2013 Beach and Yacht FAQ, Fun & Friends: Don't Post Here- New Thread Started

[SpeedyDisney]

A quick mid-trip report from the Beach Club as a thank you for all the tips and advice I have received.

Checked in CL Monday night around 7:30. Got bounced around between a few folks before getting checked-in at the reservation desk (no 5th floor check-in for us). I think it was due to the later hour and the smaller staff on the 5th floor at the time. They had for us was 2 queen beds with a view of a courtyard (we booked-SV). We asked for day bed because on my 19 yr old DS and they found one for us. I promised Dee pictures of the view and will provide when we get back home (hint: roof as far as the eye can see)

Room is nice and fits us pretty well. View could be better but that is exactly what I booked. A little far from the lounge but in some ways that might be good. No turn down service first night. I attribute that to either the late hour of check-in or the room swap. Took bus to DTD and had dinner at Earl of Sandwich or as my wife calls it...Sandwich Earl's. DTD was crowded. Checked out the World of Disney and found it too busy to even look around. Bus back was as advertised, slow with many stops but it got us here.

Tuesday was breakfast in the club lounge with morning at Epcot, evening at Magic Kingdom and SAB in between. Cannot add to what has already been written about that place. SAaP is simply a paradise. Found a couple loungers easily. They were out of the way but just needed somewhere to dump our stuff. I will add that we especially enjoyed the deep portions of the lazy river and the jib slide. Both were much better than expected. Too soon we had to leave to get ready for MK but not before picking up a few cookies and drinks at the lounge.

Overall we found both parks Tuesday to be more crowded than I had expected. Had dinner at Be Our Guest and it was quite good. Not sure it was worth the 180 ADR and crowd out front but a good meal was had by all. I had pork rib chop and two other the strip steak. Excellent all around. Some service issues (didn't bring my glass of wine until 1/2 through my chop) but I blame the crowds and newness.

Today was breakfast at lounge, Typhoon Lagoon during the day and then back to BC for some evening drinks and appetizers. Enjoyed the bacon wrapped scallops and the small dishes of peanut butter and jelly on some of the bread and rolls they had out. As I type, I am actually enjoying a Yuengling from the lounge. We do not easily get that in Arizona.

Now off to take advantage of the location as we stroll the Boardwalk and Crescent Lake tonight.

 

[Simba's Girl]

Reading about all these schools breaking up in June makes me want to move from the UK to work in a school in the US! My Auntie lives in Idaho and she said the children there only have to go to school 4 days a week where she lives too. We break up on 23rd July and go back 2nd September but of course we don't have the weather :/
Love reading this thread everyday, so thank you

Oh My 4 days!!!

No way our state would allow that. Gotta teach to the test here...Luckily all the kiddos are done taking it for the year and school got much more relaxed these last few weeks.

Our summer vacation is June 25-the Tuesday before Labor Day. Don't know how Phinneas and Ferb get so lucky with 104 days.

 

[Ninja Mom]

A quick mid-trip report from the Beach Club as a thank you for all the tips and advice I have received.

Checked in CL Monday night around 7:30. Got bounced around between a few folks before getting checked-in at the reservation desk (no 5th floor check-in for us). I think it was due to the later hour and the smaller staff on the 5th floor at the time. They had for us was 2 queen beds with a view of a courtyard (we booked-SV). We asked for day bed because on my 19 yr old DS and they found one for us. I promised Dee pictures of the view and will provide when we get back home (hint: roof as far as the eye can see)

Room is nice and fits us pretty well. View could be better but that is exactly what I booked. A little far from the lounge but in some ways that might be good. No turn down service first night. I attribute that to either the late hour of check-in or the room swap. Took bus to DTD and had dinner at Earl of Sandwich or as my wife calls it...Sandwich Earl's. DTD was crowded. Checked out the World of Disney and found it too busy to even look around. Bus back was as advertised, slow with many stops but it got us here.

