4. Recreation

Since Beach Club Villas is right by Crescent Lake, there are a lot of watersports activities available. You’re also only a walk across the bridge away from all the entertainment at the Boardwalk. Discussing other entertainment options at Beach Club Villas is a bit silly, though. If you’re staying there, you’re going to spend most of your recreational time at Stormalong Bay, the mini-water park located at the property.

Stormalong Bay is technically one of three pools onsite, but it’s the undeniable alpha of the trio. Thematically, its backdrop is that of a shipwreck, which explains the land-locked ship on the beach. Stormalong Bay is a massive area complete with a beloved water slide and a few sandy areas that enhance the beach atmosphere, even in the pool itself. You’ll experience the strange sensation of walking on a standard underwater pool surface for a time only to notice that sand is suddenly betwixt your toes.

Due to the sheer size of the pool, it’s divided into several others. The one closest to the entrance is designed for swimming, the waterfall area is for people like me who like to get bombed with a constant deluge of water, and the most popular area is the lazy river. Yes, Stormalong Bay is so vast that it has a lazy river area, and it’s wildly popular, too. You may struggle to find an open raft during peak hours.

While Disney does have a pair of wonderful water parks in Orlando, Blizzard Beach and Typhoon Lagoon, Beach Club Villas provides an advantage to its guests. There is no travel required to enjoy a few hours of fun in the sun. You simply leave the theme park, throw on your swimsuit at the hotel, and enjoy splashing around only a few steps away from your room. When we stay at Beach Club Villas, we always wind up spending a couple of hours at Stormalong Bay, because it provides a wonderful respite from the craziness and congestion of the theme parks.

5. Logistics

Getting to Epcot is as simple as putting on your tennis shoes, turning left, and walking for about two hundred steps. You can take a boat to Hollywood Studios; it runs every 20 minutes. If you’re not worried about too much walking during your vacation, however, simply head across the bridge past Boardwalk Villas and you’ll reach the park in a short time. The walk is a bit longer than the one from Bay Lake Tower and Contemporary to Magic Kingdom, but it’s certainly manageable. You also won’t be beholden to the bus system.

This brings us to the chief problem with Beach Club Villas. Since it’s not on the monorail, your options for getting to the other two parks are a bit trickier. If you’re up for it, you can walk all the way across Epcot to reach the monorail at the front of the park. After a transfer at the Ticket and Transportation Center and a few stops, you’ll eventually reach Magic Kingdom. If that sounds like too much trouble – and it can be aggravating during busy park days – the other option is the bus. That’s what you’ll have to take to reach Animal Kingdom and Downtown Disney as well as the water parks. It’s also the most viable option for Magic Kingdom unless you want the extra exercise.

Much has been said about the aggravation of Disney’s bus transportation. I won’t pile on any further other than to note that some of our experiences in getting buses from Beach Club Villas to theme parks have proven comical. This is the foremost area of aggravation at the hotel other than its design, which can be a bit confusing the first few days you’re a guest. It’s easy to get turned around at Beach Club Villas, which can be problematic when you’re trying to find either the bus or the boat. 

6. Pricing

Presuming you aren’t staying by using Disney Vacation Club points, the pricing here is about the standard for Disney’s finest resorts. You should expect to pay between $350 and $500 a night, and it’ll tend toward the high end during Walt Disney World’s most popular visitation periods. For villas, the price isn’t that much higher, with prices starting at $500 and topping out at $750 for a one-bedroom. Two-bedroom villas range from $750 to $1,250.

With regards to DVC points, a night’s stay at a studio ranges from 15 to 18 points on weekdays during most of the year, but it spikes to 25 points during Premier Season, March 20th – April 2nd and Christmas week. On weekends, you’ll probably spend four points more. A week’s stay in a studio costs between 107 and 134 points save for Premier Season, when it increases to 181. For a one-bedroom studio, one week is between 200 and 250 points. For a two-bedroom, it’s 271 to 350.