My experience at the Disney Yacht and Beach Club

When planning my Honeymoon, I spent weeks (maybe months) researching the different Disney Hotels. My husband and I wanted a deluxe hotel that was centrally located. We chose deluxe because we wanted easy access to restaurant options, a great view from our room, a fun pool, and something romantic. We also didn’t want to pay a ton for our hotel and luckily we found a great discount with the purchase of an annual pass (if you want more information on the discounts I’ve found, refer to my previous posts).

One hotel that fit all of our criteria was the Yacht and Beach Club.

The Yacht and Beach Club is actually two hotels that are connected and share a GREAT pool (the best hotel pool at Disney World!). We found families with children tended to stay at the Beach Club side and adults without children tended to stay at the Yacht Club. I really don’t know why that’s the case since both share amenities and the pool, but that’s what we found in my research and also our experience. Something to think about if you want to stay at this hotel, but want either a more family vibe or adult vibe. Although I really wanted to stay on a monorail resort, I kept going back to the Yacht Club, so in the end, that’s where we decided to stay.

The Yacht and Beach Club are themed after New England beach resorts.

The Beach Club side is decorated in lighter colors and pastels, whereas the Yacht Club has more gray and white colors. It’s located on the back-side of Epcot and is situated on a huge lake.

Next to the Yacht Club (going counter clockwise around the lake) are the Swan and Dolphin hotels and the Boardwalk hotel. Part of the Boardwalk hotel is an actual boardwalk, featuring restaurants, shops, and a piano bar.

The Boardwalk activity really picks up at night and it’s a great place to walk around and relax. We were never in a rush on our vacation, so we usually walked the long way back to our hotel and went through the Boardwalk. It was a nice, relaxing stroll and also a great way to get in a little extra exercise.

In my opinion, the Epcot area hotels (including the Yacht and Beach club) have the best location at Disneyworld. This area is centrally located in the middle of Disneyworld and very close to Epcot and MGM Studios. In addition to taking a bus to the various theme parks, you can also walk or a take a boat to both Epcot and MGM Studios.
 

Note – this hotel is so close to Epcot that when I went, a bus was not offered to Epcot. On our trip, we walked whenever it was possible, including to both MGM and Epcot. The scenery and weather was so perfect and it was a great way to start or end our day. If you don’t want to do a lot of walking (since you’ll already be walking a ton in the parks), you can always take the boat.

Although we had booked a standard room, when we checked into the hotel, I asked if we could be upgraded to a Lake View. Note: At all Disney hotels, the price for the room will vary depending on your view. Standard (parking lot or garden) views are the cheapest and you will pay more for water (pool or lake) views. After a few moments, we were told we could be upgraded and it was no additional cost!! Reading through other people’s experiences, I’ve found that being upgraded is actually pretty common (based on what’s available). Remember, it doesn’t hurt to at least ask!
 

The room itself was very nice, with the vanity area separate from the shower / toilet. Housekeeping did a great job cleaning the room and decorating it with various towel animals.

 At the Resort itself, there are a bunch of food options; however we weren’t really impressed with any of them. We actually ate at each of the hotel restaurants on that trip, but there was only one that we would eat at again: the all you can eat buffet at Cape May Cafe. This is a clam bake buffet with crab, clams, mussels, steak, etc..., which we both thought was really good.

 Although we really didn’t enjoy the majority of the restaurants at the hotel, it didn’t matter to us at all because there are a TON of food choices within walking distance. From the Yacht Club, we were only a short walk away from eating at the Boardwalk, at the other hotels around the lake, or (our favorite!) eating within Epcot. Within Epcot’s World Showcase, each country offers great "local" food for pretty much anything you’re craving (Mexican, Italian, Steak, Moroccan, Sushi, etc...). There’s a separate entrance in the back of Epcot (right by the hotels) that takes you right into World Showcase, so it’s very close.

One thing that we loved about the hotel was its awesome pool, which is located between the hotel and lake. In addition to the pool itself, there’s a lazy river and a pirate ship with a slide!
 

Besides swimming, another fun activity within walking distance is miniature golf.

Overall, we found this hotel to be very relaxing and with the BEST location. This is one of our favorite hotels and we would definitely choose it again. Up next, I’ll discuss our stay at Wilderness Lodge.