2013/2014 Beach and Yacht FAQ, Fun & Friends ~ Aug, Sept, Oct, Nov, Dec & Jan ~

[BringingUpDisney]

I'm sure you already know this but Fast Passes for RSR run out quick. Carsland has completely changed the way people tour DLR. The rope drop queue has moved to DCA. If you're after a FP for RSR, keep to the left of Buena Vista Street towards where Carthay Circle is. If you're early enough, you'll be in the queue on this side. Otherwise, it turns down the corner towards the Hollywood Pictures Backlot area.

Thank you so much! DD is 39.5 inches so I am hoping either she will grow or get by with her crocs on. She has these amazing growth spurts so we may get lucky. I wonder if we are better at the hotel entrance or front gate, I need to start checking out the boars for DLR.

 

[PrincessInOz]

Thank you so much! DD is 39.5 inches so I am hoping either she will grow or get by with her crocs on. She has these amazing growth spurts so we may get lucky. I wonder if we are better at the hotel entrance or front gate, I need to start checking out the boars for DLR.

You're always better off at the hotel entrance. And if you have early entry/MM, then you'll have plenty of time.

If it isn't a MM, then there is the extra walk from the hotel entrance to Buena Vista Street.

There are lots of friendly locals on the DLR boards. Have fun!

 

[natebenma]

page 39-41

I just posted my review of our Yacht Club stay on the main resort board. Feel free to link to it if you want Dee.

I will post some more pics on the picture thread.

This was the review:

Thank you so much for the excellent, detailed review of your stay!!! I'll definitely link it on the Trip Report/Review section. Very helpful info about MB/FP+/PP+, too!

Loved your view and food pictures!!! But my favorite part was when you referred to this as the Yacht & Beach Club Happy Thread.

I know a lot of people ask about things in the store from time to time so I took a few pictures. I was pleasantly surprised to see a small section with drinks and food and such, as I thought we'd have to go to the marketplace at BC for everything. There were some things like donuts, pop tarts, and a cooler with water, soda, beer, wine, etc...

Thanks for the pictures of Fittings & Fairings at the Yacht Club. I have never actually been in there, so I appreciate seeing what's for sale! I have a link to the two gift shops on the first page, so I will add your post in there too, unless you object.

Updated info for the Be Our Guest post - we will be at BC-CL May 19-25th

I'll make the adjustment.

On flight home after 14 wonderful days in wdw! 11:25 DME pick up this morning after stuffing myself at Captains Grille breakfast buffet.
We met Karebear last night at the Electric Light Parade. We all had booked the FP. Great location right in front of the Castle.

Had flight delays at MCO. First our plane had a mechanical difficulty. Then Atlanta put flights on a stop due to weather. Barely made our connections. Glad I packed some snacks because there was no time to stop in Atlanta.

Loved our YC stay!! We had stayed at BC before, so wanted to see what the Dark Side was like, lol! Having a full balcony is a high priority for me. I thought it would be hard being further away from The Market Place, but it really wasn't. The lounge off the YC lobby has hot coffee & tea in the morning, as well as toasters set up in the alcove. And pasteries, bagels, & cereal to purchase. Until closing, I find mug refills at Hurricane Hana's pretty convienent.

I loved YC being the first bus pick up. Usually it's only a handful of people. Then BC fills the bus, and then some.

Got to try some new to us restaurants round the Boardwalk! Loved Big River Grille, had the Pecan crusted chicken! Kuzzina I had the Fishermans stew ( or seafood stew, what ever they call it) and Flying Fish was great. Scallops and Risotto - very good.

Went for Icecream at Dolphin. They changed brands the new brand is awful. Yuck!!!

Magic Bands worked well. Except my AP exp. mid way thru trip. So was unable to make FP selections for length of stay. Had to wait till I arrived and renewed AP at WDW to continue making FP selections. And to make it more complicated, we were touring with a friend for a week of our trip. She made FPs and to be able to tour together, the CM had to try to match FPs, we are connected on MDE in Family & Friends. It took him a good 30 min.

