Disney's YACHT & BEACH CLUB RESORTS Information & Questions

[Cluelyss]

I'm not sure about the Poly, but the YC uses H2O products. In June of this year, they were using the green shampoo and Conditioner. I can't remember the name. Before that, they were using a grapefruit H2O. There will be shampoo, conditioner, shower gel, and lotion. We also received foot rub lotion and sun relief aloe gel.

We always ask for extra shampoo and conditioner because we have 2 daughters with long hair. They usually send a bag full of extras. The products are very nice.

We had the orange H2O grapefruit products at YC this past May, but have had the green (which is also grapefruit) at the Poly previously.

 

[Minnie121]

We just returned from our 1st stay at at the YC. We were there from 8/15-8/22. Just as some background we have been to wdw many, many times over the years & have stayed at a good number of Disney resorts, but we stay at the moderate level most of the time. In fact the only Deluxe level resort we've stayed at is the Grand Floridian & that was on our honeymoon 23 yrs ago. So we were quite excited to finally be staying at the YC. These past few months I have read & enjoyed this thread every day, though I do have to say that it somewhat set us up to be disappointed since everyone here is so in love with the Y&BC resorts, lol. There is no one who is a bigger lover of all things Disney than me, but I do tell it like it is even when it cones to my favorite place, wdw.

I would just like to share our experience with the whole no a/c issue that occurred at the resort last Sat. 8/15. We checked in about 7 pm after a lovely ride on Mag. Express with the friendliest driver we ever had. Dropoff order for ME was YC, BC, Boardwalk & CBR. It dropped off at Convention Ctr. due to construction at bus stop area. We walked through convention Ctr & into side entrance of YC, were met by a lovely cm who escorted us to a concierge cm to check us in since reg check in CMs were all busy. We chatted with this first cm about the horrible rainstorm that was taking place, yet surprisingly she mentioned nothing about the a/c not working. We did notice that it didn't feel cool in the lobby, but just thought oh maybe it's us. The cm proceeded to check us in & did not mention one word about the fact that the air conditioning was not working AT ALL at the Y&BC. Sorry, but that was the time when we should have been informed of that fact. Also, when I asked him if our room was located near an elevator since that was a room request I had made, he took out the famous room map, held it close to his chest so I couldn't see it, which was quite comical, spent what seemed like an eternity looking for the room on the map, & then said, " yes, when you get off the elevator, the room is right there". Well "right there" apparently means something different in his world because to get to our room, we made a right turn off the elevator, walked down a seemingly endless hallway, made a left down another long hallway, then another right and finally arrived at our room. We were laughing at this point, but I really didn't appreciate the cm blatantly lieing to me about my room location. No pixie dust, I booked a std. view & that's what we received, so not complaining about that. We kept commenting to each other about how hot it was in the room & hallways and couldn't figure out what was going on, since so far no cm had said anything to us about it.

Went to Crew's Cup Lounge for dinner & it was sweltering in there, not exaggerating. We ate at the bar, since the Crew's Cup is "seat yourself" & there were no tables available at the time. We were served by a super friendly CM who was literally sweating as she filled drink orders & our dinner order. My dh finally asked her what was wrong with the a/c & she told us the a/c units were hit by lightning & there hasn't been air conditioning for hours. Finally a tiny piece of info! We sweated through our meal, which was very good, left the cm a big tip since I felt terrible that she was busting her butt in that heat, walked around the inside of resorts, then went back to our room. When we decided to wash up & go to bed is when we discovered there was no hot water, lovely. Anyway, the a/c came back on during the night & we had hot water in the am. Not a horrible experience, but we definitely should have been informed by the staff.

Then when I read from a few posters on here the next day that they were offered free food & beverages at the Boardwalk resort, I got angry because again, we were not informed. Another poster said she got a credit for the night's stay, but only because she asked. Again, would have been nice for all guests to be informed & treated the same. & no, we did not voice our concerns to the front desk, which I know we should have. Will be sending an email to Mgr though, just so she is aware. It also annoyed me that people on this thread just automatically praised Disney for how they handled the a/c issue based on what one poster said. Just wanted to let you know of our checkin night experience. Will share other details of our visit after I catch up on some laundry lol. Sorry this ended up being so long.

