Disney’s Beach Club Resort Review
Beach Club is a Deluxe Resort at Walt Disney World in walking distance of EPCOT and Hollywood Studios, with Skyliner gondola and boat transportation to those parks. This hotel review features room photos, restaurant info, commentary on the amazing pool and much more. (Updated May 30, 2021.)
As Walt Disney World’s phased reopening continues, Disney’s Beach Club Resort is now open as of Memorial Day weekend! This belated return comes after the Beach Club Villas reopened last June and Disney’s Yacht Club Resort reopened last August. There are now only a handful of hotels that remain closed–see Walt Disney World 2021 Resort Reopening Dates for more info.
The most noteworthy thing to know right now is that capacity at Stormalong Bay pool, aboard the Skyliner, and on buses is reduced due to physical distancing, which can lead to longer waits and lines. However, since Yacht Club and the Disney Vacation Club wing of Beach Club have been open for nearly a full year, there’s not much at the resort that remains temporarily closed. Most shopping, dining, and recreation are available–let’s start with a list of what’s open…
Dining
- Beaches & Cream Soda Shop
- Beach Club Marketplace
- Martha’s Vineyard
- Ale & Compass Restaurant
- Ale & Compass Lounge
- The Market at Ale & Compass
- Hurricane Hanna’s Waterside Bar and Grill (bar only)
- Cape May Cafe
Shops
- Beach Club Marketplace
- The Market at Ale & Compass
Activities
- Pools
- Poolside Activities
- Pool Cabana Rentals
- Movies Under the Stars
- Fitness Center
- Seaside Retreat
- Sports Courts
- Fishing Excursions
Note: Although the fitness center is available, salon and spa services remain temporarily unavailable.
Regularly lumped together with its sister resort, the adjacent Yacht Club Resort (sometimes even referred to as “Disney’s Yacht & Beach Club Resort”), Beach Club is very different. Most obviously in that its exterior has a light blue color scheme as opposed to the gray of Yacht Club, but also in the more laid back theme. Beach Club is modeled after seaside resort cottages found in New England in the early 20th century, rather than a refined yachting club.
We feel that Disney’s Beach Club Resort is among the most well-rounded hotels at Walt Disney World, with a great location, strong table service dining, great theming, and top-notch amenities. It’s the resort we’d choose for our Walt Disney World vacations if money were no object. While it’s not without criticism, Beach Club fires on all cylinders to rank as one of our top Walt Disney World resort-hotels.
On the exterior, the Beach Club looks great. It was designed by Robert Stern, who also designed the Newport Bay Club in Disneyland Paris, which is strikingly similar to Beach Club. Apparently, Disney was quite satisfied with Stern’s take on seaside cottages.
That, or Michael Eisner was obsessed with his childhood summers in New England and directed the company to build a number of hotels in the late 1980s in this general style. Regardless, the airy Victorian look of the trim against the blue siding of the resort along with the touches of theming give the hotel an element of whimsy.
Both inside and outside, this contrasts nicely with the more stately design of the Yacht Club. While the two hotels are more or less the same, we’ve noticed that the Yacht Club is a tad stuffier (not to the point that it’s actually “stuffy,” it’s just closer to that point than the laid back Beach Club).
Inside Disney’s Beach Club Resort, the seaside motif continues, with paintings of New England and fixtures that evoke the beach feeling. The color scheme is generally cool, consisting primarily of light or pastel greens and blues.
The rooms also continue this theme, but here’s where we think the hotel stumbles a bit. Disney’s Beach Club Resort is attempting to execute an early 20th century theme, so in theory the rooms should always have a timeless feel of that era, but they don’t.
This was true of the old rooms, and it’s still true of the new ones. The problem with the old was that it was as if they’re an early 1990s take on the early 20th century. They felt like something you’d see on the Golden Girls, and most definitely weren’t timeless.
On the other hand, the new rooms are generic and bland it looked. These look like rooms you could find at some random Hilton anywhere in the country for about $400 per night less.