I can't imagine how hard it will be once this FP+ goes live. We always go the same time. What chance will I have matching FPs 2 or 3 days out once everyone is on the system or making FPs mid way Thru vacay when new AP starts.

What I liked about the new FP+ system is that you don't have to crisscross the parks getting FPs. We also changed plans one day, and decided on a SAB morning, then go to the park for the afternoon. Was able to change FPs easily.
Again, once it goes live, I don't know if this will be possible anymore.

Only 1:27 hr till we land in Seattle!! Long flight!

Thanks so much for letting us know about your stay!!!

Room 4179 has a daybed not a father. Darn autocorrect.

Haha I was trying to figure out what "father" could be an autocorrect for!! Thanks for letting us know!!

Me too! I appreciate the clarification.

Although if you think about it, wouldn't it be cool if you could request a room with an extra mother or father, to stay behind and watch the kiddos while you went out for a nice dinner at EPCOT?

We just got back from 11 lovely days at the Yacht Club. It was our first visit there and our first deluxe stay. We had 7 day park hoppers with a bonus day that we spent at Blizzard Beach. We arrived early on our first day and our standard view room was ready but they didnt give us a day bed that we requested. We asked to wait for a clean room with one and they said sure. So we waited until almost 4pm but it was worth the wait as we got upgraded and got a very nice boardwalk view/SAB view room with a daybed. The room was perfect, the view was perfect, and the location was perfect! It was 4229, close to SAB and elevators but not close to mousekeeping or noise from elevators, just perfect! I have pictures of it and the view if anyone wants to see it just let me know. We loved the space in the room compared to POP and the balcony was amazing, we could watch Hollywood Studios and Epcots fireworks every night, how cool. It was perfect for our 6 and 8 year old daughters who loved to watch them but go to bed right after too. The coffee in the room was apparently gross and not drinkable. My husband is the coffee drinker and he is not a snob at all, he will drink any but he hated the coffee in the room and at the Compass in the lobby. The kids and us LOVED SAB, fantastic pool, we had the magic bands which they didnt ask to scan, we just showed our wrist and they smiled and said okay go ahead. My complaint about SAB is not enough life jackets, we stayed at POP and there were tons there, never a shortage. Oh and we didnt like how each life guard had different rules. Some guests would drink in the pool (alcohol) and life guards would allow it, the next life guard would scream at you across the pool for drinking water a few feet from the pool on the deck. Different rules with the kiddie slide too depending on the life guard, we just wished they all followed the same rules. We sure did see a lot of towels on chairs with no one on them but we always found one or two to dump our stuff on. We hung out in the pool the most anyways, gotta love that sand bottom, oh my, it was so awesome! Now getting to the pool I have a huge issue with, well actually I have a huge issue with where Disney allows guests to smoke at the Yacht Club, umm&really, the best spot to smoke is under the porch walkway that I have to take my kids through to get to the pool? And to the arcade, beaches and cream, beach club, etc. We were shocked they allowed the smokers to smoke there. I spoke with management and put in a complaint; she agreed with me and said they need to change that for sure. So future guests please let me know if it ever gets changed! Back to the magic bands, they were great. Loved the test as we got double the fast passes, 3 through the bands and then as many as we wanted with key to the world cards, we didnt wait in a line all vacation! Loved the fast pass for BOG restaurant and the food was so good. The braised pork is so yummy; we actually ate there twice, so good! We loved being able to walk to Epcot, took lots of ferries to Hollywood Studios and The Boardwalk. The location is amazing. We ate at Beaches and Cream twice, loved the burgers! If you are thinking of going to Yacht Club, do it! Book the trip and you wont regret it! If you have any questions please ask, I could write a novel about our fantastic trip! lol

Thanks for the great review. May I add a link to the Trip Report/Review section?

I would love it if you could post your view pictures on this thread and/or here:


Yacht Club Room Views

The purpose of the above threads is to give some samples of rooms in various view categories at the Yacht and Beach Clubs.


I haven't stayed at the YC side, so I haven't experienced having to walk through the smoking area, but it really sounds like a poorly thought-out set up.

I didn't try the coffee in the room and I'm sorry to hear your DH did not like the coffee available at A&C. I haven't had that either, but I can drink Nescrape without retching so I am pretty tolerant of bad coffee. Just need lots of it!



