Disney’s Yacht Club Resort {Dining + Recreation}

UPDATED 5/13/19 in this post:

Disney’s Yacht Club Resort

It’s taken me forever, but I’ve finally uploaded and sorted through ALL of the pics from our amazing week in Disney.  We stayed at the Yacht Club Resort and loved every second of it.

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The Yacht Club was just meticulously manicured and so well appointed.  I have read reviews that it is stuffy and not as kid friendly as other resorts and I have to say neither of those is true.  We booked the resort for about half off of normal rates through a bounce back offer.  I would jump at the chance to stay here again.

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I did online check-in and had our room number texted to me when it was ready.  With our Magic Bands, we skipped the front desk and headed straight to the room on arrival.  It was SO nice!  Our room  seemed larger than most of the others we’ve stayed in.  It had two queen beds and an extra twin bed that the littles alternated using, sleeping five total.

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The view from our room was just amazing.  We had the doors open whenever we were in there and used the grassy lawn and boardwalk as an extension of our “living” space.  The littles loved throwing the football out here and playing cornhole on the boardwalk outside of the Bayside Marina.  Honey and I adored sitting here with a book and just soaking it all in.  We also had a good view of Illuminations from Epcot right from our patio!

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I would not stay in a deluxe resort if I didn’t have time to enjoy it all!  Over the course of the week we were there, we ate in all the restaurants and enjoyed nearly all of the amenities.

Stormalong Bay is hands down the most incredible pool in Disney!  It is shared between the Beach Club and Yacht Club and they are very strict about only allowing resort guests in.  There is a (very) lazy river, volleyball, awesome slide, three hot tubs AND sandy bottom zero entry pools!!!!

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Stormalong Bay is now offering cabana rentals, which is wonderful!  Learn more here:

Disney World Deluxe Resorts Cabana Rentals

There is plenty of seating on the sandy beaches!
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The fun, fast and TALL waterslide is water park worthy!  I can’t count how many times the four of us did it!

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There is also a quiet pool at Yacht Club that was quite close to our room.  We only dipped our toes in one morning while our room was being cleaned because, let’s face it, it couldn’t hold a candle to Stormalong Bay :-)

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I think we covered all of the onsite dining at Yacht Club (and some Beach Club) during our stay.  We also walked into Epcot almost daily for a light meal or snack.  I will say that there is no quick serve at Yacht Club and the one at Beach Club was the worst of the worst, in my opinion.  It was VERY limited and not very good.  Hurricane Hanna’s at Stormalong Bay has a small but decent menu.  Our problem there was that the hours are limited.  But, if you don’t mind taking a lovely walk or boat around the Boardwalk or into Epcot, there are more wonderful choices than anywhere else.  Something to consider.

We had a lively dinner at Beaches & Cream.  I’d definitely recommend going, and would also recommend having a reservation.  It was SUPER yummy and we all enjoyed our food (burgers, chili and grilled cheese).  The highlight is absolutely the Kitchen Sink ice cream dessert to share between four people!  In addition to the restaurant area, there is also a walk up ice cream counter.

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Honey LOVES to send the littles to the kid’s club (I think every deluxe resort has one) for a night on longer trips so that we can do a Disney date night.  And who am I to say no to that?!  So, while the littles lived it up in the Sandcastle Club, we had an amazing night out at the Crews Cup Lounge and dinner at the Yachtsman Steakhouse.

We had our standard Disney lounge cocktail order of two Moscow Mules.
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Our meal at Yachtsman was verrrrry good!  The bread was super yummy, the steaks were perfection and I loved the truffle mac & cheese.

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We walked over to Cape May Cafe for the character breakfast one morning, with Donald, Goofy and Minnie.  The buffet food was VERY good in comparison to most of the others.  We loved the crepe station and chorizo sausage eggs in particular.

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The littles ventured off on a Pirate Adventure Cruise one morning, so Honey and I enjoyed a lovely, quiet and lingering breakfast for two at Captain’s Grill.  The lemon ricotta pancakes were out of this world.  I’m still thinking about them!  Honey was very happy with the buffet.

