2010 Yacht and Beach Club FAQ, Part II---Inactive Thread--- Please do not post here!

[TeenaS]

I started out following this resort on the last thread and have made the transition with everyone. There's a plethora of information that I've been lucky to have taken in-- questions that I haven't even thought of have been answered here (and on the last thread). I've second guessed myself a few times and I think I mangled my room request, but at this point, I'm so pleased to be counting the days and all the information that I've been able to take in.

I did however come up with something that I'm hoping I can get a little direction on. I'll be checking into the BC this Friday and didn't buy tickets since I've got Park Hoppers with no expiration dates from a few years ago (my DH is watching a video he shot when one of my DS's was 3 -- he's now 8!). All have a hand written note that I have 10 days on each of the cards (there are 4 of us). I have a funny feeling it can't be 10 days and am now starting to second guess myself on if there are any days at all on the cards...

We arrive mid morning Friday. Our only objective is to hang out for the day at SAB (From the last thread, I bought clear inner tubes for the boys to use, now I'm thinking that they might not have been a good decision).

At some point in the day, is there somewhere I can go to check out the number of days I have on my old cards? I sent my DH to the local Disney Store to do the check, but he was told that it can only be done at the parks. Is there anywhere to do check the days on the cards right at the BC?

If that's not an option, can I walk over to the Epcot entrance near WS and get this looked into before we really begin going to the parks on Saturday? Anyone have any suggestions on what to do if our days are shorter than what we think we need (probably 5 days; we've got 2 Harry Potter fans).

It's our first break in 2 years. I have my own business, and between that and giving to my boys, my life has been ruled 7 days a week. I've quietly lived off of everyone's enthusiasm on this thread to get me through the summer and to that I say thank you, I've had some personal set backs that seem just a little smaller from all the good will I've found here.

Thanks in advance to anyone that can offer some guidance!

We can check them for you at the concierge desk ... no problem.

 

[Spoisal]

From reading the new & old Y&BC FAQ, I think this is the balcony breakdown of the BC deluxe CL rooms:

1557 patio right next to the quiet pool
2557 full - extra large
3557 standing only
4557 full - extra large
3691 full balcony & standing - Both
4691 standing balcony

Can anyone who has chosen this room type tell me the view from these rooms? I would love a boardwalk view, but I am not sure that they all offer that. I thought I was on the right track - I thought they all offered a Boardwalk view.....but now I understand that is not the case. I might be better off switching from Deluxe to Waterview to get a Boardwalk View - but I really wanted that extra space!

 

[lucas]

We can check them for you at the concierge desk ... no problem.

Hey Teena,

Sorry we'll miss you at the BC this time. Just wanted to thank you for all your help with our planning. Have a great trip!

August DISers:
Dustin & Shelby's Mom: YC CL 8/20-8/27
ddluvsdisney: BC CL 8/20-8/27
emmysmommy: BC CL: 8/21-8/28
DrMomof3: BCV 8/21-8/28
TinkermomX2: BC 8/21-8/28
LouiseUK: YC 8/22-9/5
jackal: BC 8/22-?
DisNance: BC 8/22-?
DisneyJen1969: YC CL 8/23-8/28
Kelly in NY: BC CL 8/24-8/26 (POR 8/17-8/24)
lucas: BC CL 8/26-8/29 (POP 8/25) (pin event 8/27-8/29)
cmm: BC 8/28-9/5
kldmom2000: BC 8/28-9/1
dawnbu40: BC 8/29-9/5 (pin event 8/29)

 

[crashbb]

You just need to book a waterview and then request a Boardwalk view. That's the best you can do. Most of the waterviews have a view of the Boardwalk so you have a great chance of getting that. When you check-in, just go to your room, if the view isn't the Boardwalk, ask the concierge if it's possible for a change to a room that has a Boardwalk view. It's not guaranteed of course but the room assignors will try to meet your requests.

Thanks so much Teena. It sounds like I shouldn't get a Deluxe Club Level room then, if I want a view of the Boardwalk (rather than the pool/Yacht Club).