My family and I were there 8/14-8/22. I was the poster who got the 1 nights credit. DH and I went to the front desk to report the issues. DH asked if some sort of compensation was possible. To our surprise she offered to comp the night. We were not expecting that at all. We didn't know anything about the Boardwalk offerings until it was posted on here. I hope the rest of your stay was a good one.

 

[kayakstef]

Wanted to share the great experiences we had today taking the Friendship boats back and forth to Hollywood, we went back and saw Fantasmic and the Frozen fireworks, however by the time we got to the boat ramp it was full, so we walked back on the beautiful, well lit walkway, with a cool breeze and many happy picture taking people. It was a great way to end the day. Thank you all for your great tips, this has been a great stay so far.

 

[Ninja Mom]

We just returned from our 1st stay at at the YC. We were there from 8/15-8/22. Just as some background we have been to wdw many, many times over the years & have stayed at a good number of Disney resorts, but we stay at the moderate level most of the time. In fact the only Deluxe level resort we've stayed at is the Grand Floridian & that was on our honeymoon 23 yrs ago. So we were quite excited to finally be staying at the YC. These past few months I have read & enjoyed this thread every day, though I do have to say that it somewhat set us up to be disappointed since everyone here is so in love with the Y&BC resorts, lol. There is no one who is a bigger lover of all things Disney than me, but I do tell it like it is even when it cones to my favorite place, wdw.

I would just like to share our experience with the whole no a/c issue that occurred at the resort last Sat. 8/15. We checked in about 7 pm after a lovely ride on Mag. Express with the friendliest driver we ever had. Dropoff order for ME was YC, BC, Boardwalk & CBR. It dropped off at Convention Ctr. due to construction at bus stop area. We walked through convention Ctr & into side entrance of YC, were met by a lovely cm who escorted us to a concierge cm to check us in since reg check in CMs were all busy. We chatted with this first cm about the horrible rainstorm that was taking place, yet surprisingly she mentioned nothing about the a/c not working. We did notice that it didn't feel cool in the lobby, but just thought oh maybe it's us. The cm proceeded to check us in & did not mention one word about the fact that the air conditioning was not working AT ALL at the Y&BC. Sorry, but that was the time when we should have been informed of that fact. Also, when I asked him if our room was located near an elevator since that was a room request I had made, he took out the famous room map, held it close to his chest so I couldn't see it, which was quite comical, spent what seemed like an eternity looking for the room on the map, & then said, " yes, when you get off the elevator, the room is right there". Well "right there" apparently means something different in his world because to get to our room, we made a right turn off the elevator, walked down a seemingly endless hallway, made a left down another long hallway, then another right and finally arrived at our room. We were laughing at this point, but I really didn't appreciate the cm blatantly lieing to me about my room location. No pixie dust, I booked a std. view & that's what we received, so not complaining about that. We kept commenting to each other about how hot it was in the room & hallways and couldn't figure out what was going on, since so far no cm had said anything to us about it.

Went to Crew's Cup Lounge for dinner & it was sweltering in there, not exaggerating. We ate at the bar, since the Crew's Cup is "seat yourself" & there were no tables available at the time. We were served by a super friendly CM who was literally sweating as she filled drink orders & our dinner order. My dh finally asked her what was wrong with the a/c & she told us the a/c units were hit by lightning & there hasn't been air conditioning for hours. Finally a tiny piece of info! We sweated through our meal, which was very good, left the cm a big tip since I felt terrible that she was busting her butt in that heat, walked around the inside of resorts, then went back to our room. When we decided to wash up & go to bed is when we discovered there was no hot water, lovely. Anyway, the a/c came back on during the night & we had hot water in the am. Not a horrible experience, but we definitely should have been informed by the staff.

Then when I read from a few posters on here the next day that they were offered free food & beverages at the Boardwalk resort, I got angry because again, we were not informed. Another poster said she got a credit for the night's stay, but only because she asked. Again, would have been nice for all guests to be informed & treated the same. & no, we did not voice our concerns to the front desk, which I know we should have. Will be sending an email to Mgr though, just so she is aware. It also annoyed me that people on this thread just automatically praised Disney for how they handled the a/c issue based on what one poster said. Just wanted to let you know of our checkin night experience. Will share other details of our visit after I catch up on some laundry lol. Sorry this ended up being so long.

