2011 Yacht & Beach Club FAQ, Part III- DO NOT POST HERE- Summer/Fall

[TeenaS]

You guys are making me think that CL might be worth changing our reservations to. I do like the idea of grabbing a light breakfast OTW to the park.

How bad are the standard view rooms? We'd have to give up our garden view room for a standard view CL (and about 200 bucks). Am I going to be looking at garbage trucks, and hearing beeping delivery trucks at 3 am? I have to admit, I'm a bit picky about view. We have a gorgeous view from our home, and I have realized over all the moves that we have done, that I feel much better if I have a view. It's silly, I know. I remember one time we went to NYC to see the ball drop on New Year's, and we got a hotel with a window that looked out on the building next door that was 2 feet away. So it was basically a window that looked straight in to a brick wall, lol. We were broke and slumming it, and that's fine, but I don't want to feel that way on my Disney trip, KWIM?


I'm terrible with names, but that baby is seriously adorable. Dh and I want another one, but we're going to wait until after our trip to make more serious plans. Newborns are so sweet!

That's my Princess Lily ... she is so sweet to look at but my daughter says she is already quite the diva. My first grandbaby. Today she is one month old!!! OK, now to serious stuff ... your view categories. At the Y&B, if you book a standard view, your view will be a roof or parking lot. The "garden" views are views of anything green. I think they should call it "green view" myself. It could be woods, courtyard or garden. It's basically anything that isn't a parking lot, roof or water.

In my personal opinion, club level, especially for a family, is well worth it. The breakfasts alone and if you spent time at the resort, the snacks the kids will consume, and of course having a drink with appetizers and a night time snack with a glass of kahlua is pretty darn nice. Heck, the price of beer at WDW is so high, I only let my husband have one if we are on club level. A few beers a day plus breakfast pays for the price of the club level room.

Now, back to the view. A nice view at home is so special. But really really think about your stay at WDW. With our family, we decided after paying for wonderful views for many trips, that it just wasn't worth it. We would arrive at the room, go look at the wonderful view, do our ohs and ahs, and then unpack and run out to the pool or parks. Then we found the only time we were in the room was to change clothes, shower or sleep and we always closed the drapes. So, we never ever enjoyed the view we paid all that money for. I realize some people do spend time in their room and on the balcony especially if you have a young one that is napping. However, our family just didn't get our money's worth out of the "view". We decided the price of that view that we never looked at (except for the first five minutes) would pay for a massage, a fireworks cruise, dinner at Yachtsman, etc.

So my personal advice is to really think about how you vacation at WDW and how much time you would actually enjoy that view and weigh it against the money and think about what else you could do with that money. Hope that helps.

 

[cocoabean1]

Thanks Teena for the info about shipping, I never thought of doing that- Do most stores in the parks ship items or just certain ones?

I usually put a small suitcase inside my big suitcase and use that for everything that I buy at the parks. Shipping the stuff from the store seems a lot easier than worrying about the luggage be overweight when I fly out of Providence to get to disney.

I just have to remember what I bought and for who!!!!! LOL
maybe I'll take pictures or keep a list.

Happy 1 month birthday Lilly

 

[TeenaS]

Thanks Teena for the info about shipping, I never thought of doing that- Do most stores in the parks ship items or just certain ones?

I usually put a small suitcase inside my big suitcase and use that for everything that I buy at the parks. Shipping the stuff from the store seems a lot easier than worrying about the luggage be overweight when I fly out of Providence to get to disney.

I just have to remember what I bought and for who!!!!! LOL
maybe I'll take pictures or keep a list.

Happy 1 month birthday Lilly

All Disney stores do ... don't know about the ones that are not ... like some of those stores like the Lego store at DTD. When Bob and I go shopping now, he says it was so much easier when we were guests and not residents ... we just said "ship it". Now we are loaded up with bags walking back to the car.

 

[sukhakuli]

That's my Princess Lily ... she is so sweet to look at but my daughter says she is already quite the diva. My first grandbaby. Today she is one month old!!! OK, now to serious stuff ... your view categories. At the Y&B, if you book a standard view, your view will be a roof or parking lot. The "garden" views are views of anything green. I think they should call it "green view" myself. It could be woods, courtyard or garden. It's basically anything that isn't a parking lot, roof or water.

In my personal opinion, club level, especially for a family, is well worth it. The breakfasts alone and if you spent time at the resort, the snacks the kids will consume, and of course having a drink with appetizers and a night time snack with a glass of kahlua is pretty darn nice. Heck, the price of beer at WDW is so high, I only let my husband have one if we are on club level. A few beers a day plus breakfast pays for the price of the club level room.

