Disney's Beach Club Resort

“Noisy, but great location with a great pool”

TL;DR Good hotel, great pool, and good food though very noisy and rooms bright at night. Noise If peace and quiet, especially at early hours of the morning, is what you are after, this resort is NOT for you. There is absolutely zero soundproofing between the doors and the room resulting in you ... more

TL;DR Good hotel, great pool, and good food though very noisy and rooms bright at night. Noise If peace and quiet, especially at early hours of the morning, is what you are after, this resort is NOT for you. There is absolutely zero soundproofing between the doors and the room resulting in you being able to hear 100% of corridor conversations taking place around your room - and people in this resort love to talk or make loud, unnecessary noise in the corridors rather than their rooms. I didn’t sleep well once for the entirety of my stay here, with a big contributing factor to that being the loud noise from the corridor outside the room. Room Aside from the noise issue mentioned above, the rooms are ok. Nice and clean, for the most part, with a mixture of full and juliet balconies. You can’t book a specific type of balcony but can make a request for one when you check-in online or through the MyDisneyExperience app. We stayed in a resort view room with a full balcony, overlooking a service roof but with a small view of Stormalong Bay and Lake Crescent, obstructed by a building structure). This had a table and 2 chairs on it, though both chairs sat unevenly on the floor resulting in them rocking whilst sat on them. Some other nitpicks with the room, some of which are quite major for us, is that there is a big gap around the bottom and side of the door resulting in a lot of corridor light entering the room at night. There’s also a safety light in the bathroom, which is a good idea for those who require it, but there’s no way to turn this off (it comes on automatically when it’s dark in the room) and it’s quite bright. I need a dark room to sleep in properly to this had a negative impact on my sleep experience, though I was able to somewhat cover it up. There were some plug sockets and USB ports in the room that didn’t work either. There’s also only a bedside table in the middle of the 2 beds, meaning anybody sleeping on the outside side of the beds didn’t have easy access to a bedside table. You can supposedly fit 4 adults in one standard room, though this would be quite cramped. Supposedly the beds in the room were Queen beds, though I really struggled to see how they were any bigger than a double. Bathroom The bathroom was good and nice and clean. The toilet and shower area is separate to the sink area so people can be using the sink area whilst others are using the facilities. The sink area contains 2 sinks which is helpful when there’s a few people staying in the room. As this is a Disney resort, it falls victim to the single-ply toilet paper Disney likes to provide. For the price you pay for this resort, you would think they would at least provide better quality toilet paper. In-Room Facilities There’s a coffee machine, a fridge, a safe and a good-quality hairdryer. There safe is a decent size, though you’ll struggle if you’re travelling with multiple laptops. There was also an extra pillow and blanket provided at the top of the wardrobe. Housekeeping Housekeeping at this resort is supposed to attend daily and this was the case for the majority of our trip. There was one day, however, where, for no good reason, housekeeping didn’t service our room. Considering this is a Deluxe resort, to us this was unacceptable. Following that incident, housekeeping did start calling the in-room phone on days we decided to leave the room late (past mid-day) to see if we required housekeeping services. There was another day where we chose to not have housekeeping services as we were in the room for most of the day. This resulted in somebody being sent to the room, taking the liberty to let themselves in, to “inspect” the room. This is the only hotel I’ve ever stayed in where somebody has been sent to check on the room when housekeeping services have been declined, and is not something we were a fan of. I’ve since learnt this is a daily thing which happens at all WDW resorts, regardless of housekeeping status, and is certainly a turn-off from staying in one. Housekeeping here also doesn’t do as a good of a job as you would get in a non-Disney hotel. There were a few times there were some hairs, marks, or crumbs etc. left behind. For instance, a mark which was made in the shower as a result of dirty feet at the start of our stay, and could have easily have been removed with a few cleaning supplies, was still present at the end of our stay. Praise where praise is due, housekeeping was very quick to respond when making requests via phone and they were always very quick and happy to accommodate. Dining We didn’t really dine at the hotel as most of our time was spent in the parks, especially when it was time to eat. We did check out Hurricane Hanna’s a couple of times along with the Beach Club Marketplace. The food from both of these locations was good, with Hurricane Hanna’s being my favourite quick dining location in the resort due to their menu and the quality of the food (which, despite it being the same as you can get at other quick-service locations around WDW, was just cooked much better than those other locations). However, there are no options at this resort for getting any food past 9pm. With the pool closing at 11pm, we often found ourselves wanting a quick post-swim (hot) snack (such as fries) but had to walk over to the Boardwalk or Swan and Dolphin to satisfy these needs with a dining location open until midnight. Pool Now the pool is where this hotel really stands out. It’s no lie when people say this resort is home to the best resort on Disney property; Stormalong Bay. The sand at the bottom of the pool quickly became our favourite thing about it, not to mention how the Stormalong bay pools are all heated to a comfortable temperature no matter what time of day or night you take that dip. Not a whole lot to say about this one except that it’s something you have to try for yourself. Location and Transportation The hotel is in a great location - in my opinion, the best location, on Disney property. It’s the closest to EPCOT, which is a short 5-minute walk away. Hollywood Studios is also within walking distance, taking around 20-25 minutes. If you don’t fancy walking, EPCOT and Hollywood Studios can also be reached by boat. The International Gateway entrance to EPCOT also has a Skyliner station which you can use to travel to Hollywood Studios or one of the Skyliner resorts. Busses connect you to Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, Disney Springs, and the water parks. Unfortunately, the Walt Disney World Transportation System seems to forget the Yacht and Beach Club hotels exist when planning the busses, as other hotels seem to have a much higher frequency of busses than this one. One night, departing Magic Kingdom, 6 busses arrived for the Animal Kingdom Lodge, and 4 for the Boardwalk, within the space of 2 for the Yacht and Beach club. The bus frequency for this hotel is poor and something which really needs to be looked into by WDW Transportation. Conclusion Would I stay here again? Would I recommend? Whilst the pool is certainly enough to convince me I should stay here again, the noise is a major problem for us as it severely disrupts the sleep and relaxation quality and that makes me less inclined to recommend or stay here again. Though if the noise isn’t a bother to you, then this hotel is 100% worth it for the pool alone (not to mention the super convenient location of being next door to Epcot).

