We just got back from a 6 night trip at the Beach Club with four days in the parks. We've done the parks quite a few times over the years but this was the first time staying on property. We chose the free dining plan over the room only discount. We have three children: one daughter age 13 and two boys age 9 and 5. I'm not going to write out all of the details just more thoughts on the time.
To start with….we had a blast! We live outside the US and only come back to the US every 3-4 years so our visits to WDW are limited to these visits. We loved the immersion that comes with staying on property. And staying at a deluxe property like the Beach Club is awesome.
Here are some thoughts:
In General:
--Magic Bands and Fastpass + worked perfectly. I did my share of preplanning but once we got on vacation the new system allowed us to relax and enjoy our days.
--Starbucks. I love having Starbucks as an option. Joffrey's may be an improvement over the Nescrappe that they used to serve but it still sucks.
--Character meals. Worth it if your kids love the characters….but the food is all the same and not that great. We enjoyed Chef Mickey's the most and the Crystal Palace the least.
--Crowds. We visited from September 6-12 and the crowds were light most of the day.
The Beach Club:
The entire resort is beautiful. We truly felt like we had checked into a grand beach club in the Northeast somewhere. We spent one night at the resort relaxing and the kids had a great time playing games, coloring and watching a movies with some of the cast members. Sadly the lazy river was closed for our first pool day and for the second some kid caused an unexpected cleaning of the pool. But we did to enjoy the Boardwalk pool instead.
Magic Kingdom:
My favorite park of them all.
Day one we were able to ride 20 rides and got 8 character signatures.
--Loved the theming of the circus area
--Slightly disappointed by all of New Fantasyland. The little mermaid and 7 dwarfs mine train were underwhelming to say the least. With the length of time they took to develop this area and the amount of hype they put into it I expected and hoped for more. Adventureland and Frontierland deliver much stronger theming and immersion.
--I asked 3 cast members working on Main Street for a certain name on the windows and none of the three even knew that there were names on the windows. Seriously?
--Be our guest. There are two sides to this restaurant. If you look above 6 feet you will see a beautiful, well designed elegant restaurant. If you look below 6 feet you will see a basic cafeteria with boring tables and chairs and an endless procession of food and cleaning carts. If you can't get a reservation for it….no worries.
--Character interactions. We did a lot of these and each was perfect. We had a good amount of time with each character and the kids found this more enjoyable than the meals with them. My girls waited for Merida (only 90 people per visit) and found her to the most personable of all the characters. We also had a fast pass for Ana and Elsa and this was well worth it. Elsa was nice but Ana stole the show with her personality and interactions with our kids.
--We visited the MK two days, first and last and this was a great idea. We allowed ourselves enough time to take in every aspect of the lands we were in. We rode the rides, shopped in the shops, visited with characters and used our snack credits along the way. There's so much to see and do if you have the time.
--Other big hits….Space Mountain (4x), Splash Mountain (2x), Philharmagic (2x), Buzz Lightyear Star Command (5x) and the Tomorrowland speedway (6x).
Epcot:
As always this park seems like a walk in the park after a day at the MK. Lower crowds and more space is quite nice.
--Our kids loved the new Testtrack. They loved creating their own cars and all of the interactive stuff after the ride was over. This was a huge hit with all three of them.
--Turtletalk with Crush was entertaining as always….another hit with the kids.
--As others have said….the future side of Epcot needs some serious work. Everytime we go it seems like there's less and less to see and do.
--The world showcase was fun as always but more snack food would be nice. We've been to Italy several times and buying pizza by the slice on the street is quite common. A pizza by the slice cart would be awesome as would something equivalent in each country.
--Ate at Sunshine Seasons and my wife got food poisoning. A buffet with low crowd levels often means that food just sits around…..we should have thought of that.
Hollywood Studios:
This park has some fun stuff but seems lost and confused about it's identity.
--Star tours was a huge hit and due to low crowd levels we rode it 6 times that day.
--Jedi training. We planned our day around this and then after 20-30 seconds of rain they cancelled my kid's session. They did offer the kids the opportunity have their photo taken with Darth Vader which was cool. This was probably our worst cast member interaction as they didn't seem to care about all of the upset kids.
--One man's dream. This was one thing I had to do and I'm so glad I did. This exhibit and movie is truly inspiring and helps to make sense of all thats going on in this vast combination of hotels, parks and rides. Everyone should do this!
--Indiana Jones. I know this is going away but the kids loved this show. It was entertaining for all of us.
