During our most recent stay at the Walt Disney World Resort in August 2019, Stella and I, along with four other friends, spent five nights at Disney’s Beach Club Resort. Themed to the classic seaside cottages of the 1920s East Coast, Beach Club is a deluxe resort located on Crescent Lake, just outside of EPCOT.
In a nutshell, we enjoyed our stay at Beach Club. Although it isn’t my favorite resort at Walt Disney World (that distinction currently belongs to the Polynesian), we still had a great time. The following review will look at Beach Club’s theming, rooms, amenities, pool and restaurants.
Additionally, we stayed as Club Level guests. I will write a separate review on our experience with Club Level and its lounge, the Stone Harbor Club, at a later time. For now, this post will focus on the main hotel experience.
Theming
As I said above, Beach Club is themed to reflect the beach cottages of the 1920s East Coast. The resort is painted a cool blue color to evoke a calm and causal beach going theme. Within the resort, paintings of the beach in the 1920s sprinkle its hallways and the lobby is meant to showcase this timeless feel. There is even a car from the 1920s parked right outside the main entrance! However, hotel staff would not let us drive it.
Similar, although meant to be more casual then the rich and formal nautical theme of its sister resort, Disney’s Yacht Club, I felt the theming of the Beach Club to be average at best. The theme is meant to transport us to the 1920s East Coast. The Polynesian, as the best deluxe in my opinion, easily transports us to the seven seas.
As a deluxe resort, I expected the Beach Club to transport me to the 1920s East Coast with the same ease as the Polynesian. The Animal Kingdom Lodge was able to do the same as he Polynesian and excel at its theme. But, I felt the Beach Club failed to fully immerse us in its theming.
The lobby area is nice, but minus a castmember dressed in nautical wear and a few seaside photos, I could barely make out the theming for the resort. Now, after the trip, I googled “1920s seaside cottages east coast” and found some that looked similar to the design of the Beach Club. I suppose the exterior of the building looks similar.
Whereas the Animal Kingdom Lodge and the Polynesian instantly took me to their respective themes, I had to google the Beach Club’s real-life counterpart to appreciate its theming.
The resort is nice and evokes the feel of a full-service deluxe hotel. But I feel it fails with its theme. With all the money I pay for Disney hotels, I want to be transported outside of reality. Unfortunately, the Beach Club did not do this for me. Instead, I saw a lazy attempt at a 1920s beach side theme.
Rooms
As for rooms, the lack of theming continues. The theming in the rooms is almost nonexistent, minus a few photographs of Disney characters at the beach. Like the rest of the hotel, I wished my room could transport me to the theme. But it honestly looked like a room that could be at a Hilton or Marriot property. The room was nice, but it didn’t feel Disney.
Our room included two queen beds and a sleeper sofa. It also included a connector door to our other room. The second room included one queen bed, one sleeper sofa and an awkward amount of empty space. It was just a big open space with no bed or couch. It looked like Disney forgot to put something there.
I’ve read that not all of Beach Club rooms include balconies, but ours did. But instead of a full balcony, it was a tiny balcony with enough space for one person to stand and look out. I did notice some rooms included full balconies with chairs and a table, but ours did not.
Our view looked directly over the main entrance and we could see Spaceship Earth. As we were not in the room much, I didn’t care much for the view. But after viewing an African Savanna and the Seven Seas Lagoon during our last two visits, it was a noticeable downgrade.
As we were Club Level guests, our room was on the 5th floor (top floor) and a short walk from the Club Level lounge and the elevators. As Disney resort guests, our bathroom was stocked each day with Disney’s H2O+ bathroom products. We also had a mini fridge and a Keurig coffee marker stocked with coffee and tea each day.
Each day, we left our flat screen TV on to play the Disney resort channel, with its whimsical music and information about the parks, weather and our hotel. Viewing this channel is one of my favorite perks of staying at a Disney resort hotel, as it plays classic Disney music and displays lots of helpful park/resort information.
Throughout our stay, we spent most of our time in the room to sleep. During our visit to EPCOT, we stopped by a couple times to relax and escape the Florida heat as our hotel is right next to the World Showcase entrance.
As for the other days, we stopped by a couple of times, mainly to change for the pool. And when we did have extensive downtime in the hotel, we usually relaxed in the Club Level lounge rather than the room.
Overall, the rooms were fine. They weren’t anything special but they were comfortable. I didn’t notice any maintenance or cleaning issues during our stay. Our room was cleaned each morning and at night during the nightly turndown service. If you can ignore the lack of theming, then the room will be just fine. But as someone who enjoys theming, the room left my desiring more.