 

[wvdislover]

You may see me in the airport on September 4th ... I'm flying back to Orlando from Jeanne's then. I'll be at work on the 5th and 6th (I assume) and I assume every Sunday and Monday after that until I'm off again to go back and help Jeanne some more towards the end of September. I'm training the new full-time greeter this Saturday, Sunday and Monday. After that, I'll be working the two days he's off - remember, this is my retirement job and although I really really love it, two days a week is what I really want to work. Not totally sure yet what those two days are going to be but I think probably Sunday and Monday. As soon as I know for sure, I'll post, but I won't find out probably until I get back from Jeanne's. Anyway, I'm about 99% sure I'll be there on the 5th, so see you then! My hours are 9:30 AM to 5:45 PM.

Great!!! Can't wait to see you! Have a safe trip to and from Jeanne's...I'll look for you in the airport

 

[Manda]

Just back from 8 nights at the Beach Club.

No real complaints. Everything was pretty fantastic.

Just a few things to note... we did online checkin and I'd requested a room with day bed and full balcony. At the time, it didn't really matter overly much to me whether we got one or both or whatever. When we got to the resort around 1pm, our room was already ready. We headed up to our room and had a day bed, but no balcony. I was immediately sad about the balcony and then DS started crying about sleeping on the day bed, so the whole point of even requesting that was useless. I called to ask if I could switch to a room with balcony and the call center person tried to tell me that a balcony was a different room category and was asking if I was willing to pay for that. She finally switched me to some actually at the Beach Club who then told me that they gave me that room because I'd requested one that was ready immediately - which I had NOT. I assume that was part of the online check-in. Since they know what time you are arriving, they try to give you one that's available. She hunted around though and found me a room with a balcony (no day bed) and we swapped. And then we had an Illuminations view. All was well.

Housekeeping was a little spotty and the hallway noise was way, way worse than our last trip. I don't know if we just had a bad spot in the hallway or a especially noisy people surrounding us or what. Our toilet stopped working one day and I called down to let them know and then just went down to the pool. I returned 3 hours later to find the toilet issue hadn't even been addressed and now water had leaked all over the floor. Seems to me that a toilet issue should be addressed rather urgently?? So now we were all back in the room wet from the pool and with no bathroom to use and our other swimsuits that were laying on the floor were now covered in water of unknown origin (not sure where it was coming from as the toilet wasn't really overflowing). They finally fixed it after an angry phone call and then credited me $10 so I could do laundry to wash the swimsuits. And, honestly, our housekeeper seemed to switch for the last two nights and that new person was phenomenal. Like anything, it's hit or miss.

That was really the only complaint though. The resort room was great. Stormalong Bay was fabulous - although the water was overly warm (not much to be done about that in August). The quiet pool was cool and refreshing though! We always managed to find a seat, although the first weekend was harder (much busier than the rest of the week).

I talked with Teena a couple times (sorry for my package mailing confusing, Teena, LOL) and she was very sweet. Her instructions for sending your package USPS to the back office was dead-on and worked perfectly for us - just don't try to send it back home that way.

And transportation, for us, was FLAWLESS. Our last BC trip in August 08 had a few issues with transportation and I'd considered that the one weakness of BC/YC, but I have zero complaints for this trip. We never waited more than a few minutes for a bus in either direction. Never on an overly crowded bus. Just never even the slightest amount of annoyance over a transportation issue. It was perfect.

 

[focusondisney]

Hi Teena! We are big fans of the Yacht/ Beach Club. Have been there annually for about 10 years now. Will be do a split stay this year with POR, so will only be at YC 9/ 15-18.

I never thought to post about this, but since I saw your post about the bus problems you addressed with your manager, I thought I'd ask. Can you find out why the Friendship boats to the Studios/ Epcot are so stinking HOT? This hasn't always been the case, but the last 4 years or so, it is rediculously hot on those boats. The captains have even made comments, telling guests to complain about it. There have been threads on the Transportation board & I know I've made it known on surveys.

I am grateful to be able to go to WDW at all. I know this is just a silly complaint, & not anything to keep me from my favorite place on the planet. But I just can't help wondering with how great everything else is, why can't they just fix this one thing? So any thoughts? And thanks!!

 

[Pooh&OurHunny]

We never done ME. Would you recommend it or just take a limo/car service?
Please share your experience with ME going to YC?
Thanks

 

[I_believe]

Ok we have the late August list and the September list going .... too early to start October? I know its still a bit away, but just cant wait for it to get here and it will be fun to see who is going so we can start talking about meets.

So who is going in October??

10/27-11/2 for me

BC/CL 10/2 - 10/9 for us!! I am so sorry that we are going to miss Teena! I hope she has a great time on her trip!