Tuesday was breakfast in the club lounge with morning at Epcot, evening at Magic Kingdom and SAB in between. Cannot add to what has already been written about that place. SAaP is simply a paradise. Found a couple loungers easily. They were out of the way but just needed somewhere to dump our stuff. I will add that we especially enjoyed the deep portions of the lazy river and the jib slide. Both were much better than expected. Too soon we had to leave to get ready for MK but not before picking up a few cookies and drinks at the lounge.

Overall we found both parks Tuesday to be more crowded than I had expected. Had dinner at Be Our Guest and it was quite good. Not sure it was worth the 180 ADR and crowd out front but a good meal was had by all. I had pork rib chop and two other the strip steak. Excellent all around. Some service issues (didn't bring my glass of wine until 1/2 through my chop) but I blame the crowds and newness.

Today was breakfast at lounge, Typhoon Lagoon during the day and then back to BC for some evening drinks and appetizers. Enjoyed the bacon wrapped scallops and the small dishes of peanut butter and jelly on some of the bread and rolls they had out. As I type, I am actually enjoying a Yuengling from the lounge. We do not easily get that in Arizona.

Now off to take advantage of the location as we stroll the Boardwalk and Crescent Lake tonight.

Sounds like heaven!! Thanks for sharing. When we were in Club level in December turn down came anywhere from 4-6 pm so that's probably why you missed them....

As for the "added" security and "sniffer" dogs, when things get a little crazy, like a gun being found on a ride or a bottle exploding in the trash from dry ice pressure, Disney more than likely makes it's ever present security more visible. It's a simple thing to put the same under cover guys in their uniforms (If it's Disney Security) or by having the Orange County Sheriff be seen in a more visible location. These security personnel are always there and making them more visible serves to reassure the guests. They'll go back to their Hawaiian (Or other) shirts, flip flops and backpacks just like they always do after things settle down. JMHO

~NM

 

[JulieODC]

By the way, for those who aren't so fond of the shrimp and lobster roll (esp those who know it can't compare to northeast lobster rolls!) I tried the grilled cheese with bacon, apple butter, and blue cheese at hurricane Hannah's . It was SLAMMIN! It sounded odd, and I gave it a try and I was soooo glad I did. I devoured it before I could snap a picture though, sorry! Just something to add to the menu of things to try over there

Wow - this sounds delicious! I'm glad you mentioned it, because I missed it on the menu!

 

[JKSWonder]

When my daughter started teaching about seven years ago, her school was year around. Her class was track five and she loved it. She had off about 3=1/2 weeks during October (which meant she could come home for the Food and Wine Festival). She only cared about that break. The rest of the breaks were nice but she loved coming home for F&W. They switched to nine months after I think four years. She doesn't like it as much.

I think it would be great if our schools would switch to a year round system. I love visiting WDW in October, but haven't been able to for years now since my children have gotten to a stage where we don't feel we can pull them out of school. It's also so hard to get them back into the grove of things after such a long break off.

Plus, I just dropped an alarming amount of money on summer camp for them. No way can I have them sitting around here doing nothing for 9 weeks while their Dad and I work. It would be a much easier thing arranging for a few weeks of care every couple of months. That's something both of their grandmothers would be more than happy to help us with.

Teena, I think you are away for most of our dates at BC, 8/26 to 9/2, but if you are there on 9/1, I will try to do my best to say hello!

 

[BuckeyeBama]

We are finally going to get to stay at the Beach Club! Booked for 8/18-8/31 and cannot wait!

 

[ocalla]

We are finally going to get to stay at the Beach Club! Booked for 8/18-8/31 and cannot wait!

You're in for a REAL TREAT!!! Happy Planning

 

[pixarmom]

There are other adult beverages at the Beach Club???

Anyone out there have a recommendation?

In January, I asked for the Sunken Treasure and the bartender on duty told me that Tom (I think that's right - is that who I mentioned before?) is the old school drink guy and would be back from break in 45 minutes or so. So on that particular day, I settled for the sangria (poor choice) and my husband ordered a margarita (good choice!) So he recommends the margarita!

