Aimeedyan
DIS Legend
- Joined
- Feb 22, 2004
- Messages
- 18,749
Our experiences and thoughts!
Beach Club - after dropping DH off for his tee time, we headed over to Beach Club around 915am on Friday morning. We figured our room wouldn't be available so we had our luggage stored and went to check-in. Line was fairly short, took about 5 minutes of waiting before we were helped. Amazingly enough, our water view queen room was ready! We stopped at the bell services desk and requested our bags to come down and headed to our room. After several twists and turns, we found our room facing the quiet pool on the 1st floor. The room was very clean, beautifully decorated, and had nice touches not found in moderates and values. Just the little things are nice! Our bags came within 10 minutes. Later that night we realized the hairdryer was broken and they brought us a new one within a matter of minutes.
Mom and I headed to Stormalong Bay for the morning until DH was done and got there right after it opened at 10am so the lifeguards were still settling in. We cut through the quiet pool, assuming there was a way into Stormalong without trekking through the lobby in our poolwear, and ended up on the main walkway! Thankfully, there was an open gate to the sidewalk that we just walked right through. Towels were on the other entrance where a CM was checking IDs and putting on armbands (which create a strange tan line, btw!). So they were checking!
We found some chairs and spread out, there was plenty of room and it never got packed. That was the only morning we spent at the pool, that night we intended to use the hot tub right outside our door but were too tired to even do that!
The rooms were very quiet - we didn't even hear people out at the pool. After a noisy Pop stay, we are very mindful of checking each room out since people have said that all hotels are noisy - hasn't been the case for us yet.
We had them transfer our luggage to POR and it was smooth as well.
Likes: LOCATION LOCATION LOCATION! How nice to stroll right to the Boardwalk, into Epcot, or grab a quick boat to MGM. I despise the buses so this was a huge plus for us. Service was great! Very efficent, we had some documents faxed to the hotel and they were quickly slipped under our door without a problem. Luggage services were prompt and friendly. Lots of space in the room for 3 adults. Also liked the many food options and interior halls.
Dislikes: Now that we've been to Stormalong Bay, it's not a draw for us. When we have children that will change I'm sure, but it just wasn't a big deal to us. All I do is read, sleep, sip drinks and sunbathe and I was happy doing that at the quiet pool or any body of water really! =) Other than that, we didn't really have any negative thoughts.
Port Orleans Riverside - we checked in around 3pm and only stood in line about 3-4 minutes; they had a lot of CMs working. We requested Magnolia Bend and they changed our rooms over to that. We got our room number, directions, etc and jumped back in the car and drove around. We were on the 2nd floor facing the pool in the Arcadian House (or something like that!). Room was clean and large, and I liked the bath layout. Our bags were delivered within 20 minutes (in the rain!) by a nice CM.
The only amenities we used was the food court the day Wilma flew through - for lunch. Disney and POR handled that very well! Letters were delivered late Sunday night explaining park closures and what movies would be shown on the TV. The next morning, mousekeeping came by to deliver anything we needed because they would not be cleaning rooms that day. Around noon we walked to the main building which wasn't a long walk at all (Even in the rain and wind!) and Mickey and Goofy were in the lobby greeting guests. Boatwrights had a shortened menu and we waited awhile for a table there until we decided that none of the 5-6 items listed were interesting to us so we went to the food court instead. It was a madhouse but they were doing the best they could. I stood in line about 30 minutes for our meal and we had to bum chairs off another table to sit down but they were keeping the area clean and the madness down. When I got to the table with lunch, a CM had dropped off a letter stating the park hours for Epcot and MK which were now open. So, after we ate the sun came out and it was GORGEOUS so we headed to the parks!
Likes: room size was good enough for us, the room location wasn't much of a walk at all, we rarely heard anything even when the storm was blowing(again, we check this everytime). Beautiful grounds! We also loved the good movies that one day they ran them. I liked the food court a lot, not near as noisy as Pop and the choices were tasty and inexpensive (in relation to Disney prices, of course!). There was also lots of close parking to our building which is a huge plus!!!
Dislikes: exterior hallways and double beds. We couldn't get a king and DH and I had to sleep in seperate beds (he's 6'5 and had to lay sideways!). My lower back was throbbing every morning as well, which didn't happen at Beach Club or now at home, so I guess it was the bed. They also did a sloppy job of making the beds and the sheets got wadded up very easily.
We didn't use the bus at all or the boats since they were closed the day we planned to use them and weren't running the next night when we were at PI. We didn't have a chance to use the pool due to the weather either. So for us, it really was a place to sleep and shower and it served it's purpose!
Both were nice and we'd stay again but ineither wowed us like Wilderness Lodge did.