 

[LovintheLodge]

We never done ME. Would you recommend it or just take a limo/car service?
Please share your experience with ME going to YC?
Thanks

I recommend ME, especially since your other option is a car service and not a rental. It worked out great for us on our recent trip.

 

[natebenma]

We never done ME. Would you recommend it or just take a limo/car service?
Please share your experience with ME going to YC?
Thanks

Definitely ME!!! It is really easy to get through the airport to the ME desk or line. In July, our plane touched down around 9:50. We were at the BC around 11, with stops at POR and Boardwalk.

If you are having your luggage sent via ME, it is totally worth it. We check in our bags, pack anything we might need in carryons and then deal with our luggage whenever it gets to our room, usually while we are out enjoying MK.

 

[Disney Mommy 3]

Definitely ME!!! It is really easy to get through the airport to the ME desk or line. In July, our plane touched down around 9:50. We were at the BC around 11, with stops at POR and Boardwalk.

If you are having your luggage sent via ME, it is totally worth it. We check in our bags, pack anything we might need in carryons and then deal with our luggage whenever it gets to our room, usually while we are out enjoying MK.

ditto!

 

[Katesdad]

Would you recommend it or just take a limo/car service?

I also recommend ME if you aren't renting a car for your stay. Okay, you lose a few minutes but come on, you are on VACATION! Sit back, relax, and enjoy. You will get there eventually. It's not that BAD (unless you are doing a COMANDO trip and need to get there NOW to get it going).

 

[eeyore70]

Hi Everyone,
We just returned yesterday from our 6 day stay at the Beach Club, and it was FANTASTIC!!! I am so jealous of all of you getting ready to go. I wanted to post updates while we were there, but we had a little computer trouble.

As I posted before, we had some serious pixie dust on our arrival...Brett greeted us by name at the door, we were like, "huh???" and let us in on the good news that we were upgraded to Club Level for our entire stay! Teena was right there to greet us as well....it was quite a welcome!! He brought us up to the fifth floor where we were blown away by the staff and the service. He gave us a tour of the lounge, let is in on everything that was going on, and brought us to our room, which was ready....Full balcony with a spectacular view of SAB and the Boardwalk! Talk about heaven.

We definitely made good use of the lounge. The breakfast offerings were great, love those eggs, and having coffee ready at 6:30 am was perfect as I am an early riser, love to sit on the balcony before the heat arrives and take in the view. It was defiinitely a little crowded, but we usually were able to find a seat. We loved those chips and dips in the afternoon, and of course the hot offerings before heading out at night. We had: scallops in bacon, egg rolls, crab rangoons, and chicken skewers on the nights we were there. Plus of course the wine, the beer, and all of the drinks and other snacks. The lounge staff was VERY helpful and VERY friendly.

The BC itself was even more beautiful than I remember from our last trip four years ago. The new lobby is gorgeous...very rich looking, love the colors, but casual and comfy at the same time...(I did take lots of pics for natebenma, so if you still need some, let me know and I'll pass them on). We found all of the lobby areas, restrooms, pool areas, to be spotless and very well maintained. I do have to say that the hallway outside of our room was always a flurry of activity with housekeeping...we always had to dodge many carts on our way to our room. Our room was immaculate, and believe me I check those things (and yes, I'm embarrassed to say I checked for bed bugs!). It was cleaned by 10:00 am each day. We recieved three towel animals: an elephant, a Mickey, and something else we couldn't figure out...LOL!

SAB was also fantastic. They were definitely checking keys and we saw many people turned away. We are morning rope-droppers, so we returned to the resort by 1:00 each day and headed to the pool. We had to search a couple of times for chairs, but always found some. PET PEEVE ALERT: if you are leaving your chair, could you please take your wet towel and return it in the bin instead of leaving it on the chair so we aren't wondering if it's taken or not? I think half of the lounge chairs had crumpled up towels on them, with no obvious signs of people sitting there, but you hate to take it just in case. During our entire stay, we only had one afternoon of brief showers, and during this time, they closed SAB for one hour, and cleared off EVERY towel, so it was a free for all when it opened, hooray!

I have to tell you about the transportation. It was a running joke a couple of days into our stay how we NEVER waited for a bus, boat or monorail. On our last night, we missed the bus after MK closed so we had to wait, but other than that, every single thing was either there waiting when we arrived or was there within 5 minutes, I'm not kidding. I know we were totally lucky, but it was really funny.

