Flew out from MCO on Thanksgiving evening & arrived back in the UK the following morning after 10 nights at the Yacht Club, so we are both suffering from a serious case of post Disney blues at the moment.
It had been three years since our last visit so a lot had changed at the resort, we had booked a lagoon view room & were on the 4th floor pretty much bang in line with the lighthouse so the view across to the BW was stunning, we finished every evening by sitting out on the balcony looking across at the lights & had breakfast looking out there every morning as well.
We loved the new rooms, a huge improvement over the old ones in our opinion, especially the new furniture & bathroom, the USB power sockets are also a great addition.
We are both neat freaks so the ability to store our suitcases under the beds was a huge bonus, mouse keeping kept our room in tip top condition, we did miss the towel sculptures though.
Our only complaint would be that with the exception of the framed picture on the wall there was nothing to identify it as a room in a Disney hotel, surely they could have kept or updated the Mickey lamps from the old rooms?
Almost every cast member that we encountered in the hotel was top notch & went above & beyond what we would expect.
The only exception being the cast member who checked us in & neglected to attach my credit card to our magic bands correctly (We found out in Epcot when we tried to buy something which resulted in a quick run back to the YC for yours truly to get it resolved).
She also asked me to confirm our address in Hammersmith, London, (We live in Ascot) it took me a few seconds to realise that she was looking at the Disney UK office address which I assume was on the booking, I gave up trying to explain to her what our actual address was in the end because she could not get her head around what I was trying to say to her.
I assume that we aren’t the first people to stay there from the UK who have booked through Disney UK so this should not have caused the confusion that it did.
We were on the dining package so made use of the coffee machines in the Market at Ale & Compass every morning, we also used the soft drink machines later in the day, snack credits were used to purchase pastries each morning as well.
We visited the Crews Cup lounge a few times & found the cast members to be as good as we remembered from our previous visit, dinner in the Yachtsman was also as memorable as our last meal in there.
The Christmas elves were gathering in the lobby along with a load of decorations when we returned from a late night at the Magic Kingdom one evening so when we came down in the morning, Christmas had arrived.
The decorations & tree looked fantastic without being over the top, the lobby looked stunning when you walked in through the front door.
The resort & in particular the lobby never felt busy or crowded unlike some of the other resorts we visited, there was a welcoming feeling of calm & tranquillity each & every time we walked in, how they manage it I don’t know, as for that “Yacht Club Smell”, I don’t know what it is but we both wished that we could purchase it & take it home to the UK with us.
I used the gym a few times & found it spotlessly clean with a great mix of machines & weights & plenty of clean towels.
We spent some time out by the pool & access was strictly controlled by cast members which was good to see.
We walked to Epcot & got the boat & walked to Hollywood Studios, the bus service to the Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom & Disney Springs was okay if somewhat flaky at times with the board at the bus stop seemingly changing the time of the next bus to various locations randomly.
We lost count of the times it would suddenly change the time of the next bus to 5 or 10 minutes later when it was showing a minute till the next one, first world problems I know but they really need to sort that out.
I also felt sorry for people waiting at the BC as there were a few times when the bus from the YC was so crowded that only a few people were able to board when the bus stopped there.
Does the BC get their own busses at busy times?
We had hired a car so drove as & when we felt like it & used Uber a few times, we also used a Mini Van to get to the Magic Kingdom for fireworks on our last evening which was very cool & I highly recommend trying the service out if you get a chance.
Before we arrived we had decided to do a split stay between the YC & another deluxe resort on our next visit in 2019, so made a point of visiting the Poly, Contemporary, Grand Floridian & Wilderness Lodge to narrow down our choices.
The Poly & Contemporary were both zoo’s & very, very noisy at the times we visited them so we ruled them out, WL was lovely but not having the option to walk anywhere else was the deciding factor for it being dropped from our list.
The GF was stunning, we really love the resort but it just didn’t feel as nice as the YC, we will stay there one time but not on our next trip.
In summary, we have decided that the YC is our Orlando home away from home, we fell for the resort massively this time & can’t wait until our next trip over the pond in 2019.
We have some exciting travel plans for next year which unfortunately do not involve America or Orlando so we will have to wait until 2019 until we return.
In the meantime we will continue to follow along & contribute to this fantastic thread.