SAB too crowded

tbssenterprises

DIS Veteran
Joined
Oct 3, 2008
OK, just came back from a wonderful stay at BC. I do have a problem. SAB is too crowded. Now, when the resort was built it was just YC and BC. But now with BC Villas, it is too crowded. I have a thought, which I'm sure I will get flamed by many....but.....perhaps they should allow BC Villas OWNERS access to SAB since it was part of the sales pitch. But maybe BC Villa renters shouldn't be allowed access. It's really NOT funny not being able to get a chair or spot at the pool.:beach:
 
OK, just came back from a wonderful stay at BC. I do have a problem. SAB is too crowded. Now, when the resort was built it was just YC and BC. But now with BC Villas, it is too crowded. I have a thought, which I'm sure I will get flamed by many....but.....perhaps they should allow BC Villas OWNERS access to SAB since it was part of the sales pitch. But maybe BC Villa renters shouldn't be allowed access. It's really NOT funny not being able to get a chair or spot at the pool.:beach:

When they built the villas, they added the Dunes Cove pool at the villas. I think the problem is still pool hoppers who don't belong there at all, not the guests from the villas since it's really very small.

Another problem is guests putting stuff on the chairs in the morning and not coming to the pool until later in the afternoon. Or guests taking more chairs than the number of people in their party. Or people bringing friends who aren't staying at the YC, BC or BCV along.
 
We go in late October, early November, and the pool is usually not crowded.

But I am surprised it was crowded for you this past week, post-summer. Bummer!!

Was it all-over crowded, or more the prime spots and prime chairs?
 
tbssenterprises said:
OK, just came back from a wonderful stay at BC. I do have a problem. SAB is too crowded. Now, when the resort was built it was just YC and BC. But now with BC Villas, it is too crowded. I have a thought, which I'm sure I will get flamed by many....but.....perhaps they should allow BC Villas OWNERS access to SAB since it was part of the sales pitch. But maybe BC Villa renters shouldn't be allowed access. It's really NOT funny not being able to get a chair or spot at the pool.:beach:

Funny you are having that problem now add summer is winding down and site season is starting. I was there in mid July and had no problems finding seats or hanging in the pool. The water slide barely had a wait and we always got a tube in the lazy river with minimal wait.
 


It is too crowded. It would also help if Disney would pick up the dirty towels and garbage etc more often. And of course the whole chair-holding problem but I'm not sure how you stop that. As far as limiting it to BC Villa owners and not renters, that would be fine, but I think the value of renting there would drop tremendously, whether via Disney or through renting points.
 
OK, just came back from a wonderful stay at BC. I do have a problem. SAB is too crowded. Now, when the resort was built it was just YC and BC. But now with BC Villas, it is too crowded. I have a thought, which I'm sure I will get flamed by many....but.....perhaps they should allow BC Villas OWNERS access to SAB since it was part of the sales pitch. But maybe BC Villa renters shouldn't be allowed access. It's really NOT funny not being able to get a chair or spot at the pool.:beach:

Umm, you know the villas have been open for 14 years, right? They are not a new addition.

If SAB is suddenly too crowded my guess would be pool hoppers. Or people hogging chairs. Not the fact that the people from the villas use the area.
 
I really don't think not allowing "renters" to use SAB would fix the problem.

Besides "renters" don't always "rent". They book their reservation thru Disney just like any other resort. We never rent points, we reserve thru Disney. And I probably pay a whole lot more for my 2 br villa that you do for a standard room

I'm a guest at a Disney resort, not a renter and I expect the same perks as any other guest on that property whether it's at the villa's or a standard room.

I know- They should only allow DVC and concierge level to use SAB! That'll fix it. :lmao:
 


We have stayed at BCV mulitple times, often booking the room through WDW itself. I've only rented points to stay there once. There is no way that WDW could tell guests that they can't use SAB when they are probably paying more than regular BC guests for their room.
 
If it is pool hopping then the CM's are not doing their job. Your magic band needs to be scanned before they let you into SAB, so pool hopping would be hard to do.
If you have a situation where the BC, BC Villas and YC are at almost full capacity, and a lot of guests decide to use the pool on any given day, then there are not enough "seats" at SAB to hold everyone. I think this is where the problem lies.
 
.but.....perhaps they should allow BC Villas OWNERS access to SAB since it was part of the sales pitch. But maybe BC Villa renters shouldn't be allowed access.

Yeah - that will work! :rotfl2:

People can stay in the BCV DVC villas through a number of means - DVC BCV owner, DVC other resort owner, DVC owner guest, DVC renter, DVC guest through CRO.

Admission is through magic band. You can't pool hop there.

Admission to SAB is a perk to everyone staying on BC and YC property. And everyone staying there has paid a pretty penny, one way or another, to use the complete list of amenities.
 
I was at the Beach Club resort from August 17th to the 23rd. Since it was so hot during the week we wound up using the pool during the morning, afternoon and evening hours on various days and we frequently made multiple trips per day. :thumbsup2

In my experience, I did not find the pool crowded or the trash cans overflowing. My friends and I were able to get pool chairs in each of the different sections that we tried at different times of the day, including the "rush hours". Much to my delight I was also able to get a pool tube in the lazy river any time I wanted. The trick was waiting until an empty one would float around if all the ones in the area were occupied when you first entered the lazy river. The fun part was having your friends catch up when they finally got theirs!