Any questions? Ask away! Hope our exp helps someone!
Beach Club - after dropping DH off for his tee time, we headed over to Beach Club around 915am on Friday morning. We figured our room wouldn't be available so we had our luggage stored and went to check-in. Line was fairly short, took about 5 minutes of waiting before we were helped. Amazingly enough, our water view queen room was ready! We stopped at the bell services desk and requested our bags to come down and headed to our room. After several twists and turns, we found our room facing the quiet pool on the 1st floor. The room was very clean, beautifully decorated, and had nice touches not found in moderates and values. Just the little things are nice! Our bags came within 10 minutes. Later that night we realized the hairdryer was broken and they brought us a new one within a matter of minutes.
Mom and I headed to Stormalong Bay for the morning until DH was done and got there right after it opened at 10am so the lifeguards were still settling in. We cut through the quiet pool, assuming there was a way into Stormalong without trekking through the lobby in our poolwear, and ended up on the main walkway! Thankfully, there was an open gate to the sidewalk that we just walked right through. Towels were on the other entrance where a CM was checking IDs and putting on armbands (which create a strange tan line, btw!). So they were checking!
We found some chairs and spread out, there was plenty of room and it never got packed. That was the only morning we spent at the pool, that night we intended to use the hot tub right outside our door but were too tired to even do that!
The rooms were very quiet - we didn't even hear people out at the pool. After a noisy Pop stay, we are very mindful of checking each room out since people have said that all hotels are noisy - hasn't been the case for us yet.
We had them transfer our luggage to POR and it was smooth as well.
Likes: LOCATION LOCATION LOCATION! How nice to stroll right to the Boardwalk, into Epcot, or grab a quick boat to MGM. I despise the buses so this was a huge plus for us. Service was great! Very efficent, we had some documents faxed to the hotel and they were quickly slipped under our door without a problem. Luggage services were prompt and friendly. Lots of space in the room for 3 adults. Also liked the many food options and interior halls.
Dislikes: Now that we've been to Stormalong Bay, it's not a draw for us. When we have children that will change I'm sure, but it just wasn't a big deal to us. All I do is read, sleep, sip drinks and sunbathe and I was happy doing that at the quiet pool or any body of water really! =) Other than that, we didn't really have any negative thoughts.
Port Orleans Riverside - we checked in around 3pm and only stood in line about 3-4 minutes; they had a lot of CMs working. We requested Magnolia Bend and they changed our rooms over to that. We got our room number, directions, etc and jumped back in the car and drove around. We were on the 2nd floor facing the pool in the Arcadian House (or something like that!). Room was clean and large, and I liked the bath layout. Our bags were delivered within 20 minutes (in the rain!) by a nice CM.
The only amenities we used was the food court the day Wilma flew through - for lunch. Disney and POR handled that very well! Letters were delivered late Sunday night explaining park closures and what movies would be shown on the TV. The next morning, mousekeeping came by to deliver anything we needed because they would not be cleaning rooms that day. Around noon we walked to the main building which wasn't a long walk at all (Even in the rain and wind!) and Mickey and Goofy were in the lobby greeting guests. Boatwrights had a shortened menu and we waited awhile for a table there until we decided that none of the 5-6 items listed were interesting to us so we went to the food court instead. It was a madhouse but they were doing the best they could. I stood in line about 30 minutes for our meal and we had to bum chairs off another table to sit down but they were keeping the area clean and the madness down. When I got to the table with lunch, a CM had dropped off a letter stating the park hours for Epcot and MK which were now open. So, after we ate the sun came out and it was GORGEOUS so we headed to the parks!
Likes: room size was good enough for us, the room location wasn't much of a walk at all, we rarely heard anything even when the storm was blowing(again, we check this everytime). Beautiful grounds! We also loved the good movies that one day they ran them. I liked the food court a lot, not near as noisy as Pop and the choices were tasty and inexpensive (in relation to Disney prices, of course!). There was also lots of close parking to our building which is a huge plus!!!
Dislikes: exterior hallways and double beds. We couldn't get a king and DH and I had to sleep in seperate beds (he's 6'5 and had to lay sideways!). My lower back was throbbing every morning as well, which didn't happen at Beach Club or now at home, so I guess it was the bed. They also did a sloppy job of making the beds and the sheets got wadded up very easily.
We didn't use the bus at all or the boats since they were closed the day we planned to use them and weren't running the next night when we were at PI. We didn't have a chance to use the pool due to the weather either. So for us, it really was a place to sleep and shower and it served it's purpose!
Both were nice and we'd stay again but ineither wowed us like Wilderness Lodge did.
Any questions? Ask away! Hope our exp helps someone!