.

 

[natebenma]

To everyone who has recently returned from a trip:

We would love to have more posts in the Room View Threads-

I started up two View Threads in the Resort Photo Subforum:

Beach Club Room Views

Yacht Club Room Views


The purpose of these threads is to give some samples of rooms in various view categories at the Yacht and Beach Clubs.


*************************************************

Please post the pictures there, along with a brief room description (Full balcony or no for BC, daybed or no, general room location or features)

If you are unsure about how to post pictures,

1) There is a tutorial in the Other Useful Info Post on Page 1 (Post 14)
2) You can email pictures to me at beachclubdee at yahoo dot com

Thanks!!!

 

[mousegear]

I am trying to our stay one more day at BC but nothing is available under FD, room discount or regular rack rate for 11/8~11/9. I even looked at every resort in Epcot area. I know that this is last weekend for F&W and also there is half marathon going on so it's really my fault for trying to add one more day so last minute.

I just caved in and booked our last night at AKL but really hoping to add one more night at Epcot resort area so we could enjoy Epcot on our last day without hike from AKL.

 

[mom_of_2]

I agree with disney dukers about the life vests. There definitely were not enough life vests. One day I was not even able to get my 3 year old one. I asked a CM about it and they said oh sorry we are 98% full try to walk around and see if you see any lying around....what kind of answer was that. I was so shocked. The pool is huge and they only have one rack of vests. The other days we got lucky and it worked out after some searching. That would be my only complaint about our whole trip. We have been back 3 days now and already want to go back to BC. Everything else was amazing...SAB, the walk to Epcot, the CL CMs, our SV room with a full balcony that we could see illuminations from...all so amazing. Thank you to everyone for you help in planning. You are a wonderful group of people.

 

[Disney Dukers]

I agree with you about the smoking area. My mom is a smoker and she would hang out there. I was quite surprised at where it was located. Unless you want to walk completely around the outside to the walkway to the beach you have to Walk completely threw that area. Another thing I was pretty surprised by was the amount of ppl walking around smoking. I saw numerous ppl sitting right in front of beaches & cream smoking. Ppl in the pool area and on the walk way by the beach, I even saw a group smoking walking threw Epcot. Cm looked at them and never said anything to them. My mom actually pointed it out to me, I thought she was nuts I told her CM will say something. I watched a women smoke a hole cigarette in front of B&C with the staff standing right there. She was really put out about it, that its a family place with lots of kids ppl should abide by the rules.

I hear you, it was terrible wasn't it. I really was shocked at the situation. The smoking sections at POP are great, not near anyone, little areas hidden in the bushes, unlike Yacht Club that provides chairs and tables so that you can hang out there eating, chatting and watching the swimmers at SAB. That smoke was going into the pool area too so if you happened to be sitting on a lounger along the perimeter you had to inhale it too. When I spoke with management she honestly seemed shocked as she had never thought of it and wished she had. She said oh my god you are so right, I don't know how we missed that and put the smokers there, that is not a good spot at all. We looked at a map together and found other areas that would be much better for everyone. I really hope they do change it.

 

[Disney Dukers]

Agreed, particularly Youth Small. On our first day, I put DS5 into a Youth Medium since that's all we could find, and it was definitely too big. Luckily since we had been on a cruise just prior to Disney we had brought his vest from home, so we just used his the rest of the time.

It was particularly noticeable during pool closures where people were waiting under the covered walkways and many were smoking. No way to avoid them. Mind you, I have nothing against smokers, but don't wish for us to have to inhale the smoke just to get to and from YC lobby.

Yes small ones were hard to find for sure. Hopefully they find some money to buy more!

 

[Disney Dukers]

Thanks for the great review. May I add a link to the Trip Report/Review section?

I would love it if you could post your view pictures on this thread and/or here:

Yacht Club Room Views

The purpose of the above threads is to give some samples of rooms in various view categories at the Yacht and Beach Clubs.

I haven't stayed at the YC side, so I haven't experienced having to walk through the smoking area, but it really sounds like a poorly thought-out set up.

