2011 Beach & Yacht Club FAQ

[DawnMaree]

We will be staying 7 nights and BC. Just found out we will "have to add" two nights to our vacation

I am tempted to hop over the Yacht Club for our extra two nights. Or should we just stay put at Beach?

My TA says she can't add on two nights to our ressie. (Does this sound right?)

TA said we will have to switch rooms at BC.

Anyway, just wanted to get your thoughts on hopping to yacht for our extra 2 nights.

Thanks!

They should be able to add on the extra nights - even if it is after final payment and within 45 days. I added on an extra night for one of my clients with less than 1 week prior to arrival. HOWEVER, a $10 service charge was issued for the change. Also, they were able to still take advantage of a free dining offer they had on their original reservation.

What a TA cannot do is add on to your stay once you check in. Yes, I even know this from experience with that same client who called me to ask to add on one more night. Your TA needs to call Disney Reservations in order to add on the extra 2 days.

Now there could be some other strange reason why the TA cannot add on. Like if it is was a special travel agency group rate, for example.

 

[MickeyT]

Thanks guys we truly did have a fabulous time.......
......Overall it was just a fabulous time filled w/ memories I will treasure forever

Hate to hear you had problems with MarketPlace employee Minnie. Other than that I think we have all eperienced the DTD bus blues! As others have said (and it goes back to one of the first post I read from Teena) is that subpar bus service is unacceptable for any resort but when you pay for a deluxe it iseven more painful. One of the best things you can do is let Disney know through the exit surveys in the lobbies of the resorts and write cusomer service to express your displeasure.

Could you update HockeyMomR's dates? Also, there are new dates for Lov2B@disney (Sandy): July 20-27 BC CL SV

Thanks!!!

Anyone else want to be added to the Guest Lists? Check page 1 to see if you are there, if not, please post your dates and resort!

Done...

We are going to do DtD on non-park days and our last day...Should I be prepared for and hour and a half ride back to YC? So we won't be able to go through Epcot. Is there a better way to do it???

I really think Disney needs to work on the DtD buses.........

I don't understand that if you are staying at a Deluxe resort, Why do you have to share buses.

I am done griping I think I need more coffee!!!

Not really considered griping if we all agree!

BTW Dee, I'm not sure I ever mentioned this, but THANK YOU for all that you do running this thread. I know it must be a lot of work, and wanted you to know it's appreciated!
:

Agree. Dee does an amazing job that rivals or surpasses many websites. Between Dee's management and Teena's advice we've got the best.

 

[MickeyT]

First time on forums.

It's been 5 years since we have been to WDW and we are finally scheduling our trip.

We will be staying at the BC on Dec 12-16, 2011.

We brought our 2 daughters last time (2006) and stayed at POP. The trip was great, but the beds KILLED my back, which made my trip somewhat uncomfortable at times. But since I have been reading this forum, i notice great things said about the beds at BC, so that's a plus...lol.

Attending this trip, will be me, my beautiful wife of 16 years, my 2 daughters (10 and 12). My mother (60) will be coming with us as well. She has lived with us since August of last year, when my dad passed away from Hodgkins Lymphoma cancer. They were married for 41 years. This has been a hard past 7 months for her. She has NEVER been to Disney before. I hope that she is able to have a wonderful time, along with our girls.

We are driving in from TX so we will certainly be ready to kick off our shoes and have a relaxing 5 days at the BEACH CLUB.

If any of you have any suggestions or helpful information that may be of use to us, please feel free and share. I consider myself quite ignorant when it comes to all the "inside" info. Thus the reason i am researching these forums.

Have a blessed day!

willsea! Great place for a first post.

Sounds like a great trip planned (and planning is part of the fun). Only advice is go back and skim through these couple hundred pages and write down anything you want to remember. (Going back and trying to find it is torture.) And read page 1!

 

[Marlton Mom]

First time on forums.

It's been 5 years since we have been to WDW and we are finally scheduling our trip.

We will be staying at the BC on Dec 12-16, 2011.

We brought our 2 daughters last time (2006) and stayed at POP. The trip was great, but the beds KILLED my back, which made my trip somewhat uncomfortable at times. But since I have been reading this forum, i notice great things said about the beds at BC, so that's a plus...lol.

Attending this trip, will be me, my beautiful wife of 16 years, my 2 daughters (10 and 12). My mother (60) will be coming with us as well. She has lived with us since August of last year, when my dad passed away from Hodgkins Lymphoma cancer. They were married for 41 years. This has been a hard past 7 months for her. She has NEVER been to Disney before. I hope that she is able to have a wonderful time, along with our girls.

We are driving in from TX so we will certainly be ready to kick off our shoes and have a relaxing 5 days at the BEACH CLUB.

If any of you have any suggestions or helpful information that may be of use to us, please feel free and share. I consider myself quite ignorant when it comes to all the "inside" info. Thus the reason i am researching these forums.

Have a blessed day!

Welcome!!!

You have come to the right place for info and assistance. What kinds of questions do you have? If you could tell us a little bit more about your trip that would probably be helpful.

