Caribbean Beach vs. Port Orleans

A family member is sharing time share points with us for this coming summer (yay, free hotel!). The resorts we can choose from are Port Orleans French Quarter/Riverside, Caribbean Beach, or Coronado Springs. We have pretty much ruled out Coronado Springs because we would like to stay closer to MK after our stay at AKL this past summer (those bus rides were killer!) and it just doesn’t seem as “kid oriented” as the other choices (we have a 3 and 7 year old). We have stayed at Port Orleans French Quarter before and liked it, so we know that is definitely a good option, but we would like to try a different resort as well just to experience all Disney has to offer. We definitely like the idea of the Skyliner option at CB, however, the size of the resort itself has me a little nervous about getting around, etc. I’d love anyone’s input on this choice- thanks in advance!

We have stayed at both. We are older and no longer have kids at home. Do to this we prefer to stay at POR Magnolia Bend. I think kids would prefer Alligator Alley and they have bigger rooms. CBR is somewhat cheaper and bigger then POR or POF. I think it is more kid friendly as far a the pool is concerned. They both have big QS restaurants and there the prefect intermediate resorts. If your looking for something a little cheap, the value resorts aren’t bad but there pretty small.

Thanks for the tips! Cost isn’t a factor here as we are using time share points from family members. These are the resorts that are available to us (they aren’t DVC members).

Understood. Comments on both POR/POF and CBR are the same. Value is out. Enjoy your Magical trip.

I had no idea there were timeshare programs that give you access to the Disney resorts (aside from DVC which generally wouldn’t apply to the resorts you list - though it could). This is very interesting to me!

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I didn’t either! I’m not sure what company it is, but they specifically said it is not DVC but they have the option to stay on Disney property, as well as the traditional time share options off property of course.

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Always FQ for me, I can’t imagine staying somewhere so big it had several bus stops.

The upside is usually those resorts don’t share with others. You basically have the same effect but since the stops are called a different resort it has a different feel. One could really look at PO - to include POR and POFQ - as a singular resort with different stops.

You could but I think we shared twice in a 2 week trip with midday breaks almost every day, and one of those times was 90 mins after park closing so everyone was sharing. But FQ itself is a small resort. At a resort with 4 bus stops, chances are you’re going to be far away from something. At FQ everyone is close to the pool, the restaurant, the bus stop and everything else.

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FQ is unusually small. Quite adorable for that reason. You’re right about all rooms being in proximity to everything you need. Point POFQ

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CBR having the Skyliner is a total gamechanger for me. I wouldn’t have considered staying there before, but after returning from a mid-Nov stay at Pop, I can’t imagine not staying at a Skyliner resort now (unless we’re talking about a monorail resort).

The buses can be a huge drag, though. Maybe see where you plan to spend most of your time. For me, going to Epcot and HS was so easy via the Skyliner that I went to each of them 3 times during my 5-day trip.

My daughter finds the theming at POFQ to be a little creepy.

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