2014/2015 Beach and Yacht Club FAQ, Friends & Fun, Sept 2014-Mayl 2015

[natebenma]

I bit the bullet and we are coming in a day early. thanks for helping me decide.
I will keep checking for avail to open up that extra night at YC, but for now it is booked solid, so I grabbed a garden wing room at CR on orbitz. We are doing MK on arrival day, so that actually works out quite well.
Check in after that at YC GV for 9 nights. I may drop that down to 8 nights though. We head straight to south Florida for thanksgiving on the beach when we check out, and I know if we stay the 9th night we won't do parks that last day. It will be way too crowded by then! On the other hand, our extended family won't arrive at the beach for a couple more days so maybe we should stay at Disney. Good grief! I over analyze everything!


I noticed that the YC has tennis courts. Is it hard to get on them or are they deserted?

Also, easiest golf course to get to from YC?

Let us know when you finalize your dates.

I don't hear much about the tennis courts at YC. I'm assuming they are deserted but that is only a guess.

From the information you receive when you check in:

Tennis- One lighted, hard-surface tennis court, located at Disney's Yacht Club Resort is available from 7 am to 10 pm. Rental equipment for Yacht & Beach Club resort guests is available at no charge at the Ship Shape Health Club. Touch 7-3256 from your in-room phone.

I have a picture somewhere in my files. I'll see if I can find it.

Not sure about golf- hopefully someone else here has info on nearby courses.



ETA: GRRRRR!!!! Apparently, I did not save the picture I had with a clever name like "Tennis Court". Someone provided me a picture taken from their room which had a view of the tennis court.

I grabbed these two pictures from the interwebs:

Hello, I just found your board last night and we are going to book our vacation with BC or YC,probably BC because we are going in nov. 2015 and hopefully they will be refurbished. Quick question do you go thru Disney or a travel agent? Thanks

to this forum and posting on the DIS!

I'll pencil you in on the Be Our Guest list we keep on Page 1 of this thread.



I usually book my trips to WDW on my own, but on a recent trip to Disneyland and Hawaii, I used a travel agent because I was not familiar with either location.

Pros of using a TA:
The service is free, and a good travel agent has a lot of helpful information about Disney and may have information about discounts available for the time of your trip. They will handle a lot of the nitty-gritty details for you.

Con:
The big one for me is that the travel agent/agency "owns" your reservation. I was frustrated that I couldn't make payments directly to Disney or even add a room request for the resort we were staying at- my TA had to do that.

I am not sure how it works with dining and FP+ reservations- so I will appeal to others who have recently used a TA: Are you able to make your own reservations once you have the reservation number/ticket numbers?

 

[Linda67]

Great thread, lots of useful info

I hoped someone could help me with a quick transportation question

We will be catching the bus to MK and returning late after the Halloween Party

Does the Beach Club share buses with any of the other resorts in the area?

For example, last time we stayed at BWV the bus was shared with The Swan & The Dolphin

I would rather walk to the last pick up point and hop and do the same in reverse for the return journey if that makes sense?

TIA

 

[Redsox15fan]

Thanks and we are talking to a lady at dreams unlimited travel and I was told that we will pay disney not the travel agent. That will be some questions that I will ask before I make a final decision. If I go thru disney and a promotion comes up would I get it if I'm satying during that time? Thanks

 

[Katesdad]

:I am not sure how it works with dining and FP+ reservations- so I will appeal to others who have recently used a TA: Are you able to make your own reservations once you have the reservation number/ticket numbers?

In the old days you had to use the TA. Now with the new FP+ system, you do all your FP+ and dining reservations on your own (unless you want to use the TA to do it but I don't see why you would). You do it all on the WDW web site where you have complete access to your itinerary. Room requests would still be handled by the TA and you make your room payments through them. It is just that they don't "own" the reservation as much as they use to.

I use AAA because they save me money on the room (normally), but always know what the going rate on the Disney site is before you let them book it. They don't always have a discounted room available.