Granted, there’s a certain premium to be paid for the location advantage of a Walt Disney World hotel room, but part of that premium is that the rooms are different than “ordinary” hotel rooms. Or at least, they should be.
With Beach Club, one of the best-themed resorts in all of Walt Disney World, I expected more.
The rooms are devoid of warmth, theme, and charm: the style is totally plain and nondescript, there aren’t any whimsical touches, and the new look isn’t an extension of the resort’s overarching theme.
In fairness, this is a criticism we have for many of the rooms at Walt Disney World. It’s very difficult to balance a themed environment with a modern feel and amenities in the rooms themselves.
However, Disney has done a much better job striking this balance with more recent new room stylings at Riviera Resort, Saratoga Springs, and Polynesian Village Resort.
Let’s turn to dining. There are several excellent restaurants on-site in every category except standard counter service with Beaches & Cream, Cape May Cafe, and Yachtsman Steakhouse (technically at the Yacht Club), putting it right up there with the best of the Deluxes in terms of quality restaurants.
That’s the good news. The bad news is that the counter service options at Beach Club (and all around Crescent Lake) leave a lot to be desired. We’ve managed to have success recently with Beach Club Marketplace, but it’s still a far cry from the options in World Showcase at Epcot or other food courts around Walt Disney World.
Our pro tip: in lieu of the counter service at Beach Club, head to Crew’s Cup Lounge, where you can get a delicious burger for about the price of a counter service meal. Much better food at a comparable price!
Another good option at Yacht Club is Ale & Compass Restaurant or its adjacent lounge. This is a fairly unpopular restaurant, meaning it’s relatively easy to score a last minute Advance Dining Reservation. While it’s design is a bit on the dull side, the food is very good!
Speaking of Crescent Lake, it should be noted that there are three other hotels within an incredibly short walk. Disney’s Boardwalk Inn doesn’t share amenities with the Yacht & Beach Club Resorts, but it’s so close that the restaurants there might as well count as Beach Club restaurants, too. Same goes for the Swan & Dolphin, and arguably even for the World Showcase restaurants.
If table service dining is going to be a highlight of a trip, staying at one of the Crescent Lake resorts is the best option. There are numerous dining options all within walking distance–including a couple of Signature Restaurants.
Walking from Beach Club to Disney’s Hollywood Studios takes around 15 minutes–maybe a tad longer if your room is closer to Epcot. However, you also have the option of taking the Disney Skyliner. That will take about the same amount of time, but the aerial gondolas are a much more pleasant way of getting there!
This distance to Epcot is another major benefit to staying at the Beach Club, as it’s only a 10 minute walk to the International Gateway from the grounds of the Beach Club.
Boat service is also available to both Epcot and Disney’s Hollywood Studios, and generally takes just about the same amount of time as walking. It can be a little faster if you’re lucky, or a lot slower if there are long lines for the boats.
If you don’t mind walking, that’s by far your best option. For us, the ability to walk to both of these parks is huge. Disney bus transportation is unpredictable and often inefficient, so being able to avoid buses for two parks is a huge benefit.
The flipside is that bus transportation to Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom from Beach Club leaves something to be desired. There is always at least some sort of shared bus service operating, but exactly how many buses share the service depends upon the season.
We have had better bus service when staying at Pop Century for less than one-third the nightly rates of Beach Club. It’s disappointing that the Epcot-area Deluxe Resorts don’t offer better service in this regard than a Value Resort.
Of course, the main draw at Disney’s Beach Club Resort is Storm-Along Bay. I had salivated over this pool for some time before we finally stayed at the Beach Club, to the point that my expectations were probably impossibly high. It did not disappoint; in fact, it’s the #1 pool on my Top 10 Pools at Walt Disney World list.
For those unfamiliar with it, Storm-Along Bay is a sprawling pool complex 3 acres in size with sand at the bottom (for a while, I mistakenly thought “SAB,” the acronym used for Storm-Along Bay, stood for “Sand At Bottom”). Not only does it have sand at the bottom, but it also has a lazy river, an amazing water slide, great places for relaxing, and an excellent poolside bar.