I didn't try the coffee in the room and I'm sorry to hear your DH did not like the coffee available at A&C. I haven't had that either, but I can drink Nescrape without retching so I am pretty tolerant of bad coffee. Just need lots of it!



.

absolutely add the link to the trip report and I will post my pics later today.

 

[PNO4TE]

I am trying to our stay one more day at BC but nothing is available under FD, room discount or regular rack rate for 11/8~11/9. I even looked at every resort in Epcot area. I know that this is last weekend for F&W and also there is half marathon going on so it's really my fault for trying to add one more day so last minute.

I just caved in and booked our last night at AKL but really hoping to add one more night at Epcot resort area so we could enjoy Epcot on our last day without hike from AKL.

It is also Veteran's Day weekend so that makes it tough. I hope you can get the additional day. We are at BC from 11/2-11/9 and would love to meet you. We are actually starting our trip with two nights at AKL CL so we have a flipped itinerary, it seems!

 

[mousegear]

It is also Veteran's Day weekend so that makes it tough. I hope you can get the additional day. We are at BC from 11/2-11/9 and would love to meet you. We are actually starting our trip with two nights at AKL CL so we have a flipped itinerary, it seems!

Thank you for the well wishes. Yes, I would love to meet you also!! We will be at the resort every afternoon, probably enjoying SAB. Do you want to set up time for our little DisMeet?

 

[natebenma]

My complaint about SAB is not enough life jackets, we stayed at POP and there were tons there, never a shortage.

Agreed, particularly Youth Small. On our first day, I put DS5 into a Youth Medium since that's all we could find, and it was definitely too big. Luckily since we had been on a cruise just prior to Disney we had brought his vest from home, so we just used his the rest of the time.

I agree with disney dukers about the life vests. There definitely were not enough life vests. One day I was not even able to get my 3 year old one. I asked a CM about it and they said oh sorry we are 98% full try to walk around and see if you see any lying around....what kind of answer was that. I was so shocked. The pool is huge and they only have one rack of vests. The other days we got lucky and it worked out after some searching. That would be my only complaint about our whole trip. We have been back 3 days now and already want to go back to BC. Everything else was amazing...SAB, the walk to Epcot, the CL CMs, our SV room with a full balcony that we could see illuminations from...all so amazing. Thank you to everyone for you help in planning. You are a wonderful group of people.

Yes small ones were hard to find for sure. Hopefully they find some money to buy more!

That is a shame about the difficulty finding properly-sized life vests for your kids.

I have been told that if you can't find what you need for a life vest at the pool area, that you can go over to the YC Marina and ask. Not that it is an ideal solution, since you will be cutting into family pool time, but it is a possible option when the resort is super-duper crowded like it has been these past few weeks.

 

[natebenma]

absolutely add the link to the trip report and I will post my pics later today.

Thank you so much!!!

 

[beebeeryan]

Yes, add anything you want Dee from my reviews and the Yacht Club store info. I just updated my review as well since I forgot to mention transportation and mousekeeping.

I will add photos to the other threads when I am back on my computer, it's much easier.

But I wish I was seeing this view right now...

 

[laura428]

Magic Bands worked well. Except my AP exp. mid way thru trip. So was unable to make FP selections for length of stay. Had to wait till I arrived and renewed AP at WDW to continue making FP selections. And to make it more complicated, we were touring with a friend for a week of our trip. She made FPs and to be able to tour together, the CM had to try to match FPs, we are connected on MDE in Family & Friends. It took him a good 30 min.

I can't imagine how hard it will be once this FP+ goes live. We always go the same time. What chance will I have matching FPs 2 or 3 days out once everyone is on the system or making FPs mid way Thru vacay when new AP starts.

Sounds like you had a great trip!!

The AP/FP+ thing concerns me a bit for exactly what you describe above. I'm planning on upgrading my ticket to an AP to cover my Princess Half trip in February (and any other trips that might come up)... Also so that we can grab the TIW card (loved this as AP holders last year). Since we'll want the benefits of TIW for the entire trip, I'd like to upgrade early, but after putting all of our FP+ selections together, I'm concerned that if I upgrade, I'll lose my FP+. What happens if the rest of my family still has their FP+ selections, but mine are wiped out? Can someone help me restore them? Or will it just mess things up?

