Category — q. Reviews

This is the second page of this review of Disney’s Beach Club Villas. For the first page of this material, click here.

MORE ON DISNEY’S BEACH CLUB VILLAS

Disney’s Beach Club Villas is one of 7 official Disney Vacation Club resorts at Walt Disney World.

However, I count them as nine, because two of the resorts–Saratoga Springs and the Animal Kingdom Villas–have two very different areas.

In order of their appropriateness for first time family visitors to Walt Disney World, they are:

1. The Villas at Disney’s Wilderness Lodge
2. Disney’s Animal Kingdom Villas–Jambo House
3. Disney’s Animal Kingdom Villas–Kidani Village
4. Bay Lake Tower at Disney’s Contemporary Resort
5. Disney’s Beach Club Villas
6. Disney’s Boardwalk Villas
7. Disney’s Old Key West Resort
8. Disney’s Saratoga Springs Resort and Spa, main resort
9. Disney’s Saratoga Springs Resort and Spa, Treehouse Villas area.

Disney’s Beach Club Villas comes in 5th on the list. These resorts are available to anyone to reserve through the regular Walt Disney World website or the resort reservations phone number at 407-939-7675.

They also are available to the general public at great discounts through renting points from a Disney Vacation Club member.

All Disney Vacation Club resorts have studio rooms, One-Bedroom Villas, and Two-Bedroom Villas.

Most have Grand Villas as well.

Disney’s Beach Club Villas does not have Grand Villas. The other three room types are covered on this page.

STUDIOS AT DISNEY’S BEACH CLUB VILLAS

At Disney’s Beach Club Villas, Studios sleep four and have a microwave and mini fridge.

The microwave is one of several ways Studios are different from regular rooms at the Beach Club.

• A second distinction is that the second bed is a full fold-out couch, rather than a queen.
• A third is that these rooms sleep one fewer person, and have one less sleeping space, than Beach Club rooms with two queens and a convertible couch (some Beach Club rooms don’t have the couch).
• The studios are about 30 square feet smaller than standard rooms at the Beach Club, and they feel even smaller than this, as the bath area of the studios (because of the choice of where to put the closet) is larger than that at in the standard Beach Club rooms.

These studios go for about the same price as regular standard Beach Club rooms.  I don’t see how the microwave makes up for the smaller living space and smaller second bed, so I can’t recommend these rooms over the Beach Club itself for first time family visitors.

ONE-BEDROOM VILLAS AT DISNEY’S BEACH CLUB VILLAS

One-Bedroom Villas at the Beach Club have a master bedroom with a king bed.

They have as well a full kitchen/dining/ living space, a washer/dryer, and sleep 4 in about twice the space of a studio.

The two additional sleeping spots are on a good-sized but thin fold-out couch in the living room space.

The bath is shared, with access to it from both sleeping spaces. The kids don’t need to enter the master bedroom to get to this bath.

One-Bedroom Villas are among the most comfortable ways to stay at Walt Disney World.

Depending on the price season, these villas are only around 40% more expensive than a standard Beach Club room, for twice the space.

The additional space, full kitchens, and living and dining furniture are hard to beat, even though if you are following one of this site’s itineraries you won’t be in your room much to enjoy them!

They aren’t for everyone…but the value is there if you can afford it and your family fits.

TWO-BEDROOM VILLAS AT DISNEY’S BEACH CLUB VILLAS

Two-Bedroom Villas add a second bedroom with a queen and a large 2 person sleeper sofa, and another balcony, to the amenities of a One-Bedroom, and sleep 8.

Two-Bedroom Villas can be either cramped or comfortable, depending both on how you use them and what you are comparing them to.

Like almost all DVC Two-Bedroom Villas, in Disney’s Beach Club Villas Two-Bedrooms there isn’t enough seating space in either the living room or in the dining spaces for all the people these rooms will fit. (Old Key West Resort and the Treehouse Villas are exceptions.)

The living room chairs will seat four to five people, with two more chairs available at the kitchen’s breakfast bar.

The dining table will seat at most five, taking the two chairs from the breakfast bar and adding them to the three spaces the table comes with.

So if you are filling a two bedroom with 8 people, things can get awkward, especially compared to the ease with which One-Bedroom Villas fit the people they can sleep.

These space and circulation issues are part of the reason why these rooms are only about 50-75% more expensive than One Bedroom Villas, even though they have double the sleeping capacity.

On the other hand, depending on the price season, a Two-Bedroom is around the same price as two standard Beach Club Inn rooms, but provides 50% more space, and, compared to those rooms, all that extra kitchen/dining/living space and furniture.

If your family’s sleeping needs will fit in the bedrooms–that is, if you don’t need to use the fold-out bed in the living space–Two-Bedrooms are a particularly comfortable option.

(To each of the capacity figures above, you can add one more kid under 3 at time of check in who sleeps in a crib.)

This review will continue next week.

