Beach Club Resort or Polynesian Resort

kenziesnow

Earning My Ears
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Feb 2, 2015
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We are two adults(brother and sister) thanking of staying at one of these resorts in fall of 2021. Which one would you recommend for us.
 
We are two adults(brother and sister) thanking of staying at one of these resorts in fall of 2021. Which one would you recommend for us.

Poly. Nothing wrong with the BC as it is a nice resort, but the Poly is our favorite overall and we prefer staying in the MK area.
 
Poly. There are a lot of kids at Disney, but I think the most are at BC due to the pool (we stayed at BC many times when my kids were younger). One of the things I remember from our stays: Mom, hey mom! Mom, look! Mom! Mom, mom, mom!!! (...not my kids...) My experience, of course. If you prefer the Epcot area I would choose BWI or YC. Or Swan/Dolphin.
 

We are two adults(brother and sister) thanking of staying at one of these resorts in fall of 2021. Which one would you recommend for us.
It really depends on your travel style - will you be hitting the parks everyday? Do you like to bar hop? Do you like to eat? Will you have park hoppers? Is star wars land a priority? Is food a wine a must do? These are some questions to help determine your best location.

We love poly for the resort feel - it makes you feel more transported away to somewhere tropical. If you are into Disney history then staying at one of the original resorts makes it a little more special. You really can't beat seeing the fireworks from the Poly beach. Trader Sams is a fun place to visit even if you are not a big drinker. Or if you do like a few drinks some people will do a monorail crawl. There is access to some good restaurants - Kona, Cali grill at the contemporary, & GF cafe. If you like pool time it does have a nice pool area with a slide and a quiet pool if you don't like it busy.

As for beach club the big draw is usually storm along bay, so if you are not pool people then this won't matter. The 2 big bonus' are the proximity to Epcot and HS. Being able to walk, skyliner or take a boat to both is a huge bonus, especially if we are still in a limited capacity mode come next fall. If you get park hoppers it would serve you best staying here as you could hit a park during the day and go to Epcot for dinner hitting a variety of food booths. Also if you do like to drink this is ideal to be able to just walk back to your resort.

If you look over everything and you are really not sure then you could do a split stay - if you are doing a week then spend 3 nights at the poly and 4 nights at BC. Then you get the best of both worlds.

Also look at some youtube resort tours of each. You might get a good feel for what each resort has to offer - The Dis has some as well as Allears.
 
We like BC but Poly is one of our favorites. The location, the restaurants and the overall feel of the resort are all outstanding.
 
For me, it completely depends on which parks you will be visiting more. If it's MK, go Poly. If it's EP/DHS, go BC. I personally prefer the location of BC - there are so many restaurants, parks and amenities within walking distance.
 
Do you like pool time? If so, Beach Club. In our experience over multiple stays, Beach Club's feature pool, Stormalong Bay, is less crowded than the Polynesian's feature pool. At Stormalong Bay, CMs stand at the entrances & scan bands to make sure only resort guests use the pool. At Polynesian, there is only a gate that crashers & the friends/family of onsite guests can easily get through. And the resulting difference in pool crowding has been noticeable to us. Not to mention that Stormalong Bay is the best pool complex at Disney World, hands down.

Beyond pools, it's a toss-up. They're both lovely resorts. The Polynesian has better casual & family dining options, in my opinion. If you're staying at an Epcot area resort during the reservation period, when you can't just drop into Epcot at will to get food, your dining options might feel a bit more limited than at Poly, which has very good dining, as well as monorail access to two other resorts that have good dining.

Beach Club rooms are all under one roof, so no need to walk outside to go between your room & the lobby or a resort restaurant, unlike at Poly. That really helps when it's raining, which it does often at WDW. Second floor Polynesian resort rooms (not referring to villas) have no balconies, whereas all Beach Club resort rooms have either a patio or a balcony, although some of their balconies are small.

Polynesian is on the monorail line, which gives great access to MK & Epcot, but Beach Club is walkable to Epcot & Hollywood Studios, so it's really a matter of which parks you spend more time at, in terms of which resort is more convenient. The Polynesian offers a lot of views of MK & the castle from different spots around the resort. For MK fans, the Poly is hard to beat.
 
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