Although it might seem like just a big pool with a dirty floor, in reality, it’s about the coolest thing ever. In fact, it’s so stellar that it cannot be adequately described without making up a new word. Storm-Along Bay is awesometubtacularnesszing!
Some people may tell you that some other pool at Walt Disney World is actually better, but unless that pool is called “Typhoon Lagoon” or “Blizzard Beach,” they are flat out wrong. Storm-Along Bay completely lives up to its hype, and is far and away the best hotel pool at Walt Disney World. It’s not even close.
One of our favorite splurges at Walt Disney World is doing a split stay (see our How to Do a Split Stay at Walt Disney World Hotels post) to take full advantage of Stormalong Bay and Club Level. Book a 1-night stay at Beach Club for the end of your trip and taking a late flight out on your last day. Alternatively, you could do that night in the middle of a three-resort trip, with a couple of relaxed resort days to decompress amidst your vacation. We describe the highlights of this strategy in our Stone Harbor Club Level Review.
Disney’s Beach Club Resort has many other amenities, including a health club, business center, babysitting, tennis courts, and other recreational facilities, but none of these measure up to Storm-Along Bay.
Overall, Beach Club scores highly for us because its theming perfectly conveys the relaxed feel of a seaside resort community, and this theming compliments a Walt Disney World vacation nicely. Like all of the Epcot-area resorts, Beach Club scores highly for its table service dining and convenience to Epcot and Disney’s Hollywood Studios. This location makes it the perfect place to stay during Epcot’s many festivals.
The biggest downside to Beach Club is its high nightly cost. Anyone wanting richly themed environments at Walt Disney World might also be disappointed by the guest rooms. Then there’s counter service dining, which is so-so at best all around Crescent Lake. Finally, commuting to the two “Kingdom” parks is another downside; guests who will be spending a lot of time at Magic Kingdom and don’t care much about a resort’s pool might want to think twice about Beach Club. Those who enjoy poolside relaxation, nice dining, and Epcot will likely agree with us that Disney’s Beach Club Resort is one of the top hotels at Walt Disney World!
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Your Thoughts
Have you stayed at Disney’s Beach Club Resort? What’s your take on it? Prefer it, Yacht Club, or BoardWalk Inn? Do you agree or disagree that Beach Club is one of the best Walt Disney World hotels? Do you think Storm-Along Bay lives up to the hype? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing feedback about your experiences is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
We are owners at both Beach Club and BoardWalk. I remember when we first saw the models for both of them and liked the decorating better at BoardWalk. We thought Beach Club looked dowdy even when it was new. We bought there for the pool and love the convenience of the BoardWalk area. We started staying at the Swan before there was a BoardWalk and remember before they made the Walkway to MGM (Hollywood Studios). Yacht Club was our hotel for years before DVC.
We haven’t had the bus problem you mention but maybe we’ve just been lucky. Our bus stopped only at Yacht and Beach Club, but we only stay there at the busy times so that may make a difference. When we stay at BoardWalk the bus only goes there.
We LOVE the Beach Club. I accidentally discovered it once when my husband and I were attending the Food & Wine Festival. Now our family stays there almost every trip. The location can not be beat!
And we could not agree more about the bus transportation. This is a Deluxe resort…you should expect to get Deluxe transportation. It can take an hour to get to or from Animal Kingdom. Not a great way to spend your time in Disney.
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I am reading all through your blog for my Disney plans for February 2014! Beach club seems like the top choice for me right now but I have a question… Was it warm enough for the pool in February? The pool is a HUGE draw but we are planning for February and if it’s too cold for swimming, the draw to stay here decreases!
Did I say we were there in February? If so, sorry, I meant May. We stayed at Boardwalk in February. It was unseasonably cold when we were there in February–definitely not pool weather. Some years, it’s much warmer, though.
What an awesome beach club and amazing review done! I am mesmerized looking at the pictures of this club and reading about it!
I have visited the Beach Club a million times, just resort hopping and have always wanted to stay there. I love the location being right by the Boardwalk and EPCOT. This review pretty much just seals it for me! Great review!