Thank you for sharing your experience. I'm sorry that you had to go through that on your vacation. Definitely contact the manager and guest relations to tell them about your experience.

I suppose the good thing about the internet is that we can all communicate our experiences and share how we feel about them and learn how other people handled the same situation. Different people experience hardships in different ways and not all of them have the same exact experience so it only goes to show that some would be able to brush off the problem and others would be more inconvenienced.

I don't know why the staff didn't feel the need to simply inform you about the problem. Perhaps they were instructed by a manager to avoid mentioning the proverbial elephant in the room. As for the CM who can't read a room map that is just unprofessional. The manager definitely needs to hear that this is what is happening at check in.

There seems to be just as many CM's that are interacting poorly with guests as there are CM's that bust their butts at work and really try to help the guests. I would hope that when you write to the manager of the resort you would make it a point to also talk about the CM that worked hard under those tough conditions at the Crews Cup and was friendly enough to tell you what was going on. It sounds like she was the person that had the ability to interact with you in a manner that made you feel a little bit better, just by letting you knowing what was going on.

There seems to be more and more reports of front desk personnel interacting poorly with guests who are checking in. It's really important to send a letter to the manager and let them know how you were treated and why you thought that it was a problem. When enough guests report the same problem then the management of the hotel will realize something needs to be done.

On the other hand don't be afraid to write a letter with the name of a CM that went "above and beyond" to make your stay better. I keep that "Post It Note" app on my phone. It lets me type in notes and messages so I can make a note of the CM's name and the town that they are from. I like to think of that town name as being a kind of a last name of a CM. This helps the people that get those letters know exactly who you are talking about. I use this system for noting naughty as well as nice CM's.

The situation that you found yourself in was certainly aggravating. When I heard about what had happened I was amazed that the staff of the resort got the repairs done so quickly in the face of such a huge outage. We will probably never know just how hard the staff had to work to fix everything. Still, all it took was one rude CM at check in to make the experience even more unpleasant for you. This is what the manager needs to know. Here is the contact information taken from page 1 of this thread:

email wdw.guest.communications@disneyworld.com

or send a letter to:
Walt Disney World Guest Communications
Executive Offices
Post Office Box 10040
Lake Buena Vista, Florida 32830-0040

When you write or email, please include your name, address, phone number and email address.

If it is a comment specific to the Yacht & Beach Club, you can write to the General Manager of the resort (perhaps copy Guest Communications as well):

Mim Flynn, General Manager
Disney's Yacht and Beach Club Resorts
1800 EPCOT Resort Boulevard
Lake Buena Vista, FL 32830

Definitely share your concerns. It's really the only chance that we as guests have to change the culture of front desk CM's that are problematic in their interactions with guests.

~NM

 

[Katesdad]

We will be staying at the YC in December- do they still have Bounce Back offers at that time for 2016? Is the BB offer the same or better then the AP discounts?

The BB offers were there last December. If you don't see something left in your room be sure to ask at the front desk. Of course, there is no guarantee there will be one this December but it definately was last year because that is how we can afford to be there again this year.

Is there shady places to sit around SAB and are there plenty of sun beds and umbrellas

Not sure what kind of "sun bed" you are looking for but there are lots of pictures of the lounge chairs on page one of this thread. And yes, there are shady places that can be found, especially over on the YC side of the pool area and there are umbrellas at the tables. Hope this helps.
Katesdad

 

[Sailormoon2]

@dina7 thanks for sharing your experience. This is exactly why I read these forums, to get a RANGE of experiences and perspectives. I am sorry that your check-in was lacking, but I'm glad you reached out to comment to on it. I hope you receive a satisfactory response from Management to your letter.

 

[natebenma]

We just returned from our 1st stay at the YC. We were there from 8/15-8/22.

I would just like to share our experience with the whole no a/c issue that occurred at the resort last Sat. 8/15.

*snip*

Thank you so much for sharing your experience at the Yacht Club, particularly the issues with the air conditioning and hot water the night you checked in. My thoughts definitely went out to you, and everyone who was there that night.