Believe it or not, we never made it to Beaches and Cream. Both times we went the wait was too long, so we did something else, which was fine.

I will tell all of you that are headed there this week that the parks were definitely getting much more crowded as the days went on...it didn't impact our touring since I am a huge planner, but I felt bad for the people showing up to the parks at 10:00 who had to wait in the long, long, lines and the scorching heat, and I do mean scorching! GET THERE AT ROPE DROP and get those fastpasses...they are life savers. It makes all the difference. We went to EMH at MK on Tuesday, and by the time the park opened to regular visitors at 9:00, the standby for Space Mountain was 45 minutes. By 10:00, the fastpasses for Splash were already in the afternoon. Yikes!

Oh, and one other thing...apparently the new online dining reservation system has really impacted the availbility of ADR's. As you all know, people are making many, many ADR's and not cancelling. I heard from the Club Level staff, as well as the hostesses at two restaurants, that they are encouraging people to walk up, as so many people are not showing up for their ADR's. Thought that was a good tidbit of information...

I'm going to post some other observations about our trip in general on the trip reports board, so I'll post that link when I get around to it. It's laundry day!!

natebenma, didn't get your PM until the day we left, so I never got your photo, so sorry!

Let me know if you have any questions....

~~Linda

Linda, sounds like you had an awesome trip I could only dream about an upgrade. Just staying at the Beach Club is a splurge for us. You must have felt like Cinderella!! Can't wait to be there in a couple of months. Looks forward to reading more about your trip

 

[eeyore70]

Janloz -- the pins look great!! thank you so much.

Here are three October trips. Any one else??? So far no overlaping dates.

PNO4TE BC 10/1-10/10
Misled BC 10/11-10/17
Jlhay BC 10/27-11/2

Julie - I will be there from October 17-23rd
Thanks..Stacey

 

[kldmom2000]

We never done ME. Would you recommend it or just take a limo/car service?
Please share your experience with ME going to YC?
Thanks

Also adding my 2 cents.... We've used ME on our last 2 trips and we love it!!! Previously, we would hire a town car service so that we could do the 30 min. grocery stop but between the roundtrip cost and gratuity, it was running us close to $180-$200 (roundtrip). I love just walking off the plane and going right to the DME bus and boarding w/o having to make a stop at the baggage claim area! The sooner we can get to the BC, the better!!!!

 

[Pooh&OurHunny]

I recommend ME, especially since your other option is a car service and not a rental. It worked out great for us on our recent trip.

Definitely ME!!! It is really easy to get through the airport to the ME desk or line. In July, our plane touched down around 9:50. We were at the BC around 11, with stops at POR and Boardwalk.

If you are having your luggage sent via ME, it is totally worth it. We check in our bags, pack anything we might need in carryons and then deal with our luggage whenever it gets to our room, usually while we are out enjoying MK.

ditto!

I also recommend ME if you aren't renting a car for your stay. Okay, you lose a few minutes but come on, you are on VACATION! Sit back, relax, and enjoy. You will get there eventually. It's not that BAD (unless you are doing a COMANDO trip and need to get there NOW to get it going).

Also adding my 2 cents.... We've used ME on our last 2 trips and we love it!!! Previously, we would hire a town car service so that we could do the 30 min. grocery stop but between the roundtrip cost and gratuity, it was running us close to $180-$200 (roundtrip). I love just walking off the plane and going right to the DME bus and boarding w/o having to make a stop at the baggage claim area! The sooner we can get to the BC, the better!!!!

Thank you everyone, I think we will take the ME and plus its something we never did so I can put it on our check off list (my husband laughs at me). Plus saving of $200 sound great to me. Now I just have to add the flight information to our reservation.

Thanks again, you guys have been so helpful here.

 

[ShelleyLynn]

We will be at BCV Oct 1-10th! I would love a Dis meet!
Rochelle

 

[PaDisneyCouple]

Being that they say not to pack valuables in checked luggage, we put them into our carry on bags, with a change of clothes. For those BC/YC folks who've done ME, what do you do with your carry on items, if you aren't able to get into your room when you arrive?

This fall will be our first ME. We also decided to save $, and not do town cars this year.

 

[brunette8706]

Hey All!

what is the difference between the Yacht Club, which we loved and the Beach Club? Does the Beach Club have big balconies like the Yacht Club? LOL! I didn't see any, unless of course I'm missing something, lol! Any pro's vs con's?

thank so much!

Brunette