First Time Staying at Beach Club...what will I love? what will I hate? :)

[Brob2132]

We haven’t stayed there so throw my opinion out if you wish. It’s on a list to try (and looking forward to it) but the busy chaotic feel is our biggest drawback.

It depends on the vibe you’re looking for.

 

[holden]

Love: walk to EP, especially if you use the "secret" entrance/exit from the BC building. It's great in the summer because it lets you stay in the air conditioning instead of roasting in the heat for part of the walk.

Dislike: QS options (though going to Les Halles in EP for breakfast in the morning is fun); boat to DHS feels long (I know we can walk, but we don't enjoy that in the summer heat).

 

[Disneylover99]

I loved the ability to quickly walk to Epcot anytime!

That was the only thing I loved about the BC.
But I’d stay there again just for that reason.

Things I hated….
SAAB. It was too crowded, hectic, loud and it was stressful trying to find just one seat.
Lack of quick service options.
The smell. The lobby never smelled good. Just the fishy Cape May smell.
The boat to HS. Buses to AK, MK and DS seemed to take forever.

 

[Captain UP]

I'm not QUITE going to say you'll never want to stay anywhere else again, but I will say if I knew it was my last trip ever, this would be where I'd stay.

The best thing for me is NOT the pools. It's the proximity to both Epcot and Hollywood. Last time I stayed there, my daughter and her friend wanted to chill for a while, so I just walked into the International Gateway and spent a couple hours doing rides. Then walked right back to the pool to meet them.

I also love walking over to the Boardwalk, getting a snack, just hanging out over there for a while.

If there's a concert at the American Gardens, you can hear it from just outside the hotel. And you can see a bit of Illuminous.

Only downsides are: the pool gets EXTREMELY busy when it's nice out. Incredibly difficult to find a decent spot with some shade. And the walks can be quite long- if you want a drink in the evening you're likely headed over to Yacht Club.

 

[loves to dive]

As you can tell, it's all subjective. BC is my least favorite of the Epcot resorts and that includes Swan/Dolphin. But, if I could get a room there for the same price as CSR, I wouldn't hesitate. I'm one of the few who isn't a fan of the tower at CSR, I just can't see paying for the upgrade to it when the other rooms are just as nice and the walk (for me and I'm 67 years old with osteoporosis and bad knees) from any of them to the main building is not that bad.

What I like (don't love) about BC: so close to Epcot which is our favorite park. Easy walk (or boat ride if you want) to HS. Easy access to the other Epcot resorts so there is a lot of food available.

What I'm not a fan of but it wouldn't stop me from staying there if the price was right: it's a tad too busy for me, I prefer YC. A large amount of the rooms (I'd say the majority or possibly not any at all) don't have full balconies. Some don't have balconies at all and some only have the small Juliet balconies that you can just stand on, can't even get a chair out there. I don't like SAB, it's too busy but I'm o.k. with the quiet pool.

What I'm o.k. with: I don't mind there is no QS, I'm not a fan of them. There are small offerings at YC and I'm pretty sure BC as well and you can also walk over to the Deli at BW or even better, The Fountain at Dolphin.

 

[Sweettears]

As you can tell, it's all subjective. BC is my least favorite of the Epcot resorts and that includes Swan/Dolphin. But, if I could get a room there for the same price as CSR, I wouldn't hesitate. I'm one of the few who isn't a fan of the tower at CSR, I just can't see paying for the upgrade to it when the other rooms are just as nice and the walk (for me and I'm 67 years old with osteoporosis and bad knees) from any of them to the main building is not that bad.

What I like (don't love) about BC: so close to Epcot which is our favorite park. Easy walk (or boat ride if you want) to HS. Easy access to the other Epcot resorts so there is a lot of food available.

What I'm not a fan of but it wouldn't stop me from staying there if the price was right: it's a tad too busy for me, I prefer YC. A large amount of the rooms (I'd say the majority or possibly not any at all) don't have full balconies. Some don't have balconies at all and some only have the small Juliet balconies that you can just stand on, can't even get a chair out there. I don't like SAB, it's too busy but I'm o.k. with the quiet pool.

What I'm o.k. with: I don't mind there is no QS, I'm not a fan of them. There are small offerings at YC and I'm pretty sure BC as well and you can also walk over to the Deli at BW or even better, The Fountain at Dolphin.

I’ll agree with this. For pretty much the same price you can stay at the YC. I enjoy the balcony and appreciate the calmer vibe.

 

[buzzgirls&dad]

We love that the BC is so centrally located to just about all of the parks and DS. We don't mind the lobby as we never really are there. We do like the subtle Disney touches in the rooms as well and find the space to be not too bad. We like the deluxe feel of the resort.

What we don't love is the crowd at SAB, the Juliet balconies (we come from the cold so we want to be outside as much as possible)and while we don't use QS much, the Market Place is literally the worst QS on property. Breakfast is ok at best. Lunches are basically a bread sandwich or heavy mac and cheese. Who wants that when it's 9,000 degrees outside. The chicken dinner used to be ok but they have cheeped out on that and it's a bunch of frozen items that half the time are still semi frozen. They could do so much better. Lastly, the gift shop is in the market place and it's very tiny.

Good luck with whatever you choose.

 

[Simba's Mom]

You will love the location. Beaches and Cream remains in our girls top 5 places to eat. Walking around in the evening. It's so relaxing. Enjoy!!!

I love the Beach Club. What sealed it for me was the fact that not only is it close to Beaches and Cream, but you can get there in the pouring rain without getting wet. I've been grateful for that fact in a couple of rainstorms.