You have outlined what happened very well, and have some legitimate concerns. I agree with NinjaMom- you should share what you wrote with Disney Guest Communications and with the Yacht Club resort management. It sounds like you really encountered some poor (and in some cases, nonexistent) communication from resort CMs. It is inexcusable that you were not informed about the problems when you checked in or that you were not given the option of changing resorts if you wanted (I don't know what time that prong of the plan was implemented, or maybe it was only upon request, but that would have been an opportune time to do so). I think you phrased it perfectly about the elephant in the room- the fact that some major facilities were not working should have been mentioned to you, even if (especially) the resort CMs did not know when the problems would be resolved.

Certainly not a great start to your trip and I sincerely hope the rest of the vacation improved from there!

 

[natebenma]

Does anyone know the cost of the ceramics and tie dye Mickey shirt activities at the resort? Thanks in advance!

One of the posters to this board did the ceramics activity last week. Hopefully she will give us a review and some prices after she returns from the trip. She posted a picture a few pages back, but didn't include the cost.



Check out this info from Post 4, Resort Activities, on Page 1 of this thread.

Here's a description and pictures of the Tye-Dye Mickey Shirt activity:


The Mickey T-shirt activity is making a tie-dye Mickey t-shirt (with the Hidden Mickey outline in the center). The recreation CMs have already rubber banded the t-shirt for that particular design. You get to pick your colors and apply them to the shirt. DD8 did it last September and it was $17.95. I helped her with it, it was a lot of fun, and her shirt turned out to be very cute. I saw mostly kids doing it, some with parents, but I think that anyone could do it. They wrap your shirt in plastic wrap then put it in a ziploc bag for you. When you get home, you just have to rinse it out and wash it. The longer the color stays on the shirt, the more intense it is. We charged it to the room on our KTTW card and it showed up as babysitting charges.

If you are a DVC member, ask about a discount on this activity.

Thanks for the photos ALMinVA and cindydare!


Ceramics-Sandcastle Club
Wednesdays from 1:30 to 3:30 pm
(from June 2015 Activities Program)

Bring the whole family to create your very own masterpiece! Ceramics must be picked up after 4:30 pm the following day. There is a materials fee charged for this activity.

June 2015:

Chris from Disney Itinerary Planning Office informs me that there are cups, plates, and figurines with the only Disney characters being Snow White and Ariel. Prices run between $5-$25 dollars. This is the ceramics class at Sandcastle Club on Wednesday's from 2:30PM-3:30PM. Then they fire them to set the paint; and, we pick them up 2-3 days later.

The time he gave me is different from the published times on the monthly activities flyer.

We did the ceramics while at the BC last week. My daughter painted a jewelry box type thing. It had a dolphin on the top. We did it around 2:30 on Wednesday and it was available for pick-up after 5 on Thursday. (The oven is at the Boardwalk so they take it over there to set the paint) Her jewelry box was $14.00 plus tax. She really enjoyed it and I think that is her favorite souvenir from the trip. ( and she spent her birthday money on plenty of things)

I think the price of $17.95 for the tye-dye shirt activity was a couple of years ago, so I don't know if it has changed since then.

 

[Madame]

Finally getting a chance to post some view pics (room 2548) & it's giving me an error, file too large. Will try later. We decided to skip AK this AM & 'sleep in' - yeah. My kids were up at 7AM - sigh.

We were also at DHS last night (best fireworks ever!!) & after seeing the line for the boat made a beeline for a cab. Best $15 (tip included) that I have ever spent in my life. We were probably home showered, & tucked in before many in the line even got on a boat. Just a tip for anyone looking to escape the closing crowds .

 

[natebenma]

page 196-201

Caught up. For now! Of course, on Wednesday I am off to Florida before the boys start school and of course I will be spending the weekend monkeying around with my BCBs (Beach Club Buds)

DH and I just booked a stay at BC, Garden View for October, for F&W. We check in 10/16 and out 10/19. I was tickled to find an Epcot resort this late in the game.
It's our first stay at BC, though we did stay at YC last May.
Wondered what our chances are of a King bed? Are there many?
Trying to figure out what to do for our online checkin. Ground floor? It's a quick trip so I can't imagine we'll be in the room tons. We don't have any little ones with us this trip so no need to have a balcony to escape to.
I think what we would want first and foremost is along the wing nearest to Epcot. But I'm sure that's high on the list of many guests during that time

I'll add you to the Be Our Guest list we keep on Page 1 of this thread.



