Disney's Beach Club Resort Review: Amazing Location and More!

Disney’s Beach Club Resort is a deluxe (top of the line) hotel at Walt Disney World Resort just steps away from EPCOT and the Skyliner to Disney’s Hollywood Studios. It boasts great rooms, balconies, restaurant options, and what is considered to be the best pool at Disney World (Stormalong Bay). It’s themed to an early 20th century Beach community on Martha's Vineyard and has light, beach cottage feel throughout the resort. The lobby also has one of my favorite smells. If you don't know, all of the Disney Resort Hotels have distinct smells in their lobby. 

The windmill at the pool was the most iconic part for us!

Keep reading to learn about my family’s amazing stay there, as well as the pros and cons. We loved it, but there are a few drawbacks.

Beach Club Rooms

Most rooms at Disney’s Beach Club feature a spacious, double queen room with a balcony. HOWEVER, some of the rooms have so-called Juliet balconies where only one person can stand. We lucked out and got a room that had a full-sized balcony with chairs that looked out over the lake towards the Boardwalk. In general, the deluxe resort rooms are much larger than moderate or value rooms, and the Beach Club is no exception.

The double queen beds were a great size for our family.

Our spacious balcony on the 2nd floor at Beach Club.

The Beach Club also has suites and the Beach Club Villas area, a Disney Vacation Club (timeshare) areas with guest rooms that feature full kitchens. These are usually for DVC guests, but they can be booked by renting DVC points or through Disney if there's enough availability.

The Beach Club guest rooms were refurbished in late 2023, which was an amazing transformation. Many guests complained about the drab, boring rooms prior to refurbishment. However, now the rooms match the amazing theming of the resort, with bright colors and Donald Duck paintings that fit the era. The bathrooms are also amazing.

Most family resorts don’t work that hard on the bathroom AND offer tubs for our little ones. 

The beds are incredibly comfortable, and the room was the first Disney room we stayed at that had the new “Hey Disney!” Alexa machine. It gives you current park information and plays soundscapes based on the movies. My daughters made it talk to us as different characters every morning. My only complaint is that it didn’t serve a basic function as a white noise machine at night (seemed like an obvious function, but whatever). Play with it. It tells jokes, plays songs, and is somewhat useful. My kids loved it.

Location of Beach Club

The Beach Club is located in the Crescent Lake area near the Boardwalk and EPCOT at Disney World. The Beach and Yacht Club are on one side of the lake with the Boardwalk and Boardwalk Resort on the other. The lake is bookended by EPCOT on one side and the Swan and Dolphin on the other side. There’s also a short path and boat ride to Hollywood Studios.

Our view of the Boardwalk area from our balcony (zoomed in a little, Crescent Lake is bigger than that).

If you walk from Beach Club to EPCOT it takes five minutes or less to reach EPCOT's International Gateway, or back entrance, to EPCOT. This is also where the Skyliner is, which gives you quick access to Disney’s Riviera Resort, Caribbean Beach Resort, Art of Animation, Pop Century, and Disney’s Hollywood Studios.

My daughter would like you to know just how close the Skyliner is to Beach Club. 5 minute walk or less.

In my opinion, is the most perfectly located Disney resort for a full Disney experience. It was so convenient when we stayed there, I trusted my elementary-aged kids to walk back to the room by themselves from EPCOT, while I wondered around the World Showcase in search of the most expensive items in each country.

Parks

As mentioned above, the Boardwalk is literally next door to EPCOT and a short Skyliner, short walk, or boat ride from Hollywood Studios. You can get to Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom easily by bus. Only Magic Kingdom resorts have better access to Magic Kingdom and monorail access to EPCOT, but all around, I still think Beach Club has the best location for all theme parks.

The view of the EPCOT walkway from our balcony at Beach Club.

My only complaint is that the bus stop is an unnecessarily long walk to the lobby.

IMPORTANT NOTE: You cannot get from Beach Club to Magic Kingdom by monorail unless you have a ticket to EPCOT. The monorail is at the front entrance, and Beach Club is next to the back entrance. There is no way to walk around the park.

Boardwalk

Another great part of staying at Beach Club is it’s proximity to the Disney Boardwalk. Not to be confused with the resort above and behind it, the Boardwalk is a fun dining district with a few stores, carnival games, street performers, and some of the only adults only venues.

The Boardwalk is one of my favorite spots for a date night with my wife.

My wife and I love Jellyrolls, a dueling piano bar, where you can hear amazing musicians play any song you recommend. We also love the Abracadabar. I’m just hoping they bring back the Bon Voyage character breakfast at Trattoria Al Forno (which is still a great Italian restaurant).

This is one of our favorite spots. And Wyatt on the right is from our hometown!

Skyliner

As I mentioned above, the Beach Club is so close to the EPCOT Skyliner station that it might as well be a Skyliner resort. It takes less time to walk there than most of the rooms at Caribbean Beach, Art of Animation, or Pop Century.

Dining at the Beach Club

The Beach Club has several restaurants, two of which are extremely popular. It has Cape May Café that has a character breakfast with Minnie Mouse and friends. Cape May Café also serves dinner as well as an upscale dining restaurant.

Goofy and Donald entertaining guests at Cape May Café during our stay at Beach Club.

The Beach Club also has Beaches and Cream, an old school diner with burgers, fries, and incredible ice cream selections. The ice cream selections include the “kitchen sink,” which has several scoops of ice cream, tons of toppings, and a whole can of whipped cream. If you order it, it creates a whole scene in the restaurant (and is enough ice cream for the whole table). It was a great experience but wasn’t the best table service casual restaurant I’ve been to at Disney.

