Disney Mega Post #3 - The Yacht Club Resort

For this trip we stayed at the Yacht Club which is part of the Epcot resort area. I remembered staying onsite once with my parents in the 70s, though evidently I didn't remember it too well since I was convinced we stayed at the Contemporary and was informed by my father that was in fact the Polynesian (I think that's what he said, feel free to correct me if I'm wrong). Dave had never stayed onsite. I was very happy with the hotel. The cast members were all very friendly and helpful. We even saw the "Captain" greeting guests in the lobby one morning. The room was large, the view was great.

We looked out over the lake and Boardwalk (3rd floor, room 3135 for those who keep up with those things), The Boardwalk area itself is a nice attraction in itself. There are several restaurants, a marina, bikes for rent, and the swimming pool, though we never got around to using it, looked really good.

The location could not be beat. Unless you're planning on spending every day of your vacation at the Magic Kingdom (in which case you would want to stay at one of the monorail resorts), the Epcot resorts are the place to stay. It was a short and slightly longer walk to Epcot and MGM respectively. And you could get to MK by either cutting through Epcot and taking a monorail or by taking the bus. Animal Kingdom and Pleasure Island were both accessible by Disney bus. An aside about the buses - I was happy enough with the bus service, and god knows I don't know a reasonable way they could improve the service, but buses just aren't very magical.

We ate breakfast at the Yacht Club Galley nearly every morning. We almost never had to wait for a table, the food was good enough, and the servers were all great. They even gave us coffee to go as we were leaving to hit the parks. We had one dinner at the nicer restaurant at the Yacht Club, the steakhouse, and that was Thanksgiving night so I don't know how their regular menu is. I had steak and it was very good. Dave had turkey. The service was pretty brusk, which was odd considering the restaurant was not full by the time we got our seating (8:45). One pleasant surprise was Beaches and Cream by the pool. I had a garden burger which was good, and Dave had a chicken sandwich that looked good too. Neither of us had the huge ice cream sundaes, though the table of 8 next to us got the Kitchen Sink sundae that comes in a huge bowl. They dim the lights in the restaurant and announce to everyone there that someone is going to try to conquer the sundae. They were still eating it as we left so who knows if they finished it or not. My guess (or hope) is no.

All in all, I would absolutely stay there again, and would like to try the concierge level next time. The only reason I would try somewhere else would be if for some reason I only planned to go to the Magic Kingdom, or if I wanted not to spend every day in a park (would try Wilderness Lodge, which is just gorgeous, or would try Saratoga Springs for the spa).