2011/2012 Beach & Yacht FAQ, Part IV- DO NOT POST- see new 2012 thread

[kelleigh1]

Thanks natebenma for adding us to the list- I'm going to look as soon as I finish looking at this thread. I think there were five more pages since I last looked at it- and that was yesterday evening! Got to keep up! A question about the pods for the coffe makers- are they like K-pods for the Keurig? Doen't look like it in the pictures, but they might just be packaged differently. I told my son about the plans I made for out trip so far, and he was excited after I told him about SAB. But before that all he could stutter was... "What do you mean? We're not staying at AKL? I loved that place! Can't we stay there?" But the SAB has got him on board now. And so excited- we originally booked a standard view room as there were no garden views available. Well on my second call back to see if any were available yet- there was one! Yay! And btw, the reservationist also said that if she were to pick a place to eat there- she would pick the Yachtsman... so I'm thinking we will try that. Yum.

Keuig uses K-cups, which are much different from the pods. We have a Keurig.

k-cups look like a little cup. The pods are more like a puffy disk. I'm trying to find photos.

K-Cups

Coffee Pods

 

[disneyloveNY]

Does anyone know the room at the Yacht Club club level standard view that nonetheless has a view of the boardwalk/pool. Stayed in it a few years ago and it had been recommended by a great CM at concierge. i can't remember the number. Thanks

 

[natebenma]

Does anyone know the room at the Yacht Club club level standard view that nonetheless has a view of the boardwalk/pool. Stayed in it a few years ago and it had been recommended by a great CM at concierge. i can't remember the number. Thanks

The view categories at the Yacht Club (and Beach Club) have changed since your last stay. A Garden View option has been added, and every room at the resort has been "re-viewed" (literally)- cast members went into each room to observe the view and then assigned it to either

Standard View (overlooks rooftops or parking lots)
Garden View (something green, like a courtyard or woods)
Water View (pool or lagoon)

You may be better off requesting a Garden View room over Standard View if there is one available for your stay. The cost is not usually significantly more than SV.

In general, we don't recommend requesting an actual room number. There is not a great likelihood that particular room will be empty for your entire stay- someone would have to be checking out of that room on the day you were checking in- so if you request a particular room number and it is not available, the room assigner may not know what is important to you for a room request.

There is some info in the FAQ section on Page 1 of this thread about view categories and room requests.

There is also a very old map of room numbers posted there (yczone) that shows the FORMER view classifications for each room when the categories were only standard and water view. You can probably identify the room you stayed in, but this map won't show you what the current view category for this room is. We don't have updated maps.

 

[roydavid7771]

Could someone be so kind as to add me to the Be Our Guest List? We're heading down August 19-25 and staying at BCV for the very first time as DVC members! Lots to celebrate, my nephew's first visit, our first DVC stay, and my father's birthday!

 

[natebenma]

I just returned from a Moms Only Trip (stayed at Pop) and on the last day I book a bounceback for June staying at the BC Club Level - ? view arriving Saturday 6-9 and leaving Thursday 6-14 for $3,020. After careful thought I decided to check the spring offer and have rebooked the trip for YC Club Level - standard view arriving 6-10 (Sunday) and departing 6-15 (Friday) for $2,146. I was driving myself crazy thinking I had spent in deed tooooooo much $. I had! After talking to the Castmember this morning he said the bounceback rate was only good for the first day of our initial trip and then I had rack rate the remainder of the days! I'm sooooo glad I looked at this more carefully. I would have loved to stay at the BC again but am thrilled to have YC Club Level for our trip!!!!!!!!!!!!

How things can change quickly! As I've wanted to stay at BC Club Level standard view but couldn't get it, I booked YC Club Leve standard viewl. I've still been checking online for the BC Club Level availability. Just 20 minutes ago I looked and it was available and I've called and changed (for the 3rd time) to BC Club Level standard view!!!!!!!!!! Now, I'm done looking and I'm also really really looking forward to being back at the BC. We haven't been to the BC since our youngest son was 2 and he's now 14!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Could someone be so kind as to add me to the Be Our Guest List? We're heading down August 19-25 and staying at BCV for the very first time as DVC members! Lots to celebrate, my nephew's first visit, our first DVC stay, and my father's birthday!

Shoot! I almost missed adding Lynn and for some reason I thought I had already added you! OOPS!

I am working on this now, so I will add you both.

 

[Feckless]

Finally got DH to do some research and planning for himself and he decided to book golf at Osprey Ridge! Contacted IPO and they were so helpful - love that they will give you taxi vouchers to get to and from the golf course. Nannette, you're the expert - is Osprey Ridge the best choice? DH is definitely just a recreational golfer. He mentioned about lessons - what option would you recommend?

