Disney's Beach Club Resort
Disney's Beach Club Resort is a New England seaside Deluxe hotel on Crescent Lake, in the cluster of hotels that ring EPCOT. It's painted pale blue in the style of a Victorian shore cottage, and a lakeside path from its back door reaches EPCOT in a few minutes. The draw for families is Stormalong Bay, a sand-bottom pool shared with the neighbouring Yacht Club and the Beach Club Villas. The villas add kitchens and laundry.
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Is it worth it?
A New England seaside Deluxe on Crescent Lake, strongest for families whose trip leans on EPCOT and the pool, who want to walk into a park in minutes and swim in one of the most sought-after resort pools at Walt Disney World.
Beach Club opened in 1990 and is a Deluxe Resort, the top tier at Walt Disney World and one of its pricier hotels. Two things make families choose it. The first is the lakeside walk out of the back of the resort, which reaches EPCOT's International Gateway in about five minutes, the shortest resort-to-park walk anywhere at Walt Disney World, so you can take a tired toddler back to the room for a nap and return without waiting for a bus. The second is Stormalong Bay, built around a sandy zero-entry shallow that works like a beach for small children. Almost every room with queen beds has a bath, which matters at toddler bath time, and the Beach Club Villas add full kitchens and in-unit laundry.
The weak point is Magic Kingdom, which is bus-only with no monorail, so a Magic Kingdom-led trip is better placed at a monorail resort. The rooms are pleasant but understated. A multi-year refurbishment means daytime building noise through 2027, an awkward window if you need the room quiet for a midday nap, with the detail further down. There's no drop-off kids' club either.
Best for
Families whose days centre on EPCOT and the pool, who want a short walk into a park and a shallow, sandy pool for a toddler.
Stormalong Bay
The youngest swimmers wade in off gently sloping sand as if into the sea, with deeper water and a slide for stronger ones.
The walk to EPCOT
Out of the lobby, along the lake and into EPCOT's back entrance in a few minutes, so a midday nap back at the room is easy.
Cape May character breakfast
Minnie's Beach Bash is one of the calmer character meals on property, with Minnie, Donald, Daisy and Goofy coming to your table and under-threes eating free.
Which room to ask for
A standard Resort View can look at a car park or a rooftop, so pay up to a garden, woods or water view if you can.
The price
Full Deluxe money, and expensive even for a Deluxe. The Skyliner resorts reach EPCOT and Hollywood Studios for a good deal less.
Where is it?
On the south shore of Crescent Lake, in the cluster of hotels around EPCOT, next door to Disney's Yacht Club.
Quick facts for UK families
A New England beach resort on Crescent Lake
Pale-blue shore-cottage buildings on a manufactured lake ringed by the EPCOT hotels, with a seahorse chandelier and rocking-chair porch in the lobby.
Beach Club sits on Crescent Lake, a 25-acre lake that is the hub of the EPCOT resort area. The Yacht Club, the BoardWalk Inn and the Swan and Dolphin ring the same water, a promenade circles it on foot and the Friendship boats converge here. Swimming in the lake isn't allowed, since it's a boat thoroughfare, so the water is for looking at and the beach is for sandcastles. It opened in November 1990 alongside its sister the Yacht Club, both designed by the American architect Robert A. M. Stern. Beach Club is the lighter of the pair, modelled on the Victorian summer cottages of Cape May on the New Jersey shore, all pale blue and soft green with whitewashed trim and French doors, where the Yacht Club is the heavier, grey-clapboard, more formal sibling.
Inside the lobbyA seahorse chandelier and a scent you'll recognise
A seahorse chandelier hangs over terrazzo floors and ocean-blue chairs, white rocking chairs sit out on the porch, and the whole room is scented with a signature "green clover and aloe" perfume that reads as sunscreen and sand to most guests. After a 2023 refresh the rooms and hallways carry a light Donald Duck theme, down to Donald's footprints printed along the corridor carpets for children to spot, and the lifts call out each floor in the voices of Mickey and his friends, which small children notice. The two hotels also share a large convention centre, so a big conference, usually in spring or autumn, can crowd the lobby and restaurants.
Which room to request
One shared building with the Yacht Club holds the hotel rooms, and a separate villa building sits behind it. The view you book makes a real difference.
