I stayed at CBR Jan 7-14. Overall, construction wasn't too bad. It probably depends on the village that you are in. We were in Aruba 55. We had a great corner room with the extra window and a pull down bed. There were only three of us, so we each had our own bed. We were right next to major construction, but couldn't see it at all for the foliage and fences. One morning there was loud banging starting at 9am but it only lasted about 30 minutes. Other than that, we barely heard the construction at all. Of course you can see the construction of Port Royale but it didn't ruin the beauty of the resort for us. We were right around the corner from an island market. We didn't end up buying the mugs because coffee and tea are free during construction and we don't drink soda. The cast member who checked us in said not to bother buying the mugs. The island market was wonderful, the workers were so friendly, they remembered my daughter's name when we went in every morning. We didn't buy any prepared food there, but we used the microwave for easy mac a few time and my daughter loved the cupcakes. I actually prefer having the closer island markets than a central hub with all of the food and beverage choices. Walking to the central area at Coronado Springs for coffee each morning was a huge pain when we stayed there.
The pool area is still fabulous. Though they have permanently closed the hot tub closest to Port Royale. It was open at the beginning of the week, thank goodness because the marathoners were overloaded in the hot tubs. The lifeguard told us that it is closing to make room for an expanded pool bar. She said that bars make money, hot tubs don't. Plus, it's the only moderate with more than one hot tub. She said she was told that only deluxe resort will have deluxe amenities, such as more than one hot tub. She seemed a little disgruntled with Disney, very nice to us though. The weather was a little cold early in the week and the pools were around 80 degrees. It was warm enough to swim but pretty chilly getting out of the water. They are still doing the character pool parties with Donald, Minnie and Goofy. My daughter absolutely LOVED that. It's a really great experience, they play games with the kids, there's music, really fun. We spent lots of money on character dining and her favorite interaction that week was the free pool party! I think they do them three times per week. We caught one on Sunday and Thursday.
Food choices are pretty limited. We didn't eat at the buffet, we checked it out and weren't too inspired by the choices, so we used the food truck options. I think the buffet would be a very good deal if you are on the dining plan, as it is only a quick service credit. Out of pocket, I didn't think it was worth the cost. My mother had a burger from one food truck and we both had gyros (regular and falafel) from the other. My mom said both were good, the gyros were the better option (the gyro truck leaves at three, so hustle over there if you want to try them). Plus the gyro truck has french fries. With the burgers you have to choose mac n' cheese (was not good) or rice (alright). Also, there are absolutely no vegetarian options at the food truck in the evening. As a vegetarian, my only options were to order sides of mac n' cheese or rice. The service was slow everywhere. We waited ten minutes for the burger and over twenty for the gyros. We also ordered pizza one night, it's a pretty large pizza for the price and all three of us agreed it was probably the best dining choice at CBR right now.
Buses were fine. We were at the last bus stop and always got on the first bus to stop. They ran frequently. Of course, leaving the parks at the end of the evening was a lengthy wait, but I think that is true of all resorts. Pop and AoA lines were crazy long. We felt lucky to be in the CBR line.
The only complaint we ever had was that housekeeping didn't give us fresh toiletries the first three days. We thought that maybe it was because we left the toiletries out, so the second day, we put them in our suitcase. They still didn't give us fresh for the next two days, so we ran completely out of shampoo and ended up having to call to ask for shampoo. They came and left a huge bag full of toiletries, I think 13 of each item! Of course, there's no way we were taking those back on the plane, so we ended up leaving most of them in the room. I hope that they can still use them.
Overall, it still a beautiful and relaxing resort. I wholeheartedly choose it over Coronado Springs, even with the construction. I'm glad we got to stay here before the skyliners open and the construction finishes, as I fear the prices may become astronomical upon completion.