Here's my stay re-cap that I just posted on FB... long winded, sorry about that.
We stayed 2/2 - 2/9.
We were booked in a Standard Room. I had just faxed in a request for Jamaica 45 when I came upon the recent walkway area construction photos -- I was a little bummed, but wasn't going to let it affect my stay.
My husband arrived earlier in the day, and myself and the kids weren't getting there until close to 8pm. Since he had nothing to do (he had already sat at a bar at Disney Springs for a while, ha), around 2pm he swung by the front desk to let them know he was there, even though he knew the room probably wouldn't be ready yet. The lady at the front desk said the room was actually ready, and that she would have someone take him there via golf cart.
So Sayed (Sayeed? I'm not sure) came by and took my husband and his luggage over to the room -- they ended up upgrading us to Barbados 32. We are a party of 5, so it had the 5th sleeper. This was also an accessible room, so the bathroom was one larger room instead of split up, and had 1 sliding pocket door with a lock. This was room 3211 for anyone curious. There was a connecting door to the next room -- we had quiet neighbors all week (we were probably the louder ones with 3 kids, sorry neighbor), but the last night someone with young kids checked in and when the AC wasn't running I could hear a lot over there, including their television. I solved this minor blip with the Sleep Fan app on my phone. We had to go to bed really early to get up at 5:30AM for the Magical Express. Otherwise very quiet.
I thought this room was not a bad walk over to OPR. We had a nice garden-type "view" (I put that in quotes since we basically always had the curtain closed for privacy, but nice to walk out to). Also not far from the bus stop.
Most of the time busses were fine and generally matched up with the app. The only times where I felt like we waited a long time were coming back from Epcot around 5pm, and coming back from Hollywood Studios around 4pm. We were the third stop, most days this was fine -- there were a few mornings where not everyone at our stop made it onto the bus, and then the bus seemed to skip Trinidad completely, but not sure if they had their own bus sometimes? If you're worried, I'd perhaps walk to the OPR stop -- it's not far from Barbados.
Our room was clean, we did not decline mousekeeping as we were there 7 nights with 3 little kids. Our mousekeepers the first few days were great, especially the first day -- she made towel 'sculptures' and placed them in our window, and did the sheer curtain up nice. She also made my youngest's blankie into a "bow" and put their stuffed animals in fun places. Towels were always replenished, beds well made, garbage emptied. Towards the end of the week there were 2 days where the glasses and coffee were not replaced. Otherwise all good.
Centertown -- I though the food here was good, but our biggest issue was them getting orders wrong. This happened multiple times. Once my husband walked all the way back to the room and then realized his order was wrong and turned around and went back. We ordered spaghetti with meatball for my daughter, came out with no meatball. They brought one out when we inquired. My son's grilled cheese said it would come with cinnamon-powdered orange wheels but came out with an orange slice and 2 pieces of pineapple instead. My husband did mention he was disappointed and they said they didn't serve that anymore (why was it on the menu in the app?). But a few minutes later, they came out with them and had made them special for him. My tuna wrap was supposed to have fries and came with salad instead. They did bring out fries to fix it.
They did attempt to rectify each and every time and were apologetic. We are not huge complainers, just politely brought incorrect orders to their attention to get what we ordered. A gentleman named Kyle asked how it had been going on the last night while waiting for an order, and we were honest that the food was good but had errors all week, and he gave my kids each a free cookie. I think there may be some disconnect from the register to the kitchen, and with time they will smooth this out. But they did repair each error.
Sebastian's Bistro -- we ate here one evening, not crowded at all. I got the Goat Curry and really enjoyed my meal, I thought the portion was just right and tasted really good, and liked the various textures. My husband got the Sustainable Fish, which that day was Mahi Mahi. He didn't really enjoy this -- said it was very bland. My kids ordered 2 kids meals and split them (they're not big eaters so we did this almost all week) -- jerk chicken with mac and cheese and pizza biscuit, and shrimp skewers with the same sides. They weren't big fans of the pizza biscuit. They liked everything else but said the jerk chicken was a little too spicy.
Overall I really enjoyed the ambiance, especially at dusk. The kids enjoyed the pool, and the afternoon poolside trivia. We felt everyone was very friendly. There were a lot of cheerleaders at the resort for the week but were not disturbed by anything. The spread-out nature of the resort makes it feel more quiet/secluded/calm. It never felt overrun with people at any point, even at the pool, and knowing they were booked solid.
I was pleasantly surprised at the upgrade to a preferred room and really enjoyed that -- unexpected but was nice. And the pocket door on the accessible room is kind of ugly so I missed the sliders, but frankly having the big single area bathroom was a plus for us. Your mileage may vary depending on how your family gets ready in the morning. I still have to do a lot of child assistance so the bigger room was good there.
I hope this helps for anyone coming soon!
We are here now (5th-14th), booked a standard room and were upgraded to water view in Barbados as well. We have an accessible room with the fifth Sleeper, corner room close to the beach. Seems to me that they put most of the cheer groups in Jamaica. We only heard them last night when we walked to OPR for hot chocolate. They were yelling and cheering; thank goodness it didn't last too long.