Misty Krueger

Even though I have been to Disney three times before my recent trip, I have never stayed at a Disney resort. When I went to Disneyland, I stayed off site because my sister had a conference in Los Angeles. My first Disney World trip was similar. I went to Orlando with my sister for a conference and we also stayed off site. When I went to Disney World the next time, I was staying at a Marriott timeshare with my then in-laws.

With this being my fourth trip, I knew I wanted to stay at one of the Disney hotels. The reasons? Closeness to the parks–if I felt too tired, I could go back to the room. No need for a rental car and parking–we could ride the Monorail, Skyliner, and buses to the parks. And, of course, we’d get the full Disney experience. Yup. I wanted an entirely Disney themed trip. And that’s what I got.

There are a few categories of Disney resort–it’s kind of like airline seats: basic, main, plus, and first class. My sister and I knew we couldn’t afford the last two, so we aimed for an economy or moderate resort. We settled on the Caribbean Beach resort, which is considered a moderately priced resort. The pictures below show an overhead view of the resort, and the Skyliner that runs over it, as well as the inside of the room we stayed in.

The interesting thing about this room is that there are three beds. You only see one, right? That’s what I saw when I entered, too. I was like oh no, but it turns out that there’s a Murphy Bed built into the wall to left behind the couch. It folds down over the couch. And on the right there’s something called a 5th sleeper bed–perfect size for a kid–that folds down, too. My mom slept in the full size pull-down bed while Keke slept in the child bed. It was perfect.

The room’s decor is “under the sea” themed, so there were some Little Mermaid vibes going on, and I loved it. The room was really nice, and I’d stay at this resort again if I needed a moderately priced resort. That said, I’ll let you know that the layout is huge for the resort, with each apartment style complex named after islands. We stayed in Trinidad. Buses come right to your “island” to pick you up, but the trek to the Skyliner is quite a walk, so know that if you decide to stay there.

The picture below gives you a sense of the lobby–Disney is all about creating simulacra, so you have that Caribbean plantation vibe in the public areas. Of course, let us not forget what made the real plantations possible and what Disney is repeating in modeling its resort after that style–colonialism and enslavement. Other resorts have different themes, some of which are (seemingly) innocuous. There’s the Contemporary resort, Art of Animation, and others focusing on pop culture. But there’s also a resort called the Polynesian, and the Coronado resort also smacks of imperialism. There are 25 Disney resorts in Orlando.

The resorts also have themed restaurants to match the “culture” of their hotels. You stay at the Caribbean and you can make a reservation to eat at the Banana Cabana or Sebastian’s Bistro–which feature, you guessed it, an American take on Caribbean food.

We didn’t eat at either of those restaurants, though. Our planner suggested we go to the Contemporary resort and eat at Chef Mickey’s. It has a buffet and six characters visit your table. The planner thought it was important for the kids to have this opportunity, so we ate there. The food was fine, and the character experience was definitely the highlight of the meal. Oh, and I got a birthday cupcake. 🙂

I hope you enjoy these pics.

Don’t you love how Keke and her doll have matching Snow White dresses? I do!

Get ready for my next post: an overview of our first park day at Magic Kingdom. Lots of great pictures and some things that couldn’t be captured in photographic form–namely, being barfed on!