Mike E.
Yelp
I've stayed at both the Beach Club and Yacht Club. Almost every comment I read on the reviews can be accurate.
There can be long lines everywhere, depending on the time of day. This goes for boat rides, shuttle buses, pool swims, restaurants, check-in, or even when grabbing a cup of ice cream. Sometimes, you just have to allow for an extra 15 minutes before going to where you wanted to go.
Pros
This hotel is the closest you're going to get to walk to Epcot, which is quite the luxury. Literally walk from room into Epcot France within 10 minutes (a calmer entrance too). It's also a nice stroll to Boardwalk for ice cream, funnel cakes and some light entertainment. We got to see Coney Island Chris, a cute and free show.
The huge beach pool, shared with Yacht club, is another luxury that only these two hotels have access to. Very nice pool with different areas to swim, hang out, water falling down rocks, whirlpool section, a few spas, the big slide, water volleyball, a shallow beach area for little ones, etc. The slide could use a refurbishing I feel as it's not easy on the back. Every groove or seam on the slide is felt as you go down.
The rooms and amenities are adequate and all you need. As others said, bathrooms are oddly small. I also think I saw 4 or 5 different size balconies, so if you paid extra for one, know what you're getting.
Cons
On some pathways, you are actually forced to walk right through a designated smoking area. Rethink this. Why offer a convenient smoking location to smokers when today's society is doing the exact opposite? Look at the statistics. Additionally, this is Disney. Why force kids to walk past people smoking??
Check-in process is flawed. At most hotels in this world, your room is ready at check-in. In some cases, even earlier, making the customer shout "yaay". At Disney, this isn't the case. Per the front desk, "check-in starts at 3" and it's generally accepted for customers to have to wait for their room. Shocking. If that happens, at these sorts of nightly rates too, customers should automatically be compensated in some way.
Most people visiting Disney just want to drop their stuff in the room and go. Have it cleaned for them each day and hardly ever spend time in the room. That's all they ask. Have their room ready and clean it each day by a reasonable time. Yes, it's nice to see beautiful gardens and freshly painted walls everywhere. It's also nice to have friendly staff, good food, a fun pool and everything else. But, the two most important factors are stated above. Gotta make them right.
My check-in was not pleasant. The 4 hour delay, the rude conversations I had with two different front desk employees and my resulting grumpy family. However, if you're unhappy, Disney management cares and they demonstrated this to us. After sending a note to the GM of both hotels, one of the duty managers visited us, listened to our concerns and was open to turning our rough start around. He more than compensated us based on our needs. My family thanks you, Luis!
In summary, we'd probably stay again. If you're a huge fan of Epcot, and not on tight budget, this is the place to stay.