My family walking to our table at Beaches and Cream.

The resort also has quick service options at the gift shop/breakfast area (Beach Club Marketplace) and the pool restaurant/bar. There’s food and beverage service to your seat at the pool.

Keep in mind that the Beach Club is technically the Beach and Yacht Club. You can walk from one resort to the other with ease. Therefore, you can also get to the fancy steakhouse the Yachtsman, or the SEVERELY UNDERRATED Ale and Compass.

Second Dad to the Right Tip: The Ale and Compass has an absolutely amazing breakfast and some of the best food for dinner. The waiter was nice to us at breakfast and allowed us to order items from the menu and the buffet.

Definitely the best shrimp and grits (and sausage and corn) I’ve ever had. Ale and Compass breakfast is amazing.

Beach Club is also in walking distance to the Boardwalk Restaurants and EPCOT, so keep that in mind as you consider food options.

All in the all, the food options are great at Beach Club if you include the surrounding areas. Otherwise the dining options are a little sparse for such a high end resort. It’s one of the few restaurants that doesn’t have a large cafeteria area for quick service meals. Instead, you have to take the food out of the gift shop and find a table in the lobby or the Solarium. That didn’t bother us very much because we prefer to save money on breakfast by getting groceries in the room. The rest of the time we eat at the parks and other places we’re exploring.

Beach Club Pool: Stormalong Bay

Beach Club’s Stormalong Bay may be the most famous pool at Disney World outside of the water parks. It features an actual sand-bottomed pool, and one of the pool areas has a sandbar that kids can play on. It has a lazy river, a games pool, two hot tubs, and an enormous water slide. It also has a variety of seating, from deck chairs to cabanas, to chairs on an elevated deck above the pool area. Stormalong Bay is shared with Disney's Yacht Club Resort (which is connected). It's so popular that you not only have to have a key card to enter, you also have to wear a wrist band. And don’t forget the best part of Disney pools: the most attentive and fun lifeguards ever!

My daughter playing on the sand bar in front of the cabanas.

It is absolutely perfect for older kids and teens. My third grader and fifth grader loved it, and I enjoyed both swimming and relaxing. HOWEVER, I do not think I would enjoy being here as much with younger kids (maybe 4-7). It is very spread out and segmented, so you can’t see all the pool areas from your chair, so you’ll have to walk around with them if you’re not comfortable with them exploring out of your sight.

My daughters and wife approve of the pool and lazy river (in the background).

Also, the entrance to the water slide is across the main sidewalk where Swan and Dolphin guests will be walking to EPCOT. Therefore, your kids will have to leave the pool area and walk into heavy foot traffic to get to it. If you walk with them, you’ll have to do the water slide because the exit is a LONG way from the entrance, back inside the pool property. It’s fun, but I want you to be prepared. It’s an awesome 230-foot slide.

The slide area has a slide for small kids, but you can see the main slide going way off in the distance from the top of the mast.

The pool is amazing and relaxing. It’s incredibly themed and great for families. However, I don’t think I would have enjoyed it as much if my kids were younger. Toddlers would be great because you have stay near them anyways, but a little older, and I’d have to follow them section to section. Very few people care, but it also has a quiet pool if you don't like good pools.

Beach Club Amenities

Besides the pool, Disney’s Beach Club has the amenities one would expect. They have a fitness facility, a large arcade, business center, and a fun indoor area called the Solarium with comfy seating and cartoons on the television. My kids and I spent some time there relaxing there and eating snacks.

They also have tennis courts and a beach volleyball court, which I haven’t seen very many people use at any resort.

The arcade is great. We were able to send our girls there to play while we enjoyed the pool, since it’s close by. And we also went with them a few times and used the massage chairs. Nothing like a $5 massage while your 9-year-old daughter repels an alien invasion.

My wife and I enjoying the cheapest massages at any Disney resort (at the arcade).

Beach Club also has a Club Level lounge. We didn’t get a chance to see it, but we hear great things.

Beach Club used to have an amazing childcare program called Captain Hook’s Pirate Crew where you could drop off your kids for a few hours while you had a date. We used it in 2018, and while we were at EPCOT, our kids did crafts, ate dinner, and rode on a boat with Captain Hook! Unfortunately, it hasn’t returned since COVID. It’s listed as temporarily unavailable as of this writing (for four years), so hopefully it returns in the next couple seasons.

Activities

Beach Club (and all Disney hotels) offer amazing activities like poolside games and crafts, campfires with smores, tennis, volleyball, and movies under the stars that make staying at the resort fun even if you don’t venture out into the parks. My family loves this about Disney. Even the hotel is an experience.

Conclusion and Further Reading

The Beach Club Resort at Disney World was a great experience for our family. The accommodations were great. The pool was amazing. But for me, the prime location, with easy access to EPCOT, the Skyliner, and the Boardwalk, make this one of the best resorts on Disney property.

I was slightly disappointed by the lack of cafeteria and the limited sight line for the pool and the slide, but Beach Club has less drawbacks than just about any other resort I’ve stayed at (other than price). It's a great place to stay for an amazing Disney experience. 

If you’re trying to figure out what resort to stay at, check my guide to onsite/offsite at Disney and the best offsite resorts at Disney World.

If you’re already booked at a Disney resort, check out my guide for getting to Disney from the airport.

And if you’re already booking Beach Club, check out my guide to Boardwalk and Disney Springs.