The 2009 Yacht & Beach Club FAQ Thread

[luvpoohandcompany]

Hi Everyone,just wondering if you can tell me how much is customary to tip house-keeping? How do you do this and do you leave a daily tip or a final tip at the end of your stay? We stay for 14 nights so would propbably have various house-keepers during that time.
Thanks for any help

 

[TeenaS]

I'd be shocked if bell services were not available at 11 through midnight. It might be a little slower than you're used to for midday service, but they are around. We've walked back in from late night out, after 2am some times , and there's folks checking in and bell services around.

You are absolutely correct. Bell Service is available 24/7. However, during "off hours", the number of Bell Service CMs available is greatly decreased.

 

[TeenaS]

Hi Everyone,just wondering if you can tell me how much is customary to tip house-keeping? How do you do this and do you leave a daily tip or a final tip at the end of your stay? We stay for 14 nights so would propbably have various house-keepers during that time.
Thanks for any help

I've heard various amounts are customary, so I really have no idea what the industry says is customary.

My opinion is:
(1) I always leave a tip every day since if you leave it on the last day, a housekeeper that only does your room on that day would get the whole tip and that's not fair.
(2) The amount I leave depends on who is in the room. If I'm away and staying at a resort by myself, I leave a room practically perfect ... it might take a housekeeper 10 minutes to do my room. I normally leave $1.00 a day. When it is my husband and I, I leave $2.00 a day. When it's my daughter, husband and myself, I normally leave $3.00 a day. When my daughter was young and we brought along a friend, the room was normally pretty wrecked so I would leave $5.00 a day.
Again, this is just what I do and I have no idea what others do or what is customary.

 

[Katesdad]

Tipping your "mousekeeping" service is something that many people do, but not all. I have experienced over the years that if I tip, I don't necessarily receive any "better" service than if I don't tip. However, I am inclined to leave $1 per person per room per day. I'll put it on a note pad near the front door with a big THANK YOU written under it. On these boards you will read where people will do envelopes for each day ahead of time and then leave them out daily. Some decorate the envelopes with pictures or smiley faces. I do believe that if you are going to tip, you need to do it daily due to the fact that house keeping employees change as TeenaS indicated. I travel frequently to many places and have found that I have never returned to the room to find my gift of appreciation, no matter what the amount, left behind by the person cleaning my room.

 

[johnsonet]

This is the information I was given the other day when a guest had the exact same thing happen to them. Disney's shipping department is owned and operated by ICON. All mail/packages except mail delivered via the postal service goes to ICON, not the Beach Club. If it's addressed to you at the Beach Club with the Beach Club address on it and even if it has your room number on it and it comes via UPS or another carrier besides the US Postal Service, it goes to ICON. ICON is located in our convention center. Even if you go over and pick up the package yourself, then charge you a "handling fee" and it is calculated by the weight of the package or envelope. A guest recently went over and picked up his package and he was still charged the "handling or delivery fee". This is ICON's policy and there isn't much you can do about it unless you have your package sent to you via the U.S. Postal Service and addressed to you c/o Beach Club Front Desk with a notation on it to hold for "Jane Doe, Arrival Date 3/20/10".

Awesome info to have. THANK YOU!

 

[luvpoohandcompany]

Thanks for the help everyone
16 weeks today and I'' be on my way to the BC

 

[nikia]

What about an illuminations cruise? Or a wishes birthday cruise ( they may do those for illuminations as well, but I don't know). I have a friend with 2 adopted DDs. They do an adoption birthday every year for them just to let them know how special they are to their parents. Not a big deal just a special dinner and a little cake.

Thanks for the cruise idea. I booked the Pirates and Pals cruise for all of us and dinner at California Grill.

I am also thinking of doing the Professional Photopass at the BC. Anyone have any experience with this.

Thanks again for you help

 

[janloz]

We are staying at BC in Sept and we promised the kids that we would do the Sea Racers out of the marina. I was just curious about where you can take the boats. Is it just on Crescent Lake? I would guess you can't go all the way into Epcot or all the way down to HS. TIA.

 

[DisneyMomx7]

Thanks for the cruise idea. I booked the Pirates and Pals cruise for all of us and dinner at California Grill.

I am also thinking of doing the Professional Photopass at the BC. Anyone have any experience with this.

Thanks again for you help

We did the private photopass session at BC when we did our Grand Gathering in 2008. The photographer was lovely and really took her time. There were 16 of us so it wasn't an easy job! I'm so glad we did it though because we have some special photos "a 4 generation photo" is priceless.

 

[DisneyMomx7]

For the person who asked about tipping.

We tip every day (because you could have a different mouskeeper each day)- we tip $5.00 a day for mousekeeping and $2 a day for turn down service.

I make up little "Disney" envelopes before we leave.

 

[Mickey & Minnie Mom]

We are staying at BC in Sept and we promised the kids that we would do the Sea Racers out of the marina. I was just curious about where you can take the boats. Is it just on Crescent Lake? I would guess you can't go all the way into Epcot or all the way down to HS. TIA.

Can't go into Epcot, but you can travel around Crescent Lake and down to Hollywood Studios --- they will let you know the areas that are off limits.

 

[Spaceship Tigger]

Can't go into Epcot, but you can travel around Crescent Lake and down to Hollywood Studios --- they will let you know the areas that are off limits.

That sounds like it would be a fun trip. I didn't know you could leave the Cresecent Lake area. I may have to try out a Sea Raycer at the YC after all.

