A Photo Tour of the Beach Club and Beach Club Villas Resorts
Even though we live in Central Florida, my family visits the Beach Club and Beach Club Villas Resorts very frequently. The reason? The Beaches and Cream restaurant. We end up stopping in at the Beach Club to enjoy a pile of greasy onion rings and fries along with several ice cream concoctions (which almost always includes a “mud slide” sundae). And although we sometimes also slip into Epcot for a few hours of strolling the World Showcase Prominade while we’re in the neighborhood, it’s the turn-of-the-previous-century atmosphere combined with Disney’s (almost) always top-notch service that makes Beaches and Cream—and the rest of the resort—a fun place to visit.
This week’s photo tour take you around the Beach Club and Beach Club Villas resorts.
Every visit to the Beach Club Resort begins at the entryway to the resort’s lobby.
The bus stop. Photo by Brian Bennett.
One of the benefits of living down South in late May and early June is the display of the gorgeous crepe myrtles!
Crepe myrtles near the bus stop are in full bloom during the second week of June. Photo by Brian Bennett.
Also visible, during the walk from the parking lot to the Beach Club lobby, is the Beach Club Villas building.
The causeway to the Beach Club Villas. Photo by Brian Bennett.
The architecture of the building is worth enjoying. The resort is really a very large place and the buildings are huge, but with the light gingerbread woodwork details, the airy brackets, the skylights in the porto cochere roof the scale seems to diminish a bit and the overall effect makes it feel far from imposing.
The porte cochere. Photo by Brian Bennett.
The main building is over five stories high, but it still looks like it would be perfectly in scale as a turn-of-the-century beach house on the Atlantic Coast. The over-sized watchtower, looks like it’s about the right size for a lifeguard to keep watch on the club elete enjoying the sand and surf below, drawing the rest of the building down. In reality, the “guardtower” is actually a couple of stories high itself, but the overall effect is one of appropriate scale.
The main building near the entrance of the Beach Club Villas building to the east, with its diminished scale. Photo by Brian Bennett.
When I entered the lobby building, I went upstairs and took most of my lobby pictures from the walkway that surrounds the lobby. I think you might agree that the walkway gives a nice view of the room!
The check-in desk. Photo by Brian Bennett.
The lobby. Photo by Brian Bennett.
The lobby. Photo by Brian Bennett.
The lobby watering hole, old Riptide lounge won’t be here much longer. The lounge is already shut down and will be closed off and the space absorbed into Cape May Cafe to provide some additional seating space in the near future.
Cape May Cafe is just around the corner!
Cape May Cafe. Photo by Brian Bennett.
Cape May Cafe is a very popular restaurant that offers a character breakfast in the morning and a New England style clam bake buffet in the evening. Both meals are among the most popular in all of Walt Disney World.
A sign for Cape May Cafe. Photo by Brian Bennett.
Photo by Brian Bennett.
If you’ve ever stopped in here for a bite, it’s very likely that you spent quite some time here in the waiting area before your party was called. Many of you that have literally spent hours of your lives here.
The waiting area of Cape May Cafe. Photo by Brian Bennett.
Winding around Cape May is this familar hallway that allows pedestrians to move from the Beach Club Lobby over to Stormalong Bay, Beaches and Cream and some of the resort’s service areas.
Cape May Cafe hallway. Photo by Brian Bennett.
Martha’s Vineyard a lovely lounge, provides an out-of-the-way place to relax.
Martha’s Vineyard lounge. Photo by Brian Bennett.
Just beyond Martha’s Vineyard is the location of the former Ariel’s Restaurant. No longer operating, Ariel’s at one time was the resort’s top-of-the-line seafood restaurant. Cape May’s clambake buffet proved to be so popular, though, that Ariel’s was left high-and-dry. Within a few years of the resort’s opening, Ariel’s was shuttered and became a special events venue.
The location of the former Ariel’s Restaurant. Photo by Brian Bennett.
A series of turns takes us to Beaches and Cream. Hamburgers, hot dogs, and ice cream sundaes, shakes, and malts are the primary fare here. Because a typical evening wait (for a restaurant table) is often an hour and a half or more, I’ve often thought that the resort’s management would be wise to expand Beaches and Cream, perhaps by carving out some additional seating space from Ariel’s next door.
The always-packed Beaches and Cream could benefit from a bit of an expansion. Photo by Brian Bennett.
Next door to Beaches and Cream is Lafferty’s Arcade, which is one of the best and largest of the WDW resort arcades. Perhaps the Contemporary Resort’s Fun Center is the only one larger (at least at the moment.)
Photo by Brian Bennett.
The Ship Shape fitness center…
The Ship Shape fitness center. Photo by Brian Bennett.
