The Beach Club is in
the deluxe category per Disney’s own classification system. The resort is located adjacent to Epcot and
is also extremely close to Holly Studios.
It offers amenities for all age groups.
It has 1 table service restaurant (Cape May), 2 quick service food
locations, 2 pools (1 awesome water slide), 2 lounges, 1 pool bar, spa, fitness
center and much more.
The decor will remind
you of turn of the century resorts that dotted the eastern seaboard landscape;
elegant, but casual and relaxing. Lots
of soft blues and yellows and rich wood accents.
The grounds are chalked
full of beautiful flower beds everywhere you turn to look. It is well worth the
time to just simply walk the grounds with your camera and take advantage of all
of the photo ops that it offers.
So you can probably
tell already that this is going to be a positive review overall. But as I always try to do, I will mention the
good and also point out areas that may need improvement or at least something
you should be aware of before you go.
So let’s get the
negatives out of the way first.
Second, the quick
service venues offered far fewer choices than again some of the other resorts
within the deluxe category. This can be
a bigger disappointment for those guests who are using one of Disney’s dining
plans. I again am comparing the one
marketplace area inside the Beach Club to such places like Captain Cook’s
inside the Polynesian or the Contempo Cafe inside the Contemporary.
The third and final
negative would be the layout of the hotel itself. There are a lot of lefts and rights that you
will most likely make before ever getting to your room once you leave the main
lobby. My advice, blaze a trail on the
way to your room and pack a few snacks to eat along the way.
Those are really the
only negatives that I feel are worth noting.
Now I have read other reviews where some like to point out the age of
the resort and claim it is looking worn and tattered. But what most of those naysayers fail to
mention is that Disney does dispatch personnel to fix major issues outside of
their normal maintenance and sprucing up schedules. In fact, I observed one guest getting a close
up of a broken door hinge on one of the doors leading from the rooms out into
one of the courtyard areas. I am sure
that person was making sure everyone saw how old and broken things are. But what they probably will not tell you is
that the door was fixed during our stay as well. Every resort has times of the year that are
more advantageous for routine fixing of things and that usually corresponds
with off-seasons. We were there during
the off-season and I witnessed major repairs going on every day from painting
to replacing door handles and locks on every room.
I say all of that to
say...please take the negative reviews with a grain of salt.
So now let’s move on to
the positives. There is a big one for
this resort that, to me, trumps, some if not all of the
negatives...LOCATION! If you are a fan
of Epcot and Hollywood Studios, then you cannot beat the location of this
resort. Our room was located in such a
way that we would walk out the door downstairs, hang a left and be in Epcot
within 5 mins. Or...if we were feeling a
tad more adventurous, we would take the bridge over to the Boardwalk Resort and
walk the trail from it over to Hollywood Studios and be in the park in about 20
mins.
That means that you
only need to take a bus to the Magic Kingdom and the Animal Kingdom. And that means you will be maximizing your
time in the parks and not spending as much in transit.
The resort was
beautiful. The staff was gracious. The
grounds were immaculately manicured. The
standard rooms are clean, offer double vanity sinks in the bathroom, have
decent sized balconies and have very comfortable bedding. The pool and water-slide were a blast, but
all of those were just nice add-ons to me.
The location alone would make us choose this resort again in a heartbeat.