 

[HBGdancermom]

I just posted my review of our Yacht Club stay on the main resort board. Feel free to link to it if you want Dee.

I will post some more pics on the picture thread.

This was the review:

Love the review Barbara!! Thanks

We arrived on Friday night after some long delays at the airport. The first night was at the Yacht Club in a GV room. We got room 4179 which has a father and looked out over the Lake. We liked the room a lot.

We moved over to the BC on Saturday morning. They greeted us downstairs and took us up to the 5th floor to check in. We got both daybed and a full balcony. Our room is much bigger than the one we had at YC, but the view isn't as awesome, but not bad. We look out towards the entrance. The beds are really comfy.

The service has been stellar thus far.

Magicbands have worked pretty well with some small glitches when trying to change FP times.

Saw our wonderful Teens in the lobby!

Have fun!

Room 4179 has a daybed not a father. Darn autocorrect.

We just got back from 11 lovely days at the Yacht Club. It was our first visit there and our first deluxe stay. We had 7 day park hoppers with a bonus day that we spent at Blizzard Beach. We arrived early on our first day and our standard view room was ready but they didn’t give us a day bed that we requested. We asked to wait for a clean room with one and they said sure. So we waited until almost 4pm but it was worth the wait as we got upgraded and got a very nice boardwalk view/SAB view room with a daybed. The room was perfect, the view was perfect, and the location was perfect! It was 4229, close to SAB and elevators but not close to mousekeeping or noise from elevators, just perfect! I have pictures of it and the view if anyone wants to see it just let me know. We loved the space in the room compared to POP and the balcony was amazing, we could watch Hollywood Studios and Epcots fireworks every night, how cool. It was perfect for our 6 and 8 year old daughters who loved to watch them but go to bed right after too. The coffee in the room was apparently gross and not drinkable. My husband is the coffee drinker and he is not a snob at all, he will drink any but he hated the coffee in the room and at the Compass in the lobby. The kids and us LOVED SAB, fantastic pool, we had the magic bands which they didn’t ask to scan, we just showed our wrist and they smiled and said okay go ahead. My complaint about SAB is not enough life jackets, we stayed at POP and there were tons there, never a shortage. Oh and we didn’t like how each life guard had different rules. Some guests would drink in the pool (alcohol) and life guards would allow it, the next life guard would scream at you across the pool for drinking water a few feet from the pool on the deck. Different rules with the kiddie slide too depending on the life guard, we just wished they all followed the same rules. We sure did see a lot of towels on chairs with no one on them but we always found one or two to dump our stuff on. We hung out in the pool the most anyways, gotta love that sand bottom, oh my, it was so awesome! Now getting to the pool I have a huge issue with, well actually I have a huge issue with where Disney allows guests to smoke at the Yacht Club, umm…really, the best spot to smoke is under the porch walkway that I have to take my kids through to get to the pool? And to the arcade, beaches and cream, beach club, etc. We were shocked they allowed the smokers to smoke there. I spoke with management and put in a complaint; she agreed with me and said they need to change that for sure. So future guests please let me know if it ever gets changed! Back to the magic bands, they were great. Loved the test as we got double the fast passes, 3 through the bands and then as many as we wanted with key to the world cards, we didn’t wait in a line all vacation! Loved the fast pass for BOG restaurant and the food was so good. The braised pork is so yummy; we actually ate there twice, so good! We loved being able to walk to Epcot, took lots of ferries to Hollywood Studios and The Boardwalk. The location is amazing. We ate at Beaches and Cream twice, loved the burgers! If you are thinking of going to Yacht Club, do it! Book the trip and you won’t regret it! If you have any questions please ask, I could write a novel about our fantastic trip! lol

Thanks for the review!

Yes, add anything you want Dee from my reviews and the Yacht Club store info. I just updated my review as well since I forgot to mention transportation and mousekeeping.

I will add photos to the other threads when I am back on my computer, it's much easier.

But I wish I was seeing this view right now...