 

[theMoreDisneytheBetter]

The only downside of beach club - very mediocre food at the marketplace - can easily be remedied by a quick skyliner ride to Riviera for quick service at primo piatto.

 

[Sparrow'sLady]

I stayed once during Christmastime. Our room was nice and the walk to EPCOT was fantastic. The hotel was clean, everything was comfortable. I would stay again.

My only "complaint" is that we were kind of close to the smaller pool and people were in it until well after 12 AM and it was LOUD in our room. The first night it happened was just about to contact the front desk and the noise stopped. After that I plugged my ears when I went to bed.

 

[DVCjj]

Location. End of story.

 

[DizneyFamof4]

I hope you love it. For us, it was a one and done (I know I am in the huge minority). I didn't like people hanging out in the lobby sitting on the furniture in wet bathing suits, how nearly impossible it was to get even 2 chairs together at SAB unless you were there when they opened the pool, how chaotic it was, especially with younger kids, and then you are basically sitting on top of the person next to you. And on a hot day, we couldn't even get lounge chairs at the quiet pool. The lack of real QS options for kids (and adults), and just how crowded it always seemed to be, not relaxing for me at all. Positives were the rooms, they were decent and well laid out and the walk to Epcot was definitely nice. Like I said, I know I am in the minority - by a landslide, of guests who will not stay there again.

This plus, for us, with a 6 and a 11 year old daughters at SAB, we had to split up a lot of the time so I was with 1 DD and my DW was with the other because SAB is a real pain to keep track of younger kids. I also agree about the QS and YC or BW does not have anything better either, but we did like P&C. The rooms were nice and the walk to EPCOT was the best thing and we found the walk to HS to be to long to really be a perk. DW and I also thought the theme was sort of blah.

 

[LRdismom]

I hope you love it. For us, it was a one and done (I know I am in the huge minority). I didn't like people hanging out in the lobby sitting on the furniture in wet bathing suits, how nearly impossible it was to get even 2 chairs together at SAB unless you were there when they opened the pool, how chaotic it was, especially with younger kids, and then you are basically sitting on top of the person next to you. And on a hot day, we couldn't even get lounge chairs at the quiet pool. The lack of real QS options for kids (and adults), and just how crowded it always seemed to be, not relaxing for me at all. Positives were the rooms, they were decent and well laid out and the walk to Epcot was definitely nice. Like I said, I know I am in the minority - by a landslide, of guests who will not stay there again.

My thoughts exactly.

 

[kylenne]

I enjoy my Crescent Lake stays, like a lot, but of the three resorts I’ve stayed at over there (BC, YC, and Dolphin) BC is my least favorite. I know people sort of joke about this but the smell from Cape May is truly wretched to me as someone who hates seafood and is sensitive to smells due to ADHD sensory issues. I’m also a certified SAB hater for all the reasons others have mentioned. And the quiet pools are an afterthought in a way none of the other deluxe ones are.

I find my enjoyment of BC and YC is heavily dependent upon where my room is. If I have one near the lobby or elevator access to the lobby I have a much better time. If not, walking the labyrinthine halls just to refill my mug gets very old very fast. There’s also what I like to call the gravel roof tax, I can’t stay standard at either resort bc chancing that ugly roof view is a nonstarter. I can’t ding BC for lacking a guaranteed balcony given I stay at the Poly all the time, but it is an issue as someone who loves and uses a balcony. The lack of real grounds to walk is a bummer to me, because I love going for an early evening or late night stroll around resorts. At BC/YC that’s basically just the pool unless I go to the boardwalk.

Also, with due respect to pp, relying on taking the Skyliner to another resort just to get decent quick service—something defined by convenience—is crazy to me. Not to mention impractical given how often it goes down for weather. The whole point of quick service is something quick and easy to get lol. I prefer the YC marketplace but neither are anything to write home about, and dining is absolutely the weakest point about BC to me. Cape May breakfast is super underrated but I miss the reopening period before the characters came back because the family style skillet was probably the best value on property. Food is definitely better on the YC side but Swan/Dolphin has imo better versions of most everything there tbqh, except that the characters never came back to Garden Grove after covid reopening. imo Crescent Lake dining is carried very hard by Swolphin. Granted, it’s a lot better now that real park hopping is back and you’ve got Les Halles in your backyard, but sometimes I’m too tired to go into Epcot for food, even when it’s right next door. And I want options right on site for those late nights after Epcot is closed. At Poly when we got back from Epcot, we just rolled up to Tambu and got noodles.

Don’t get me wrong, despite my kvetching, I enjoyed BC for a long holiday weekend where I was Epcot focused. It really is ridiculously convenient and I loved the CMs and the chill vibes there. I don’t want to rain on OP’s parade and I dearly hope they enjoy it. But there’s a lot of little things about BC that start to add up if I stay too long, without the pluses of YC to compensate, and I find 3-4 days is about the sweet spot for me before the cons start to bug me too much. And as much as I enjoy the convenience, Crescent Lake in general starts to get very samey to me after a while in a way Seven Seas Lagoon doesn’t (probably bc BC/YC are so samey looking). It’s why I love to split it with a monorail resort so much and that’s my ideal trip. I just feel like BC even more than YC is carried very very hard by its location, and that can be had at Swolphin for half the price sometimes.

 

[RanDIZ]

There are nice photo opportunities with the Stormalong pool. Although, personally, I'm not a fan at all of the pool design for kids (they actually leave the pool area, go out of sight, and cut across a public sidewalk to use the slide - personally, found that pool design added unnecessary stress when we were trying to relax...).

This was my biggest downside of BC. It is absolutely the worst design. The proximity to EP and HS can’t be beat. But outside of that convenience, I’m not a big fan of the resort overall.