CBR ‘Downgrade’ from Pirate to Standard?

[Elodie]

We booked a pirate room at CBR to get the free dining, before they added standard rooms - it was a price we were happy to pay and we just wanted to secure the holiday. Now wondering whether we should save ourselves around £500 (after amendment fee) to switch to a standard room.

These are my thoughts. What would you do? Any recent experience to help me make my decision?

Against pirate room:
*Distance from main building (not sure exactly what this is. I walk just over a mile to work every day in about 15 mins, so I’m thinking about a mile from what I’ve read? This would mainly be an issue for accessing main pool.)
*Poor reviews for location and mattress comfort.
*Double beds, which I believe are smaller than U.K. doubles? Would prefer queen.
*Poor reviews for bus links
*Extra cost

For pirate room:
*Spyglass Grill would mean no need to trek to main building for breakfast.
*Seems to have better reviews since refurbishment. Perhaps mattresses have been replaced?
*Children don’t know about holiday, but have seen and exclaimed over pictures of pirate rooms.
*Skyliner station appears to be just over a bridge at edge of Jamaica, so not too far?
*Reviews saying that bus links are managed better now.
*It’s already booked, so saves the hassle of changing booking and losing amendment fee.
*I just don’t like the look of the standard rooms. I’m not very sophisticated, so the pirate theming has much more appeal!

[sha9]

if you prefer the pirate rooms and can afford the extra just stick with them.

[OB1LukeLucas]

I think I would stick with the Pirate room, they look great especially for the kids. I’m torn whether I should change to the Pirate room purely based on the look of them. We booked the 5th sleeper my youngest really likes the Murphy bed so that’s my argument if they say they wished they were in a Pirate room!

[THE WIZARD]

We were 'upgraded' to a pirate room when we were there on a late deal as no one wanted them & I have to say I would have preferred to be 'upgraded' to a standard room. Everyone round us had been 'upgraded' as part of the area was empty. If you have kids n they into pirates & you dont need to spend the money on other things then go for it but it's the rooms furthest from everything other than your quiet pool & laundry. Quiet pool was lovely & just us in it a lot of days. The 15/20 min walk to the main pool n food court was fine when it wasn't too hot but not so good in the 90's. The worse aspect for us, who like to be up n out early was the bus'es. There were (probably still are?) 8 stops & quite a few mornings people in our area were late for their ADR's due to busses not turning up or coming in full n not stopping. There were a lot if complaints so that may have been sorted out now.
Obviously if we got a good enough late deal again there sometime we would hope for a standard rather than Pirate room - I certainly would never pay for one tho.

[Cha cha]

Hi Elodie,
I think there are pros & cons for all the rooms really.
If you prefer the look of the Pirate rooms & think your kids will love the room, I'd stick with it.
I wouldn't rush into anything just yet if I were you.
Like you say Pirate rooms will be quite close to the Skyliner, but not too close to cause any noise or disturbance with people walking to/from the Skyliner.
There are only 6 bus stops now at CBR and Trinidad where the Pirate rooms are is 4th stop.
When I last walked from Old Port Royal(the main building) to Pirate rooms it took 10 minutes or so, guess it depends on your pace & how hot it is.
Some of the standard rooms in Aruba can take almost 10 minutes to get to OPR too.
😊

[Hotlush]

Exactly the same as us; booked a pirate room to make sure we got CBR.

I have though taken the £50 amendment fee hit and changed to a standard now they've been released. No-one was able to tell me what about the pirate room justifies ~£50 extra a night, and everything I was able to find was a negative to me; further from the facilities, smaller beds, etc.

[rafjen]

As long as the size of the beds/extra cost isn't a deal breaker I think I stay with it. Proximity to the spyglass grill and skylines will help. Lots quiets pools if you don't want to trek to the main pool. The kids faces will probable be worth every penny.

[Elodie]

Thanks for all your thoughts. I think I’d feel a bit disappointed on the girls’ behalf (especially my pirate-mad youngest) if we changed, and I wouldn’t be looking forward to it quite so much.

I could come to regret it with the size of the beds, but hopefully we’ll manage. I don’t think the distance to the main pool is too much of a worry - we’ll be visiting the water parks anyway, so we can use the small pool for a quick splash around, and just do the main pool once or twice.

Pretty sure I’ve talked myself out of switching!

[sha9]

Originally Posted by Elodie

Thanks for all your thoughts. I think I’d feel a bit disappointed on the girls’ behalf (especially my pirate-mad youngest) if we changed, and I wouldn’t be looking forward to it quite so much.

I could come to regret it with the size of the beds, but hopefully we’ll manage. I don’t think the distance to the main pool is too much of a worry - we’ll be visiting the water parks anyway, so we can use the small pool for a quick splash around, and just do the main pool once or twice.

Pretty sure I’ve talked myself out of switching!

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I’m pretty sure a US double is equivalent to our double as a queen is equivalent to our king.

[Elodie]

Originally Posted by sha9

I’m pretty sure a US double is equivalent to our double as a queen is equivalent to our king.

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Ah, I was going by Wikipedia, which said that a U.K. double was 5cm wider than an American double. Just googled it properly and it looks like Wikipedia is talking nonsense (who would have thought?!) and they’re actually the same size.

That’s fine then, it was just that our double bed at home is *just* big enough to cope with DH sprawling across the bed and leaving me enough space to cling on to my edge! Those 5cm could have made all the difference to us coming home still speaking to each other!