Amenities
Hands down, the best perk of staying at Beach Club is its distance from EPCOT. Once outside the hotel, it’s about a 5-10 minute walk to the International Gateway entrance of EPCOT. Not once did we experience much of line to get in via this entrance. At most, I think we had two groups in front of us as we passed security and walked to scan our Magic Bands.
If EPCOT is a major part of your trip, then Beach Club is your ideal resort. Although EPCOT is slipping to become Walt Disney World’s least visited park, it will become competitive again once all its new attractions and experiences open over the coming years. With the vast size of Walt Disney World, its amazing to have a theme park within walking distance.
Plus, Beach Club is within walking distance of Disney’s Yacht Club Resort, Disney’s Boardwalk Resort, Disney’s Boardwalk, the Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin resorts and Disney’s Hollywood Studios theme park.
For those planning to spend time visiting the planet Batuu at Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, Beach Club is in an excellent location to book a stay. It’s either a 15-minute walk to Hollywood Studios or a short ride on a Friendship boat. The only other hotel that comes close outside of the EPCOT area for walking distance amenities is Disney’s Contemporary Resort, and it only includes a walking path to Magic Kingdom.
During our stay, its walking distance from EPCOT was awesome for quick breaks at our hotel as we “drank around the world”. Plus, it made our visit to Hollywood Studios easy and stress free. After spending years visiting Disneyland, it’s great to skip the Disney buses and just walk.
Additionally, as a Disney resort hotel, those staying at Beach Club are eligible for the standard lineup of perks:
- Magical Express transportation to and from Orlando International Airport
- Complimentary Magic Bands
- Extra Magic Hours
- Fast Pass selections 60 days out from the first day of the reservation
- And for Club Level guests, 90 days out if paying the additional fee ($50/day per person for a minimum of three days)
- Merchandise delivery and pickup
- Free access to Disney transportation
- Online check-in
- Access to the Disney Dining Plan
The above perks are a necessity when visiting. And during our stay, we used all of them, minus the Disney Dining Plan (I do not recommend using it).
Pools
Outside of its location to two theme parks and four hotels, Beach Club also has another major strength, its pool complex. Labeled as the best resort hotel pool complex at the Walt Disney World Resort, Stormalong Bay is a masterpiece. At three acres, the pool complex includes a lazy river, sand bottom pool, three spas, elevated tanning deck and to top it all off, a 230ft long water slide!
Stormalong Bay is awesome and a must when staying at Beach Club (the pool complex is also shared with the neighboring Yacht Club). During our stay, we were able to use the pool twice (although I wish we had time for more uses). After a long morning in the parks, it’s perfect to have lunch and then head to the pool to relax and swim during the late afternoon.
Fortunately, we didn’t find Stormalong Bay to be too busy. Each time, we were down at the pool by 3PM. We were able to find a table with shade and head straight to the waterslide. Now, my only complaint is accessing the waterslide.
I’m guessing this is due to its length, but the entrance to the slide is outside the main pool complex. You must exit the pool area, cross the main road that circles Crescent Lake and then enter the waterslide area. I wish you didn’t have to cross the main road but it is a minor inconvenience.
Once in the waterslide area, themed to a shipwrecked pirate ship, there is a small child slide before the entrance to the main slide, the Flying Jib Slide. After walking up a spiral staircase, there is a small staging area and the tunnel to enter the slide. Once the lifeguard gives the okay, you’re off! You race down a tunnel, before taking a couple turns with mini waterfalls before emptying in a slide pool down below! The whole experience takes less than a minute but it is lots of fun.
For the most part, the line to the slide moved fairly quickly. A couple of times the line was all the way to the bottom of the staircase. If that was the case, we would just relax in one of the pools and wait for the line to die down before heading over.
The pool complex also has poolside activities during the afternoon, like dance competitions and games. On our last day, we saw Minnie and Goofy checking out the pool and waving at guests. They looked like they just left the character buffet and stopped by the pool on their way out. The pool also has a bar, Hurricane Hanna’s, and servers taking orders.
Stormalong Bay is amazing and a highlight of staying at Beach Club. If you choose to stay at this resort, you MUST schedule some time to spend here. It is a mini waterpark at your resort hotel.