Hope you enjoy it! We’re sure you will!
We LOVE the Beach Club. It’s our #1 too, and we never have even been in the pool! We like the smallness of the resort (we also like POFQ for this reason) and the ability to walk to EPCOT and HS. We found the buses to be bad too, so we ended up taking the car to MK and AK,that was the only downside. We never had a problem either with finding food to eat! I also read somewhere recently where Disney is supposed to be switching from the comforters to the style of blankets used now in most hotels. I hope its for the ease of washing them more! So maybe this will update the rooms a bit.
Wait a second…you’ve NEVER used the Beach Club pool? No love for SAB?! At least Beach Club is still your favorite Walt Disney World hotel! 🙂
We travel to wdw twice a year and each time we stay here. Just cant get enough, I guess you could say its our all time favorite. Guess we are partial to it also cause we are a mere
2hrs from Cape Cod. Contrary to many’s beliefs that this is themed of the New Jersey Shore, feel it is more of a Cape Cod theme. you cant beat the location here. The only downfall about the resort is that Art retired. You can always find the 2 best cast members on fl 5, chip and TJ to make things more enjoyable here.Kinda sad that they know who we are now by name
I didn’t realize that Art retired. He was the only CM there with whom I was familiar. Too bad!
If you have ever visited Cape May, N.J. – you will see the Jersey shore theme at work here. Just go ahead & look up photos of Cape May online & you’ll see what I mean, one of my favorite stomping grounds!!!
My husband and I stayed at the Beach Club in October, after originally booking a room at an All Star resort. We booked an All Star to save money, but upon walking in the room decided it wasn’t worth the money we saved! ha.. That, or we’re just not value resort people after all.
At any rate, we LOVED our stay at the Beach Club!! (not just because we went to a value first… I don’t think). We stayed in the regular resort, not the villas, and our room was very nice and large! Much more updated than the pictures you showed of the villa room. We could also see the fireworks at epcot from our patio.
If we ever go back again during the Food and Wine Festival, we will most definitely be staying here again!
I am in total agreement. I would rather stay at the Yacht or Beach Club than anywhere else in Walt Disney World. Perhaps this is why I haven’t jumped on the Poly bandwagon that much of the Disney internet community seems to be on.
In my opinion the bus-sharing at the MK resorts is worse than the bus sharing at the Epcot resorts. Since DTD is essentially dead to me, the only places I reach by bus from Y/B are Animal Kingdom and Magic Kingdom. I travel during busy seasons so the only other resort I’ve experienced sharing with is Yacht Club. One of the many perks of peak season travel! Great review…makes me what to be there right now…
Great review, Tom! I’ve never stayed in a Deluxe Resort, but this would probably be a top choice (location, location, location!). I’ve eaten at all those restaurants mentioned though and they are certainly worth checking out. I love a good burger, fries, and shake from B&C! =)
I am planning a trip the first week in May, in large part, to check out the Flower & Garden Festival for the first time. Generally, I wouldn’t consider the Deluxe Resorts because they aren’t really in my price range (mostly because I’m frugal lol) and they are a bit excessive for my basic needs (give me a bed and a shower and I’m set). But this time around I’d like to give the Deluxe scene, specifically one of the Crescent Lake resorts, a try. However, I’m really struggling with spending THAT much more money for the perks (even with the Festival added in). In your opinion, is the extra ~$300 per night for location, room/size and a better pool, REALLY justifiable for Mr. Frugal Simplicity (yes that is my legal name)? I guess this is one of those “you won’t know it’s for you until you try it” kind of scenarios, but what was the deciding factor for you when you first decided to take the plunge for a Deluxe? I just need someone to convince me to get over the hump!
First time poster, long time reader. Love the blog, Tom!
PS – When are you going to get to updating those trip reports? =D
Personally, what made us finally go Deluxe was Disney Vacation Club. After that, we were kind of hooked and have made it a point to stay Deluxe when discounts made it practical. With that said, even during Food & Wine Festival, I could not justify $300/night EXTRA for any Deluxe. I just couldn’t.