Katesdad

 

[Katesdad]

I hoped someone could help me with a quick transportation question. We will be catching the bus to MK and returning late after the Halloween Party. Does the Beach Club share buses with any of the other resorts in the area?

The BC and YC share the same bus most (if not all) the time when going to and from the parks with the first stop being at YC.

Katesdad

 

[natebenma]

Thanks and we are talking to a lady at dreams unlimited travel and I was told that we will pay disney not the travel agent. That will be some questions that I will ask before I make a final decision. If I go thru disney and a promotion comes up would I get it if I'm satying during that time? Thanks

When I booked, I still paid Disney (using gift cards I had purchased for a discount at Sam's Club), but I couldn't call Disneyland myself, even though I had my reservation number. The TA had to call and give them the numbers from my gift card.

If you go through Disney and a promotion comes up, it won't be automatically applied to your reservation, but you can call to see if you are able to switch offers. Some discounts have limited room offerings so you may not be able to rebook exactly what you had.

Again, a travel agent may be helpful in monitoring the discounts that are out there.

 

[Linda67]

The BC and YC share the same bus most (if not all) the time when going to and from the parks with the first stop being at YC.

Katesdad

Perfect - thanks so much for the quick response

 

[eeyoreland]

I tried booking BC for the first week of January (starting January 4) and garden view is coming up unavailable. Any idea why that would be?

 

[natebenma]

I think I know the answer to this question, but from y'all's experience, is SAB usually more crowded in the afternoons than in the mornings?

Yes, the pool tends to be more crowded in the afternoon, but I went to the pool once in the morning and twice in the afternoon (2 pm and 4 pm on different days) during my brief August trip and it wasn't too bad at any of those times. In October I think it will be even less crowded still.

I just posted this on another thread and thought it is a more complete, illustrative response to this question:

I know that this is a big concern for people with upcoming stays at the Yacht & Beach Club resorts. I tried to pay attention to the availability of chairs during my trip in mid-August.

It was much easier to find empty chairs (there are two sizes) than to find loungers without towels/personal items.

I went to the pool 3 times during the trip. Weather conditions during all of the visits to the pool were HOT and sunny.


Monday August 18, 10 am to 11 am

No problem finding empty loungers or chairs.

Here are a couple of pictures:

taken from lazy river



by kiddie sand bar area






Monday August 18, 4 pm to 5 pm

Definitely harder to find a place for our stuff during this visit, but we did find something up at the top of the gazebo thing near Hurricane Hanna's. Here are a couple of pictures taken during that visit. You can see a few empty chairs and even loungers in a prime location.








August 19, 2 pm to 3 pm

Here is a picture taken at the spot right where you enter the pool area near Beaches & Cream. That is my folded towel on the chair on the far left. There were a couple of empty ones right near it as well.

 

[HelenParr]

The SAB photos are so wonderful (thank you so much!!)...well, except for the part where I am now only looking at DIS pages and not doing my work. LOL.

 

[disneymagicgirl]

Let us know when you finalize your dates.

I don't hear much about the tennis courts at YC. I'm assuming they are deserted but that is only a guess.

From the information you receive when you check in:

Tennis- One lighted, hard-surface tennis court, located at Disney's Yacht Club Resort is available from 7 am to 10 pm. Rental equipment for Yacht & Beach Club resort guests is available at no charge at the Ship Shape Health Club. Touch 7-3256 from your in-room phone.

I have a picture somewhere in my files. I'll see if I can find it.

Thanks! Yep, looks pretty deserted! My boys love to go hit the ball around, so that will be a good free activity for some of our down time. That is the great thing about long trips...you get to stop and smell the roses.

 

[Jessica71]

The SAB photos are so wonderful (thank you so much!!)...well, except for the part where I am now only looking at DIS pages and not doing my work. LOL.

HelenParr. .... This gave me a chuckle, I fall into DisTimeWarp reading this thread..

