We are staying at CRB for the first time in two weeks. At the suggestion of friends we requested Martinique (preferred water-view room). IS this the best village? - we are looking for a compromise between a quiet room and closeness to Port Royale, the pool, and the bus stop. Any particular building and/or room #'s we should ask for - or avoid?!:)

A question-you say 'preferred'-did you pay for preferred? Think it's an extra $15-20 per night. If you paid for preferred then you will definitely be placed in either Martinique or Trinidad North-those are the preferred buildings at CBR. You can also pay for water-view room-and be located anywhere within the resort. BUT-you can't pay for preferred location and a waterview. Don't see why-Disney likes to separate us from our money-but you can't pay for both. So, the water view would be a request only while the preferred would be a slam dunk.

Martinique is definitely the closest village to OPR. But each village has it's own bus stop, so you are never far away from one IMO. Pool? You mean the main pool at OPR? Isn't that closed for renovation-and will be for quite some time. Or haven't they started it yet? Each village has it's own quiet pool, so again, you are never far away from one.

If you've paid for preferred, then I'd rank your room requests in order that's important to you-and try to keep it only to 2-3. That way the room assigner(sp), knows why you've asked for a certain location. If you only ask for-say-Martinique building**, then the room assigner has no idea what to do if that room or location is already taken. But, if you say-a quiet room that's close to a bus stop, then he'll/she'll have a better idea where to put you.

When you check in, discuss your concerns/requests politely with the CM. They truly do their best to accomodate you. Case in point-I paid for preferred but my #1 request was ground floor-because I use a wheelchair while at WDW, and there are no elevators at CBR. But we were assigned a second floor room. But the CM worked at it for a couple of minutes and we were re-assigned the perfect room-ground floor, preferred, water view, corner room(2 windows). Beautiful!

Quietness wasn't an issue here in my experience-never heard our neighbors, toilets, doors, etc. Very peaceful.

for standard, the best island is jamaica. its pool even got a water slide while the main pool is closed for refurb. just a brief walk across caribbean cay to old port royale and its bus stop is usually the first picked up / dropped off, depending on the particular route.

We stayed at Carribean Beach for a week in August. We were in the Jamaica building. It wasn't water-view or preferred, but we never heard a sound. And it was very full. Very unlike our experience last week at Port Orleans Riverside. Just beware - if you're not going to have a car, the buses can be frustrating. They came frequently, but you typically spend 20 driving around the resort to other bus stops before you even leave for the parks.