--The rest of park….sigh. It's difficult to navigate and trying to find somewhere to eat after 6 is almost impossible. Until they redo this park we won't visit it again.
Now to pay this trip off and start saving for the next one!
To start with….we had a blast! We live outside the US and only come back to the US every 3-4 years so our visits to WDW are limited to these visits. We loved the immersion that comes with staying on property. And staying at a deluxe property like the Beach Club is awesome.
Here are some thoughts:
In General:
--Magic Bands and Fastpass + worked perfectly. I did my share of preplanning but once we got on vacation the new system allowed us to relax and enjoy our days.
--Starbucks. I love having Starbucks as an option. Joffrey's may be an improvement over the Nescrappe that they used to serve but it still sucks.
--Character meals. Worth it if your kids love the characters….but the food is all the same and not that great. We enjoyed Chef Mickey's the most and the Crystal Palace the least.
--Crowds. We visited from September 6-12 and the crowds were light most of the day.
The Beach Club:
The entire resort is beautiful. We truly felt like we had checked into a grand beach club in the Northeast somewhere. We spent one night at the resort relaxing and the kids had a great time playing games, coloring and watching a movies with some of the cast members. Sadly the lazy river was closed for our first pool day and for the second some kid caused an unexpected cleaning of the pool. But we did to enjoy the Boardwalk pool instead.
Magic Kingdom:
My favorite park of them all.
Day one we were able to ride 20 rides and got 8 character signatures.
--Loved the theming of the circus area
--Slightly disappointed by all of New Fantasyland. The little mermaid and 7 dwarfs mine train were underwhelming to say the least. With the length of time they took to develop this area and the amount of hype they put into it I expected and hoped for more. Adventureland and Frontierland deliver much stronger theming and immersion.
--I asked 3 cast members working on Main Street for a certain name on the windows and none of the three even knew that there were names on the windows. Seriously?
--Be our guest. There are two sides to this restaurant. If you look above 6 feet you will see a beautiful, well designed elegant restaurant. If you look below 6 feet you will see a basic cafeteria with boring tables and chairs and an endless procession of food and cleaning carts. If you can't get a reservation for it….no worries.
--Character interactions. We did a lot of these and each was perfect. We had a good amount of time with each character and the kids found this more enjoyable than the meals with them. My girls waited for Merida (only 90 people per visit) and found her to the most personable of all the characters. We also had a fast pass for Ana and Elsa and this was well worth it. Elsa was nice but Ana stole the show with her personality and interactions with our kids.
--We visited the MK two days, first and last and this was a great idea. We allowed ourselves enough time to take in every aspect of the lands we were in. We rode the rides, shopped in the shops, visited with characters and used our snack credits along the way. There's so much to see and do if you have the time.
--Other big hits….Space Mountain (4x), Splash Mountain (2x), Philharmagic (2x), Buzz Lightyear Star Command (5x) and the Tomorrowland speedway (6x).
Epcot:
As always this park seems like a walk in the park after a day at the MK. Lower crowds and more space is quite nice.
--Our kids loved the new Testtrack. They loved creating their own cars and all of the interactive stuff after the ride was over. This was a huge hit with all three of them.
--Turtletalk with Crush was entertaining as always….another hit with the kids.
--As others have said….the future side of Epcot needs some serious work. Everytime we go it seems like there's less and less to see and do.
--The world showcase was fun as always but more snack food would be nice. We've been to Italy several times and buying pizza by the slice on the street is quite common. A pizza by the slice cart would be awesome as would something equivalent in each country.
--Ate at Sunshine Seasons and my wife got food poisoning. A buffet with low crowd levels often means that food just sits around…..we should have thought of that.
Hollywood Studios:
This park has some fun stuff but seems lost and confused about it's identity.
--Star tours was a huge hit and due to low crowd levels we rode it 6 times that day.
--Jedi training. We planned our day around this and then after 20-30 seconds of rain they cancelled my kid's session. They did offer the kids the opportunity have their photo taken with Darth Vader which was cool. This was probably our worst cast member interaction as they didn't seem to care about all of the upset kids.
--One man's dream. This was one thing I had to do and I'm so glad I did. This exhibit and movie is truly inspiring and helps to make sense of all thats going on in this vast combination of hotels, parks and rides. Everyone should do this!
--Indiana Jones. I know this is going away but the kids loved this show. It was entertaining for all of us.
--The rest of park….sigh. It's difficult to navigate and trying to find somewhere to eat after 6 is almost impossible. Until they redo this park we won't visit it again.
Now to pay this trip off and start saving for the next one!
