Visiting Disney’s Yacht Club Resort – Our Staycation!

We enjoyed a wonderful staycation at Disney’s Yacht Club Resort at Walt Disney World. This resort had been on our Disney bucket list for a long time! What did we think? Find out below.

1 – Disney Yacht Club Resort

Disney’s Yacht Club Resort and its sister, Disney Beach Club Resort, offer deluxe lakeside accommodations. The resort offers a grand New England-style yacht club experience with fantastic amenities. It has one of the best locations of any Walt Disney World Resort, offering easy access to EPCOT and Disney’s Hollywood Studios. This was our first time staying at the resort, and we couldn’t have been more excited to explore and enjoy our time.

2 – Checking In

When visiting a Walt Disney World resort, the easiest way to check-in is to do the online check-in before your arrival. This will allow you (most of the time) to go straight to your room and skip the front desk. (Click here to learn more about the Direct to Room check-in process). I had completed the process earlier in the week and noted that we would be aiming to arrive around 11:30 am. This is well before the 3:00 pm check-in time, but we knew that if our room was not ready, we would still be able to enjoy lunch and the pool. When we arrived, our room was not ready, so we walked around the resort. After a short wait, our room was assigned to us. Because our room was not ready when we arrived, we were switched to a different room. Disney staff did try to accommodate our early arrival, and we appreciated their effort and the very short wait to get into our room.

3 – Rooms Options

Like other Deluxe resorts, Disney’s Yacht Club offers a variety of room types. From standard rooms to two-bedroom suites. We enjoyed a standard room with two queen beds and a twin-sized sleeper sofa. Standard amenities include: hairdryer, internet, coffee maker, telephone, in-room safe, iron and ironing board, and a mini-refrigerator. We also had a balcony with two chairs and a small table. We had a standard view room, so our room looked out to the parking lot. Other views include: garden, woods, or water. The photos below will give you an idea of what our room was like. Currently, rooms are receiving enhanced cleaning. A leaflet was left that shared how Disney is taking care to clean the rooms during the pandemic. Our room was everything we would expect from a Disney deluxe resort!

4 – The Best Pool on Property

After we checked in, our first stop was the very popular Stormalong Bay. Yacht Club and Beach Club share many amenities, including Stormalong Bay, and this 3-acre pool area keeps guests coming back! Because of its popularity, Disney Cast Members will check your MagicBand to ensure that you are a guest of the resort before letting you in the pool area. We were then given a wristband for the day, so we didn’t have to keep getting our bands checked if we left the pool area. We found chairs and enjoyed a lovely warm afternoon at the pool.

The pool offers poolside cabana rentals, which are proving very popular with guests. Stormalong Bay includes a sand-bottomed pool, circular lazy river, and one of the highest hotel waterslides at Walt Disney World—a life-sized shipwreck replica. I enjoyed the waterslide twice, and it was a lot of fun! There are also three whirlpool spas and three leisure pools at Disney’s Beach and Yacht Club Resorts if you are looking for a quieter experience. The pool experience was everything we hoped for, and had a wonderful afternoon. We even came back later in the evening to enjoy the sunset and relax.

5 – Dining Options

Because Yacht Club and Beach Club share their amenities, there are plenty of dining options available to choose from including: Ale & Compass Restaurant, Ale & Compass Lounge, The Market at Ale & Compass, Beaches & Cream Soda Shop, Beach Club Marketplace, Martha’s Vineyard, Hurricane Hanna’s Waterside Bar, and Grille, Cape May Café, Yachtsman Steakhouse, Crew’s Cup Lounge, and finally, Room Service.

The dining booking window is sixty days. If you know you want to dine at any of these restaurants, we highly recommend making your reservations as soon as possible. We could not get a reservation, so we dined at Disney Springs. Other great options are dining at EPCOT, Disney’s BoardWalk, Disney’s Hollywood Studios, and Disney’s Riviera Resort via the Disney Skyliner.

6 – Transportation

As we have mentioned, Disney’s Yacht Club is conveniently located next to several different areas. You can take a short walk to EPCOT’s International Gateway and the International Gateway Skyliner Station. The Skyliner will connect you to Disney’s Riviera Resort, Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort, Disney’s Pop Century Resort, Disney’s Art of Animation Resort, and Disney’s Hollywood Studios. You can also walk to Disney’s Hollywood Studios, which will take about 10-15 minutes. Friendship Boats that run to Disney’s BoardWalk, EPCOT, and Disney’s Hollywood Studios is also an option.

We enjoyed a lovely Skyliner ride from EPCOT station to Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort and back again in the evening. We love the Skyliner at night, and it was a fun way to spend part of our evening. We also enjoyed a ride our next morning to enjoy the daytime views the Skyliner has to offer.

7 – A Disney Bucket List Resort

We really enjoyed our short visit to Disney’s Yacht Club Resort. The resort delivers on location, amenities (especially the pool), and beautiful rooms, and the resort is gorgeous. This resort had been on our bucket list for quite some time, and we were thrilled to finally stay here. We highly recommend the resort to you as well!

Editor’s Note: Our travel partner, Magical Vacation Planner, provided us with a complimentary stay at Disney’s Yacht Club Resort. However, as always, the thoughts and opinions in this article are entirely our own.

We highly recommend booking with an Authorized Disney Vacation Planner to ensure you are well taken care of and get all the discounts available to you. We book all our Disney trips (and we do Disney a lot) with Magical Vacation Planners because they are the best, and we trust them. For more details and help booking your vacation, call (407) 442-0227. You can also get a no-obligation, FREE vacation quote by clicking here.  Their services are free to you, and they can answer any questions you may have.