The hotel's roughly 580 rooms sit in one large building shared with the Yacht Club, and the Beach Club Villas are a separate, mint-green building set back between the hotel and the car park, so they lack the lake views and prime position of the main hotel. Which room you book matters more here than at most resorts. The standard "Resort View" officially includes gardens, but also a rooftop or the car park, so a true standard room can look straight at a service roof or the parking. If you can, pay the small step up to a garden or woods view or a Water View that looks over Stormalong Bay, Crescent Lake or a quiet pool.
Beach Club is roughly half full sit-out balconies and half standing "Juliet" balconies you can't sit out on, with a few rooms having none. If a full balcony matters, phone resort reservations and ask for one, knowing it's about a 50/50 chance even when requested. Almost every room at the Yacht Club next door has a full balcony, which is one reason some families pick the sister resort. Rooms are set before you arrive, so a view or a balcony is a request made by phone rather than something you book.
Booking the villasThe Beach Club Villas, and renting points
The villas are the Disney Vacation Club side of the resort, sharing Stormalong Bay and every amenity. They run from a studio with a kitchenette up to a two-bedroom villa with a full kitchen and laundry, and there are no larger units. You can book them on cash, on Disney Vacation Club points or through a UK points broker, and September is much the cheapest way in on points. Most UK families book the hotel or a cash villa as a package through the Walt Disney Travel Company, which is ATOL and ABTA-protected, the same protection you'd expect on any UK holiday. UK Disney specialists like Ocean Florida or Attraction Tickets are another route, often with more flight flexibility and their own ATOL cover, and our tickets and passes guide runs through the UK booking options. Renting points is a different route again, and it's a private deal worth understanding before you commit. It isn't an ATOL or ABTA-protected package, the booking is made in your name by the owner so you can't change or cancel it through Disney, and it carries a real financial risk, so if you go that way insure the trip accordingly.
The villa interiors are being refurbished, a separate job from the exterior building work covered further down, with new bathrooms, new flooring and new pull-down beds going in through the end of 2027, floor by floor. A booking can't be guaranteed a finished unit, so you might arrive to the older look, which is worth holding lightly if a brand-new interior matters to you. Housekeeping is also lighter than in the hotel if you're on a points rental: a trash-and-towel tidy on day four for a stay of up to a week, and on days four and eight for longer, rather than daily. Guests paying cash for a villa get daily housekeeping as normal. Across a week with a baby the reduced service is worth planning for, and you can pay for extra cleans if you'd rather.
The rooms
Standard hotel rooms, a club level and suites in the main building, plus villa studios up to two bedrooms with kitchens and laundry.
The standard rooms were refreshed in 2023 in a light Donald Duck theme, with a pull-down queen bed that folds up into the wall to free floor space, a blue sofa daybed, glass shower doors and pale sea-blue leather headboards. Every room has a small fridge, a Keurig coffee maker, a safe, a hairdryer, an iron, double sinks and the "Hey Disney!" voice assistant that toddlers enjoy and that can order extra towels. The look divides opinion, with some guests finding the pale, Donald-themed style plain for a Deluxe. Almost all rooms with queen beds have a bath, more reliably than the Yacht Club, which is a recurring reason parents of toddlers choose Beach Club. Connecting rooms exist within the hotel section, useful for a larger or multi-generation group travelling together, and accessible rooms include roll-in-shower and hearing-accessible options, with sharps containers available on request for a medically complex child. The UK site doesn't break these out online, so a specific configuration is worth confirming through the Walt Disney Travel Company or resort reservations at the time you book rather than leaving it to chance.