Restaurants
As a deluxe resort, Beach Club includes a number of restaurants. As the resort hotel is connected with the neighboring Yacht Club, they technically share the same dining options. Here is the full list between the two resort hotels:
- Yachtsman Steakhouse – Signature service restaurant located at Yacht Club serving dry rubbed steaks and seafood. Only open for dinner, we have yet to try it. However, our friends tried it during our most recent stay and said it was just average (and the seafood was not very good).
- Cape May Café – Located on the Beach Club side, it is a character buffet during breakfast hosting characters such as Goofy, Minnie and Daisy. At dinner, it becomes a seafood buffet without characters. We have not dined here.
- Beaches and Cream Soda Shop – Ice cream restaurant located between Yacht and Beach Club serving lunch and dinner options. Famous for its Kitchen Sink, a massive ice cream sundae using every available topping. We stopped by and picked up some ice cream once. It was good. The restaurant is closed now until Winter 2020 undergoing a refurbishment and expansion.
- Ale & Compass Lounge – Bar lounge outside Ale & Compass at the Yacht Club. Serves typical bar foods and drinks.
- Ale & Compass Restaurant – Full service casual dining location located at Yacht Club open for breakfast, lunch and dinner with a focus on seafood. We dined here when it was Captain Grille’s and thought it was just okay. Although I hear Ale & Compass is not as good.
- Crew’s Cup Lounge – Bar lounge located just outside Yachtsman Steakhouse. We dined here during our first visit to Walt Disney World and loved the truffle fries and buffalo wings. It was our go-to spot for lunch but now it is only open during the evening.
- Martha’s Vineyard – Bar lounge located at Beach Club serving wines, drinks and bar foods. It is also only open during the evening.
- The Market at Ale & Compass – Yacht Clubs quick service location open for all three meals. It is also open for merchandise purchases.
- Beach Club Marketplace – Same concept as above, it’s Beach Club’s quick service eatery and merchandise shop.
- Hurricane Hanna’s Waterside Bar and Grill – Bar located at Stormalong Bay. It serves drinks along with normal theme park foods, like burgers and fries. We’ve never tried the food but definitely enjoyed the drinks!
- Room Service – As a deluxe resort, Beach Club offers full room service. When we stayed at Yacht Club, we ordered room service once and enjoyed it. We didn’t order this time and I will upload the menu at a later date.
The resort hotel includes a solid lineup of dining choices. From quicker service breakfasts to full-service dinners, Beach Club has excellent choices. Plus, the resort is walking distance from all the dining locations at Disney’s Boardwalk and the numerous restaurants located at World Showcase in EPCOT. If dining is a major part of your vacation, Beach Club is a solid pick (especially during EPCOT’s Food and Wine Festival).
Conclusion
Disney’s Beach Club Resort is a great resort hotel located just outside of EPCOT. As a full-service resort hotel, Beach Club is a solid pick for your next vacation. For strengths, it excels with its outstanding location, its three-acre pool complex, Stormalong Bay and its long list of dining locations and places to eat within walking distance. However, it struggles with its theming and its rooms are nothing special.
Even with its faults, it is still a great place to stay. We enjoyed our five nights at this resort during our most recent stay. Just be mindful that as a deluxe resort, Beach Club isn’t cheap. For our five-night stay with four adults and as Club Level guests, we paid $551/night. That total includes tax and the 35% I saved as a member of the military.
Without my discount, we would have been paying $744/night. Beach Club is nice, but its not worth $551/night, let alone $744/night. Again, we were Club Level guests which adds to the cost.
With all the new experiences and attractions coming to EPCOT in the coming years, Beach Club will be a great place to stay and experience all the new offerings. Until then, it’s still nice to be within walking distance of EPCOT and Hollywood Studios, especially now that Galaxy’s Edge is open.
I hope my review answered all your questions. Again, we enjoyed our stay. Beach Club isn’t perfect and has its faults. However, if given the choice, I would still prefer to stay at the Polynesian or Animal Kingdom Lodge.
Those two resorts not only include great dining options, but also amazing theming, a component I feel is lacking at Beach Club. But, when EPCOT finishes its rebranding, you can be sure I will look at Beach Club again. But until then, I’ll set my eyes elsewhere, unless Stormalong Bay pulls me back in!
Thoughts?
Please check out our EPCOT One-Day Itinerary HERE and our review of Via Napoli HERE! And for those heading to Magic Kingdom, don’t forget to read our One-Day Magic Kingdom Itinerary HERE!
Have you stayed at Beach Club? What was your favorite part? Do you feel it excels with its theming or could it be improved? Favorite dining location? Let us know in the comments below!