 

[TeenaS]

I think it would be great if our schools would switch to a year round system. I love visiting WDW in October, but haven't been able to for years now since my children have gotten to a stage where we don't feel we can pull them out of school. It's also so hard to get them back into the grove of things after such a long break off.

Plus, I just dropped an alarming amount of money on summer camp for them. No way can I have them sitting around here doing nothing for 9 weeks while their Dad and I work. It would be a much easier thing arranging for a few weeks of care every couple of months. That's something both of their grandmothers would be more than happy to help us with.

Teena, I think you are away for most of our dates at BC, 8/26 to 9/2, but if you are there on 9/1, I will try to do my best to say hello!

I'm flying back on the 30th and should be at work on 9/1 and 9/2.

 

[AliceIn]

I'm flying back on the 30th and should be at work on 9/1 and 9/2.

We'll see you when we are there! We're there 8/31 through 9/7. I was thinking of bringing some Garrett's popcorn with me from Chicago.

 

[catho72]

I've had several Pina Coolavas over the past few years and they are absolutely delicious! They come in a close second to the Grey Goose Slushies from Epcot. In all fairness, I've never had a Sunken Treasure so I'm sure the Grey Goose Slushies will become favorite drink #2 and the Pina Coolava will become favorite drink #3.

I hope the resident laundryman-bartender Tom Collins will be mixing drinks in the laundry room at BC in July! Maybe he'll be back from his tryst with Stella Artois by then! Deepest condolences to Ninja Mom......

 

[1coolnini]

Couple of CL questions...

This is our first stay in a 1 bedroom suite at the BC...where are those located?

Do we have a chance of a good view yet still be close to the elevators/buses?

If any discounts come out for October will there be any chance of a room discount for a suite? I've heard in the past that suites and deluxe rooms aren't included in room discount offerings. If not I guess we can hope for free dining.

Can those staying in CL at the BC visit the YC CL Lounge?



Thanks in advance!

We just got back on Monday. We had booked a CL GV room, but since there weren't any available we were upgraded to a king suite. Our room number was 3647. Unfortunately this room only has a very small balcony, otherwise the location and view were great. We were on a corner so had a view of the water out the small front window. The side windows and "balcony" overlooked the sand volleyball area. We did hear the fireworks and movie on the beach as well as the horn from the boats, but this did not bother us. Suites are not located on the same floor as the lounge, be we were just a short hallway from the elevators. They were the quickest elevators I think I have ever been in. Very close to the club lounge (5th floor) and lobby.

Have a great trip.

 

[WDWgirl413]

I've had several Pina Coolavas over the past few years and they are absolutely delicious! They come in a close second to the Grey Goose Slushies from Epcot. In all fairness, I've never had a Sunken Treasure so I'm sure the Grey Goose Slushies will become favorite drink #2 and the Pina Coolava will become favorite drink #3.

I hope the resident laundryman-bartender Tom Collins will be mixing drinks in the laundry room at BC in July! Maybe he'll be back from his tryst with Stella Artois by then! Deepest condolences to Ninja Mom......

Ummm, Grey Goose slushies? How'd I miss that all these years? Where???

 

[catho72]

Ummm, Grey Goose slushies? How'd I miss that all these years? Where???

They are available at the kiosk in France. It's a vodka-infused frozen lemonade served in a dainty plastic martini glass. Ninja Mom had a brilliant suggestion of bringing a clean, empty refillable mug to Epcot and transfer the frozen drink to the mug. Less melting of the slush......absolutely BRILLIANT!

 

[WDWgirl413]

They are available at the kiosk in France. It's a vodka-infused frozen lemonade served in a dainty plastic martini glass. Ninja Mom had a brilliant suggestion of bringing a clean, empty refillable mug to Epcot and transfer the frozen drink to the mug. Less melting of the slush......absolutely BRILLIANT!