| Room | Size | Sleeps | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Resort View | About 381 sq ft (35 m²) | 5 | The standard room. Its outlook can be gardens, a rooftop or the car park, so it's worth paying up to a garden, woods or water view. A king or two queens, most with a day bed. |
| Water View | About 381 sq ft (35 m²) | 5 | The same room as a Resort View with a better outlook over Stormalong Bay, Crescent Lake or a quiet pool. |
| Deluxe Room | About 533 sq ft (50 m²) | 6 | A larger room, not just a view upgrade, with two queens and a queen sofa bed. The roomiest option short of a suite. |
| Club level room | About 381 sq ft (35 m²) | 4 | Fifth-floor rooms with access to the Stone Harbor Club lounge and its food through the day, entered by MagicBand or phone. |
| Suites (club level) | Varies | 4 to 8 | One and two-bedroom suites up to the Nantucket and Newport Presidential suites, all on the fifth floor with lounge access. |
| Villa: Deluxe Studio | About 356 sq ft (33 m²) | 5 | A kitchenette with a small fridge and microwave but no oven and no laundry. Fine for bottles, snacks and reheating. |
| Villa: one-bedroom | About 720 sq ft (67 m²) | 4 | A separate bedroom, a full kitchen, a washer and dryer and a whirlpool tub. The kitchen and laundry make a week with a baby easier. |
| Villa: two-bedroom | About 1,075 sq ft (100 m²) | 8 | Two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a full kitchen and in-unit laundry. Sold as a fixed unit or a one-bedroom joined to a studio. There are no larger villas here. |
Sizes are approximate. A travel cot is free on request, one per room, on top of the occupancy shown.
Which villa suits a family
For a week with a baby or toddler, the villa you choose comes down to the kitchen. The Deluxe Studio has a kitchenette with a small fridge and microwave but no oven and no laundry, which is fine for making up bottles, warming food and storing snacks. The one-bedroom and two-bedroom villas have a full kitchen and their own washer and dryer, so you can cook and do a wash in the room across a week with nappies and purees. The two-bedroom comes either as a fixed unit or as a one-bedroom joined to a studio with two separate entrances, handy if grandparents are travelling too. Studios book up fast on their own, so that joined version can be harder to find.
The concierge tierThe Stone Harbor Club
Club level puts you on the fifth floor with access to the Stone Harbor Club lounge, one of the larger club lounges at Walt Disney World, entered by MagicBand or phone. It serves food across the day, and the early-evening hors d'oeuvres, from around 5 to 7pm, work well as a quiet, controlled early supper with small children. Cast service is often singled out as excellent, though the lounge décor is plain and lunch is light. It's a steep nightly premium, so some families book a single club night for a special occasion rather than the whole stay. Club level adds no extra park-entry perk, since early entry and Extended Evening Hours already come with every Beach Club room.
The restaurants
A character breakfast and a seafood clambake, an old-fashioned soda shop, a counter and shop, a pool grill and the Yacht Club's restaurants a covered walk away.
You don't need a park ticket to eat at any of the hotel restaurants, and you can reach the Yacht Club's restaurants next door almost entirely under cover, which is useful in a Florida downpour. The two sit-down restaurants, Cape May Cafe and Beaches & Cream, run on table reservations, so book as far out as you can, up to 60 days before your stay, and Beaches & Cream especially is small and fills fast. The Marketplace counter and the poolside grill are walk-up. The wider BoardWalk is a ten-minute lakeside walk away, with the BoardWalk Bakery for early pastries and coffee, a pizza window and the Cake Bake Shop.
The standout family mealCape May Cafe
Cape May Cafe, just off the lobby, does the resort's two headline meals. In the morning it's Minnie's Beach Bash, a character breakfast where Minnie, Donald, Daisy and Goofy appear in beach outfits worn nowhere else, come to your table rather than making you queue, and lead a little dance parade mid-meal that invites children up to Minnie. It's an all-you-care-to-eat buffet, so small children aren't left waiting between courses, it has a calmer reputation than Chef Mickey's, and under-threes eat free. The signature is the salted-caramel beach buns brought to the table, with Mickey and Minnie waffles, plain eggs, bacon and fruit for cautious eaters. In the evening the same room becomes the Cape May Clambake, a New England seafood buffet with a steam boil of clams, mussels, shrimp and corn, carved prime rib, a well-liked clam chowder and children's options like pizza and mac and cheese. The dinner has no characters and is usually easy to book, which makes it a practical option after a day in EPCOT next door.
The soda shopBeaches & Cream
Beaches & Cream is a 1950s soda fountain between the two lobbies, beside Stormalong Bay, with pastel tiles and a jukebox. It's now a small table-service restaurant that needs a reservation. The reason to go with children is the Kitchen Sink, a bowl of eight ice-cream scoops under every topping in the house and a whole can of whipped cream. Order it and the lights dim, a siren flashes, a bell rings and the room applauds, and finishers get a button. Even toddlers react to the moment, so families order it for the theatre whether or not they finish. There are much smaller sundaes too, like the No Way José with peanut butter and hot fudge, and a children's menu of burgers, chicken and a Mickey sundae, so nobody has to take on the giant one. The food is secondary to the desserts. The sundaes now need a dine-in table too, since they were taken off the walk-up to-go window in 2025, though the window still does floats, shakes and cones.
