Beach Club Club Level

[coliemouse]

Has anyone stayed at the Beach Club Club Level? What kind of food do they offer? Is it enough to substitute for meals? We have stayed at the Ritz Carlton Club Level and every meal was substantial except dinner. How does that compare to the Beach Club? Thanks so much for your help! :mickey:

[DebK]

I've stayed at a Ritz Carlton in Washington, DC on the club level and then I've stayed at the Beach Club on the club level. They are not even close.......The Ritz Carlton had many more offerings and a much higher level of service....

[TheRustyScupper]

1) Definitely not Concierge Floor quality food.
2) In variety or quality.
3) Not a substitute for real food.
4) Augment, but not replace.


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BC CLUB FLOOR LOUNGE OFFERINGS
Morning:
7:00am - 10:30am
pastries, fruit, cereal & beverages

Snacks:
11:30am - 4:00pm
chips, cookies & beverages

Evening:
5:00pm - 7:00pm
hot item samples, children's corner, crudités, cheese tray, beverages, wine & beer

Cordials & Desserts:
8:00pm - 10:00pm
assorted desserts and cordials

All Day:
7:00am - 10:00pm
whole fresh fruit & beverages

[BrerGnat]

It's not the Ritz Carlton.

However, if you can get a room on CL at a substantial discount (30-40% off rack rate), then I'd highly recommend it. We did it last year over spring break and it was, in my opinion, very good.

The biggest hurdle of the BC/YC is the lack of "quick food" available at the resorts. There is no dedicated quick service place there, except the poolside grill and the Marketplace, which has a VERY small selection of food items.

We found the club level breakfast to be more than adequate; however, we are not "hot breakfast" type people on a daily basis. We eat stuff like pancakes or waffles, eggs, and bacon about once a week at home, and do the same while on vacation. The breakfast offerings were plentiful, and included stuff like hard boiled eggs, hot oatmeal with a variety of fruit/nut toppings, bagels, muffins, pastries, LOTS of fresh fruit (this is the goldmine of CL for me!), yogurts, juice, coffee, milk, cold cereal selection, etc. It was a continental breakfast, but it was nicely presented, food was fresh and plentiful, and it was more than adequate for a filling breakfast.

In the afternoons, they put out homemade potato chips with dip, yogurt covered pretzels, Swedish Fish, and an assortment of fresh cookies. Drinks are lemonade, iced tea, and cranberry juice, along with sodas and water (free to take as many as you wish from the refrigerator). In addition, at ANY time of the day, you can ask for an entire liter of Evian to take back to your room. You can also do this with wine. You can ask for a whole bottle to take back to your room. Beer is available as well once the afternoon snack service starts.

The evening offerings (5-7pm) included hot apps, like spring rolls, crab wontons, chicken skewers, duck empanadas, and some sort of lamb wrapped in phyllo dough. The hot stuff changed every night, and it is accompanied by a selection of cold salads (like pasta, or rice salad), cheeses, crackers and breads, fresh veggies with dips, pb&j cups and fresh rolls for the kids, sliced apples with caramel, etc. We had a snack every evening, and found it very filling. We'd often follow that up with some split CS meals in the parks.

The dessert offerings are from 8-10pm, and include a few individual desserts (featured at the Cape May buffet downstairs....stuff like mini cheesecakes, oreo bon bons, tarts, cakes, mousse, etc.) Fresh cookies and cupcakes were also out nightly. Coffee, tea, and juice were available to drink, as well as alcoholic liqueurs.

We found a great value in the CL for our family of four. The food was enough for good breakfasts for us all. Our kids often ate entire meals out of the evening offerings, since they were so young (4 and 5). They'd have, for example, a pb&j roll, some sliced apples, some veggies, and a couple hot apps. We'd get them some milk and, voila...dinner! We'd stop by when we got back to the resort for dessert later at night.

We are "resort" people. We don't do commando days in the parks, so we were always at the resort to take advantage of the food offerings. It worked well for us.

In addition, we found the pre planning very useful, were able to have them deal with some special needs we had regarding our son with autism, and we very pleased with the efficiency of the desk CL staff. When it came time to leave, they took care of all our boarding passes and resort baggage check in stuff for us. ALL I had to do was take our bags down to the luggage check, drop them off, and that was it. I didn't have to do any of that paperwork myself. It was nice!

In addition, we appreciated the turn down service every night. It's nice to have your room serviced twice every day, and always have fresh towels, and trash taken away.

[javamama]

We're staying at the YC club level this upcoming trip, and we were told that everynight the dinner selections are at least 2 and they come from the Yachtsman Steakhouse. I know your at the BC, but everyone told you basically what it's like we've stayed at the Poly Club Level twice before, and they're all the same basically food wise now since they changed the format last year. Breakfast is always continental everywhere, beer always available throughout the day(which isn't advertised we've even had it delivered to our suite at the Poly before), chips, pbj for kids, lemonade, ice tea during the day, pops, bottled water(glass bottles though), and then Brer told you the dinner, and dessert set up. It's a good value if you get the discounts, it works out well if you take advantage of the club,and offerings. Enjoy if you go that route!

[Mousemates]

we thought the food offerings at the BC were only okay...not as good as what we've had at WL or GF...but okay nevertheless.

[BrerGnat]

we thought the food offerings at the BC were only okay...not as good as what we've had at WL or GF...but okay nevertheless.

See, we thought BC food was way better than WL! We are not "heavy food" lovers. We don't really do stuff like chili and hearty soups. And, the desserts at WL were pretty blah...

Different strokes...

[MILWDIANA]

We will be staying in the BC villas in July. Will we be able to take advantage of this or is it in a separate area???

[BrerGnat]

We will be staying in the BC villas in July. Will we be able to take advantage of this or is it in a separate area???

No, the villas do not have Club Level access. This is a separate floor (5th floor) of the Beach Club Resort, and costs approx $150/night extra over a standard room at the resort. You cannot add Club Level access to a Villas room.