Our most recent Disney trip was kind of spur-of-the-moment. There were no DVC studios available, but we managed to get a nice Annual Passholder discount at Caribbean Beach Resort. I’d never before stayed there, and its rooms sleep up to five, so we took the opportunity to do a little recon for you.
First, the Magical Express dropped us off at the Custom House. This building has resort check-in, airline check-in, and that’s about it! For most Disney resorts, other amenities (such as restaurants and shops) are found in the same location as the check-in area, but not at Caribbean Beach.
Custom House
Custom House interior
So basically, we had to go through a quick registration process (I’d done the online check-in, but hadn’t received our room number via text, so we still had to go to the front desk for this info), and then get on the resort’s internal shuttle to get to our room location. This seemed like a much longer process than what we’ve become accustomed to at Disney resorts.
Our room was in Trinidad North, one of six different sections at Caribbean Beach. It was a great location, very close to Old Port Royale (which is where the restaurants, gift shop, and main pool are located).
Trinidad North
Our room was quite lovely. Being a corner room, we had lots of natural light, plus a water view.
Our room
The bench turns into a small Murphy-type bed.
The Murphy bed isn’t very big, but our 13-year-old would still fit on it.
The bathroom was typically tiny, but the vanity area was plenty spacious.
Pretty standard “closet” area.
Having a corner room with two windows made the space feel bigger.
The view was quite nice!
One of the mornings of our trip, we decided to walk around the central lake, Barefoot Bay. Here are the sights along the way:
A cute hammock area
The feature pool. In addition to this, each of the six sections had its own “quiet” pool.
A splash area was located right next to the main pool.
We stopped by the Old Port Royale food court for coffee.
Shutters, the table service restaurant, is only open for dinner.
According to Walt Disney World’s website, pirate cruises and fishing excursions leave from this dock.
This boardwalk was located between the Barbados and Aruba sections. It was lovely!
We stopped to rest in this gazebo located on a tiny island in Barefoot Bay.
Overall, I liked this resort. The one thing I didn’t like was the bus service. The resort is so sprawling, the necessity of having an internal shuttle made every journey seem to take longer than at other resorts. However, once headed out of Caribbean Beach property and to a park or Disney Springs, the travel time wasn’t too bad. If you stay here, it would be nice to have a car, though it was definitely do-able with Disney transportation.
On a positive note, I’d read about the Murphy-type beds at this resort, and was happy to see them in person. It’s wonderful that Disney World is making more accommodations for big families!
Have you stayed at Caribbean Beach Resort? What was your experience like? Would you stay there again?
I always wondered what the Caribbean Beach Resort looked like. Thank you for taking so many photos. And the photos were great.
I was surprised that the place looked so deserted. I’ve never seen Disney like that.
Thanks, Susan! It was a really lovely resort. The only drawback is the transportation situation. And it looked deserted because this was a relatively early morning walk. I think everyone was either either asleep or at the food court. (Which, by the way, was packed! Two ladies asked if they could sit at our table with us. They were very nice!)