We are a family of 5 and family of 4 traveling March 2022. Yes I’m planning early and trying to decide which resort to stay at. Kids will be 6,7,8,9,10 when we are there and staying off site is not an option for us…we want to be in the bubble.
What is your choice between Caribbean Beach and Port Orleans Riverside and why?
We recently stayed at POFQ and loved it but this is not an option as our friends are a family of 5. Hubby and I stayed at POR in 2009 and loved it as well.
My concerns are the size of the resorts - French quarter was great with the one bus stop and quick walk to the room after a long day.
We will be doing mostly rope drops as info and will not take in many resort activities (besides the pool) as the parks will be our focus.
I don’t know if I see the Skyliner as an advantage or not and worry about the size of Carribean.
I know that POR has a trundle bed for a 5th sleeper and I don’t remember CB having that option. I know you say the sprawling property size of CB doesn’t bother you but from our experience after a long day at the parks my young children, and adults, were NOT happy for the long trek to the food court or pool.
We have stayed at both, before renovations (2016 for CBR and 2018 at POR). We are a family of 5. My kids are currently 12, 12, and 9.
CBR pros: pool- my kids preferred this pool over PORs, the barn type doors between the sleeping area and the bathroom area, comfortable beds, piratish theme for our boys. Some would say the skyliner (which was not there when we were there)
POR pros: more relaxing atmosphere (for us anyway), better food court, beds also comfortable, less walking (the resort seems smaller), less bus stops, ferry to Disney Springs, being attached to POFQ, so you have the option of a second pool and food court close by
CBR cons: I’m not as into the Caribbean type colors and decor, the number of bus stops, food court was not as good
POR cons: a curtain instead of the barn door between the bathroom area and bedroom area, pool nice, but not as nice as CBRs for the kids. They still had fun though.
We preferred POR for our tastes. We did rope drop some days and had no issues with buses since we got there early. Same was true for CBR. If you try to leave when everyone else was at either resort, it was more of a problem.
I bet the skyliner really helps CB ratings! We’ve stayed away from it for years due to its size and seemed to always be in need of an update (rooms being worn).
Thank you all! The size of Carribean makes me very nervous for sure. Also like I said we will be doing rope drops and I had read the Skyliner isn’t great for that?! So right now all things are pointing to riverside
POR is very spread out as well, IMHO on par with CBR (which I actually LOVE). It’s my next-to-least choice of Mods (POFQ being “I’ll stay Value before here” level - I don’t like New Orleans at all.) - the mansions feel stuffy and the bayou feels junky.
Funny how people can have such different opinions! We stayed at POFQ in February and LOVED it! That’s where we were hoping to return to until I realized they don’t accommodate a family of 5! Thanks for your comment!
I was expecting stuffy in the POR Mansion but the Royal Room - ground floor - was just too cool.
My main complaint at the end of the week was the trek to the food court. It was just there - across the water.
But to get there, one walked down here past another Mansion, across the bridge and then back up to there to the food court.
I hear ya! We did stay there years ago and I do remember that and that is why we loved French Quarter so much this year! However with our friends being a family of 5 POFQ is not an option. By what I’m reading I think we would find the trek even longer at the Caribbean Beach though!
We only used the Caribbean Beach food court once and for some reason drove. I think we were stopping for breakfast before heading somewhere else - I do know it was a non park day.
So my memory of CBR food court is a little hazy. Definitely love POR food court.
I haven’t checked out either PO resort, but we really liked CBR. I put in a room request that was likely to give us a room in Jamaica in one of the buildings closer to the bridge over to the island and Old Port Royale, but still not too far a walk from the parking lot, bus stop, and Skyliner station.
The Skyliner wasn’t open yet when we stayed in August 2019 but I was still really happy with Jamaica. I did end up driving over one night to the Spyglass Grill in Trinidad to pick up a Mobile Order because of a torrential thunderstorm, but other than that the size wasn’t a problem. The Spyglass Grill menu worked better for us than the food court but the food court was ok. And my younger kid and I loved the pool.
We liked the food options at CBR when everything was open, but we like Caribbean food. Also, it is close to Riviera for food. You could take a short Skyliner to AoA, Pop, HS, and EP for more food options.
Kids will be 6,7,8,9,10 when we are there and staying off site is not an option for us…we want to be in the bubble.
sorry for the misunderstanding- probably my biggest concern 
