We just got back from our stay at the Beach Club and were VERY disappointed.
First off, I'll say we did a split stay over 12 nights. We stayed at Loews Royal Pacific at Universal Resort and then did a
Disney Cruise and finally spent the last 5 nights at BC.
We surprised the kids with this trip over Christmas. We included a picture of Stormalong Bay in with the surprise announcing that we are going to Disney World. My daughter also got a mermaid tail from Santa and she was super excited to use it and was counting down the days. We were debating our stay at BC because we didn't know if the high cost would be worth it, especially with part of the pool closed. We found a good 'deal' but as Canadians the five nights would still end up costing us over $2300 and paying almost $500 per night for a hotel is unheard of in our family. We had the chance to stay at a 2 bedroom condo for $500 CAD for the whole week, but when overhearing us discussing it, my daughter insisted that we stay at the hotel with
the sand bottom pool as she was super excited about using her mermaid tail there, and to feel like a real mermaid.
So in the end we chose to stay at BC for the pool. I searched high and low online to find out information about the Stormalong Bay pool hours and the use of mermaid tails but couldn't find anything so I was just hoping for the best. Over the month leading up to our vacation, my daughter practiced swimming in her new tail at our city's public indoor pools. She was an expert in it.
So our first part of the vacation went well, my daughter swam at Loews pool (open to 10 pm) and at Disney's Castaway Cay in her mermaid tail with no problem and had a lot of fun doing it. When we got to BC, we asked for a room close to the main pool, since that is why we were staying there. They accommodated our request with a room just off the elevators but we were disappointed to find out the pool would only be open until 8 pm. We would need to adjust our visits to the parks around that to be able to use it during the day. I was happy with the location but when we got into the room it had a strong pungent chemical smell. My husband thought it was the cleaning products they use, I thought it was more than that - perhaps a pesticide. I immediately opened up the window to air it out. The wall paper was peeling off the walls and my husband compared the dated decor to that of a Motel 6. It was very old looking falling apart. There were scratches all over the furniture surface and the carpet was worn. But I reminded him the main reason we were staying was for the pool and location.
That first night I had to do laundry. I asked where and it was the opposite side of BC to us - the wing by Epcot. I walked there carrying a heavy load with a pocket full of change to find out the machine only takes credit card. So I walked all the way back to our room to ask my husband for our credit card and went back and I couldn't believe it, but the credit card machine suddenly said 'temporarily unavailable'! When I asked a cm where the nearest laundry was, they told me in Yacht club - I looked at the map and it was at the opposite end of Yacht club - three times as far. Needless to say, I ended up staying up until 4 am my first night (started at 11) just to do laundry.
So our first day we planned on splitting our day at Magic Kingdom to use the pool in the afternoon. When we got back to the hotel we assumed using the mermaid tail would be no problem, like at all the other pools we used that holiday, so my daughter brought along her tail. We were getting ready for a nice day of swimming and sunning at the pool. When we arrived a pool CM asked what the tail was and my daughter told her it was a mermaid tail, and she said 'have fun'. I went to get a hot dog for us for lunch while my daughter started putting on her tail. When I came back I found her in tears. She said (a different) lifeguard yelled at her that no tails were allowed in the pool. I went up to talk to the lifeguard and ask what was going on - I told her we used the tail on our Disney Cruise and at Loews. She said she was sorry there was nothing she could do and she called a lifeguard coordinator to come talk to us. When the coordinator arrived several minutes later, we explained our situation and she said it wasn't allowed because it held the legs together. I explained that it was perfectly safe, she is a good swimmer and has used it at our City's pools, Loews and Disney Cruise so why wouldn't they allow it at this Disney pool? I also said I could stay close to her the whole time. She said no, but it would be OK to use it at the quiet pool, since there would be no lifeguards around to stop her. I asked if it is a safety issue, wouldn't it be safer for her to be using it in front of lifeguards than without? Then she changed her story and said it was more the issue of her hitting the other swimmers with the tail. I showed her how it was was covered in soft padding and no one would be hurt - besides there was NO ONE ELSE swimming in that part of the pool that day. She would be swimming completely alone. I asked if she could make an exception just for a short time and she said that if they allowed her to do it, then someone may come back later in spring and say they saw someone using a mermaid tail in the pool in February. I asked to speak to the manager who later called and spoke to my husband and we explained that our daughter was extremely disappointed and crying and the manager said that it is a Disney policy that no mermaid tails are allowed in all Disney feature pools. We asked why then was she allowed to use it on the Cruise and he said he would check with Disney Cruise lines about that. My husband mentioned that they never had this rule written anywhere and the staff were inconsistent in knowing whether they were allowed or not and he said he would talk to his staff to ensure they all know that the tails aren't allowed. How can they enforce something they don't have in writing and have not even informed all their staff on it? We told him we chose the resort for the pool, for this reason, and he did nothing for us.
So that was it, my daughter was devastated. We seriously considered cutting our stay short - our day at the pool was ruined and certainly the rest of our stay was tainted. But the thought of packing up, searching for and changing resorts was overwhelming and would certainly have made this, our most expensive vacation ever, even worse.
My thought is, what kind of place promotes
The Little Mermaid and then crushes a girl's dreams to swim in one of their pools like a mermaid??? They made NO EXCEPTIONS OF ANY KIND and did nothing to try and make things better for us.
To make matters worse, that first night my kids saw ants crawling on the floor in the bathroom. This really creeped us out. The next morning we called housekeeping to check on it, and when we came back to our room at the end of the day that chemical smell was even stronger, so I assume they sprayed to get rid of the ants. I don't know if it is even safe for us to breathe that stuff in. I had to open the windows just to be able to breathe in that room.
Then, after going back to Magic Kingdom our first day after the disaster at Stormalong Bay, we found out that our three favourite rides on the Frontier/Adventure side - Splash Mountain, Thunder Mountain and Pirates were all closed down. We waited and circled around that side of the park for them to reopen but they never did. We thought since we had a five day park ticket and only four full days, we could go back after our last day after Animal Kingdom. So we did that and found out we could not use two park days within the same day. The lady at the ticket counter said we would need to pay more and buy a park hopper to do that. We explained about the ride closures and she checked with her manager and for that reason alone they let us go in. I could not believe we could pay for five days and only be allowed to use four of them. They need to be more clear about their rules on that. My thought is if you pay for five days you should be able to use them whenever you are able to. If you need to use up two in one day, you are only getting half day each so it is your loss, not theirs. That was yet another disappointment that left a bad taste in our mouth.
In the end, overall, we were highly disappointed with Disney World. We feel they have gotten TOO big to truly know and understand how to treat their patrons. They have all kinds of rules that they can enforce arbitrarily without anything in writing and they enforce them with no exception or kindness or consideration to their patrons.
They are making money hand over fist, charging far too much for food ($134 US for breakfast for a family of four is ridiculous) - that was close to $180 CAD!!! Yet they want to find little ways to make even more money off you, like charging for park hopping (a total rip off IMO).
At the end of our trip, after our negative experience, we decided we will never be returning to Walt Disney World, and especially not Beach Club resort. If we ever do Disney again, it will be
Disneyland - our two favourite rides - Space Mountain and Pirates of the Caribbean are far better in California anyway.
:
My family includes me, my husband, and our 8 and 12 year old sons. 
what is the world coming to??? 
page 155-156
! I think we will always stay here, I do like some of the other resorts but this is our Favorite! My daughter, friend and I won't be going till 2016 and as a family in 2017. For the girls trip we are looking at May 21, 2016 not sure how long 6-7 nights. Thanks for Welcoming me to the Beach Club/Yacht Club thread 