The staff at the pool is very vigilant about checking magic bands to make sure that pool users are guests of the Yacht and Beach Club. Even if you climbed to the top of the giant pool slide and tried to enter that way the lifeguard manning that station would not let you go down the slide unless you were wearing the correct wrist band.

They say that beauty is in the eye of the beholder and I think you could say the same thing about crowds. What feels crowded to one guest might not feel so crowded to another.

~NM
 
OK, just came back from a wonderful stay at BC. I do have a problem. SAB is too crowded. Now, when the resort was built it was just YC and BC. But now with BC Villas, it is too crowded. I have a thought, which I'm sure I will get flamed by many....but.....perhaps they should allow BC Villas OWNERS access to SAB since it was part of the sales pitch. But maybe BC Villa renters shouldn't be allowed access. It's really NOT funny not being able to get a chair or spot at the pool.:beach:

Problem is a large amount of the people staying in the Villas aren't renters. They booked their room on the Disney site just like you. They just happened to pick a Villas with a kitchenette instead of a standard room.

I think most of the resorts have a crowded main pool at busy crowd times. We usually stick to the quiet pools at peak times of the day and use the main pool at off times.
 
We go in late October, early November, and the pool is usually not crowded.

But I am surprised it was crowded for you this past week, post-summer. Bummer!!

Was it all-over crowded, or more the prime spots and prime chairs?[/QUOTE]

I'm betting it was this. We aren't there now, but have been @ YC this week several other times. Never had any problems getting chairs even during prime afternoon hours. Even during May, with the hotel full & a big convention & Flower & Garden going on, we still got chairs near the YC & had lots of room in the pool.
 
I know that this is a big concern for people with upcoming stays at the Yacht & Beach Club resorts. I tried to pay attention to the availability of chairs during my trip in mid-August.

It was much easier to find empty chairs (there are two sizes) than to find loungers without towels/personal items.

I went to the pool 3 times during the trip. Weather conditions during all of the visits to the pool were HOT and sunny. :sunny:


Monday August 18, 10 am to 11 am

No problem finding empty loungers or chairs.

Here are a couple of pictures:

taken from lazy river



by kiddie sand bar area






Monday August 18, 4 pm to 5 pm

Definitely harder to find a place for our stuff during this visit, but we did find something up at the top of the gazebo thing near Hurricane Hanna's. Here are a couple of pictures taken during that visit. You can see a few empty loungers in a prime location near the activities pool.








August 19, 2 pm to 3 pm

Here is a picture taken at the spot right where you enter the pool area near Beaches & Cream. That is my folded towel on the chair on the far left. There were a couple of empty ones right near it as well.


 
You have to keep in mind that SAB is THE most popular pool at WDW. It's consistently considered the best of all the on site resorts and many people cough up the extra money to stay there JUST for the pool. I would imagine most people staying there will build in more pool time to their schedules than they usually do in order to take advantage of it. That will make it more crowded than any other.
 
We were at BC from 8/16-8/26 and were at the pool almost every day at peak time and had no issues with "overcrowding". I guess it's a matter of perception but we didn't see it as an issue.

We also stayed at YC last year and did not find it to be an issue. :confused3
 
During our June stay at the YC it was hard to find a chair or table. We just dropped our belongings out of the way to the side if we wanted to swim. The pool itself was not too bad. We stayed at the YC once before and BC 2x before so we know SAB well. Early morning or evening are the more peaceful times and less hot. The quiet pools are a good alternative during peak time periods.
 
There are no pool hoppers as you have to have your wristband scanned, and then the attendant applies a paperwrist band. So pool hopping is not the issue.

Was there over the Labor Day weekend, and yes, it was crowded. After walking round and round I would finally find ONE chair. Doesn't matter to me if it is a lounger or chair, just a place to put my stuff. The first day I was there I was able to find a spot after lightening empited the pool area. So I waited in my room (which had a view) and was able to tell when they were going to open again and I went back down and waiting in line.
 
My family and I were just there for the last 10 days of August and went swimming every day. We had no problems using the pool or water slide at any time of the day. It was so relaxing and in the afternoon, a great break from the heat. The pool area was always clean.:beach:
 
Umm, you know the villas have been open for 14 years, right? They are not a new addition.

If SAB is suddenly too crowded my guess would be pool hoppers. Or people hogging chairs. Not the fact that the people from the villas use the area.

Relatives of ours went recently. They definitely pool hopped.:mad: band not just to SAB.

We have only stayed at Beach Club once. It was May when we went about 4 years ago. We didn't find SAB crowded. It would seem an ID check would be Approrpiate.

We toured AOA last year and a magic band was required to enter the pull area. While it is feasible for folks to catch an open gate, I would think that would deter pool hoppers.

My relatives don't seem to be bothered by "silly" rules. (They she too many in a moderate room on that trip. )

We are DVC and don't even use our own pool hopping privileges. But BLT, SAB, and the Kidani Village pool do not allow pool hopping. I do wonder if DVCers are not realizing these properties are not included in the privilege.
 

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