There are not many King beds at the resort, but it never hurts to ask- make sure this is added as a request to your reservation. You must call in your request to Disney's Central Reservations Office or if you booked through a travel agency, they must do it. Based on your requests, a good way to word this would be "Close to EPCOT, please. King Bed if possible" I don't think there is any way to place these requests through online checkin.

Hi friends!! Debating on a spring/summer stay for 7 nights. The $$ difference between the Club Deluxe room and the Club Garden Room is minimal. Which is better for a family of 4 (2 sons; 2&6). Are these close to the lounge? Have full balconies? Thanks!!

to this thread!




I think with boys that young, I would prefer to be closer to the lounge, so I would choose the Club Level Garden Room.

HockeymomR gives a comparison to these room categories below, but I wanted to add that to the best of my knowledge, all BC CL GV rooms (there are only 4-5) have full balconies.

The deluxe rooms do give you more square footage which is great, however, these rooms are not on the 5th floor, where the lounge is located. You will have club level access for the lounge. The garden view CL rooms are typical room size and are located on the 5th floor. Some deluxe rooms do have balconies and oversized for that matter, however there are deluxe rooms with standing balcony and one is actually on the first floor right by the quiet pool with a nice oversized patio.

I just got home today from my stay at the YC. The dropoff area in front is walled off and there were workers with jackhammers in there. I don't know what they were doing. The convention center is being used for the bus stop.

Thanks for this info. I have added a short note to Page 1 of this page.

Does BC have the bus arrival time monitors installed yet? If so, are they remotely accurate?

Hoping this will be available (and useful) for our trip...in 12 days!

Not to my knowledge. I haven't heard any reports. I'll be checking it out this weekend.

Sorry but whaT is the *** deal?

to this thread.

Sorry, I am unable to answer your question because it is about an agency which we are prohibited from discussing on these boards.

Is there shady places to sit around SAB and are there plenty of sun beds and umbrellas

Some. I think most of the umbrellas are located near the YC side of Stormalong Bay, by the sand bar area. I think your trip is in October. I haven't been at that time of year, but I suspect there is decent availability for loungers at the pool at that time.

 

[natebenma]

Finally getting a chance to post some view pics (room 2548) & it's giving me an error, file too large. Will try later. We decided to skip AK this AM & 'sleep in' - yeah. My kids were up at 7AM - sigh.

We were also at DHS last night (best fireworks ever!!) & after seeing the line for the boat made a beeline for a cab. Best $15 (tip included) that I have ever spent in my life. We were probably home showered, & tucked in before many in the line even got on a boat. Just a tip for anyone looking to escape the closing crowds .

No worries about the view pictures. I can't do that while I am away, I need to be at my computer where I can resize my photos using the "Paint" application.

Have a fantastic day and trip!

:

 

[dina7]

My family and I were there 8/14-8/22. I was the poster who got the 1 nights credit. DH and I went to the front desk to report the issues. DH asked if some sort of compensation was possible. To our surprise she offered to comp the night. We were not expecting that at all. We didn't know anything about the Boardwalk offerings until it was posted on here. I hope the rest of your stay was a good one.

I thought you were the one who received the one night's credit, Minnie121. I'm very glad that you did & it was smart of your DH to ask if compensation was possible. The thing that is irritating is that something, not necessarily to comp everyone's night, should have been given to every guest staying at the YC that night. You shouldn't have to ask. Honestly, if a CM would have just informed us about the problem & said they were working to fix it, I would have been fine about it because "things happen" that are out of their control.

Oh & my DH reminded me that when a CM from bell services brought our luggage & Garden Grocer order up to our room at 9:45 that night, my dh asked him if the a/c is going to be fixed soon. The CM said, "oh yes, it is fixed now". When in actuality it wasn't fixed until hours later. Can't believe I forgot to mention that in my original post, lol.

 

[dina7]

Thank you for sharing your experience. I'm sorry that you had to go through that on your vacation. Definitely contact the manager and guest relations to tell them about your experience.

I suppose the good thing about the internet is that we can all communicate our experiences and share how we feel about them and learn how other people handled the same situation. Different people experience hardships in different ways and not all of them have the same exact experience so it only goes to show that some would be able to brush off the problem and others would be more inconvenienced.

I don't know why the staff didn't feel the need to simply inform you about the problem. Perhaps they were instructed by a manager to avoid mentioning the proverbial elephant in the room. As for the CM who can't read a room map that is just unprofessional. The manager definitely needs to hear that this is what is happening at check in.