If you need further advice or help booking, feel free to email my wife, Sarah: [email protected]
Brian: Once you go Deluxe, you’ll have a hard time going back to the cheaper rooms. It’ll completely reset your expectations. I’ve only ever stayed at Deluxe resorts, so when it came time to save money, the only real option was DVC. But in my opinion, it’s totally worth the cost. The time-savings alone for the location of the deluxe resorts is a big deal.
Agree with you totally about the bus routes. Our first trip to WDW we took the bus from Downtiwn Disney over there for dinner. I was completely appalled with how long the buses took there compared to where we were staying at Pop. I was thinking it was a total rip off to guests staying there to hsve such terrible transportation for the price. During our last trip, when we walked to Yatchman’s Steakhouse (the BEST place to eat!!) I was SOLD on the walkway. Our next trip with the entire family looks like it is going to be Riverside in order to accommodate all of our family members, but I am thinking that this would be a great place for an anniversary trip for me and my husband!
Just for the record all…Beach Club Villas is getting a major room refurb scheduled for 2014! The rooms are nice, clean, cozy…but a common complaint is they look dated. I don’t know if I agree or not. We love Beach Club Villas!
That’s great news! Do you have a link for info on this?
We stayed at Beach Club for 2 weeks last year and thoroughly enjoyed it, no complaints at all. I do however agree with the buses though. Leaving the hotel is fine in the morning, depending on where your wanting to go, we would walk or catch the boat its defiantly returning back to the hotel that is the problem.
We are trying an Old Key West Villa this year for a change of scenery 12 weeks and counting!! I think im more excited than the kids 🙂
For good CS: it is an 0.4-mile walk to the UK or France CS places from the door of the Beach Club resort. By comparison, it’s 0.3 miles from the farthest Little Mermaid building to the Art of Animation food court!
If I could justify the money for a deluxe, it would be a toss-up to me between this one and a Savannah-view at the Animal Kingdom Lodge. The theming doesn’t do much for me at Beach Club, but the pool looks great and having a shorter walk back home after illuminations than most people do to their bus stop would be awesome.
I’ve stayed in the Savanah View at AKL and would choose Beach Club over and over, its the location for us. Animal Kingdom is a little out of the way very secluded because for the need of space for the animals, yes its themed amazing, but Beach club simply has more to do for us 😉
Thanks for that feedback. That’s the same debating I’m having, a Savannah View room at Kidani, or after reading this review, Beach Club. Now I’m leaning towards Beach Club.
This is a good point for folks worried about counter service options. You are right next to Epcot which has some great CS options just inside the gate and also has arguably the best CS of all in Sunshine Seasons.
We were just at AKL-Kidani with Savanna view this past December and while the resort was gorgeous and the theme is spot on, we will probably never stay there again. The walk from our room to the bus stop was 1 mile. We wear Fitbits and I measured my steps. I was shocked! Then they close off parts of the halls during the night to eliminate noise and traffic… definitely not convenient when you need to be in the lobby for 3 am for your 6 am flight home. We booked a Beach Club Villa for this coming February and I am stoked! I cannot wait!
Although we stayed at the Yacht club not beach club, we found the boardwalk area simply the best, we loved walking into Epcot for the fireworks, the buzz of the boardwalk, Atlantic Dance Hall (after pleasure island demise) and as you say the astounding storm along bay! our favourite time was later evening when it’s quiet …. Interestingly we preferred to dine in the beach club as it felt ‘better’ than the Yacht club…
As always another fantastic review by Sarah and Tom, I don’t know how you two find the time to fit work in 🙂
We think Beach Club is “better” than Yacht Club overall, too. Rooms are better at YC.
As for fitting in work…we stayed at the Beach Club almost a year ago and this post took me two nights to write, so it’s not as if I’m exactly busting my hump on writing content for the site. I do need to pick up the pace, though. Once I have a full weekend to just sit down and write, I’ll be able to churn out several articles!