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One of the highlights of our stay at Yacht Club was renting two mini water mice from Bayside Marina.  You have to be 12 to drive and they seat up to two people.  This was such a fun location to rent them because of all there is to see around Beach Club, Yacht Club, Boardwalk, Swan & Dolphin AND Hollywood Studios.  We tooled right alongside the Friendship Boats and loved getting up close and personal to Hollywood Studios.

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Like all Disney resorts, Yacht Club had a bonfire and movie under the stars each night!  We always try to see at least one during our stay.  This one was particularly lovely on the sandy beach with all the lights in the background.

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You really cannot beat the location of the Yacht Club.  It is a 5 minute walk or boat ride into Epcot via a (special entrance called International Gateway between Paris and Great Britain, and a 5 minute boat ride to Hollywood Studios.  There are loads of restaurants and recreation between the Yacht Club, Beach Club and Boardwalk.  It’s just really an outstanding location!

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I was beyond excited when the littles begged to get a Surrey bike because that just so happens to be on my 40×41 list!!!!  They were not old enough to pedal (seriously?), but that didn’t damper our fun in the least.

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There is so much to do on the Boardwalk!  We loved walking over for food.  And margaritas.

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“Look Mommy, a hidden Mickey!”  LOL

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All in all, it was an amazing week calling this place home. 
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I sure hope to be back!  Stay tuned over the next week for the full trip report.
xoxo

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27 thoughts on “Disney’s Yacht Club Resort {Dining + Recreation}

  1. I have been researching Disney resorts for our next stay – although I am not sure when that will be…but this one is on my list. So glad you confirmed how great it was. I just have to convince my husband because he gets Westin points from travel and thinks we should stay in the Swan or Dolphin. Sounds like the Yacht Club is the perfect location for what we want to do next time. Once again, it looks like you had a blast!
    Shelley

    1. I have tons of Starwood points from work travel as well, so I get how it’s really hard to justify paying for a hotel when you can stay somewhere for free! For what it’s worth, we have stayed 2 times at the Swan/Dolphin and I would totally recommend it. Both times we didn’t have a ton of time to really kick around the resort, so that was fine. They have a restaurant that does character dining which is OK, but they also have some really awesome grown up restaurants too! Their pool/water slide are awesome, and you can walk to the Disney Boardwalk (which we actually prefer over Downtown Disney). They have a ton of other activities, like beach bonfires and stuff, that we never have enough time to take advantage of. You basically get all of the benefits of staying on property, but for free. I was totally hesitant to stay here the first time because it wasn’t an “official” Disney property, so I just wanted to share my experience. You could always stay at the Dolphin/Swan while you are doing the parks all day, and then splurge a couple of days at the end of your trip on a deluxe hotel if you have time to use the amenities like Amanda recommended:)

    2. The swan and dolphin are literally next door. They are on the same boardwalk and have the same walk/boats to Epcot and Hollywood Studios. You can still do the rec stuff on the boardwalk I’m sure – like bike rides, boat rental, etc. and you can DEF dine in the restaurants. The only thing you couldn’t do is the pool. If I could stay there on points I totally would!

  2. I love reading your Disney posts! We are staying at the Polynesian in December and I have never considered anywhere else because of the convenience of the monorail but the Yacht Club sounds wonderful (and the rooms do look roomie!) and would be a good place to stay in the future especially when we have plans to go to Epcot.

    1. I think the parks you will spend most time in is key here! Poly and Contemp for MK and Epcot; Yacht, Beach and Boardwalk for Epcot and Hollywood; Wilderness is a good option for MK. I want to try the renovated Poly!

  3. When we were at the beach club for our Cape May reservations, we admired the resort AND the pool… we were totally digging Stormalong Bay. We were definitely considering a future stay there or at the yacht club…. but it would have to be for a long stay, because, like you said, to justify the cost, we’d need to be at the resort for a few days on top of going to the parks. — Although, we REALLY loved the access to Epcot… that was awesome. :)

    We loved the breakfast at Cape May too! They went above and beyond there to make our anniversary and birthday celebrations special… They brought out cakes and special cards, etc. for us! just a little bit of that “extra magic” that we all love!