I'm just happy to see him getting more involved and excited. I'm the planner, but of course I want him to have fun too!!!

Thanks for the support on DS. Had a long talk with the Assistant Principal last night about his self-esteem and what we can do to help him. The Principal was so loving and helpful too - she even got tears in her eyes talking to me! I mentioned about how we are taking him out of school for this trip (a hot topic that I'm not trying to get into!) and she was so supportive. She said that being together as a family is so important, and talked about how he is going to need something to look forward to. I love our school! now to figure out what's going on with him.... I think gifted LD based on what the preliminary results of the testing are.

 

[kelleigh1]

Thanks for the support on DS. Had a long talk with the Assistant Principal last night about his self-esteem and what we can do to help him. The Principal was so loving and helpful too - she even got tears in her eyes talking to me! I mentioned about how we are taking him out of school for this trip (a hot topic that I'm not trying to get into!) and she was so supportive. She said that being together as a family is so important, and talked about how he is going to need something to look forward to. I love our school! now to figure out what's going on with him.... I think gifted LD based on what the preliminary results of the testing are.

So great that your school is so supportive. Seems these days that there is so much disconnect between school and home. Glad to hear you don't have that problem.

 

[nannette]

Finally got DH to do some research and planning for himself and he decided to book golf at Osprey Ridge! Contacted IPO and they were so helpful - love that they will give you taxi vouchers to get to and from the golf course. Nannette, you're the expert - is Osprey Ridge the best choice? DH is definitely just a recreational golfer. He mentioned about lessons - what option would you recommend?
I'm just happy to see him getting more involved and excited. I'm the planner, but of course I want him to have fun too!!!

Good Morning Feckless,

DD had a golf lesson every day while we were there. Her lesson was at Magnolia/Palm Course. I did have a car rental for the entire trip so I drove her to the course except for the morning I had a tour and she had golf. She dropped me off at the Contemporary and I walked over to the MK she went to golf then we met at Chef Mickey's for a late breakfast before our JetSki Tour. Osprey was closed while we were there, but we did go to the pro shop for some shopping while there. That course seemed far away to me. Her pro's name was Arron and she loved him! The lesson was 45mins and then 15 mins of practice time. Since you are on the platinum plan take advantage of the lessons. You can do both lessons and golf.

Hope this helps
~Nannette

 

[rusty4]

Feckless,

Sounds like you have great support in your school. Gifted kids seem to put so much pressure on themselves. We have that with Nathan as well. Not to the extent that you are experiencing though. He will start to hyperventilate just for getting a math problem wrong. Always wants to be perfect at everything. Luckily at this point no intervention is needed, the Teacher is able to get him to calm down and we are at home as well before it gets out of hand.

I have a niece that is gifted and now that she is in high school she is experiencing alot of anxiety because of the pressure that she puts on herself. She goes to the school counselor regularly and that really seems to be helping her. Having the schools support is so important. I am so glad that you have that.

Oh and we took Nathan out of school for a week for our trip last week. Talked to the Teacher about it first to be sure it was okay. He did not fall behind at all nor did she expect him to. She was so supportive of us taking him. She loves Disney as well! She did give us some work to take with us which Nathan actually loved doing. It helped to pass the time in the airport and on the plane.

Have a great trip!

 

[rusty4]

Hi all!! Only 90 days to go (started at 280+), it's getting closer!!!!!!

Rusty love your pics and the bday card/balloons is too cute. It will be my daughter's 9th bday when we arrive, hoping for some pixie dust like that too for her.

I still have 1 table service that is not planned, thinking of doing Chief Mickey's @ 730am on our last day since we don't fly out till 7pm. Do you think it feasible to do and how does it work with checking out (I'm also going to inquire about late check out when checking in)?

I meant to respond to this yesterday. We have never had that type of pixie dust before so am not sure how often that happens. I wanted to make sure that you put her birthday on any ADR's that you have. Nathan's was and he even got a cupcake and candle for breakfast! We had dinner at Cape May and they encouraged the tables to sing Happy Birthday along with us. He was beaming ear to ear.

The breakfast at Cape May was fantastic and I highly recommend it if you don't have it scheduled. The french toast bread pudding is to die for. We have only had dinner at Chef Mickey's so not sure about their breakfast. Our next favorite was Kona's Cafe at the Poly. Nathan and I ate there on a whim at 11:00am. We ended up being the last people there for breakfast. They gave him a cupcake on plate that Lilo and Stitch drawn in chocolate. We have a pic of that. I bet your Daughter would love it. It was so cool and artistic. I had the tonga toast. First time and I hope to find a way to make that home. So good. Nathan kept wanting some of it. The gave him some of the strawberry compote to put on his pancakes instead of the regular syrup since he loved it so much.

