I went to Beaches T&C in 2011 with a infant and a two year old. We have done
Disney Cruise in 2010 and 2012, as well as DH and I have done several other cruises on other lines.
We choose to do the Beaches resort primarily because cruising would not allow us to bring our children into the pool because neither one of them were toilet trained at the time. It was a nice vacation but cost wise, it was (for us) price-wise as much as or more than a Disney Cruise. Over all I gave it a "B"
I liked being on the land and having more space to walk around. They had 16 different restaurants ranging from coffee shops/cafes to sit down to buffets. We generally try to do the sit down restaurants for lunch and dinner and alternate between buffet and sit down for breakfast. They also had two adult only restaurants.
Pros:
Nice grounds. We were in the French Village, which was newer than the Caribbean Village, both which had single family (hotel like) rooms. The Italian Village was out of league since it had suites and was very $$$ for our family of four. The Caribbean Village was kind of shabby and I was glad that we didn't stay in that part of the resort (Frankly I would have been disappointed.)
Sesame Street activities and shows.
Kids club was nice, but Disney does it better. Kids club was free to all children and I don't think reservations were necessary. They had activities and character appearances, but I don't think anyone can hold a candle to Disney and their programming.
Pool was WOW! They had several pools, each village had their own pools but you could swim where ever you wanted. And did I mention the swim up bar?!? Huge pools that were gorgeous and warm!!
Water park area with toddler area, water slides, lazy river and casual dining. All kids can swim in the water, no CDC regulations. And the water is filtered and chlorinated.
Beautiful beach with catamarans, snorkels and lots of places to sit.
Opportunities to get off the resort, but we stayed put.
Free alcoholic drinks, even the top shelf stuff.
Cons:
The restaurants (sit down) were easy to get into (minimal wait) but remember we had two very young children so we tend to eat earlier. However, the meals were L O N G! Two to three hours sometimes. That was obviously too long for my kids, and for us adults too.
Because there were 16 restaurants and we went to different ones each meal, you never get the same wait staff. There was no one who knew that I don't drink coffee, or that my kids like apple juice. I have no idea how they would handle food allergies.
The servers/staff were nice, but they lacked the "over and above" attitude by the CMs on Disney. They had automatic gratuities built in to the cost, but because you never saw the same staff person twice (with the exception of your housekeeper) there was really no incentive to be the best they can be. I have to say in comparison to cruising I was really disappointed and while their were some great staff people there and everyone did their job, overall it was lacking that special touch.
Having two small children, we used a stroller whenever we walked as the walk could be ten to fifteen minutes from one end of the resort to the other. Most (90%) of it was stroller (and wheelchair/mobility) friendly. However to get to the toddler water park area, I had to go up and down several stairs. We always had to carry up and down the stroller. Not cool. Also while most of the women's rooms had diaper changing areas, most of the men's room did not. Again, I had two kids in diapers, and instead of both of us taking a child to get them changed, it usually fell on me, since DH didn't have the proper facilities.
The other thing that disappointed me was the catamaran. It was included in the cost of the trip, but they only had youth size life jackets, not infant ones (my youngest was not even a year old) and I wasn't going to chance going on a boat without having appropriate life jackets available. Not that I would have necessarily made them wear them (it was a huge probably 30 or 40 foot boat) while on board.
All in all, it was a nice vacation, but I felt it lacked in the service department. I know it is not fair to compare to Disney, but in comparison to the service that you get on a cruise ship (we have also cruised extensively on Celebrity) it really was disappointing. There is really something to be said about having the same servers every day, and for them getting to know you and your families preferences. I know that the tipping is a controversial subject on these boards, but I really feel that people tend to go all out if there is (or potential for) financial reward.
- we cruised the Dream and were looking at Beaches as they seem to have a good program for families. When I saw the pricing, it made me feel a bit better about how much 
The link is below. But there are other posts on other sites, if you do a google search for Beaches Resorts Discussion Boards.
