Yacht Club

If you read my last post on the perks of staying on site at Disney, you’d know that for our recent trip we decided to stay at the Yacht Club. As promised, here’s a detailed review of the Yacht Club, why we chose to stay there, what we liked and didn’t like about it, and if we’d choose to stay there again. 

When deciding where to stay, I knew I wanted to stay on site at a Deluxe hotel, but I had no idea which one. In the end, I knew I couldn’t go wrong with a Deluxe, and I chose Yacht Club because of its location. This turned out to be my absolute favorite part about staying there. We could walk to Epcot, and take the skyliner or a boat to Hollywood Studios. We could’ve walked to Hollywood Studios too, if we wanted a little bit of a longer walk. We also could’ve walked to Epcot and taken the monorail to Magic Kingdom. We didn’t do this, but the point is it’s possible to get to three out of four parks without waking up a sleeping kid to fold up the stroller and get on a bus, which is a huge bonus for many Disney goers where even non napping aged kids will pass out in a stroller. (Look out for a transportation post coming soon for more details on all of this.) 

My second favorite part about staying at the Yacht Club was the restaurant access, because, food (which is also location, really). We had two great restaurants, Ale and Compass and Yachtsman Steakhouse, located right inside our hotel. We did not eat at Yachtsman, but the reviews are amazing if you like a good steak, and Ale and Compass was awesome.

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We also had a character meal, Minnie’s Beach Bash at Cape May Cafe, right next door at the Beach Club, where we met Minnie, Daisy, Donald, and Goofy.

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Beaches and Cream Soda Shop was closed for renovations, but I’ve heard great things about the 50s themed old fashioned ice cream shop. There are also some great restaurants across the water on the Boardwalk, and of course, all of the restaurants at Epcot’s World Showcase were a quick ten minute walk away. (Look out for a dining post coming soon for more details on all of this.)

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And most importantly, being close to Epcot gave us easy access to the Epcot Food and Wine Festival. We made our way into Epcot at least briefly all four days that we were there, which would not have been possible, or at least this easy, in another location. 

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If I was there with my children (or really someone else’s children who know how to swim), my favorite part of the Yacht Club would’ve been the pool. The Yacht Club and Beach Club share a pool area, and it is arguably one of the best pools on Disney property. It’s called Stormalong Bay, and it is home to a huge sand bottomed zero entry pool, one of the only lazy rivers on Disney property, and one of Disney’s highest water slides. The slide comes from the shipwreck replica near the river on the “beach”, and goes over the walkway into the pool. The whole pool area is amazing too, with a windmill, elevated tanning decks, and whirlpool spas. It is an amazing place to spend the afternoon (or morning) and relax if you or your kids don’t want to spend the entire day at the parks.

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And if you prefer the beach to the pool, Yacht Club has one! Disclaimer: Orlando is in the middle of Florida, so this is not a real beach, and this is why many Disney resorts DO NOT have a beach at all. But there’s sand, water, and lounge chairs, so it definitely works! 

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The Yacht Club also has a beautiful lobby and view of the water and the Boardwalk area of Disney. Everything was decorated for Christmas, and it was just an overall pleasant place to walk around.

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I also really appreciated the size of the hotel. Many Disney hotels are huge, with multiple buildings and long walks to pools or transportation. The Yacht Club was just one building, and it was nice to have everything we needed at our fingertips.

I definitely enjoyed my stay, and the cast members were all great. We actually checked in and our magic bands didn’t work to open our door (not a big deal at all because we could get in from the app on our phones and it was a quick fix when we went back down to the desk before dinner), but as an apology the cast member who checked us in gave us an extra fastpass. This is a BIG DEAL if you understand the Disney fastpass system, (look out for my fastpass strategy post coming soon for more details) but not super out of the ordinary because Disney cast members are trained to make your stay as magical as possible.

Our Yacht Club stay was really great, and pretty close to perfect, but obviously nothing is perfect. I think the only thing that wasn’t perfect was the room itself. The single ply toilet paper and old creaky bed were a little off putting. However, I’m sure Disney orders their toilet paper in bulk for all of their hotels and parks, so this is definitely not a reason to choose not to stay at the Yacht Club. The walls were also pretty thin, and we could hear everything that was going on in the hallways and in our neighbor’s room. This is all okay, though, because at Disney you are not there to spend much time in your room, and most people are out enjoying so even if you are in your room there’s not that much to hear.

However, the one thing that drove me completely insane was the lack of bedside tables. This is a HUGE pet peeve of mine as I not only like to have a place for my phone and water at night, I also CANNOT deal with no spot for my glasses. I’m totally blind without them and I’m not interested in getting out of bed to put them somewhere. However, we really wanted a room with a king bed so they switched us last minute to the only one available. It was an end room with a bit of a weird layout, so I’m sure most of the rooms do not lack bedside tables, especially the rooms with two queens which is actually the majority of the rooms in the hotel.

I want to end on a good note and let you know that there were four towels in the room. I hate when hotels provide one towel per guest because I like one for my hair, so I was pleased to see four towels in a room designed for two people. And, importantly, Bettina would be happy to know about the glass shower door – no shower curtains present – which is a pretty big compliment in my eyes, and I think this says a lot about the hotel.

My mom asked if I would stay at the Yacht Club again, and my answer was yes, definitely. It was a really nice hotel in a really great location, making any little imperfections totally worth it. However, while I would definitely stay at the Yacht Club again, I would not stay there before exploring some of the other resorts on property. Look out for my next post on all of the other hotels I saw while visiting, and where I’d choose to stay next time, or subscribe now to receive an email when it’s posted (along with other posts on dining, transportation, fastpass strategies, park hopping, EPCOT food and wine festival, and more!)