Stormalong Bay Opinion

My family thought it was overrated as well. We stayed there late last year, and all of us were looking forward to the pool, but it never really lived up to our expectations. The staff was fantastic and we were picked as the family of the day one day, so we made great memories, but we won't be going back.
 
My kids still love SAB (now age 10) but I loved it more when they were toddlers. That section that is shallow water and sandy bottom was an incredible amount of fun for us probably when the kids were ages 1 through 4. We sometimes spent an entire day there. Then when the kids became somewhat good swimmers, maybe ages 5 through 7, it became a little more challenging because they were interested in the other parts of SAB too. So we were constantly moving to different chairs/locations and it was kind of a hassle. Now my kids are older and we just stay in the "big kid" section and it's fine. They love it I think because it is so large and spread out -- they never get bored. At other Disney resorts, they tend to get bored after a while, but never at SAB.
 
Our only complaint with SAB is that we couldn't get the boys out of there. They also wanted to stay up late every night to play volleyball and then wouldn't get up for RD. Of course the kids are older......
 
We love SAB, but we don't have kids with us usually, so that may be a hassle depending on their age.

OP, Sorry you didn't like it. I hope your trip was fantastic anyway.:)

We are hard core BC/YC fans, so biased. But it sure is common to hear (on DIS and generally) complaints that the resort, and SAB, are too spread out, and confusing.

When we recommend BC/YC to friends and family, we emphaisize that a walkabout to explore is essential. Otherwise I can see it might be too confusing or you'd miss fun features.
 


My husband and I are fans of SAB, we have been during 2 different stays June 2009 & June 2013. It is beautiful :) def a thumbs up for us. But we also did a week at BLT after our week at BCV June 2013 and I thought our kids would think the pool at BLT was lame after SAB, BUT NO! They love Bay Cove Pool better! Who would have know! I still prefer SAB ;)
 
Oh yeah, it is more work and walking. But we found it also more fun, so more worth the work. My point was that if someone is looking at BC because of SAB for an enhanced water experience, they might also just want think about going to the waterparks instead.

I still loved BC, the location is amazing!!! Being so close to World Showcase/Epcot, and it's such a pretty walk and just being able to stroll home after Illuminations, awesome!

We are staying for the first time at BC in Oct. I really picked the resort for the location!!! Love it! I think the SAB will be great for us as well since our kids are older and really good swimmers (swimteam year round...oh help me...:rotfl2:) I would have been way to much of a nervous Nelly if we had gone there when the kids were smaller.;)

Glad you had a great trip!:thumbsup2

My kids still love SAB (now age 10) but I loved it more when they were toddlers. That section that is shallow water and sandy bottom was an incredible amount of fun for us probably when the kids were ages 1 through 4. We sometimes spent an entire day there. Then when the kids became somewhat good swimmers, maybe ages 5 through 7, it became a little more challenging because they were interested in the other parts of SAB too. So we were constantly moving to different chairs/locations and it was kind of a hassle. Now my kids are older and we just stay in the "big kid" section and it's fine. They love it I think because it is so large and spread out -- they never get bored. At other Disney resorts, they tend to get bored after a while, but never at SAB.

I am hoping this will be us this year!!:)

Our only complaint with SAB is that we couldn't get the boys out of there. They also wanted to stay up late every night to play volleyball and then wouldn't get up for RD. Of course the kids are older......

I know this will be us!!:rotfl2::rotfl2::rotfl2:
 


I'm with OP on all counts. I've actually got one more thing I didn't like about SAB. When we were there, SAB never opened until 10am. Every other resort we've stayed at the main pool opened at 8am. Actually the pools are technically open 24hrs but they have lifeguards starting at 8am. We're early birds and we spend every 3rd day at our resort. It's nice going out for a swim in the morning. SAB was originally one of the big selling points about YC when we stayed there. We didn't get to use it as much because it wasn't open early.

My kids are decent swimmers and are older. They love big slides and water features but they do tend to really enjoy simpler pools with nice theming (they love the volcano pool at Poly and the Nemo pool at AoA). They ended up wanting to stay in one area pretty much the whole time we were in the pool. Plus, DD13 (then 11) got kicked in the head twice during the kids pool games. I hope they've figured out how to prevent that from happening to other kids.

We did love the sand and the sinking sand was a definite highlight. I'd love to see the sand at other pools. That and the whirlpool area were the only things we really enjoyed about the pool. We spent a lot more time in the quiet pool. Since SAB was the biggest reason we chose YC, that was disappointing but we enjoyed it more than SAB.
 
We just got back from a stay at Beach Club...We have two kids, elementary-school age.

I was SO not impressed with Stormalong Bay.

First of all, the pirate ship slide, while it looks awesome, is the biggest pain ever. The way you have to walk across the path and all the way over and then come back down. Ugh.

All of the ropes are annoying too. I understand the need to keep the pool for guests, but they need to have more openings. I felt like I had to walk a mile just to get back into the pool area from Hurricane Hanna's.

It was also SO crowded. Enough said there.

The layout is so confusing as well. Maybe I just didn't figure it out enough.

Anyway, SAB was the reason we went with BC, but to us, it's a minus now. I would much prefer a regular pool. I think with older children it might be more fun.

Anyone else not a fan?

would agree with your assessment. The layout was confusing, going over the various bridges barefoot was uncomfortable and if you have multiple kids who want to play in different areas it would make supervision tough.

I thought the sand bottom was neat and the play area with sand buckets were cute, but I'd prefer to stay at the board walk with my family if I found myself able to stay in that area again.
 
I'm with OP on all counts. I've actually got one more thing I didn't like about SAB. When we were there, SAB never opened until 10am. Every other resort we've stayed at the main pool opened at 8am. Actually the pools are technically open 24hrs but they have lifeguards starting at 8am. We're early birds and we spend every 3rd day at our resort. It's nice going out for a swim in the morning. SAB was originally one of the big selling points about YC when we stayed there. We didn't get to use it as much because it wasn't open early.

It isn't open late either, and that is why my family didn't care for it. We are swim after a long day in the parks people. You can't do that and enjoy SAB.
 
Our recent trip was the first at BC for us and we really liked SAB. We spent alot more time there than we have at any other resort pool, and its definitely a reason we'd stay at BC again.
 
I always wanted to stay at BC to try SAB but I can't pay rack rate for it and haven't been able to nab a discount for it. But this thread is making me feel a bit better about my choice of POR. :)
I love POR! I have stayed both at BC and POR and love both places, you wont be sorry at POR! Try the build your own pasta from the food court while you are there, very Yumtastic!
 
Have used SAB several times.... it was much better (open, much more accessible) when it wasn't blocked off to control access

Now it feels cramped

For next trip considering Marriott Grande Lakes... can anyone here compare SAB to Grande Lakes pool
 
I completely disagree with the OP - our first stay at BCV was in 2007 when our 4 children were ages 8,8,6 and 5. My wife and I had no problem with the layout of SAB; yes its sprawling and a little bit confusing at first, but we quickly figured out where we needed to be in order to watch our children - we have since been back to BCV 2 more times and have experienced no issues whatsoever.
 

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