 

[kelleigh1]

Hi all!! Only 90 days to go (started at 280+), it's getting closer!!!!!!

Rusty love your pics and the bday card/balloons is too cute. It will be my daughter's 9th bday when we arrive, hoping for some pixie dust like that too for her.

Definitely note her birthday on the reservation. And I suggest going to guest services at the park (did I say this already?) to get her a Birthday Button. Then when anyone sees her wearing the button, they will wish her a happy birthday. She will love it and feel like a

 

[Feckless]

So great that your school is so supportive. Seems these days that there is so much disconnect between school and home. Glad to hear you don't have that problem.

Yes, I'm very lucky. Our school is a little jewel - full of arts community parents who add so much and teachers who give support to all kids, not just the ones who fit into the "perfect student" box.

Good Morning Feckless,

DD had a golf lesson every day while we were there. Her lesson was at Magnolia/Palm Course. I did have a car rental for the entire trip so I drove her to the course except for the morning I had a tour and she had golf. She dropped me off at the Contemporary and I walked over to the MK she went to golf then we met at Chef Mickey's for a late breakfast before our JetSki Tour. Osprey was closed while we were there, but we did go to the pro shop for some shopping while there. That course seemed far away to me. Her pro's name was Arron and she loved him! The lesson was 45mins and then 15 mins of practice time. Since you are on the platinum plan take advantage of the lessons. You can do both lessons and golf.

Hope this helps
~Nannette

Oh I WISH we were on the Platinum Plan!!! Not in the cards this trip! LOL Thanks for the information and glad to hear your DD felt it was useful. How far away is Osprey Ridge by car would you estimate? T

Feckless,

Sounds like you have great support in your school. Gifted kids seem to put so much pressure on themselves. We have that with Nathan as well. Not to the extent that you are experiencing though. He will start to hyperventilate just for getting a math problem wrong. Always wants to be perfect at everything. Luckily at this point no intervention is needed, the Teacher is able to get him to calm down and we are at home as well before it gets out of hand.

I have a niece that is gifted and now that she is in high school she is experiencing alot of anxiety because of the pressure that she puts on herself. She goes to the school counselor regularly and that really seems to be helping her. Having the schools support is so important. I am so glad that you have that.

Oh and we took Nathan out of school for a week for our trip last week. Talked to the Teacher about it first to be sure it was okay. He did not fall behind at all nor did she expect him to. She was so supportive of us taking him. She loves Disney as well! She did give us some work to take with us which Nathan actually loved doing. It helped to pass the time in the airport and on the plane.

Have a great trip!

Thanks so much for your post! We've never thought of our DS as gifted so the preliminary results of the testing were actually a surprise to us. He has always been a bit behind academically which is why we instigated the testing. He is also in a class FULL of kids that appear gifted, which intensifies the pressure on him, and his feeling that he is stupid. In fact, it's clear from the testing that he is the opposite. It is the vast difference between his intelligence and his academic performance (which isn't awful! Just a bit below average) that leads us to suspect a learning disability of some kind. Could just be maturity too, but I doubt it. Anyway, this is all sprung on us recently, so this may be the last trip outside of school holidays for a while! The difference with him is that he HATES doing school work because he finds it so frustrating.

 

[Tisha_PA]

I'm so excited, I just had to share. After calling Disney for what seems like weeks now, I was finally able to upgrade us to a deluxe CL room at the BC!!! Teena had suggested it to me many pages ago but they've all been booked until today!! On a side note, I was also able to get my rental car rate for 10 days down to $179 so overall it has been a very good day!! Only 13 more days to go!!

 

[natebenma]

I'm so excited, I just had to share. After calling Disney for what seems like weeks now, I was finally able to upgrade us to a deluxe CL room at the BC!!! Teena had suggested it to me many pages ago but they've all been booked until today!! On a side note, I was also able to get my rental car rate for 10 days down to $179 so overall it has been a very good day!! Only 13 more days to go!!

Here are for your exciting news! Woo-HOO!

 

[Feckless]

I'm so excited, I just had to share. After calling Disney for what seems like weeks now, I was finally able to upgrade us to a deluxe CL room at the BC!!! Teena had suggested it to me many pages ago but they've all been booked until today!! On a side note, I was also able to get my rental car rate for 10 days down to $179 so overall it has been a very good day!! Only 13 more days to go!!

WOO HOO!!! What awesome news!!!

Teena, let me take this opportunity to thank you AGAIN for taking your time to come on here and help out so many of us. You rock! I can hardly wait to meet you - I will be at the BC over a Sunday and Monday (we arrive on a Tuesday) and I will haunt the lobby until I can say hello!

