Disney's Beach Club Resort

We checked in today at 1:30 and waited for our room until 5! It really ruined our plans for the evening. I was also quite unimpressed with the arrival. It’s our second time at Disney and when we stayed at animal kingdom lodge 5 years ago, they made us feel very special upon arrival. I figured all Disney resorts (especially the expensive ones), would provide that type of service. Not at Beach Club. No cast members in sight to greet us. The lobby is totally over crowded with no where for our family of 4 to sit together (while we waited 4 hours for our room). It’s only day one, but I’m feeling like we made a mistake in choosing Beach Club.

Having always rented a house but having 2 years previously fallen in love we booked beach club over a year in advance. We had high hopes for a Disney deluxe but dreams were shattered almost instantly! We arrived after a long drive from key west, had a warm welcome from the car park security ‘welcome home’ and that’s where it ended! Were we welcomed into the hotel? Nope! So we joined the queue at reception a bit unsure what to do. We checked in, were given a map, magic bands, paperwork and that’s were it was left. I asked where the laundry was but they had to go and check as unsure (seriously!) No one offered to help with our bags, so we grabbed a trolley and started to do it ourselves! Only to be told ‘ur not supposed to use those’ by a passing bellboy. Shall I magic the bags to my room then??? There is zero magic in this hotel! From attitude of staff, lack of acknowledgement never mind a ‘hello’, fridge being dirty on arrival, 4 requests to clean, 3 mugs being asked for (for 3 adults in the room) but no3 kept being removed! Obnoxious housekeeping staff (that we asked to leave our room), our room door being left open, 3 different managers ‘promising to put things right and only the third getting there (more or less). Balcony not being brushed despite 4 requests and even offering to do it myself! Buses take forever, we waited 55 minutes one morning to get to springs and waited 40 minutes from animal kingdom before catching the boardwalk bus! This hotel could be anywhere and I’d rate it 3 star at best! The lobby is busy, and chaotic, the pool is used by everyone and anyone who visits from elsewhere as does the car park! (We Watch people getting on and off the bus!) Would we return, no never to this hotel, in fact after 3 days I wanted to go home plus cancel our two other bookings at other Disney hotels in the next 9 months. It costs a small fortune to stay here and it’s just not worth it! Apart from the third manager who tried to make our stay better and 2 of many reception staff, the staff were totally script led, ‘acted’ a part without actually doing anything or appearing to genuinely care or just completely ignored you! Zero Disney magic as said before, such a shame! Best parts are the size of room, bed comfort, free toiletries and lobby scent!

We were here back in October of 2018 for 6 nights and it was amazing. However, we returned this past June 26th -June 30th 2019 and it was an awful experience. It was a lot of little things but considering we were there for only 4 nights those little things added up quickly. First let me start at the very beginning. 6 days before we checked in I called the hotel directly to put in a request to have a room close to Epcot just like I had done in October. The lady that I spoke to told me there are no rooms near the Epcot International Gateway only Villas. I said that's not true because we just stayed here in October and we were in a regular room and there were no villas near us and we were right by Epcot. Then she told me well there is a lot of construction due to the Gondola system and it would be very loud, do you still want that room? I was like well ok and just left it at that and thought well we will just make due. So we arrive at the hotel and they did give us a room right by the international gateway. It was a regular room and no villas around us. Also there was absolutely no construction the Gondola station is finished. So I still don't understand why she lied to me and why she had to be so condescending but I let it go! After all we are at Disney and lets start the vacation. So we check in and they send us to room 3514. We walk in and there is no bedding on the bed and there is food on the counters and dirty robes on the floor. We waited about 15 minutes thinking house keeping would be back?? Then we called the front desk and they moved us to 3516 which I was glad because 3514 had a huge water stain in the corner of the wall. 3516 had a huge red stain in the carpet?? whatever. So we let that go and went to Animal Kingdom. We get their and 4 rides out of the 8 are down. Dinosaur, primeval whirl, Mt. Everest and its tough to be a bug. All have technical difficulties. So we have to forgo our fast passes because we couldn't use them in Pandora and we already had a private Safari tour planned so that only left us with triceratops spin which we did ride. We then decided to eat lunch early. We ate lunch and needless to say we didn't get to ride the rides that we wanted. Then that next night was Thursday and we had tickets to the Villains party and that was fun. However when we got back to the room it was 75. The AC wasn't running. So we called the front desk and we had to beg for a fan and the maintenance men came up to our room about 3 am. They got it working and went on their way. However it was probably 3:30 by the time they left. At 10:15 am we had breakfast reservations at Cape May at the hotel this was Friday morning. It was my daughters first time at Disney and we were celebrating her high school graduation. She was tired and wanted to skip breakfast however she wanted us to bring something back. I asked the hostess and the waiter if I could pay for it and just feel a to go box with a mickey waffle some bacon and potatoes. Nope sorry we cant do that. They weren't willing to help us at all. So instead of using a Table credit we had already prepaid for we had to order a hamburger from room service and pay over 40.00. She eats like a bird so I don't understand why they couldn't be more accommodating especially since we were up all night with no air. Then later that day we went to the pool. The girl scanning magic bands scanner wasn't working so she wanted our room number which we gave her and then she was like well I am not sure if you are staying here but I guess I will let you in to the pool with a snarky tone. I'm sorry but when you are paying $500.00 a night I don't want any attitude from people that work at the beach club but we ran into this attitude constantly. I don't know if that is just the way it is in June or what but everyone was so kind in October so it was very strange to us and so disappointing. Then we went to beaches and cream at the hotel for Ice Cream. It was busy, but they did a good job of taking orders and getting people in and out. What upset us was they took our order and 4 other families that came in after us got their ice cream before us. I asked the girl at the desk like why are we not being served she said someone else was getting ours and I guess they were really slow or had to churn the cream because it was about 20 minutes after the families behind us got their ice cream that we got ours. Room service only came to our room once. Thank goodness I brought trash bags because we had a hug bag of trash by the time we checked out. I let them know we were celebrating our daughters graduation and asked if they could send something special up and they said they would but that never happened. No one ever acknowledged the celebration they didn't even give us a celebration pin when we checked in. We had no magical moments the whole trip. The service everywhere was mediocre at the parks hotel and restaurants. We went to story book dining and had to ask for the heart at the end because the waitress forgot to bring it. We also had tickets for the after hours at Hollywood Studios that Friday night and my daughter was still tired from being up all night with the ac she decided not to go with us. I asked the front desk if we could get the money back for her afterhours ticket and they said no which I wasn't upset about it because I kind of figured but everything we asked for we were told no there were no accommodations made for us in any kind of way the whole trip. Then we did the Frozen dessert party on that following Saturday and the area that was blocked off for the party, people that didn't pay for the party came in through the store that it backed up to they were standing at the front blocking the view for the people that paid for the great view. My husband said something to the cast member and they asked a few to leave but more were still getting in to that area which was frustrating. Again these are all little things but when you add them up it made for a disappointing stay. I am not the type to complain ever but when you pay over $5000 for a 4 night 5 day vacation its hard not to complain. It was so bad the last day we just wanted to go home. My husband went down and complained and told them how disappointed we were in our stay at the Beach Club and asked if they would refund us for the ticket we weren't going to use. After he explained everything that happened they stated they would refund us $386.00 for the unused ticket which to date we haven't received. I am so upset we were looking to purchase DVC but now I don't even want to go back to Disney. Considering it was my daughters first time and her graduation present it really just breaks my heart. The Disney goggles are off!