Photos & Thoughts: Beach Club’s New Rooms

Disney’s Beach Club Resort has redesigned rooms, which are one component of a significant multi-year improvements to make this Walt Disney World hotel (and its sister resort, Yacht Club) more appealing to convention guests. In this post, we’ll discuss the new rooms, share some photos, and offer thoughts on the changes at Beach Club.

These “new” rooms at Beach Club were actually completed prior to the Yacht Club refurbishment starting, around early 2017, I believe. My original intent was to write about them immediately after our trip last fall, but I forgot. At this point, I wasn’t quite sure whether to just plug them into our existing Beach Club Review as an update, or post them here as a quick new post.

Ultimately, I decided to do this because I figured a long and rambling tangent about the redesign was better suited to its own post…

When I first walked into the new room at Beach Club, I was almost immediately turned off. It felt like yet another room at Walt Disney World that had all of its character removed during its room renovations.

I’ve discussed the balance of theme and luxury in these Walt Disney World room redesigns countless times already, so I won’t rehash all of that here. Suffice to say, it’s a tough line to toe, and I think the results have been very mixed.

In my estimation, the new room at Beach Club looked pretty nice, but my main thought was how generic and bland it looked. If this were a hotel room in a mid to high end hotel in a Florida or California beach city, I’d be fine with it. Maybe not at the same price points as Beach Club’s, but close to them.

With Beach Club, one of the best-themed resorts in all of Walt Disney World, I expected more. The modern art is not as charming as the artwork found in the room before, there aren’t any touches of whimsy (like the old lamps), and the new style doesn’t really feel like an extension of the resort’s overarching theme.

That last item probably best gets to the crux of my issue with this–and a lot of–the hotel redesigns at Walt Disney World. Most Disney resorts are themed to a different time and place, and most of these redesigns have aimed at being lightly themed to a different place, but always in a modern style.

In the previous iteration of the Beach Club rooms, the room felt like something belonging to a bygone era. There were aspects that were arguably dated, but most of it was timeless. Some of the furniture included lattice that mirrored the exterior, and patterns similar to what’s in the common areas.

However, after thinking on it a bit longer, I’m not sure I’m being totally reasonable here. While I think the style is overly bland, there is also an undeniable quality to it. There’s a certain texture and depth to everything–from the headboard to the carpet–that offers a sense of luxury.

The furniture is high quality, the lighting is good, there are plenty of nice touches (like the trim and tile work), and the color palette works pretty well. I especially like the little wooden thing on the nightstand, which reminds me of the lifeguard tower on the old lamps. (Maybe that’s the intent…maybe not?)

My critique above is, in essence, that it should have a few thematic flourishes swapped out to make it more befitting of the time and place found in common areas at Beach Club. However, if so much about the room works so well and it feels like a high quality room, should little things like a bed runner or wall art really be enough to undermine all of that?

That’s not entirely a rhetorical question. On the one hand, it seems silly to let a few little things spoil what is otherwise a nice upgrade to make these rooms more well-appointed and befitting of their high prices.

On the other hand, Disney is all about those details. I could maybe give the modern tone a pass (after all, that’s what many conventioneers and luxury travelers want) if there was just a bit more to tie the room together and give it character. It just feels to me like there’s something missing–I can’t quite put my finger on what–that gives the best Walt Disney World rooms an inviting, charming quality. Maybe I’m crazy, or over-analyzing the new rooms. I don’t really know.

Ultimately, whether my quibbles with the new rooms at Beach Club are right or wrong is a bit of a moot point for us. We still absolutely love Beach Club on the whole, and these changes wouldn’t be enough to stop us from staying here. This is still one of the most pleasant resorts at Walt Disney World, with a laid back atmosphere and wonderful theming in the common areas. I think it’d be nice if the rooms were an extension of that, but perhaps I’m an old man shaking my fist at the clouds in this scenario.

Planning a Walt Disney World trip? Learn about hotels on our Walt Disney World Hotels Reviewspage. For where to eat, read our Walt Disney World Restaurant Reviews. To save money on tickets or determine which type to buy, read our Tips for Saving Money on Walt Disney World Tickets post. Our What to Pack for Disney Trips post takes a unique look at clever items to take. For what to do and when to do it, our Walt Disney World Ride Guides will help. For comprehensive advice, the best place to start is our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide for everything you need to know!

YOUR THOUGHTS

Do you agree or disagree with my take on the new Beach Club rooms? Would you still stay at Beach Club, or would you rather go somewhere with more interesting rooms? 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!

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