Now, back to the view. A nice view at home is so special. But really really think about your stay at WDW. With our family, we decided after paying for wonderful views for many trips, that it just wasn't worth it. We would arrive at the room, go look at the wonderful view, do our ohs and ahs, and then unpack and run out to the pool or parks. Then we found the only time we were in the room was to change clothes, shower or sleep and we always closed the drapes. So, we never ever enjoyed the view we paid all that money for. I realize some people do spend time in their room and on the balcony especially if you have a young one that is napping. However, our family just didn't get our money's worth out of the "view". We decided the price of that view that we never looked at (except for the first five minutes) would pay for a massage, a fireworks cruise, dinner at Yachtsman, etc.

So my personal advice is to really think about how you vacation at WDW and how much time you would actually enjoy that view and weigh it against the money and think about what else you could do with that money. Hope that helps.

Aww, grandbabies are the best. you get to snuggle and play with them when they are being sweet, and when they get crabby you can give them back to their mamas, LOL.

I have a question about the ADR help when you book CL. Do you have better luck getting ADR's? I'm stuck with some of the ADR's I want to get, and I wonder if they might have better luck.

The CL floor is restricted to only CL guests, correct? Do you have to walk through the lounge to get to the elevators? I'm asking because I wonder if we could leave the sleepies in the room while we chat and stuff in the lounge. If they could leave the floor (and if they were younger, they are getting old now ) we would never think about it. But they need more sleep than we do, and we are usually stuck hiding in the bathroom reading books and not talking while they sleep.

 

[Cinderumbrella]

So excited to be back posting on this thread! Despite vowing not to go back until Nov 2012, the stars aligned for us to go this November!

My beloved YC was not available, so we are staying on "the light side" this trip. This will be our first stay at Stone Harbor Club. We have a standard view booked since GV was not available and the splurge for WV isn't something we would do.

Here are my questions:

1) Are all the standard CL rooms on the 5th floor with the lounge?
2) Are there any SV rooms near the lounge, or is that a useless request?
3) If there are some near the lounge, do any have full balconies, or is that an impossible combination?

Thanks all!
Kristin

 

[natebenma]

All Disney stores do ... don't know about the ones that are not ... like some of those stores like the Lego store at DTD. When Bob and I go shopping now, he says it was so much easier when we were guests and not residents ... we just said "ship it". Now we are loaded up with bags walking back to the car.

The Lego store definitely ships merchandise back to your home. Been there, done that, many times and many $$$!

We even purchased one of those rifles from a small stand in Adventureland a few weeks ago and had that shipped back.

I had been told last year about tax not being charged if you were shipping the package, but I didn't mention it to the CM and I was charged. The tax was $7.11 and shippping $9.95, so most of the shipping would have been covered if I had spoken up!

 

[CR Resort Fan 4 Life]

So excited to be back posting on this thread! Despite vowing not to go back until Nov 2012, the stars aligned for us to go this November!

My beloved YC was not available, so we are staying on "the light side" this trip. This will be our first stay at Stone Harbor Club. We have a standard view booked since GV was not available and the splurge for WV isn't something we would do.

Here are my questions:

1) Are all the standard CL rooms on the 5th floor with the lounge?
2) Are there any SV rooms near the lounge, or is that a useless request?
3) If there are some near the lounge, do any have full balconies, or is that an impossible combination?

Thanks all!
Kristin

The only thing I can tell you from doing my own research before we made our Club Level reservation at the Beach Club is that all their Standard Club Level Rooms are located on the 5th floor where the lounge is.

 

[pixarmom]

Legos! Having also toted lots of legos home from WDW, DL and Legoland, I have two strategies to share. The first is a strategy to prevent Lego purchases: Simply say, "Do you think you could fit that in your luggage? I don't think that will fit." That worked for many years until one day the boys said, "We'll take all the bags of pieces out of the box and then it WILL fit in the luggage." OK, fair enough. So that's how we bring home the legos now. And I like it because we leave those big boxes behind!

 

[natebenma]

Legos! Having also toted lots of legos home from WDW, DL and Legoland, I have two strategies to share. The first is a strategy to prevent Lego purchases: Simply say, "Do you think you could fit that in your luggage? I don't think that will fit." That worked for many years until one day the boys said, "We'll take all the bags of pieces out of the box and then it WILL fit in the luggage." OK, fair enough. So that's how we bring home the legos now. And I like it because we leave those big boxes behind!

We do the same (If we have multiple sets, I put all of the smaller bags into a larger size Ziploc along with the instructions to keep them together) BUT the boys like to keep the boxes, so I have to flatten them and put them on the bottom of our luggage.

 

[DLo]

So excited to be back posting on this thread! Despite vowing not to go back until Nov 2012, the stars aligned for us to go this November!

My beloved YC was not available, so we are staying on "the light side" this trip. This will be our first stay at Stone Harbor Club. We have a standard view booked since GV was not available and the splurge for WV isn't something we would do.