The counter and the pool grillThe Marketplace, Hurricane Hanna's and the lounges
Beach Club Marketplace is the resort's only quick-service, tucked inside the gift shop off the lobby, with counter breakfasts, a well-liked pulled-pork mac and cheese, mobile ordering through the app and grab-and-go supplies. It doubles as the grocery and sundry shop, and it has the refillable drinks mug station, the mug you buy once and top up free around the resort all trip. Out on the walkway between the two hotels, a small espresso and frozen-drink bar serves anyone passing, handy for a coffee heading out to the parks. At the pool, Hurricane Hanna's grills burgers and chicken, and its children's meals arrive in a green sand bucket with a shovel that doubles as a pool toy, so children eat poolside in a swimsuit and are back in the water in minutes. Martha's Vineyard is a small lounge by Cape May Cafe, a quiet adult refuge once the children are down. Room service runs around the clock, though hours have varied, so confirm when you book. Through the covered walkway, the Yacht Club adds Ale & Compass and its grab-and-go market, the Crew's Cup Lounge and the Yachtsman Steakhouse. Individual restaurants close for refurbishment from time to time, so check the official dining page for what's open during your dates.
Stormalong Bay and the pools
A three-acre sand-bottom pool with a lazy river and a shipwreck slide, plus three quiet pools for calmer paddling.
Stormalong Bay is the reason a lot of families book Beach Club. It's a three-acre complex, big enough to have its own map, and it's widely rated the best resort pool at Walt Disney World. The zone built for small children is the sand-bottom shallow. You wade in off a gently sloping sandy beach, like walking into the sea, with real sand underfoot and a maximum depth of about two feet, waterfalls overhead and built-in dunes for sandcastles. It's the shallowest, most sheltered part of the pool for the youngest swimmers, and it's lifeguarded. Weather permitting there's daily poolside programming here too, from trivia and pool games to dance parties, with craft sessions like tie-dye and sand art and a Pick-a-Pearl kiosk on the deck in the afternoons where a child picks an oyster and a cast member opens it to keep the pearl, all free or low-cost and pitched at toddler eye level, so there's plenty to fill a pool day without a park ticket. Elsewhere the water gets deeper. A lazy river with a gentle current runs unusually deep in parts, a depth guests often trace to an old snorkelling lagoon on the site, so it isn't for non-swimmers, and there are open swim areas, whirlpools and in-pool volleyball and basketball nets.
The centrepiece is a grounded life-size shipwreck. Riders climb the mast to the Flying Jib, a 230-foot slide the official pools page calls one of the highest hotel slides at Walt Disney World. There's no posted height or age limit, but riders go down alone with no life vest allowed on the main slide, and an adult can't wait at the bottom to catch a child, so confident swimming is the real gate. At the ship's base, the enclosed Shipwreck Pool has a gentler miniature slide that suits roughly two to nine-year-olds. Free towels, life vests and tubes, lifeguards and Hurricane Hanna's grill are all here. Access is the strictest at Walt Disney World. You scan in for a daily wristband, and children in nappies need a swim nappy. If you're settling in for a full pool day with a baby, you can rent a shaded cabana at Stormalong Bay through the resort's recreation line on +1 407 939 7529, which comes with its own cast member, a stocked mini-fridge, charging and somewhere out of the sun. There are only a few and they book well ahead, so it's worth deciding early whether the cost is worth it for your family. When your children are all very young the shallow beach area is about as good as a hotel pool gets, but with a toddler and an older sibling wanting different zones across so large a pool, watching everyone from one spot is hard, and parents describe splitting up.
Calmer waterThe three quiet pools
Away from Stormalong Bay there are three quiet pools, and for a baby who just wants a calm paddle they're the better choice, since Stormalong Bay needs active, in-the-water supervision. All three open around 7am, earlier than Stormalong Bay, which is handy for an early paddle before the parks. The Tidal Pool on the hotel side is the smallest and least busy, in a garden facing the lake. Dunes Cove, tucked in the villas' landscaping, is the largest and most secluded, with a foosball table and a life-size chess set nearby. The Admiral Pool on the Yacht Club side, which Beach Club guests can use, sits by the two tennis courts.
