Disney's Beach Club Resort: A Coastal Retreat Steps from Epcot

If you love the charm of New England but still want to be immersed in the Disney magic, Disney’s Beach Club Resort and Villas are for you. Nestled on the bank of Crescent Lake, this Epcot-area deluxe resort offers prime access to two parks on foot and boasts what our advisors consider Walt Disney World’s best resort pool — Stormalong Bay.

Disney’s Beach Club shares amenities with its sister resort, Disney’s Yacht Club. These two, along with Disney’s BoardWalk Inn and Villas, the Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin, and the newer Walt Disney World Swan Reserve, make up the Epcot resort area — all within walking distance to Epcot’s International Gateway and a short boat ride to the main entrance of Disney’s Hollywood Studios.

The resort

Disney’s Beach Club is a deluxe resort with a casual, family-friendly feel. Its subdued seafoam-and-cream tones are calming and relaxing; the nautical and sea-inspired touches are playful, and not as formal as its sister resort, Disney’s Yacht Club.

The resort holds approximately 580 rooms, most of them standard rooms sleeping 5 — a combination of king beds, queen beds, day beds, and sleeper chairs. Room categories include standard view, garden view, lagoon/pool view, plus club-level rooms and a small selection of suites.

Guests interested in renting a studio, one-bedroom, or two-bedroom villa can do so through the adjacent Disney Vacation Club Villas at the Beach Club — these book up quickly and are subject to availability.

Transportation

Beach Club shares bus service with the Yacht Club. Buses run to all four theme parks, the two water parks, and Disney Springs.

The resort is one of the few on-property hotels with walking access to two parks:

• A waterfront promenade along Crescent Lake to Epcot’s International Gateway (~10 minutes)
• The same path continues around the lake to Disney’s Hollywood Studios (~20 minutes)

Friendship boats also circulate between the Epcot-area resorts, Epcot, and Hollywood Studios — useful if your party is tired or it’s raining. From Epcot you can reach the monorail at the Transportation and Ticket Center to transfer to Magic Kingdom and its monorail resorts.

Complimentary self-parking is included; valet is available for an added charge.

Dining

The Beach Club has a tight but well-curated set of on-site dining options. Beaches & Cream Soda Shop — refurbished in 2020 and reopened with an expanded indoor dining room — remains the resort’s anchor, famous for the Kitchen Sink sundae and a 1950s soda-fountain menu of burgers, sandwiches, and ice cream. Reservations are strongly encouraged.

Cape May Cafe hosts a character breakfast in the morning and a seafood-focused buffet at dinner. Character lineups at Cape May have changed over the years; check what’s currently appearing when you book. Dinner is a Cape Cod-style spread with shrimp, mussels, clams, prime rib, and a respectable dessert station.

For quick service, The Marketplace at Ale and Compass handles breakfast, lunch, and dinner with grab-and-go pastries, salads, and entrées; Hurricane Hanna’s waterside bar on the edge of Stormalong Bay serves lunch, dinner, and specialty cocktails so you don’t have to leave the pool.

Aside from the on-site dining, guests can walk to every other Epcot-area resort for a wider range of restaurants, and Epcot itself (park admission required) is a 10-minute stroll. The Beach Club also offers 24-hour room service.

Pools and recreation

There’s no swimming in Crescent Lake, but the resort doesn’t need it. Three leisure pools (each with a whirlpool spa) are available to all guests at Disney’s Yacht and Beach Club resorts.

The headliner is Stormalong Bay, a 3-acre pool complex that functions more like a small water park:

• A 230-foot waterslide that begins atop a life-sized shipwreck
• A lazy river
• A sand-bottom zero-entry pool that feels like a real beach
• A kiddie pool with a small slide
• Three whirlpool spas
• An elevated tanning deck

Hurricane Hanna’s sits inside the Stormalong Bay complex, so food and drink are always close at hand.

Beyond the pools, guests have access to tennis and volleyball courts, the Ship Shape Health Club, a playground, and free nightly campfires with movies under the stars. For an added fee you can rent bicycles or boats, hit the arcade, or play miniature golf at the nearby Fantasia Gardens. Fishing excursions, fireworks cruises, and the Pirate Adventure Cruise are also bookable.

Why we recommend it

The Beach Club is the right pick for families wanting a casual but upscale retreat from the theme parks — close enough to walk to Epcot for dinner, with a resort pool good enough that your kids will want to spend half the trip in it. Plan at least one resort-only day to take advantage of Stormalong Bay; you’ll be glad you did.

The proximity to Epcot also makes Beach Club one of our most-recommended stays during the Epcot International Food and Wine Festival (Aug–Nov) and the International Flower and Garden Festival (Mar–Jul) — you can walk to the World Showcase for a kiosk-hop and walk straight back.

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Want help deciding whether the Beach Club is right for your family? Talk to one of our advisors — Disney resort pricing varies by season, party size, and view category, and a free consultation usually saves families a few hundred dollars without changing the trip.