The three “island markets” are available in the following locations (formerly guest rooms):
Martinique: Building 25, Room 2509
Jamaica: Building 43, Room 4308
Aruba: Building 55, Room 5524
These locations will operate from 7am-10pm daily and offer things like cereal, pastries, and sandwiches. In addition, Coca-Cola Freestyle machines will be located in five of the resorts “island” building groups (all except Barbados). We strongly recommend you do not select nearby rooms as the increased traffic will be significant.
A recent blog stated although Spy Glass Grill is a hard bldg, not a tent, it’s tiny. If not busy in November you should be ok with that. Alot of people on chat had better experiences lately than we did. You’ll want to have a car
Hope this helps!
Thanks for bumping this up. We added a day to the beginning of our stay so we are staying at CBR before moving to Poly. Thinking Aruba or Jamaica area may be best from what I’ve heard for room choices…
during February 2018 we stayed Aruba 5133 corner room near the stairs (luckily super quiet time of year). The parking lot side of bldg is where they are building a Skyway station pillar and new resort entrance booth. We didn’t hear any construction and were surprised when we went around to our car to see the crane about 10:30am. couldn’t walk for food, completely blocked off, had to drive all the way back around to the front.
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Good to know Don’t think we’ll be eating since we have a late lunch at disney springs and then breakfast at MK. Really just want access to any pool to relax after flying and a quick walk to a bus
Then area of Aruba 5133 good choice
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Wasn’t planning on a car. Are the buses that bad? We stayed there before and had no problems with the buses.
We had problems on 2 days with “Internal” buses not coming for 45 minutes despite Cm saying they were running. Could have been time of year or time of day. I.e. not busy enough
Just booked this with free dinning for August with a water or pool view. Trying to decide between Martinique, Trinidad North or Aruba. Martinique is close to customs house, but looks like getting to main pool and centertown market could be a challenge. Trinidad North, especially close to main pool, look to be good for pool access, food access and bus stop access, but a bit farther from customs house. Aruba looks like it could be best of all options but last bus stop unless you want to walk to and from the main stop at Centertown? Thoughts?
I would say that beyond one unusual need for me to take an extra visit to Customs House last trip (which had nothing to do with the stay itself at Disney), I don’t really see any need to go there once you are checked in.
If that’s the same for you I’d just focus more on being closer to the amenities - we have stayed in Aruba and Jamaica on different trips, and we enjoyed the walk over to the pool and restaurants even though it is a bit of a walk. I’d suggest trying to shoot for Aruba 51 or 52 and Jamaica 45 or 46 - you’ll be right next to the walkway and bridge over to the pool.
Also, the first pickup bus stop is right across the lot from Jamaica 46 (assuming they haven’t rejiggered the stops since last August) so good shot at a seat on the way to parks.
If you do absolutely have to go to Customs House a few times, I did learn one tidbit from a family waiting at the bus stop last trip: There is one bus that is dedicated to just going around the loop inside the resort, which includes a stop at Customs House. However - as of last year it was only expected to go around once every 30 minutes, so can be a wait if you don’t time it right.
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Agree with @JJT that you probably won’t need to head over to Custom House nearly at all during your stay. In fact, I think the plan is to do away with it and put that functionality into Old Port Royale as part of the ongoing construction.
I would base your stay location request on the other amenities you want to be close to.
I’m glad this thread got started again as we are staying at CBR starting May 30th- All of our planning is pretty much done at this point, so I guess the only thing left would be which area we should stay at, with the main focus being on getting back and forth to the parks quickly - I saw they just opened up new bus stops, so I hope transportation has gotten easier and hope others leave feedback here with how it is going.
Thank you both. Appreciate the feedback.
May 2018 CBR. 1st stay at CBR, 6 days.
Impressions of the resort were, meh, OK. Our king bed room was comparable to a Hampton Inn. We did not get an “Island” resort feel. We got an “apartment complex” feel, as we walked around. We got a good discount for staying here, so it met its goal.
Impressions of the construction at CBR - it is unavoidable. Martinique, Trinidad N, Jamaica, Aruba … all surrounded by construction. Honestly, it was a major eye-sore, thats about it. Kids playing and screaming in the large theme pool was much more noise than the construction.
The dining tent. As an incentive for guests staying during construction, the dinning tent buffet is a quick-service credit on the dining plan. A nice bonus, as you will never find a Disney buffet for a quick-service credit. The breakfast was OK and decent, and I would say worth a quick-service credit. The evening dinner, was HORRIBLE. Instead, go the hotel beach and eat sand. You will like it better than evening dinner in the tent.
CBR reminds me a lot of Hollywood Studios, the best place to grab a bite to eat … is somewhere else.
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Except for check in and check out (Magic Express bus) you don’t need the custom house. There is a concierge suite in building 31, that can also take care of anything the front desk/custom house would. For major problems, (Magic bands not working a door) … they will come to you.
The large theme main pool is busy and loud. Louder than the construction. Might be nice for a visit, but the individual quiet pools will likely be your go-to spots.
As of May, bus stops in order are Martinique, Old Port Royale, Trinidad N, Trinidad S, Jamaica, then Aruba. all buses in that order. It does look like the new entrance is about to open, so it will likely change very soon.
Each island area, has a smaller “quiet pool” and a sand beach with beach chairs. Those will likely be your go-to choices for down time. Note that as of May, the Aruba beach was blocked off with orange construction fencing. It is one of the many eye-sores of the construction, but still accessible.
Check before you rent a car. Disney is rolling out a daily "resort parking fee."
We did not find buses to be “that bad.” They were reliable. Just plan an extra 20 minutes to leave your room.
May 2018 … like most of our experience with CBR, Spyglass was meh, OK.
CBR reminds me a lot of Hollywood Studios, the best place to grab a bite to eat … is somewhere else.
As of May, the quick service options are:
the buffet (yes a quick service credit on the dining plan)
the food truck
Spy Glass grill. Tacos three ways, a burger, and fish dish.
Overall food is OK. We found the dinner buffet in the tent to be horrible.
If at all possible, make your food selections somewhere else in WDW, and come to CBR to crash and to sleep.