Are your questions Beach Club hotel related or Disney parks related?

are you doing the park for all 5 days?
are you park hopping (Would need to have specific "Park Hopper" tickets?)
are you the type of vacationer that heads out at rope drop in the morning, comes back to the hotel at lunch for a rest/swim and then heads out at night again.... or do you go when you can get everybody out of the room and then come back when you are done for the day?

Feel free to fill us in on what you are thinking and we'll try our best to help answer your questions! Please don't feel intimidated or think that ANY question is stupid. At one time we all started with ZERO information and.... with the help of others, we have learned as we go along!

Your Disney vacation is going to be GREAT So don't you worry. Sometimes this whole thing can seem really complicated, but the truth of the matter is that a Disney Vacation can be as easy or as complicated as YOU want it to be!

So fill us in about what you are thinking/wondering and we will try to help!



Marlton Mom

 

[natebenma]

First time on forums.

It's been 5 years since we have been to WDW and we are finally scheduling our trip.

If any of you have any suggestions or helpful information that may be of use to us, please feel free and share. I consider myself quite ignorant when it comes to all the "inside" info. Thus the reason i am researching these forums.

Have a blessed day!

Great dates for your trip- the holidays will be in full swing around the resorts and park, but it still should be relatively quiet at the parks.

My guess that the biggest change I can see since your last trip will be the need for making dining reservations at sit down restaurants in advance of your vacation. You can make Advanced Dining Reservations 180 days before your trip!!!

Spend some time over on the restaurant forum boards, check out menus of some of the restaurants, and if you find a few places you want to eat you might want to give some thought to making reservations. Most can be changed without penalty (as long as they don't require a credit card downpayment)

Who else remembers booking reservations on the day of arrival through the two way tv monitors in the Spaceship Earth lobby???

 

[jenneth79]

Who else remembers booking reservations on the day of arrival through the two way tv monitors in the Spaceship Earth lobby???

I miss those days... or when you could just WALK UP and be seated?

Actually, what I miss the most is that little robot in Spaceship Earth you could pick up a phone and talk to!

 

[sjs314]

Great dates for your trip- the holidays will be in full swing around the resorts and park, but it still should be relatively quiet at the parks.

My guess that the biggest change I can see since your last trip will be the need for making dining reservations at sit down restaurants in advance of your vacation. You can make Advanced Dining Reservations 180 days before your trip!!!

Spend some time over on the restaurant forum boards, check out menus of some of the restaurants, and if you find a few places you want to eat you might want to give some thought to making reservations. Most can be changed without penalty (as long as they don't require a credit card downpayment)

Who else remembers booking reservations on the day of arrival through the two way tv monitors in the Spaceship Earth lobby???

Oh those were the days, it was so nice to be able to decide the day of where you wanted to eat.

When we went in 2009 my daughter in law made all the reservations for hotel because she got a CM discount, only reservation she made to eat was HDDR, what a time we had finding sit down places to eat, very few options without reservations.
I had did a weekend in 2006 with a friend no reservations and we went to Boma and Coral Reef no reservations so I had no idea what we were going to be in for in 2009.

Back in the day I made reservation for HDDR and the Aloha Dinner and horseback riding before hand(note you did not have to prepay either) but never for places to eat other than at the Epcot booking area. A table could be had by walking up when we wanted to eat

 

[BLTtinkerbell]

Who else remembers booking reservations on the day of arrival through the two way tv monitors in the Spaceship Earth lobby???

My DH & I loved that!

 

[summersalt]

I'm about to bust! I've just got a feeling that I'm gonna the Beach Club. It just seems to fit ....

How will I ever make it?

...and I may get to meet Teena on Sunday if I'm lucky!!!

 

[Katesdad]

First time on forums. We will be staying at the BC on Dec 12-16, 2011. If any of you have any suggestions or helpful information that may be of use to us, please feel free and share.

December, the month of uncertainty when it comes to weather. Plan for coats, sweatshirts and jackets but bring the shorts and sun-block. You just never know. Since you are driving it won't be as hard as those that have to pack to fly.

Please read up on the Candlelight Processional over at Epcot WS. If you enjoy christmas music, this is something that should not be missed. Plan on the dinner package. You can usually book those in late July, early August once the narrators have been announce.

Plan on resort hopping to see the decorations. Can't miss GF, WL and CR. YC/BC are great too but since you are already there you won't miss them. AKL is okay but this should be visited anyway if for nothing else than to see the animals and eat at Jiko's. Also plan on the Osborne lights at DHS. A must see. MVMCP at MK is "okay" but remember it is a seperate admission. Personally we've done just fine not doing it and doing a special dinner at one of the nicer restaurants (like Narcoossee's) with the savings instead.

If you take your time in WS and visit the different countries and listen to their Christmas traditions it really is fun and educational. You are going at a great time of the year. Have fun planning. Can you tell I'm jealous since I won't be able to be there this year?

 

[ocalla]

I miss those days... or when you could just WALK UP and be seated?

Actually, what I miss the most is that little robot in Spaceship Earth you could pick up a phone and talk to!

I LOVED the tv monitors to make ressies!!!! DH and I talk about this all the time. We couldn't remember where they were, and actually thought they were in Innoventions, thanks for the info on that!!!

