Ok, as promised here are my thoughts on the BC. I won't repeat my intro or my thoughts on shared amenities such as SAB, Hurricane Hanna's, etc, so maybe this won't turn into the novel the first review ended up being...
*We stayed SV Cl at the Beach Club June 14-18, transferring from the YC. We got up early on transfer day because we were heading to
Legoland. We had bell services hold our luggage, checked out of the YC at the CL concierge desk, then walked over to the BC to check in. we did wait in a short line in the lobby since we couldn't get to the CL floor, then that CM took us up to the 5th floor when she saw we were staying CL. She did ask about drinks, but since it was like 8:30 in the AM and we had eaten a quick breakfast at the YC lounge, and we were in a hurry, we didn't take her up on this. I didn't ask about the welcome drink at 8:30 AM! The CM who checked us in was very friendly, and mentioned that the YC CL could have checked us in. Good to know for the future. Our room was not ready. We then headed to legoland.
*while sunscreening all 6 of us up in the legoland parking lot I got a call from that CM telling us that our room was ready! Soon after I got the text. Good news and great CS, but of course it didn't matter since we had daylong plans. Had we been sitting around waiting with sick or fussy children we would have gotten the room at 3 PM.
*we got back around 7 PM and went to our room, we got room 5670. Again exactly what we booked, and not the partial sideways view of SAB or the back resort entrance SV rooms I had requested and been hoping for. This time I was a little more disappointed, since there were a few more of these here than there were at the YC. But nothing to complain about, not everyone can get them. Our room had a full (but somewhat smaller than the YC) balcony that had a solid railing half way up that faced the front of the resort. It was pretty close to the lounge, maybe 2/3 of the way down the first hall, past the back lounge entrance.
*my initial impression of the room was very "meh". Somehow it seemed a lot smaller and less luxurious than the YC room we had just left. I realized that there was no daybed and the far corner of the room was "missing" - I mean it was just walled off making the room odd shaped, for either ductwork or structure or something like that. I am wondering if that hadn't been there if the desk would have gone there and a daybed where the desk was. Because of that missing corner of the room there was a window with a single door to access the balcony, instead of the full wall of windows with a sliding door I am used to, and instead of curtains there were roman blinds. Something about this setup just didn't seem as nice to me at all. It felt more like a lower end room, and slightly more claustrophobic or something with the wall right beside the single balcony door, and a smaller window instead of a full wall window, and the blinds instead of curtains let a lot of light in. I thought that might be a problem for the 2 toddlers sleeping, but they got up at about the same time at all 3 resorts so it didn't really matter, I just prefer being able to block the light when we want to. As the 4 days went on I did get used to the room, but still think it is my least favorite deluxe disney room, possibly even over the smaller ones at AKL and WL. It's hard for me to explain why I didn't like this room, i really think it was the small window/door setup with the roman blinds, and the room being smaller with the corner being boxed off.
*I really missed the sliding door to the sink area, and the pocket door to the shower/toilet. The door just barely cleared the toilet, you had to squeeze in and shut the door behind you for it to fit, and then use the toilet. My DS8 noticed that right away. I also missed the shower head from the YC, there was nothing wrong with this one but that one was better.
*For some reason I cannot fathom this room had the makeup mirror mounted on the wall at probably a 6 ft level! I'm 5'3", and I couldn't use it at all even on my tip toes to try to see the sides of my hair. I just cannot figure out how that happened or what they were thinking??
*Storage was not nearly as good here at the YC, losing the under bed storage for suitcases that we didn't unpack was hard. We put one in the closet on the luggage rack, another kind of behind the balcony door, and the 3rd between the bed and the wall, and just kind of piled all of our duffle bags, kids backpacks, etc where we could. We made it work, but the room felt very cluttered. Had I wanted to unpack there would not have been nearly enough drawer space and there was just a traditional closet with hanging on both sides.
*the safe was a small wall safe, where if you put a laptop in it would have to balance upright and there was about enough room for a cell phone width wise laying on the bottom if it. Much smaller than at both the YC and CR.