 

[jenneth79]

So now that we're back (and finally rested enough!) from our weekend away, I thought I'd share a little bit of perspective for those who might be thinking about Yacht Club vs. one of the MK properties.

We stayed CL Lagoon View in Sept 2011 at YC and just returned from Contemporary Resort Feb 2012 CL Bay Lake View.

Off the bat, I wanted to point out something that a few of the guide books all seem to say is wrong. The YC rooms are NOT DARK. I don't know where they got that from, really. The Contemporary (which I was expecting to be extra bright ) was light....when the curtains were open. Other than that, the dark tones allowed much less light to get through. (Also on the record, I did like the rooms, just not nearly as much as YC).

The other big difference I noticed? The Club Level Lounges. Contemporary was AWESOME for fireworks viewing. Our first night was spent on the balcony in the lounge watching them practically alone while they piped in the music. (Well, my DH was watching, I was bawling because Disney does that to me ) The food selections however were much better at the YC. There were only two options of "hot" appetizers in the evening, and a small cheese plate. Not the level of selection you get at YC, and breakfast was even more noticeable.

Also, the YC CL rooms seemed to be much quieter. I was lucky enough to be on the far side of the Contemporary AWAY from Chef Mickey's....but I still heard the monorail voice every morning starting at 7AM, through my door, on the 12th floor!

This brings up another key point- Transportation. I found it MUCH easier to get to/from all the parks at the YC. You'd think being on the Monorail makes things super quick. It doesn't. At all. If you plan on spending a lot of time in Epcot / DHS.... I'd go YC. I had no idea how good I had it at YC until staying at CR.

Needless to say I'm really glad I had the opportunity to experience a totally different (and very nice, do not get me wrong!) resort with Contemporary, but so far, YC is winning! (Go ahead, tell me you didn't read that with a Charlie Sheen voice...)

This coming October, we'll be spending our time between YC / BWI / and (I just added while my DH was still in love with all things Disney....it lasts at least a few weeks after we return....) GF.

Hope that helps someone with their planning. Again, just my opinions based on our stay - nothing else.

Hope everyone is staying warm!

Jen

 

[Feckless]

And, I can now say (I've been waiting for this):

MY MICKEY PUSHPIN IS COMPLETELY ENCOMPASSED BY SPACESHIP EARTH.

It's the little things...

 

[Feckless]

Needless to say I'm really glad I had the opportunity to experience a totally different (and very nice, do not get me wrong!) resort with Contemporary, but so far, YC is winning! (Go ahead, tell me you didn't read that with a Charlie Sheen voice...)

Jen

Jen, you made me LOL!!!

Interesting review! Glad you had a great trip. It sounds like the Club Lounge with the fireworks is certainly a draw for the CR but the fact that even that didn't change your allegiance is quite a coup for the YC!

 

[pixarmom]

This brings up another key point- Transportation. I found it MUCH easier to get to/from all the parks at the YC. You'd think being on the Monorail makes things super quick. It doesn't. At all. If you plan on spending a lot of time in Epcot / DHS.... I'd go YC. I had no idea how good I had it at YC until staying at CR.


Jen

Hi Jen! Just wanted to chime in on the transportation/location issue because that's a huge factor for us. I absolutely agree with this point regarding transportation. Now, I spent all my childhood WDW trips at the Poly and I absolutely love it. But the Epcot resorts rank higher overall for many reasons, and transportation is high on that list. For our family, walking is the best option - and the ability to walk to two parks from BC/YC is huge. No waiting for anything - including the monorail. Even if the monorail doesn't break down or experience delays, you still have to wait for it and (unless you're at Poly) wait to transfer from the Epcot monorail to the resorts monorail. We find that this takes quite a bit of time. The walk out of DHS or Epcot back to the room just cannot be beat!

Next year, we're staying a night at Poly (nostalgia!), we're trying GF and CR for the first time (bucket list!) and then we're ending our trip at BC and BWI. We're ending at the Epcot resorts based on the "best for last" theory.

If you did it over again, would you choose CL at CR or book a regular tower bay view room?

Tisha_PA, great news!!! We absolutely love BC deluxe. Teena is right - those rooms are wonderful - so much space, it's amazing! Hope you have a wonderful trip!

 

[SuzieQ811]

Hooray - I just got an e-mail from the Yacht Club IPO, wanting to help us with any reservations - oh, this is so fun! So, naturally I called them back and they would be PLEASED to be the ones to get up at an ungodly hour at the 180 day mark and make our ADR's for us! Hope it works! Six months from tomorrow and we are leaving for Disney!