This comment reminds me of one article (perhaps the club ## from Disneyland?…) where you claimed to spend 18 hours a day on Disney sites. I understand this is probably an exaggeration, but I don’t understand how either of you fit in time for work either!! You must never sleep.
@Jordan – Haha, I don’t recall that, but that sounds like something I’d write!
I know spend very little time on other Disney sites and forums. Lack of time is a big reason why, but it also seems like there’s very little middle ground. People are either overly negative or overly positive. Even the rumor sites I used to like to follow have become like this.
I still love a lot of blogs focused on history, but it’s tough to find the time to read them.
We chose the boardwalk inn over the beach club for our upcoming trip because of the guaranteed boardwalk view booking category. Otherwise beach club would have been our next choice. The first two nights we are planning to stay at the swan on credit card points, but we are tempted to switch to the grand floridian or contemporary theme park view instead for those nights. Perhaps we should stay 2 nights at the beach club + 5 nights at the boardwalk instead of those options. Tough call.
Any reason you don’t want to stay at the Swan? While we’ve never done the Swan, I’d like to. Personally, I’d use the Starwood points there and save the money you’d spend on a room those two nights for meals or something. Plus, it’s an easy move from the Swan to Boardwalk!
Since we have to spend 2 nights elsewhere I like the idea of variety and being on the monorail loop. Also I could finally “experience” a monorail loop resort. The Swan gets trashed pretty bad on trip advisor (every hotel does, but the swan especially so). Tough call. Knowing me I’ll book the grand floridian, then two weeks later cancel and book the swan. I’m not good with so many choices.
Tom, I couldn’t agree more about Beach Club! I’ve stayed here twice, and I can’t wait for another visit. The resort rooms seem more up to date than the villas, but they could definitely stand some sprucing up to meet deluxe expectations. Before my first visit, I was worried that the lack of a traditional counter service eatery might be an issue. Not so at all- between the Marketplace, Beaches & Cream, and Hurricane Hannahs, we never missed the quick service. It sounds like I’ve had better luck with the bus service- we were fortunate during our last visit, and never waited more than 10 minutes for a bus. Trips seemed pretty quick. Then again, most of my time is spent at Epcot, so maybe I just didn’t notice all the stops during our few bus trips. Getting off at an earlier drop-off spot is a good tip for people who don’t want to wait around. Nothing beats SAB!!
We spend most of our time in Epcot when staying at the Epcot resorts, too, so it’s hard for us to judge. On top of that, we usually return from the Magic Kingdom to our hotel all by ourselves on a bus (since we stay until after the parks have closed), and it doesn’t make any other stops then. On the rare occasions when we’ve taken a bus to the Magic Kingdom from the Epcot resorts, the experience has not been pleasant.
We’ve also never missed having a “quality” counter service option at Beach Club…too many other good places to eat nearby to really care!
Great post, we’re doing a one-nighter at Beach Club Villas to just hang out at SAB all day. You might want to add that SAB is exempt from the pool-hopping privileges for DVC members because of how awesome it is (I’m assuming).
Oh, it’s definitely because it’s awesome. Although that fence does get on my nerves…I’ve gotten “lost” trying to figure out a way around it to get to Beaches & Cream when not staying at Beach Club! 🙂
We stayed at Yacht a couple of weeks ago. The dining options are really amazing (especially with that bakery in France reopened for breakfast). This is the best area for adults at WDW without question and the Crews Cup Lounge is a really good bar!
Totally agree on all counts. BoardWalk Bakery is another great place to stop for “breakfast” cupcakes if you’re hungry before Epcot opens. That’s where we usually get breakfast (and yes, we ALWAYS get cupcakes for breakfast).
That’s funny. We stayed at Boardwalk a couple of years ago and I ate a cinnamon roll at that bakery every morning while waiting for the family to get ready. Unfortunately, it’s closed right now. I should also mention for people who haven’t stayed in this area that there are a couple of really good restaurants at Swan and Dolphin as well. Bluezoo’s is really good (and a great cocktail menu!) and Kimono’s sushi bar is good as well.