*I know these rooms were renovated just before the YC ones, but IMHO they did a much better job over there. Not sure if they just got better ideas between renovations, or purposely wanted the rooms to be pretty different, or if it has anything to do with being a convention resort vs not, or what. I had even thought I would much prefer carpet, and actually when push comes to shove I do, but overall I much preferred the YC rooms with hard floors to thers with carpet.
*The lobby felt kind of cluttered, with furniture everywhere and no real open space at all. Plus it was always packed - probably b/c of Cape May I assume. It was like night and day. The YC lobby was wide open space, fairly quiet and serene, and the BC was chaos. Normally I would have thought my personality would fit more with the BC, but to my surprise, despite the dark wood and dark colors (I like bright and airy) I much preferred the YC lobby.
*We ate breakfast at Cape may, and I enjoyed it. It was a typical resort character breakfast. Much less harried than Chef Mickey's, but still stressful running to get food for me and the kids, keeping an eye out for characters, and actually trying to eat. I don't think I actually ate that much!
*We never ate at the quick service, but the shop was more kid friendly than the one at the YC. Still not large, and they didn't have a great selection of resort specific merchandise.
*again, our MBs weren't working on the room. oddly enough, all of one of my sons MBs did work, and no other ones did. I took them down to the CM at the desk, and she went to re-program them (I just cannot remember what they call this), and then realized we had more than 1 MB each. She then proceeded to pretty much lecture me that it is intended that each person only keep 1 MB, and that when you got a new one you were supposed to discontinue using any and all old ones. She likened it to getting a new CC because you misplaced one or got a new expiration date - once you got the new one the old one didn't work. I know this isn't true, and I know plenty of people have multiple MBs active. Disney sells limited edition and designer MBs, I can't imagine they would expect people to buy more than one of these if they had to stop using any old ones once they bought a new one. Of course I just couldn't just keep my mouth shut, so i mentioned this, and she held her ground and told me the idea was one per person. However, she did get all of the MBs working while I sat and waited. It probably took 30 min, but I felt pretty irritated after the encounter, like I had just been reprimanded.
*The club lounge was large, there was enough room that i didn't feel like I was causing a problem to push the double stroller in while the rest of us stopped for food or a drink. It was set up kind of odd to me, with a large food area, a smaller almost galley drink area, and 2 separate sitting areas. We always headed to the back one, by the back door that was always open, but most people seemed to prefer the other one right by the food. I liked that it had more room, but it just felt like a weird layout. I also didn't like how 2 of the doors flanked the CM desks. No real reason for this, I just kind of like to come and go without having to walk directly past them every time. However, since the back door was closer to our room anyway we just tended to use it.
*It was nice that the lounge was always open, and you could always access drinks. I think maybe now none of the lounges close between services? Before that was a big drawback to me to the Epcot resorts, so I'm very glad they changed it. I love being able to grab a diet coke if the lounge is closed, unless they've been cleared out already by other guests.
*The food offerings were essentially the same as at the YC. They didn't have the ice cream yet when we were there.
*On fathers day they had a bloody mary bar, which I thought was a nice touch. They had celery, cheese, and olives to garnish it with, and appropriate glasses. I had never actually tasted one, but had wanted to . I got one, and it was ok. Probably not something I would go out and get again, but not bad and I was glad to get to try one.
*they also did a thing on fathers day where they had a polaroid camera and a board with disney fathers on it, and fathers could take a picture with their kids and put it on the board. it was a nice touch, the kids liked it, and you got to keep the picture the next day.
*The lounge CMs were fine. Not spectacular, not bad. There was one young male that we recognized from the YC that was extremely nice, and he recognized us as well so it kind of made us feel more welcome.
*We didn't try to talk to anyone about eating GF here in the lounge. My DH is big into not having to get special treatment, or wait around for info, or essentially have to interact with the CMs and ask questions, so he just didn't want to bother and we happened to have a lot of plans these days so it wasn't as important. He ate what he knew he could eat, like hard boiled eggs and fruit and veggies, and he really isn't into desserts anyway.