 

[shoreward]

Also, easiest golf course to get to from YC?

https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/recreation/lake-buena-vista-golf-course/

https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/recreation/magnolia-golf-course/

https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/recreation/palm-golf-course/

https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/recreation/oak-trail-golf-course/

Complimentary transportation via taxi is available to Guests of select Walt Disney World Resort hotels. You may request a ride at the Valet Desk or from Bell Services at select Resort hotels, and in the Pro Shop or from any golf operations staff members at the golf courses. Guests are advised to check with Guest Services or the Concierge for any transportation options offered by their hotel.

I did not notice which resorts offer this perk.

 

[ToyStory3]

We are officially at 9 days until we leave!!! And 10 days until we arrive at the Beach Club!!! We will be swimming in SAB and then going to Epcot for dinner at the Garden Grill on our arrival night. I'm finally in single digits after almost 2 years of planning!

 

[Adlergray]

Hi there we will be doing a split stay BC CL(May 20/24)/ POLY CL (May 24/27). Unless by some miracle YC CL in done with there rehab by then and we can switch. YC is defiantly our fav of the 2.

 

[tarak]

Thanks for the responses. I just needed a few people to tell me what I really wanted to hear...that we should just go! As usual, I am overthinking trying to plan the perfect trip.
NM, I'm going through our garage gathering material to fashion into a family stroller. Excellent suggestion!
Dee, we are booked room only and are flying Southwest, so I do have some time to make the decision. For now, please add us to the BOG list for 10/9-10/16.
I think I know the answer to this question, but from y'all's experience, is SAB usually more crowded in the afternoons than in the mornings?

I'm a little late responding to your earlier question. I've gone with with kids who weren't sleeping through the night yet. My youngest didn't sleep through until she was a year-and-a-half. Generally, my older kids were so worn out, they slept right through cranky/hungry baby noise. For Thing #3, we brought our own travel bed. Thing #4 wouldn't sleep in anything but her own crib unless she was being held by mom or dad, so she slept with us. We might not have slept great, but the kids all did.

 

[TeenaS]

Hi there we will be doing a split stay BC CL(May 20/24)/ POLY CL (May 24/27). Unless by some miracle YC CL in done with there rehab by then and we can switch. YC is defiantly our fav of the 2.

I'm sure they will still be working at the BC in May 2015 but at least the CL floor will be all new for you!

 

[AlwayslovDisney]

I've been watching & learning from everyone here. Thanks for all the info! My DH, DD (29), & DD (25) will be staying the Yacht Club for the first time -9-21-27. So Excited! We have always stayed at AKL and love it a lot. Since the girls are older we decided to stay where we could be close to the F&W Festival.
I just wanted to say that I have been in contact with Brittney at the Yacht Club bakery and she is wonderful. I asked for a cake to be delivered to our room when we arrive - cross fingers! I wanted something with a Minnie bow and flowers around it- saying Welcome Back Nic & Tess. It has been 7 yrs since DD(25) has been and only 6 months since DD (29) has been. Since DD(29) went in Feb and got engaged- her dream proposal. So I wanted this to be special for the youngest. I will send pix when I get back.
thanks for all the info everyone has given.

 

[cgulls]

My understanding is that if there are only two adults in the two rooms, then it is likely that you will get the request of connecting rooms (that is, parties with just a couple of adults have the highest priority for this configuration)

I'm not sure how many of the rooms have connecting doors, so I am not sure of the likelihood of getting the request.

thanks. After I posted, I called Reservations. They said just what you said: that if there are no more than two adults and your kids are minors they will guarantee connecting rooms.

 

[Wood Nymph]

I tried booking BC for the first week of January (starting January 4) and garden view is coming up unavailable. Any idea why that would be?

The Beach Club is incredibly popular and we usually book it as early as we can to guarantee a room. The last time we tried to book a room at the Beach Club in January, the standard and garden view rooms were sold out and we had to stay at the BWI. We used to go that week in January, too. The Christmas crowd had gone back home and there tended to be low crowds. We usually ran into marathon weekend, but that never bothered us.