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“My favorite…..so far”

This hotel ruined other locations at Disney for me. Walking to Epcot can’t (and hasn’t) been beat. Room was very pretty we had a woods view. Hotel lobby is bright and busy but had inviting high back chairs to people watch. Room wasn’t ready until after 5 which stunk since we travelled all day an... more

This hotel ruined other locations at Disney for me. Walking to Epcot can’t (and hasn’t) been beat. Room was very pretty we had a woods view. Hotel lobby is bright and busy but had inviting high back chairs to people watch. Room wasn’t ready until after 5 which stunk since we travelled all day and had after hours that evening. We would have loved to rest a bit before heading out. Very tiny resort store which is also where you get any hot food items so that is a strange layout. But food items were tasty, staff was friendly Cape May if off lobby. This was my favorite thing at Beach Club. The character breakfast has a lot to choose from. I had a reservation after parks opened so it was not busy and the interaction was some of the best I have experienced. (If you can do this i highly recommend doing at 9am slot) Goofy sat and had coffee with me. And I loved watching the he extra time they spent with the kids that were there. I felt all the Disney magic that morning.

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“Processes need an upgrade”

Pros - proximity to Epcot Cons - It’s an average mass market experience and housekeeping schedule was a mess. We came back to the room after a long day in the parks twice and our room hadn’t been cleaned. Brought it up and complained the first day only to have the issue repeated the second da... more

Pros - proximity to Epcot Cons - It’s an average mass market experience and housekeeping schedule was a mess. We came back to the room after a long day in the parks twice and our room hadn’t been cleaned. Brought it up and complained the first day only to have the issue repeated the second day. We left the room at 7am and returned at 4:30pm and no housekeeping done! The head of housekeeping was apologetic the second time around and offered us a comp on our dinner. However the inconvenience of having this happen twice in the summer heat and then having to leave the room again instead of resting after a long day, was a massive inconvenience. Generally it feels like processes at this hotel are a bit broken. The hotel is also oldish and needs a refurb (the bathrooms at least)

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