The beach and things to do
A lakeside beach and lighthouse, free evening rituals, boats on the lake, an arcade and, at Christmas, a spinning gingerbread carousel.
A white-sand beach runs along the lakefront with wooden bench swings and loungers facing the water, where children build sandcastles, though the lake itself is for looking at rather than swimming in. A lighthouse stands at the end of the boat dock, lit at night, and its dock is a quiet, low-lit spot to catch EPCOT's fireworks reflecting off the lake, though trees hide most of the show itself. A cast member runs a free campfire on the beach from around 5.30pm with a marshmallow roast, followed by a free Disney film under the stars at about 8pm, moved into the glass-walled Solarium in poor weather. It makes an easy wind-down for a toddler after a park day.
At the Bayside Marina you can hire small self-drive boats on the lake by the half-hour and book catch-and-release bass fishing. Lafferty Place Arcade sits by Beaches & Cream, there are two lit tennis courts and a beach volleyball court by the Tidal Pool, and the Ship Shape Health Club has a gym, a sauna, a steam room and a hot tub, with croquet gear to borrow. Fantasia Gardens mini-golf is a roughly fifteen-minute walk away, and surrey bikes are hired at the BoardWalk, which is a ten-minute lakeside walk with free evening street performers, though it's under its own building works through 2026. The seasonal highlight is the gingerbread carousel, a working, spinning, almost entirely edible carousel built in the lobby each Christmas from mid-November to early January, the only spinning gingerbread display at Walt Disney World. It's at child eye level and the lobby smells of gingerbread, which makes it one of the most reliably toddler-pleasing displays on property. The theme changes every year, and a holiday stall opens beside it selling Beach Club's own gingerbread, ornaments and pins.
Indoors, and the small winsReset spaces and cheap treats
When the heat or a Florida downpour drives you inside, there are calmer spaces than the busy lobby. The Solarium is a glass-walled sun room off the lobby with garden views. The villas add two more. The Drawing Room has sofas, a full-size pool table and a television, and the Breezeway is an airy nook with a bookshelf bench and a kids-size table and chairs, often with a daytime concierge. For villa families in particular they're an easy place to let a toddler potter in the cool, away from the room.
A few small things fill a down day cheaply. Guest Services runs a scavenger hunt around the resort that ends in a free souvenir, there's pin trading at the Marketplace and the front desk, and pressed-penny machines sit outside Beaches & Cream and Cape May Cafe. In the warmer months the resort has also run Mermaid School, a bookable class for ages four and up where a child is fitted with a swimmable tail. It sells out and the dates are seasonal, so if it appeals it's worth checking the recreation calendar and booking ahead through the resort's recreation line on +1 407 939 7529.
The walk, the boats and the buses
A few minutes' walk to EPCOT, plus boats to two parks, but bus-only to Magic Kingdom.
The location is the main reason families choose Beach Club, and the headline is EPCOT. You walk out of the lobby, along Crescent Lake and into EPCOT's International Gateway, the park's back entrance between the UK and France pavilions, in about five minutes. There's a flatter path under the bridge that avoids the small incline, better with a pushchair, and a covered route through the Marketplace when it rains, and a Friendship boat runs the same trip if you'd rather ride, with a pushchair rolled straight on. The Gateway drops you into World Showcase near some of EPCOT's most toddler-friendly rides, Remy's Ratatouille in France with no height limit, Frozen Ever After in Norway and, a little further in, The Seas with Nemo. There's a shop at the International Gateway, the World Traveler, that hires out pushchairs, wheelchairs and mobility scooters, so if you'd rather not wheel your own through security or you need a spare or a replacement, you can pick one up at the walk-in entrance. Inside the park, a Friendship boat also crosses World Showcase Lagoon between the Canada and Germany pavilions from late morning, which is a mid-lagoon shortcut rather than walking the full ring with a tired toddler and a pram. As a Deluxe guest you also get Extended Evening Hours at EPCOT on selected nights, usually Mondays, then a five-minute walk home.