There seems to be just as many CM's that are interacting poorly with guests as there are CM's that bust their butts at work and really try to help the guests. I would hope that when you write to the manager of the resort you would make it a point to also talk about the CM that worked hard under those tough conditions at the Crews Cup and was friendly enough to tell you what was going on. It sounds like she was the person that had the ability to interact with you in a manner that made you feel a little bit better, just by letting you knowing what was going on.

There seems to be more and more reports of front desk personnel interacting poorly with guests who are checking in. It's really important to send a letter to the manager and let them know how you were treated and why you thought that it was a problem. When enough guests report the same problem then the management of the hotel will realize something needs to be done.

On the other hand don't be afraid to write a letter with the name of a CM that went "above and beyond" to make your stay better. I keep that "Post It Note" app on my phone. It lets me type in notes and messages so I can make a note of the CM's name and the town that they are from. I like to think of that town name as being a kind of a last name of a CM. This helps the people that get those letters know exactly who you are talking about. I use this system for noting naughty as well as nice CM's.

The situation that you found yourself in was certainly aggravating. When I heard about what had happened I was amazed that the staff of the resort got the repairs done so quickly in the face of such a huge outage. We will probably never know just how hard the staff had to work to fix everything. Still, all it took was one rude CM at check in to make the experience even more unpleasant for you. This is what the manager needs to know. Here is the contact information taken from page 1 of this thread:

email wdw.guest.communications@disneyworld.com

or send a letter to:
Walt Disney World Guest Communications
Executive Offices
Post Office Box 10040
Lake Buena Vista, Florida 32830-0040

When you write or email, please include your name, address, phone number and email address.

If it is a comment specific to the Yacht & Beach Club, you can write to the General Manager of the resort (perhaps copy Guest Communications as well):

Mim Flynn, General Manager
Disney's Yacht and Beach Club Resorts
1800 EPCOT Resort Boulevard
Lake Buena Vista, FL 32830

Definitely share your concerns. It's really the only chance that we as guests have to change the culture of front desk CM's that are problematic in their interactions with guests.
~NM

Thanks for your comm9, NinjaMom. Also, thank you for the contact info. So I don't have to search for it at the beginning of the thread I definitely will be mentioning the helpful CM at Crew's Cup as well.

 

[loves to dive]

dina7 so sorry you had a bad experience with cast members, that can put a damper on your whole trip. Sounds like you and dh handled it well and you most certainly should get in touch with the manager and share your experience. I can't imagine why they didn't just mention it at check in, an oh by the way the AC and hot water are currently out but we are working as fast as we can to get it fixed would have gone a long way. Hope the rest of your stay was good and you had a good trip. I've found no matter where I stay on property there are going to be good and bad cast members, I've had grumpy ones at BW and great ones at POR and great ones at AKL and bad ones at POP, hope it didn't turn you trying YC/BC again in the future.

 

[natebenma]

I have finally caught up on the updates to the Be Our Guest list. I would appreciate if you could look it over and let me know if anything needs to be corrected.

Thanks!

Post 15: Be Our Guest List

 

[Jon84]

I have finally caught up on the updates to the Be Our Guest list. I would appreciate if you could look it over and let me know if anything needs to be corrected.

Thanks!

Post 15: Be Our Guest List

Just Realised I didn't give you our dates! 24th Nov to 8th Dec

 

[dina7]

I just sent my email to wdw guest communications about my check in night experience. Will keep you posted if I get a response

 

[shoreward]

I have been told by a few CMs at the front desk that there is MINIMAL cross-training, so that CMs at the concierge desk can check in guests, if need be. The message seemed to be that you can't count on the concierge CMs having the same knowledge base or training as those at the front desk. This info was passed along after a few concierge CMs told me something about my room or reservation, but that the front desk later said was not accurate.

If the CMs at the concierge desk are given the authority to perform those functions, one would think that management believes they are capable of doing so.

 

[bluecastle]

That's Better!



.

I am still trying to catch up, but I had to say this pink to blue made me lol. You sounded like Merryweather in Sleeping Beauty!
Must finish this thread before you start one for the fall!

 

[Beth06015]

That's Better!



.

CAN'T WAIT TO SEE SEPT'S!!