Awesome view!!!

 

[BringingUpDisney]

You're always better off at the hotel entrance. And if you have early entry/MM, then you'll have plenty of time.

If it isn't a MM, then there is the extra walk from the hotel entrance to Buena Vista Street.

There are lots of friendly locals on the DLR boards. Have fun!

That's what we will do, thank you so much! I'll private message you regarding the 15th.

Safe travels!

Jessica

 

[BringingUpDisney]

page 39-41

Although if you think about it, wouldn't it be cool if you could request a room with an extra mother or father, to stay behind and watch the kiddos while you went out for a nice dinner at EPCOT?



.

Love this idea! Just think if you could pick your favorite Disney dad - I would go with Maurice.

 

[Couchy]

We just got back from 11 lovely days at the Yacht Club. It was our first visit there and our first deluxe stay. We had 7 day park hoppers with a bonus day that we spent at Blizzard Beach. We arrived early on our first day and our standard view room was ready but they didn’t give us a day bed that we requested. We asked to wait for a clean room with one and they said sure. So we waited until almost 4pm but it was worth the wait as we got upgraded and got a very nice boardwalk view/SAB view room with a daybed. The room was perfect, the view was perfect, and the location was perfect! It was 4229, close to SAB and elevators but not close to mousekeeping or noise from elevators, just perfect! I have pictures of it and the view if anyone wants to see it just let me know. We loved the space in the room compared to POP and the balcony was amazing, we could watch Hollywood Studios and Epcots fireworks every night, how cool. It was perfect for our 6 and 8 year old daughters who loved to watch them but go to bed right after too. The coffee in the room was apparently gross and not drinkable. My husband is the coffee drinker and he is not a snob at all, he will drink any but he hated the coffee in the room and at the Compass in the lobby. The kids and us LOVED SAB, fantastic pool, we had the magic bands which they didn’t ask to scan, we just showed our wrist and they smiled and said okay go ahead. My complaint about SAB is not enough life jackets, we stayed at POP and there were tons there, never a shortage. Oh and we didn’t like how each life guard had different rules. Some guests would drink in the pool (alcohol) and life guards would allow it, the next life guard would scream at you across the pool for drinking water a few feet from the pool on the deck. Different rules with the kiddie slide too depending on the life guard, we just wished they all followed the same rules. We sure did see a lot of towels on chairs with no one on them but we always found one or two to dump our stuff on. We hung out in the pool the most anyways, gotta love that sand bottom, oh my, it was so awesome! Now getting to the pool I have a huge issue with, well actually I have a huge issue with where Disney allows guests to smoke at the Yacht Club, umm…really, the best spot to smoke is under the porch walkway that I have to take my kids through to get to the pool? And to the arcade, beaches and cream, beach club, etc. We were shocked they allowed the smokers to smoke there. I spoke with management and put in a complaint; she agreed with me and said they need to change that for sure. So future guests please let me know if it ever gets changed! Back to the magic bands, they were great. Loved the test as we got double the fast passes, 3 through the bands and then as many as we wanted with key to the world cards, we didn’t wait in a line all vacation! Loved the fast pass for BOG restaurant and the food was so good. The braised pork is so yummy; we actually ate there twice, so good! We loved being able to walk to Epcot, took lots of ferries to Hollywood Studios and The Boardwalk. The location is amazing. We ate at Beaches and Cream twice, loved the burgers! If you are thinking of going to Yacht Club, do it! Book the trip and you won’t regret it! If you have any questions please ask, I could write a novel about our fantastic trip! lol

Sounds like you had a nice trip

 

[DT83097]

We just got back from 11 lovely days at the Yacht Club.
Loved the fast pass for BOG restaurant and the food was so good. The braised pork is so yummy; we actually ate there twice, so good!

Thanks for the trip reports- I always love reading everyone's thoughts. I have a quick question for you regarding the BOG FP+ (or anyone else that has done it recently). When you arrive - did you show a printed copy of your reservation / did a CM ask if you had one? Do you go into a different line than other guests? We have one scheduled during our trip (we leave in 12 days!!!!) so just want to know what to expect.

Thanks!