Oh. That explains it. Ha! I've always bee lined it for the glass of champagne at France. I'll have to definitely get that - and... Remember to bring my refillable mug. Lol. Brilliant idea is right!! Thank you!!

 

[TeenaS]

We'll see you when we are there! We're there 8/31 through 9/7. I was thinking of bringing some Garrett's popcorn with me from Chicago.

OMG ... a friend that lives in Michigan sent us a can of that last Christmas. Holy Cow ... it was amazing!!!!

 

[lalijack]

No way our state would allow that. Gotta teach to the test here...Luckily all the kiddos are done taking it for the year and school got much more relaxed these last few weeks.

I'm SO glad MCAS is done for the year now! Once we get through the month-long sprint from Field Day to concerts to end of school this-n-that, I'll be one happy mama!

I think it would be great if our schools would switch to a year round system. I love visiting WDW in October, but haven't been able to for years now since my children have gotten to a stage where we don't feel we can pull them out of school. It's also so hard to get them back into the grove of things after such a long break off.

I would sell a major organ to have a year round school system here. We've only ever gone to WDW in the summer, and no way I could pull my kids out for a vacation at this point. My DS had a horrible bout of strep/ear infection/conjunctivitis that caused him to miss 4 days this spring, and it took forever for him to get through the work he missed.


What is this Sunken Treasure I keep reading about, and where can I get me one?? I am a huge fan of the frozen Grand Marnier slushie at Epcot, but may break away from that obsession if a Sunken Treasure is as good as it sounds.

 

[1coolnini]

Hi Everybody

Got back Monday after a great first visit. I want to thank everyone for sharing all of their experiences and advice. It made our trip so much more enjoyable having a bit of knowledge and a flexible plan before we arrived. The place is huge and a bit overwhelming. I can't imagine anyone just showing up without doing some research.

BC resort:

We had booked a CL GV room. When we arrived we were told that none were available and they had upgraded us to a King suite on the 3rd floor. My only room request had been a full balcony and guess what...this room only had a small balcony (room 3647). I hemmed and hawed a bit with the CM and asked if there was a room with a full balcony. As the CM made a phone call my DH was madly giving me hand signals and strange facial expressions trying to communicate with me that I was crazy to turn down an upgrade like that!! In the end we kept the suite. It was very roomy with 2 TV's (I don't think we ever turned them on) 2 sofa's ,a walk in closet (great place to throw our junk)and a king bed. I have to say the room did feel a bit dark to me because the windows seemed small. The front window looked right out to the path on the lake and the side windows and mini balcony faced the sand volleyball area.It was a great location to watch people running in ponchos in the rain! Since the room was on a corner we didn't have any traffic outside our door, but we did get the noise from Fireworks, the nighttime movie on the beach and the friendships' horns. The location was great, we were just two small hallway from the elevators.

We had requested early morning mousekeeping and 8 of the 10 days that worked great for us. 2 of the days she was running late (4pm) so we just did without on those days. I think we got turn down service maybe 2 or 3 times. They seemed to come around 4:30 - 5:00p the exact time we were trying to get ready for dinner. We got a towel animal every day that we had mousekeeping.

CL was really nice. I have to say we probably didn't maximize our use of it, but it was so nice to have it available. We asked for bottled water everyday and they brought it to us with out any problem at all. Early one afternoon we asked for a glass of wine. We were brought 2 paper coffee cups full and an empty glass. She said she wasn't sure if we wanted to drink it there or take it "to go". We found the breakfast offerings (muffins, fruit, hard boiled egg) perfect for us. Usually my DH would run up and grab us something and we would eat in our room as we got ready to head out for the day. Would we do CL again?? I have to say "probably", the CM's were helpful and having the snacks and water available was great. Probably not worth the money but I bet we have a hard time booking another trip without it.

SAB: you are not going to believe it, but we didn't use the pool!!! Crazy, I know. We like to be in the shade and we just didn't find many chairs in the shade. I did look at the quiet pools, but they don't have shade either. Not a big deal to us, honestly. We were so busy exploring other areas (as first timers) we really didn't have much time to use it anyway. It looked great for families with kids.