Hollywood Studios is the other easy one, a Friendship boat roughly every 20 minutes or a walk of about 0.85 miles (1.4 km) along the promenade, almost all of it in direct sun, so the boat there and a walk back once the queues build is the usual pattern. The other two parks are harder. Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom are bus-only, with no monorail and no boat, which is the resort's real weakness for a Magic Kingdom-led trip, since the monorail resorts are far better placed for it. There's no Skyliner station here either, only an indirect one reached on foot through the International Gateway, so it isn't a practical way to the parks. Pushchairs roll unfolded onto the Friendship boats and fold on the buses. There's no dedicated pushchair store at the resort, so your own pram lives in the room between outings. Magical Express airport coaches ended in 2022, so for the airport you'd use a Minnie Van, Mears Connect or a private transfer.
Arrival, the app and the building work
Check-in, the park perks that come with a Deluxe room, and the live construction to plan around.
Check-in is from 3pm and check-out is 11am, and Bell Services will hold your bags and any grocery delivery on either side. You can check in on the My Disney Experience app before you arrive and open the room with your phone or a MagicBand, which also works as your park ticket and a way to pay around the resort. Self-parking is free for resort guests, day visitors coming over for a meal pay the standard resort parking charge, and valet parking is there for a nightly fee. The front desk changes foreign currency and there's a cash machine beside it, things you buy in the parks can be sent back to the resort by the next afternoon, and the desk posts letters and packages home. As a Deluxe guest you get 30 minutes of early entry to any park each morning, and Extended Evening Hours at selected parks on certain nights, a benefit limited to the Deluxe and villa resorts. For how park tickets and early entry work, see our tickets and passes guide rather than the front desk.
The one thing to plan around is the building work. A multi-year exterior refurbishment runs through late 2027. For a guest that means daytime construction noise, roughly 9am to 5pm Monday to Saturday, scaffolding on parts of the exterior, some balconies behind screening and occasional rerouted paths. It stacks with demolition noise across the lake at the BoardWalk. All the dining, pools, services and transport stay open throughout, and it doesn't stop a stay, but for a family who needs a quiet room for an afternoon nap this is the main near-term drawback. Ask on arrival for a room away from the construction, knowing it isn't guaranteed, and check the resort's official page for the live status against your dates. Inside the villas there's a separate refurbishment running on the same late-2027 timeline, replacing bathrooms, flooring and beds room by room, and a booking can't be guaranteed a finished unit, so a villa family might arrive to the older interior. Neither job closes anything, but together they're the reason 2026 and 2027 are an awkward window if a pristine, quiet resort is what you're paying for.
Babies, toddlers and the day-to-day
Free cots, a shop of basics to top up and the childcare gap to plan around.
A travel cot is free on request, one per room, through the app or at the desk. The Marketplace shop carries a wider range of baby basics than most Disney hotels, because of the villas, so you can top up on nappies, wipes, sun cream, some baby food and basic medicines, though stock and sizes are limited. For a particular UK brand of formula or food, bring your own or have a grocery firm deliver to Bell Services, and note the fuller ranges are at each park's Baby Care Center, with the EPCOT one a five-minute walk away and its nursing rooms. There's no baby-care centre at the resort itself, so nappy changes and feeds happen in the room, a quiet corner or the parks.
For an evening to yourselves, Beach Club has no drop-off kids' club. The old Sandcastle Club closed in 2018 and the evening pirate cruise hasn't run since the pandemic, so the only childcare is in-room sitting through Kids Nite Out, an outside service you book through the resort, whose carers take children from about six weeks, booked ahead. That's less structured children's programming than several Moderate resorts offer, which is worth weighing if evenings out matter to you. Housekeeping is daily in the hotel rooms and lighter in the villas, and self-service laundry is available, with in-unit washers and dryers in the one-bedroom villas and larger.
Loves and gripes
The praise families repeat, the complaints that recur, and how it stacks up against the Yacht Club next door.
Families come back most enthusiastic about Stormalong Bay and the small touches that stick: the lobby's green-clover-and-aloe scent that guests remember for years, the Donald Duck footprints in the corridor carpets that children spot as they walk, the poolside kids' meals served in a sand bucket and the siren-and-applause moment when a table orders the Kitchen Sink at Beaches & Cream. The free nightly campfire and film on the beach and the Christmas gingerbread carousel come up again and again, and cast service is widely praised. Parents of only little ones often say they could skip a park day and be happy at the pool, and on the main review sites the large majority of reviewers recommend it.
