I've been procrastinating a bit, but finally have the time to post a review of the Beach Club club level from our trip on June 27-July 1. The trip was a relatively last minute booking (1 month before), as a birthday present from my wife for my 40th birthday.
We intended for the trip to be a mostly resort stay (little parks if at all), so she booked the Deluxe Club room for the extra space. We requested "not first floor" and got 2557 on the second floor by the quiet pool. The room itself was nice, the balcony was HUGE, the location was good for the secret exit to Epcot (see the Beach Club thread for more info) and to walk to the Boardwalk, and the location was nice and quiet for sleeping late.
For comparison, we did like the Deluxe Club room at the Boardwalk Inn better, the BW layout is nicer with the full extra "room", with the couch facing a second TV. In the BC Deluxe room, the extra daybed is facing the beds, out of view of the TV. We never used the daybed at all because of that, and watched TV from the beds, where a couch would have been better.
As I said, the balcony in this particular room is HUGE -- picture a HUGE balcony in your mind, whatever that might be, and then double it. It was more than twice (or three times) as large as the 1BR DVC balconies if that helps anyone with a reference. However, if you had the room directly above ours, they only had two small standing balconies, so I wouldn't book this category just for the large balcony, since you might not get one.
In terms of the actual club area, being on the second floor, fairly far from the elevators to the fifth floor (where the club room is) definitely feels like you're far from the action. When we stay club, in the evenings I always get ready for dinner much quicker than my wife, so I'll sometimes get a club snack, then bring some back to the room for her. With the distance here, it was a big pain carrying a plate of food three floors in an elevator, and halfway across the resort. (On one elevator ride, a bunch of people got on on the fourth floor and were very curious where I was coming from!)
Speaking of the elevators, the ones to the fifth floor are equipped with the new RFID card readers (like all rooms in the BC), so you waved your card in front of the Mickey, and the 5th floor was automatically selected. In general I like the RFID readers a lot, but they would have been even better at waist level so you could do a hip or butt swipe, and not have to get the card out anyway.
In terms of the club area itself, it definitely is (and feels) smaller than the clubs at the GF and the BWI. One morning we had to wait a few minutes for a table to empty.
The food selections were fine. I liked having the hardboiled eggs at breakfast, it was a nice touch. The cream cheese and butter for the bagels were in the fridge, which took us a while to figure out, and then five minutes later saw another family looking for them as well. They should have a little sign by the bagels or just keep them out.
The evening selections were good, I couldn't really give you a menu or pictures, but we enjoyed most of it. They had some things without any label whatsoever, like one thing that looked like single serve gaspacho, tomato soup, lobster bisque, or salsa?? I didn't try it, and it looked like nobody else was either, without some clue of what it was. We only tried the desserts once, and they were tasty.
We are BIG water drinkers, so after seeing the recommendations here, on the first evening we asked for one of the big water bottles to take to our room, which was given to us opened. (Speaking of which, our minifridge was stocked with 2 dasanis, 2 cokes, and 3 diet cokes when we arrived.) The second day when I went to ask for water (during the period when the club room was closed before dinner), the concierge asked if I wanted the big Evian, Perrier, or the small Dasani bottles.
I asked for the Dasanis, since they are sealed and more convenient (and we like the taste better), and she gave me four of them. I repeated this every day the rest of the trip, that was awesome.
In terms of the concierges themselves, it was very hit or miss. There was one post a few weeks ago that said the BC concierge's didn't seem to go above and beyond and/or weren't overly friendly or something. I would have to agree to some level. It always seemed like every time I went by one would be friendly, and the other would give me a look like "hmph, what do you want?"
It seemed like the concierges at the BWI (Lorenzo rules) and GF clubs were MUCH more friendly.
To end with the start, we did online check in, and it seemed to work well. When we arrived, the greeter took us to the regular check in line, and my wife was like "ummm, we're staying club level." She was like duh, you're right here on my list, apologized profusely and brought us up to the concierges. The process there was quick, we would definitely do online check in again when staying club level.
Overall we would not do club level at Beach Club again, although we did enjoy the trip, we were glad we tried it, and I would be happy to recommend it to other people, especially for those who would enjoy Stormalong Bay. At the same price, we like the Boardwalk better. We've DVC owners there, and we just "like it better." Personal preference more than anything else.
Next April we're looking at AKL Club --
hstrickland you are helping their cause!!!
. We are considering a BC CL, YC CL, or BWI CL stay in July 2013 for a few nights before a cruise, but after reading reports on the lounge size and CMs at BC/YC, it worries me. Having stayed WL CL and GF RPC & SL, I often wonder how BC/YC will compare. I have read rave reviews on BWI CL
. WL CL is great and I love GF RPC as the lounge is very spacious and the CMs are awesome and as much as I want to try something new, it's hard to take the plunge and try CL at the BC or YC. My DSs want me to consider AKL CL so that's a thought as well. We've stayed at AKL but not CL, so that would be new to us. I know we won't know if it's for us unless we give it a try, but it is always nice reading other people's opinions and taking time to think about everything that's reported
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Thank you for sharing your BC Cl review. I am happy to hear that BC stocks a couple items in our room frig. Also that they allow you to have water from the lounge to take to your room. I remember asking about water during our CL stay at the Poly in 2006 and the CM sugggested I go over to Captain Cooks.
They did not give out or offer a bottle of water, but you could have a plastic cup filled to take to your room. Hopefully that has changed now. I was told later that all lounges use to have bottled water in plastic bottles out, but too many people were taking one, having a sip and leaveing the bottles out around so they discontinued offering it. Don't know if the is true or not...but it would make sence to stop offering it due to cost and waste.
. But after I brought it up yesterday, my DH suggested the BWI (aka the "clown pool" as he put it 
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