The Beach Club and Yacht Club are joined together, but appear quite different. The Beach Club seemed brighter, lighter and airier with white wooden furniture, brightly coloured cushions and brighter lighting. Whereas the Yacht Club seemed darker and more sombre in appearance, with unpainted dark wooden furniture and lower lighting. And strangely... quieter!
The Beach Club rooms were as expected... quite old fashioned in decor, again with white painted wooden furniture. We had two queen sized beds, one for us and one for the children. We overlooked a small beach volleyball area and could see the marina from our balcony. It was too hot and humid to spend any time outside though, so spent most of the time with the doors shut and the aircon on.
The Beach Club Marketplace sold anything you could think of... from food and drink to trinkets and clothing to toiletries and washing powder. Apparently the Yacht Club was much smaller and not so varied (although I didn't look !!)
There were little child size chairs infront of a small tv near the Cape May Cafe, with (obviously) Disney cartoons/films playing all day to keep the children occupied while parents were dealing with concierge or booking in or just waiting for dinner tables.
Outside the Beach Club Villas was a quiet small pool (no lifeguard)
where the laundry room was, so when we ran out of clothes my husband took the kids for a swim while I popped in and out to the dryers, etc.
The Stormalong Bay pool area was magnificent!!! We had to show our room keys to gain entrance before 5pm which meant that there was no entry to anyone not staying at either the Beach Club or Yacht Club. The sign I read said that there was a maximum of 1200 people allowed in the pool at any time. 1200!!!! It was huge!! The areas were very well attended by lifeguards, who bumped each other often, which meant that they were not getting complacent watching. It gave me peace of mind that if I took my eyes off the kids for a second that someone would always be watching.
There was a mini whirlpool area,
three (very hot) jacuzzi's, a lazy river, a huge water slide from a marooned pirate ship,
a shallow baby pool and baby slide,a shallow sandy beach pool with an area to build sandcastles, a volleyball and other water games area,
a raised sunbathing deck
and sunbeds for everyone.
It was spotless!! The only minor problem was the slide... the kids said that you could feel the ridges where the joins were and lying down was a bit bumpy....didn't stop them though!!
The Beach and Yacht Clubs overlook the Crescent Lake and face on to the Boardwalk directly.
There is a small marina where you can pick up boat transportation to DHS, Boardwalk, Swan and Dolphin and Epcot, although it is quicker to just walk to Epcot and enter through the International Gateway.
There is also a beach area at the lakeside where there are swing seats and each evening a campfire where you can make smores and watch a Disney movie on a huge blow up cinema screen on the sand!! Everyone drags over sunbeds and lounges around watching Bolt or A Bugs Life.
There are several places to eat at the Yacht and Beach Clubs. Yachtsmans Steakhouse (2 credits), Cape May Cafe (TS, Character breakfast and seafood buffet at dinner), Captains Grille (TS, open all day), Beaches and Cream (access outside infront of the pool), Hurricane Hanna's (QS outside next to the pool), Marketplace (QS and shopping).
We used the Captains Grille alot, as it had great service and great steak!!
We hardly had to wait when we went without a booking... most times we went straight in... even though we had been told that they were full and could not book. They said 'no-shows' were common and to just keep turning up and they would be sure to be able to accomodate us.
The Cape May was much busier and usually required a bit of a wait... but we preferred the food at the Captains Grille anyway, so that was handy!!