And gone are the days of walking up to the restaurant and getting a table.

In fact I'm not sure if there is a slow/quiet time at Disney anymore?? We used to visit during Sept/Oct (way before Dining Plans, Free Dining, or Food and Wine Fest) and the parks were empty. No ADR's, just arrive and eat. then we started going the 2nd week of December, again completely empty (this was a long time ago). Now, it seems like there is some type of function that fills the parks up during each month!!

 

[nannette]

Has anyone ever rented a car from the national office at the Dolphin? Is there a thread I can read on this or more information somewhere? TIA for any help?

Hello! We haven't done this yet, but we have a reservation in August (one-day rental to get to Kennedy Space Center.) We currently have an Alamo reservation, but will continue to check prices with both Alamo and National. When I started my research, I did a search over on the transportation board and thought this thread was helpful: http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2590428&highlight=dolphin

I'd also love to hear from anyone who has done this - it looks easy, especially for those of us staying in the Epcot resort area!

Hi, I did this August 2009 and it was perfect. No line no issues. You go inside to the desk do the normal paperwork and then you go outside in the front by the valet and they bring you the car. You return it the same way. It's soooo easy. I'll be renting again for my upcoming November trip.

~Nan

 

[dgbg100106]

Hi, I did this August 2009 and it was perfect. No line no issues. You go inside to the desk do the normal paperwork and then you go outside in the front by the valet and they bring you the car. You return it the same way. It's soooo easy. I'll be renting again for my upcoming November trip.

~Nan

Nan,

Thanks for the info. Did you rent from National or Alamo?

 

[pixarmom]

Who else remembers booking reservations on the day of arrival through the two way tv monitors in the Spaceship Earth lobby???

I do! I do! It's the way we reserved our table at Akershus in the pre- pre-princess days! While I have very warm memories of those times, I love the way it is now - it's a planning dream to sit down and have everything set up 6 months in advance. And when someone in our family fails to state their preferences or changes their minds about a favorite, it's a fun challenge to "stalk" the Disney ADR site and try to get what we need!

 

[nannette]

Nan,

Thanks for the info. Did you rent from National or Alamo?

I think it was Alamo... I went with whichever one was the cheaper. I booked through BJ's or Costco so I got the discount as well.

~Nan

 

[pixarmom]

Hi, I did this August 2009 and it was perfect. No line no issues. You go inside to the desk do the normal paperwork and then you go outside in the front by the valet and they bring you the car. You return it the same way. It's soooo easy. I'll be renting again for my upcoming November trip.

~Nan

Thank you! It looked amazingly simple and our boys are really excited about Kennedy Space Center - this looked like the best way to do it. I should add that my husband really dislikes renting cars (a huge benefit of Disney and Magical Express is the fact that we don't need to rent a car) so easy rental is an important part of this Kennedy Space Center plan!

 

[nannette]

Thank you! It looked amazingly simple and our boys are really excited about Kennedy Space Center - this looked like the best way to do it.

It is soo simple. DD and I are doing 6 nights 7 days of the platinum plan in November and I thought a rental car would make this easier. I asked DD should we rent from S/D or car care and she of course said S/D because it's just that much easier and way less crowded she HATES crowds so I bring her to Disney . I'm sure your boys will love Kennedy Space Center. I've never been to that one but I have been to the one in Texas and it was amazing!!

~Nan

 

[chanken3]

We went to Victoria's and Albert's for our anniversary dinner and it was amazing and romantic and extremly pampering. I would suggest it if you have never been. If you guys are foodies you can request the chefs table, they seat you in the kitchen privAte dinning room and the chef explains everything to you.

Sounds great - thanks for the suggestion! I will check it out online right now

 

[YCFAN]

Minnie: Thanks for the great review. So happy you enjoyed your stay.

Mickey & Minnie Mom: Come on over to the dark side and spend a couple of days. I'd say it's a great way to compare the two resorts!!

Natebenma: I just loved those TV monitors under Spaceship Earth. I remember thinking how futuristic they seemed back then!!


We are doing a custom in-room celebration on this trip and I just got the details today. I'm so excited!!! The ideas they came up with were fantastic!! It's pirate themed and is for my son's college graduation trip. Can't wait to see how it turns out.

 

[dgbg100106]

I think it was Alamo... I went with whichever one was the cheaper. I booked through BJ's or Costco so I got the discount as well.

~Nan

Thank you! It looked amazingly simple and our boys are really excited about Kennedy Space Center - this looked like the best way to do it. I should add that my husband really dislikes renting cars (a huge benefit of Disney and Magical Express is the fact that we don't need to rent a car) so easy rental is an important part of this Kennedy Space Center plan!

It is soo simple. DD and I are doing 6 nights 7 days of the platinum plan in November and I thought a rental car would make this easier. I asked DD should we rent from S/D or car care and she of course said S/D because it's just that much easier and way less crowded she HATES crowds so I bring her to Disney . I'm sure your boys will love Kennedy Space Center. I've never been to that one but I have been to the one in Texas and it was amazing!!

~Nan

I have APs and there is a 20% discount to Alamo, so we are going with that...

Thanks for everyone help!