*We did order room service once - well, actually we ordered a GF kids meal ahead of time to be delivered for a babysitter to feed the toddlers. This was the weirdest interaction. I called and asked if we were able to get a GF kids meal, and she said yes, they could adjust anything on the menu to be gluten free. But they didn't have GF chicken tenders and fries like they have at Hurricane Hannas, and we didn't want to ask the sitter to load them up and go out there to get them. So i asked about the kids chicken meal, and she just said they would adjust it and the sides to make sure they were gluten free. She wasn't going to tell me what the sides would be, she was just going to send something. I pushed her, since I needed to make sure it was something that my kids at least might eat and that would be appropriate for 16 month olds, and she acted quite annoyed that I actually wanted to know what we would be getting. Who orders a dinner and just says "surprise me?" So she huffed and put me on hold to go talk to a chef. It ended up being something like corn and sweet potatoes, and dessert was still essentially a "we'll send something". I was not thrilled after that interaction either.
* As with the YC, the best attributes of the resort are SAB and walking to Epcot and DHS. I won't go all into that again. I will say that even with 8 nights on the Epcot resort area and APs, I didn't get to do much in World Showcase! Between rain and it always getting pushed until later and then things coming up, we barely spent any time there. I would have liked to spend more, but the kids don't agree and it isn't quite as easy for us to just run over when it involved getting 4 kids ready to go, and invariably then someone needs to eat, or it starts to sprinkle, or a million other things happen. I read things like people running to France for breakfast, or to get a slushie, or ice cream, and I wonder why we can't seem to do that. But then my DH reminds me we're taking 4 kids and a double stroller, and i realize it just isn't in the cards for us at this point.
*we (well, my kids, I don't care) also like that there is still an arcade. They were really disappointed when they found out that the CR got rid of theirs. They liked it better back when you got tickets and prizes, but they still like their arcades.
So, my final thoughts - drum role please
. Prior to staying at either of these resorts I would have thought I would like the BC better, but after staying at the YC twice and the BC once I much preferred the YC (both with the old and new room styles). While I tend to prefer light and airy and beachy over dark and sedate, for some reason the YC just worked for me and the BC didn't. We certainly didn't have a bad stay at the BC, it just wasn't a favorite. Along with actually preferring the YC, the fact that all rooms have full balconies is huge for me. I will admit that without a view it turned out to be less important than when in a room with a view, but I still really like to have the outdoor space. I would call the CL floors and lounges nearly a draw. The BC was larger, but just felt weirdly laid out. Neither one is anything special, no view, not overlooking a lobby, etc. We had a nice time and LOVED SAB and walking to 2 parks, but I'm not sure that is enough to overcome my love of the MK resort area. When we pulled into the CR next it just felt like we were at Disney and coming home, and that's really my least favorite MK resort (but love the MK access and views!) I think I might still stay in the Epcot resort area if we go for F&W, or as part of a split stay to avoid the busses and get in some SAB time, but I just miss the MK resort area, to me that area is Disney. We haven't stayed at a value or a moderate in a while, it will be interesting to see next time we do that if i also really miss the MK area, or if for some reason the Epcot area just doesn't do it for me. For some reason the Epcot resorts just don't feel as "resorty" to me (I know that's not a word
) without all of the lush grounds and landscaping, and the moderates do have that (I'm thinking PO), so I think that might feel more Disney to me as well. We'll see, I'm sure we'll be there again in the future.
ETA - I had this thought when copying some of this to the CL thread. I'll add it here.
I also wonder if possibly I would have been happier with a different room - I do think that the ones with daybeds and regular curtains might have felt more like a typical disney resort room possibly. I glanced into a room down the hall, in the same view category that was being cleaned one day, and for some reason just got a better vibe. I did notice it had a daybed, and maybe regular windows and curtains. So that was just luck of the draw, and I'll probably never know because i don't think we'll stay here again unless we get a spectacular rate
If you have any questions just ask, obviously I am plenty long winded and willing to share my opinions about our stay!
I was part of the MB “test” at AKL years ago and those MBs are still in my account!!
I'm glad that Disney finally lets you decline a band.
