Hotel Room Request to Disney – Automatically! | TouringPlans.com Blog
Also, if you are going when the construction is completed, the new store fronts and check-in areas should definitely be an improvement and I’ve heard it will also include a new TS restaurant!
Remember that the Riviera construction, and the gondola work, won’t be completed until at least Spring of 2019. The resort work may be completed, but there will still be construction in sight and audible at times, depending where in. CBR you were.
Yes, one and the same or at least I thought it was.
Interesting- to me they are not. To me, the Unoffical Guide are books (wdw, DL, Washington DC, Las Vegas) and Touring Plans is the website and all its resources/tools, and the app (including chat) and now the forum. I guess it depends on the sequence that you discover all of this information.