 

[Lilmattie13]

So my husband and I are staying at YC for the very first time in Sept. We are going down without the kids for our 9th anniversary. Hoping to make it a very romantic trip. My question is will we be able to get a king size bed?

I am hoping because there are just two of us this may be an option. We stayed at Poly last year and we had two Queen beds. We actually slept seperate on a couple of nights lol Because we could, but it just takes the romance right away lol

The year prior we stayed at GF. We were lucky enough to get a magical upgrade when we arrived and had one of the rooms in the rounded towers on the corner. This had a king size bed and it was wonderful.

Should I put a request for this and if so does it usually happen for a couple without kids?

 

[TeenaS]

So my husband and I are staying at YC for the very first time in Sept. We are going down without the kids for our 9th anniversary. Hoping to make it a very romantic trip. My question is will we be able to get a king size bed?

I am hoping because there are just two of us this may be an option. We stayed at Poly last year and we had two Queen beds. We actually slept seperate on a couple of nights lol Because we could, but it just takes the romance right away lol

The year prior we stayed at GF. We were lucky enough to get a magical upgrade when we arrived and had one of the rooms in the rounded towers on the corner. This had a king size bed and it was wonderful.

Should I put a request for this and if so does it usually happen for a couple without kids?

There are very few rooms with a king bed so definitely you want a request on your reservation ... something like "anniversary - king bed requested". The room assignor tries very hard to meet all requests but since there are very few rooms with king beds, not everybody that requests them will get them.

 

[Little Lulu]

So my husband and I are staying at YC for the very first time in Sept. We are going down without the kids for our 9th anniversary. Hoping to make it a very romantic trip. My question is will we be able to get a king size bed?

I am hoping because there are just two of us this may be an option. We stayed at Poly last year and we had two Queen beds. We actually slept seperate on a couple of nights lol Because we could, but it just takes the romance right away lol

The year prior we stayed at GF. We were lucky enough to get a magical upgrade when we arrived and had one of the rooms in the rounded towers on the corner. This had a king size bed and it was wonderful.

Should I put a request for this and if so does it usually happen for a couple without kids?

Hi Lilmattie and welcome to our thread!
Congrats on your 9th anniversary!!!!
And I hear you about that romance factor!
DH and I will be there in May and we put in a request for a KING bed when I called to make my final payment to CRO. To me, the bedding is the most important request as DH and I do not care about the balcony issue. We've had our share of fabulous balconies and views at WDW so it's no longer a big importance to us, but the bedding is, LOL!

Again, welcome to our little group here and happy planning!

 

[Little Lulu]

There are very few rooms with a king bed so definitely you want a request on your reservation ... something like "anniversary - king bed requested". The room assignor tries very hard to meet all requests but since there are very few rooms with king beds, not everybody that requests them will get them.

Oops! Teena was responding when I was!

Pretty much that's what I said on my notes:16th anniversary-King bed requested please.

that's what was on the blue reservation that was faxed back to me from CRO with all my reservation info on it.

I didn't know they (king rooms) were that limited though.

thanks Teena!
DH and I have been lucky through the years. There was a year we were unable to get a King room when we stay GV CL at the YC and they told us there were no rooms with king up there. But that's been about 5 years.

 

[janloz]

Can't go into Epcot, but you can travel around Crescent Lake and down to Hollywood Studios --- they will let you know the areas that are off limits.

thanks so much.

 

[mapmakerj]

Just had to pop in to say DH gave the ok to switch the first week of our June 2011 trip to the BC! This will be our 1st stay there and DS (who will be 11) is super excited. His dream Disney trip was a split stay between BC and AKL CL so we could do the Sunrise Safari. Well, we are making his dream a reality! 7nts at BC, 4nts. AKL CL followed by 4nts at RPR at Universal so he can see the new Harry Potter land. I must say, DH and I are pretty psyched ourselves. I will be checking this thread regularly so I can get all of the BC info.

 

[DisneyJBL]

Sounds like a dream trip to me, MapmakerJ--hope you all have a wonderful time!!

 

[teentoddlermom]

Back two weeks from our first stay at the Beach Club. It was just great!
I really love the location of the Beach Club in relation to the International Gateway. We've stayed at YC and BWI before, but this trip seals our favorite Epcot resort as the Beach Club. We really lucked out with a great upgrade. I did not make any room requests for this trip.

Awesome Upgrade:

Well after dropping many thousands of dollars (see my signature below) this decade at WDW and never receiving any upgrades we scored. Big Time. Checking in at about 10pm (had already done the online step before leaving home), the cast member gave us our gold KTTW cards and explained that we had to put them in the card slot in the elevator. She did not explain anything else, she seemed maybe like she was in training or new.
My brain was spinning, I knew they were for the Conciege floor, but we had only booked standard view. I thought there must be some kind of mistake. We went to the room which was indeed on the Concierge floor! Still not believing it we went back down to ask if we were allowed to use the lounge. Another cast member said, yes indeed, we were upgraded! She said that they needed to really swap people around because of being fully booked with a convention, and the only rooms left were on the concierge floor! We had twice paid for concierge rooms in the past, and later decided they might not be worth it for us with our park commando ways and little resort time. Even with the upgrade, we still feel this way, but we'll take the free upgrade anytime! We really didn't even mind the assignment of just about the farthest away room from the elevators, I think it was 5274. They must save these far far away rooms for overbooking. We were happy to have access to the breakfast offerings, but it was always really crowded in the concierge lounge.
We loved our first visit to the Beach Club. We had superior service throughout our stay from all cast members, and excellent housekeeping.