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THE COLOR COMPANION TO WALT DISNEY WORLD AS A STAND-ALONE GUIDEBOOK FOR FIRST TIME VISITORS

Long time readers of this site know that I don’t think guidebooks are necessary for first-time visitors, but for those who want them anyway I recommend a few of the hundreds that are out there.

One I’ve always recommended is Bob Sehlinger and Len Testa’s The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World 2012 (“TUG”). I’m keen on and influenced by it, and by most of the other efforts of the TouringPlans.com team.

TUG’s influence is both positive and negative: I admire and try to follow the fact-based and objective approach of the work, and the home page of this site was inspired by the difficulty of pulling out of its almost 900 pages a simple and straightforward approach to building a first visit for families who may never return.

Sehlinger and Testa’s recently-released The Color Companion to Walt Disney World, 2nd Edition is positioned both as a “companion” to TUG and also as having “more than enough information…to plan your Disney vacation” (xii).

For returning visitors, I’m OK with that second point, but for first-timers I can’t recommend it. The issue is less the quantity of information, which is adequate, although alternatives are better on some dimensions–rather, it’s that just a little too much of the information is wrong or misleading.

NOT RECOMMENDED FOR FIRST TIME VISITORS [Read more →]

OVERVIEW: DISNEY’S BEACH CLUB VILLAS FOR FIRST TIME VISITORS

Disney’s Beach Club Villas (a Disney Vacation Club (“DVC”) resort, and one of the Epcot resorts,) is a wonderful place for returning visitors to Walt Disney World to stay, and could easily become one of my personal favorites among the DVC resorts.

For typical first-time visitors, I don’t recommend the Disney Vacation Club resorts.

That said, these “DVC” resorts can be a great choice for first time visitors with large families, needing extra sleeping spaces, or looking for a more comfortable place to stay.

Among the Disney Vacation Club resorts, Disney’s Beach Club Villas ranks fifth overall for first-time visitors, and is particularly strong for charm, compactness, convenience to Epcot, and access to the great pool Stormalong Bay.

THE BEACH CLUB VILLAS AND THE DISNEY VACATION CLUB RESORTS

[Read more →]

HOOP DEE DOO REVUE…REVIEW

Welcome to those coming from The World of Deej as Magical Blogorail Teal writes about our favorite things to do outside the parks!

This site promises first-time family visitors who may never return all the best of Walt Disney World.

From the start, that’s meant the best in or outside of the parks.  Some of the key things outside the parks in the itineraries are Cirque du Soleil at Downtown Disney, and the Gospel Brunch at House of Blues.

Another “best outside the parks” is the Hoop Dee Doo Musical Revue. [Read more →]

WHAT IS THE DISNEY INSTITUTE?

The Disney Institute is the professional development –I would say leadership development– arm of Disney.

Through a variety of paid programs, it aims to help people build their toolkit to enable cultural change in organizations –particularly, but not only, in improving the quality of service delivery.

Disney Institute programs  are delivered in single and multi-day sessions at Walt Disney World and Disneyland.  Single day sessions are also done in various cities.

In addition, Disney will deliver a customized program at an organization’s site, and engage with organizations in long-term change journey.

See this for the current set of topics and current calendar of programs available to the general public.

I had the chance to see one of Disney Institute’s one-day programs a few weeks ago in my home town.

I thought it was terrific.  But I know I am odd.  So here’s a couple of thoughts for those less odd:

• Don’t attend a Disney Institute session unless you’ve to Disney World or Disneyland at least once–so those here planning their first time visit, don’t attend a session yet!
• Start by reading the key books first–they are much cheaper than attending a session
• If the books resonate with you, then try a one-day session, nearby or at Disney World
• Getting the full value out of the Disney Institute concepts requires sustained top leadership commitment and likely extensive changes in their behaviors.

• If you aren’t the top leader, or the head of a unit with major control (e.g. over hiring, orientation, training, operations, etc.) then you need to get your top leaders on board.  Major change takes a multi-year effort that starts at the top.
• It’s not about making front-line staff less annoying–your front-line people are annoying because by neglect or by mistake you’ve made it rewarding for them to be so. So it’s about the leadership team putting together a system of values, behaviors and processes that encourage, enable, and reward great service.

REVIEW: THE DISNEY INSTITUTE

[Read more →]

THE PIRATE-THEMED ROOMS AT CARIBBEAN BEACH

Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort is this site’s top-rated moderate resort for first-time family visitors to Walt Disney World.

It gets that position because it has a little more kid appeal than the other moderate resorts.

For example, it’s the only moderate where all the rooms have Disney theming. Most rooms at the sprawling and often inconvenient resort are decorated with a light Finding Nemo theme, but a subset in its Trinidad South section have pirate theming.

This pirate theming is pretty cool, but, given the inconvenience of Trinidad South, is not worth the extra $30 a night it costs (pre-tax, Fall Season 2012).

Moreover, by building these rooms, Disney may have put itself at the end of a gang-plank on the question of adding queen beds to Caribbean Beach. [Read more →]