…and Periwig’s Salon are the other major services available in this area of the resort.
Photo by Brian Bennett.
On the other side of the Beach Club resort is the Beach Club Villas. From the Crescent Lake promenade, the lobby courtyard has a stately appearance, the walkway lined with cast iron lightposts and the courtyard itself filled with lush, formal gardens with carefully clipped hedges.
The lobby courtyard of Beach Club Villas. Photo by Brian Bennett.
The lobby courtyard of Beach Club Villas. Photo by Brian Bennett.
On each side of the resort (on both the Yacht Club side and the Beach Club side) are small brick-paved courtyards with benches that provide a little atmosphere and some additional theme eye candy for passersby, which I call “secret” courtyards because they are surrounded by guest rooms and are not open (as the very large courtyards are) to the Crescent Lake prominade.
“Secret” courtyards. Photo by Brian Bennett.
Just beyond the secret courtyard is another courtyard (just beyond the pool house in the background is the prominade), but this one is filled with the Beach Club’s quiet pool. The quiet pool is a perfect place for adults to catch some rays and to take a quick dip to cool off during the heat of the afternoon. Most families with children prefer Stormalong Bay to the quiet pools which is perfectly OK for those adults that prefer taking their sunshine in peace.
The Beach Club’s quiet pool. Photo by Brian Bennett.
Winding back through the guest room corridors to the main halls of the lobby building leads us to the Marketplace, which sells the typical resort goods such as clothing, and collectibles. They also serves up small meals, such as sandwiches and salads. Anything you’d like to buy for a quick breakfast in your room is available here, too. It’s quite a convenient store (and very typical of the stores at the Disney Vacation Club resorts since typical DVC guests stay at WDW often and frequently and thus tend to enjoy simple breakfasts.)
Photo by Brian Bennett.
The Marketplace. Photo by Brian Bennett.
Across from the Marketplace is a large L-shaped room called the Solarium. It’s beautifully decorated and a lovely place to just hang out, although most visitors to the Beach Club resort mostly have plenty to keep them occupied which leaves this room mostly just empty. It is used for special events occasionally, but for the most part it’s just a rarely-used gathering place.
The Solarium. Photo by Brian Bennett.
Photo by Brian Bennett.
Walking from the Solarium across to the Beach Club Villas building takes us past a lovely statue of Ariel, the Little Mermaid, perched atop a rock and providing a nice smile and welcome to everyone that enters.
Ariel’s statue. Photo by Brian Bennett.
The Beach Club Villas, of course, is one of the Disney Vacation Club timeshare resorts. Members purchase points that allow them to stay at this or one of the other DVC resorts each year. Barbara and I used to be DVC members, our home resort was Old Key West, before we moved to Central Florida almost four years ago. For frequent WDW visitors, the DVC is a very good program to consider. My family and I thoroughly enjoyed our years of membership and sometimes wish we hadn’t been so hasty to sell off our points when we moved down here.
Photo by Brian Bennett.
Just inside the front door, a small lobby makes way to the Breezeway room. Like the Solarium in the Beach Club building, the Breezeway is a lovely, if rarely used, sitting room that gives the Villas a homey feel.
The entrance to the Breezeway. Photo by Brian Bennett.
The built-in alcove in the Breezeway is spectacular and the padded benches are more comfortable than you might give them credit for.
A padded seating area in an a Breezeway nook. Photo by Brian Bennett.
Across from the alcove is another sitting area, this one decorated with a huge painting of a turn-of-the-century beach club resort.
Photo by Brian Bennett.
Just outside the Breezeway is the Beach Club Villa’s quiet pool, called the Dunes Cove Pool. Like the quiet pools at the Beach Club and Yacht Club, this pool is used much more by adults trying to avoid the hub-bub of Stormalong Bay.
The Dunes Cove Pool. Photo by Brian Bennett.
The hallways of the Villas are very similar to those of the Beach Club…
A hallway in the Villas. Photo by Brian Bennett.
…and black-and-white photos of the era can be found throughout the building. They truly add to the atmosphere of this place!
An old beachside photo. Photo by Brian Bennett.
The last point of interest on today’s tour of the Beach Club Villas is the Drawing Room. The Drawing Room is yet another sitting area, this one located across the building lobby from the Breezeway. Guests that are looking for a quiet place to hang out while, perhaps, their room is being cleaned by the housekeeping crew, would do well to enjoy a book or light conversation here.
Photo by Brian Bennett.
Next time, we’ll finish up our visit to the North side of Crescent Lake (that’s the name of the body of water between the Beach Club Resort and the Boardwalk Resort) by walking around the Yacht Club Resort, and we’ll also visit Stormalong Bay, the expansive swimming complex shared by the Beach and Yacht Club Resorts.