The location was awesome. We easily walked to World Showcase and even walked to DHS. We took the boat back once from DHS but it got so hot inside that I had to jump out at the Swan/Dolphin stop. I can't imagine being in it during the summer.

Disney transport was great. We NEVER had any problems. We were planning to take a taxi to our dinner reservations at 'Ohana and Boma, but took the bus (and monorail) without any trouble. I will never feel the urge to rent a car at Disney again.

Restaurants: Loved the proximity of Table Service dining from BC

Cape May Café (dinner): honestly, we weren't wowed by this place. I made reservations for Sunday because they had fried shrimp....how do you fry shrimp that small?? They were tasty but about the size of a quarter.Probably won't return here on our next visit.

Boardwalk Bakery: Loved the lobster roll and the salted caramel ganache. I ate several!

Flying Fish and Yachtsman: Loved both of these restaurants.

Biergarten : our favorite buffet of the trip!

We found the counter service in the parks to be a bit lacking compared to the DLR, but TS at WDW is wonderful. I wish we would've had more time to try more restaurants.

Photopass: I had read a lot about this but really didn't pay much attention to it. However I now wish we had investigated it more and possibly purchased it. Since it was just the two of us we wanted to have pictures of us together. I had heard that the photographers will happily take pictures with your personal camera or phone. So, we started asking them. The first time they asked us if we had a photopass card. Since we didn't they started one for us. It became a game with us to find a photographer. They would take a picture with our cameras and phone, and then take photos with their equipment using our photopass. It was a GREAT service for us. I looked at the photos this afternoon on disneyphotopass dot com and many of them are just darling. We will definitely be ordering some.

10 days was a perfect length of stay for us. We paced ourselves so we didn't come home exhausted although we both got blisters on our feet!! There are plenty of things we didn't see so I guess we will need to plan a return trip.

BTW for our return trip home we checked our luggage in at BC (I think it is called RAC...not sure) at 5:45 am on Monday and were picked up at 6:30am by DME for our 9:20a flight home. When we finally arrived home nearly 13 hours later (4:30p California time) all of our luggage was missing. I have no idea what happened, but since it was all of our luggage and not just one piece I think that it didn't get to the airport in time. Thankfully we got our luggage yesterday.

Thanks again everyone for your help. I hope your upcoming trips are as magical as ours.

 

[Sue M]

There are other adult beverages at the Beach Club???

Anyone out there have a recommendation?

In January, I asked for the Sunken Treasure and the bartender on duty told me that Tom (I think that's right - is that who I mentioned before?) is the old school drink guy and would be back from break in 45 minutes or so. So on that particular day, I settled for the sangria (poor choice) and my husband ordered a margarita (good choice!) So he recommends the margarita!

I must have been lucky last January, got the guy at HH that knew how!

 

[Rafikifan]

I've been lurking here a while. My best friend and I who love all things Disney have been on trips there many times but always with our 2 families or just our daughters (now 23). Our last trip was with the girls in May '11. We stayed at POR. This year we both are in need of a Disney fix. Hasn't been a good year for either of us. Between health and accident issues with our kids and our Moms we need our happy place. Both our SWEET husbands and families urged us to "Just go!" I have stayed with my husband and 3 kids at BC in 1999. My friend and I and our daughters stayed there in 2007 and we just love it there! Epcot is our favorite park so being so close is magical for us. So we will be at the BC GV from June 27 - July 2. This is so crazy! Only negative is that our flight lands in Sanford (I know we've done this before. Don't like it but Allegiant's rates are less than half Delta or AA) at 9:00 p.m. and we will have to get a town car service. I normally don't do online check in but arriving at that time of night I probably won't have many choices of room location when I get there will I? Should I still wait, check in when we get there and hope for pixie dust? Sorry because I think I'm babbling. But we are SO excited!