Here are my questions:

1) Are all the standard CL rooms on the 5th floor with the lounge?
2) Are there any SV rooms near the lounge, or is that a useless request?
3) If there are some near the lounge, do any have full balconies, or is that an impossible combination?

Thanks all!
Kristin

we stayed in connecting rooms - 2 years ago - I think one was 5666 (cause I remembering thinking how creepy to have 666 in our room number). We were just a few doors down from the lounge. Our rooms over looked the front of the hotel - the very front . One room had a full balcony and the other had a smaller balcony that just fit 2 chairs (nothing else). They also had a little bit of a different lay out as one had a day bed and the other didn't.

I was worried about noise from magical express or those pulling up to check in/check out but it never bothered us. We could see wishes in the distance and spaceship earth too!

 

[natebenma]

So excited to be back posting on this thread! Despite vowing not to go back until Nov 2012, the stars aligned for us to go this November!

My beloved YC was not available, so we are staying on "the light side" this trip. This will be our first stay at Stone Harbor Club. We have a standard view booked since GV was not available and the splurge for WV isn't something we would do.

Here are my questions:

1) Are all the standard CL rooms on the 5th floor with the lounge?
2) Are there any SV rooms near the lounge, or is that a useless request?
3) If there are some near the lounge, do any have full balconies, or is that an impossible combination?

Thanks all!
Kristin

1) I believe so- only the deluxe rooms are on other floors
2) Yes, there are some SV rooms near lounge
3) Yes there are some SV rooms near the lounge with full balconies

In 2010, we had room 5670, which was maybe 8 or 9 rooms away from the lounge. It was a standard view room with full balcony- I posted the views several pages back (we would have seen the front parking lot if a ginormous tree had not been blocking our view in front, we saw the BCVs on our right and we had a view of the high Illumination fireworks and MK Nightastic fireworks from the balcony). I believe there were several rooms flanking us with full balconies, so those would have also been SV, full balcony, close to lounge.

PS- Congrats on your return trip!!!

 

[Cinderumbrella]

we stayed in connecting rooms - 2 years ago - I think one was 5666 (cause I remembering thinking how creepy to have 666 in our room number). We were just a few doors down from the lounge. Our rooms over looked the front of the hotel - the very front . One room had a full balcony and the other had a smaller balcony that just fit 2 chairs (nothing else). They also had a little bit of a different lay out as one had a day bed and the other didn't.

I was worried about noise from magical express or those pulling up to check in/check out but it never bothered us. We could see wishes in the distance and spaceship earth too!

1) I believe so- only the deluxe rooms are on other floors
2) Yes, there are some SV rooms near lounge
3) Yes there are some SV rooms near the lounge with full balconies

In 2010, we had room 5670, which was maybe 8 or 9 rooms away from the lounge. It was a standard view room with full balcony- I posted the views several pages back (we would have seen the front parking lot if a ginormous tree had not been blocking our view in front, we saw the BCVs on our right and we had a view of the high Illumination fireworks and MK Nightastic fireworks from the balcony). I believe there were several rooms flanking us with full balconies, so those would have also been SV, full balcony, close to lounge.

PS- Congrats on your return trip!!!

Thank you both!!!

I am still trying to read the 40+ pages of this thread so I will look for that view photo.

In the mean time, I will ask IPO to add, full balcony, close to the lounge to our reservation.

 

[Cinderumbrella]

We had club level room 5670 which was standard view. This is what we saw looking left, straight out of the balcony and to the right.

Found it!!

Do you remember if there was a small table out there too? In June we ate a lot of breakfasts on our balcony and would like that option again if possible.

Thanks!

 

[natebenma]

Found it!!

Do you remember if there was a small table out there too? In June we ate a lot of breakfasts on our balcony and would like that option again if possible.

Thanks!

Yup, table and two chairs

 

[DLo]

i found some pics of my view and my room (hope 2 years old doesn't matter) can someone walk me through posting them? i have a photobucket account.

 

[sukhakuli]

That standard view room looks nice. I love how you are reading one of the Percy Jackson books, lol.

 

[Cinderumbrella]

Yup, table and two chairs

Perfect! Thank you!!

i found some pics of my view and my room (hope 2 years old doesn't matter) can someone walk me through posting them? i have a photobucket account.

Are the pics already uploaded there? If yes, you need to copy the IMG code aka "

" and post it (for me it is the bottom option when I run my mouse over the picture). HTH!

 

[natebenma]

That standard view room looks nice. I love how you are reading one of the Percy Jackson books, lol.

Yes, that's my Percy Jackson book! Great series!

Not quite as good as Harry Potter, though...

 

[DLo]

Are the pics already uploaded there? If yes, you need to copy the IMG code aka "

" and post it (for me it is the bottom option when I run my mouse over the picture). HTH!
__________________
Thanks. I am pretty sure I have already downloaded them. I found a copy of the smaller balcony and the regular balcony

 

[DLo]

this is the smaller balcony