The complaints are consistent too. The 2023 refresh isn't to all tastes, with some guests wanting more for Deluxe money. Parents of mixed ages say Stormalong Bay is so spread out that they end up splitting up to watch a toddler and an older child in different zones. At busy meal times the lobby can carry the seafood smell from Cape May Cafe, and a large convention in spring or autumn fills the lobby and restaurants. On top of that, the current exterior building work brings daytime noise until it finishes.
The sister resort, and the cheaper optionsHow it compares to the Yacht Club
Most families choosing Beach Club are also weighing the Yacht Club next door, since the two share one building and Stormalong Bay. The Yacht Club is the more formal sibling, grey-clapboard and nautical, and it reads a little more grown-up; almost every Yacht Club room has a full sit-out balcony, where Beach Club's are roughly half full balconies and half standing ones. Beach Club is the lighter, beachier and more child-leaning of the pair. For EPCOT and Hollywood Studios access at a much lower price, the Skyliner resorts, Caribbean Beach, Pop Century and Art of Animation, are worth weighing, and the Moderates cost far less again, though none of them gives you Stormalong Bay or the walk to EPCOT.
Questions parents ask
A few things families check before booking Beach Club, with the official links below.
Can we make up bottles or warm baby food in the room?
Yes, for the basics. A standard hotel room has a small fridge and a coffee maker for hot water, and Bell Services will hold a grocery delivery, so you can store milk and make up bottles without paying up to a villa. To heat baby food properly you need a microwave, so you'd want a villa. The studio adds a kitchenette, and the one-bedroom and larger add a full kitchen with a washer and dryer.
Are there seasonal offers or free extras for children?
Disney runs UK booking offers and seasonal extras that change from year to year, sometimes a free water-park ticket on your check-in day, sometimes extra summer children's programming of character visits and pool parties. The terms and dates shift each season, and the enhanced summer programming has tended to run at some Moderate resorts rather than the Deluxes, so Beach Club can sit outside it. If a particular offer matters to your trip, check what's live for your dates through the Walt Disney Travel Company or the official site when you book.
Can friends staying at another Disney hotel join us at Stormalong Bay?
Only if they're booked into Beach Club, Yacht Club or the Beach Club Villas. This is the one Walt Disney World pool with no pool-hopping at all, so family or friends over at the BoardWalk or the Swan and Dolphin, and even Disney Vacation Club members staying elsewhere, can't come in for the day. For everyone to swim together, the whole party would need to be booked into one of those three resorts.
Is the building work bad enough to wait?
For most families, no. Nothing closes, so the pools, restaurants and boats all run as normal, and the noise keeps daytime weekday hours, so a family out at the parks by day barely registers it. It only really tips the decision if your child naps in the room around the middle of the day, which is exactly when the work is loudest. If that's your routine, a quieter EPCOT-area hotel may suit better while it lasts.
Can we watch the EPCOT fireworks from the resort?
Not really from the beach, where trees block most of the view, so don't count on it as your fireworks spot. For the sound and the show, walk the few minutes into EPCOT's World Showcase or round to the BoardWalk promenade across the lake. A handful of high villa rooms facing EPCOT catch the top of the show, but it's a lottery rather than something to book.
How far ahead do we book Cape May Cafe and Beaches & Cream?
Beaches & Cream takes the fewest tables and books out first, so grab it the moment your window opens. Cape May is easier: Minnie's Beach Bash is one of the simpler character breakfasts to get and often fine for walk-ups, and the clambake dinner is usually bookable closer in.
Beach Club photos
The resort on Crescent Lake, the rooms and villas, Stormalong Bay, the restaurants and the things to do, all in the hotel's own gallery.
Open the Beach Club photo gallery →
Useful links
- Disney's Beach Club Resort: the official hotel page for rooms, dining, the live construction status and prices.
- Disney's Yacht Club Resort: our guide to the sister resort next door that shares Stormalong Bay.
- EPCOT: our guide to the park a few minutes' walk from the back door.
- Tickets and passes: how tickets, early park entry and UK booking work.
- Walt Disney World with little ones: our guide to the resort, its parks and getting there.
Last updated 9 July 2026.