    I still can’t believe that we just missed each other. I can’t wait to read the rest of your recap. I’m still in “disney” mode a little– I keep wanting to wear my magic band… ha!

      1. well technically, you walked past me and I thought it was you, but I wasn’t sure! and then I realized y’all were on Dumbo while we were on the barnstormer! LOL Oh well! Next time, haha!

  4. We just went on our first ever Disney trip and I’m so glad to see lots of pics from another Resort. We stayed at the Contemporary. Can Deluxe resort guests go to any deluxe resort pool? Also, in the picture with pizza where was that from? Our daughter is a picky eater and sometimes we wished for simpler food options for her. I had heard of Beaches and Cream but wasn’t sure if we could go there since its located at a different resort.

    1. As far as I know pool hopping is not allowed outside of some DVC resort stays. I know that Stormalong Bay at Yacht/Beach scanned our magic bands before entering. I’m not sure that the scanning actually did anything to tell you the truth but they made a production of doing it anyway. The pizza was from good old Papa Johns. We got it twice during our stay and were happy for a $16 meal :-) They deliver to all of the resorts. They call you when they arrive and you meet them in the lobby.

  5. I love all your photos! I have been waiting for your recap. We leave for Disney right after Thanksgiving and I am so excited. It will be my boys first visit. We debated staying at a deluxe then we realized we won’t be in the room that much so we’re staying at our favorite – Port Orleans Riverside.

    I feel in love with the Beach and Yacht Club 3 years ago when we had breakfast at Cape May Cafe. I could not get over the gorgeous view. We want to stay at all the resorts and that one is definitely at the top of mine!

  6. Love the review! We are staying at the Beach Club in June and I can not wait! We love Animal Kingdom Lodge as well!

  7. Yacht Club looks amazing!!! We are already thinking of our next trip which isn’t for almost 2 years LOL but aren’t sure where we’ll stay. My hubby likes the idea of Contemporary because it’s so close to MK and our kids are still little – next trip they will be almost 7, almost 5 and almost 3 so we like that we can just walk to and from MK which is where we spend most of our time anyway. Have you ever stayed there? Yacht or Beach Club is on my list for the trip after nexts for sure!

    1. I have actually never stayed at Contemporary… ever! When we were kids we always stayed at Polynesian. It’s def on my list though!!

    2. I have stayed at the Contemporary and we loved it! It was so nice to have the monorail run through the building and it was perfect for small children who want to go back and forth to the Magic Kingdom. Plus it was Chef Mickey in it which is fun! It was very nice!

  8. Looks amazing Amanda, Its great to read your hotel reviews as they all look so amazing and as we can only come every few years its good to have more of an idea of which ones are particularly special. X

  9. The Yacht Club is definitely on my list of places to stay! I feel in love with Yacht and Beach years ago when we had breakfast at Cape May Cafe and then walked around the resorts and the boardwalk. It was so gorgeous. You just made it look even more amazing than I already thought. I’m always nervous about a ground floor room because I think they’re usually loud. You really seem to have made good use of one though and now I want one! Did you have any noise problems?

    We’re headed to Port Orleans Riverside next month. We spent our honeymoon there and now our boys will spend their first visit at the same place. I am SO excited.

    1. We love PO Riverside!! We didn’t have any noise at all! OF course, we were dog tired at the end of the day so I probably would have slept through a freight train. I was disappointed when I saw ground floor until I saw the room. I usually request a high level but this turned out great.

  10. You referred to a “bounce back deal” with booking the Yacht Club. What is this? Is it something Disney sent you? We just stayed this summer at Port Orleans and have season passes and would love to get a “bounce back deal” to stay at the Yacht Club. Tell me more. Tell me more. :)

    1. It can only be booked from your room while staying at Disney. There is usually a flyer tucked inside the reading materials on the desk. If there isn’t, you can call the front desk and ask them to transfer you to reservations for bounce back offers. It always varies. This last time the bounce back was for free dining when I called.

  11. I am loving your Disney posts. We are headed to the Beach Club at the end of May, and I am excited to finally try an EPCOT resort. I have lots of research to do since that area is all new to me. Thanks so much for the informative posts; they are so helpful and fun to read.

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