I have stayed at 13 different Disney venue's for a total of 268 nights since 1997 and this by far was our best experience. We stayed the 3rd week of December up to shortly before New Years Eve in a Studio. Lively beautiful festive resort for the holidays. Walking distance to EPCOT was great. Easy access store, quick food and beverages. Bus and Boat transportation not so great, lengthy time to get anywhere as transportation is shared with other Disney and non-Disney resorts. Short walk or boat ride to Boardwalk for additional dining and entertainment options. Excellent location when traveling with a teenager ,arcade, ping-pong tables, pool, water slide. We also rented the surrey bikes at the Boardwalk for a great time. Pack light, easy access to laundry. Beaches and Cream an old fashion soda shop is fun place for teens and familys to eat. Hurricane Hannahs is a great place to pick up burgers and eat at the pool or take back to the room. Relaxing evening is to walk to the Boardwalk get ice cream at Seashore Sweets and watch the jugglers, and magicians on the Boardwalk. Movies on the beach is great family activity. By far the best Disney total package resort. We will stay here again and as often as possible. Disney is not all about the parks when you have a great resort like this. Room service was pricey but great food and timely delivery.

We stayed at Saratoga Springs in April and received a "bounceback offer". We called our grown children and asked if they would be interested in a Christmas trip, and then booked into Beach Club for the 16th - 21st, based on the kids schedule. We have previously stayed at deluxe properties ( just the two of us ) and at Old Key West, and I have to say that the location of this property is much more convenient to the parks we frequent - Epcot and MGM , The two bedroom villa was adequate for our family of 6 adults and one child age 6, but I was disappointed that all of the units with two queen beds had been taken by DVC members, and our unit had a queen bed and a standard sofa sleeper. As always, the W/D makes it so easy to pack with only carry ons since you can do a load every day when you return to the villa.Because we booked through Disney, vs. renting points from a member, we had daily housekeeping which is needed with 7 people in a unit. The villas at OKW are much more roomy for a party of our size, but everything must be reached by bus which makes it harder to move around, so I have to say Beach Club would be my first choice of the three we have visited for future trips.

I always ship boxes ahead to the resort with things we don't want to drag through airports ( like laptops ) but I was unpleasantly surprised this trip to find that Disney has outsourced package delivery/shipping and it cost me $20.00 to have 2 boxes delivered to our room upon arrival. If you want to ship those boxes back home, be certain to tell the "business center" that you have already paid this fee or they will charge you again.
I also use Garden Grocer to order foods for breakfasts and snacks, as well as bottled water, soda, alcohol and sandwich fixings. They give me great service at a relatively small markup compared to the cost of trying to buy those things at the gift shop or out in the parks. Your groceries are delivered the day of your arrival and held at bell services, then delivered to your room at your request upon check in. We used online check in this trip and were delighted to have less than a five minute delay to receive all we needed upon our arrival. Our room was not ready ( we arrived at 12:30 pm ) so we left all with bell services and took off to the parks - leaving a cell phone number which was called when the room was ready.

Some tips for those traveling to this property are:

Allow room in your budget for cabs. We wanted to view Christmas decorations at other resorts, and dine at some of them - for a $20.00 cab ride ( including tips ) we found that all of us could take a van to Sanaa, or the Grand Floridian, wihout the hassle of buses tranferring at downtown or the TTC. This was great when we combined a trip to the Grand Floridian, viewing the gingerbread house, etc, then took the monorail to Magic Kingdom for our night at Mickeys Very Merry Christmas Party ( I highly recommed the extra dollars for this event ).

If you plan to dine at Cape May, the breakfast was a much better value than the dinner and also had characters that spend plenty of time at each table. We did not have ADR's during this busy time, but found that if we approached the podium at 8-8:30 am, we could seat our party within a half hour.

If you are a Disney VISA card holder, each day at Innoventions WEST from 1:30 to 4:30 they will take your family pics for free with characters. Staying at Bach Club makes this an easy photo op. On top of this, we routinely have 2-3 hundred dollars in dream dollars, from using our VISA for other things through the year. This can allow luxuries that might not normally fit into your budget, and if you pay for your trip with the VISA, they wil give you 6 months, interest free, to pay the balance.

All told, we loved the property and felt our cost was realistic for a party of our size.

Definitely stay at Beach Club Villas....we were in a studio and it was perfect with our 2 kids. Washer and dryer, while not in our unit, were FREE in the villa section of the hotel. Kitchenette was great for getting breakfast on the go. Buy a drink cup on your 1st day there--worth it for the free refills on drinks for the week. Walking distance to Epcot--never spent much time there and we LOVED it! Only complaint was that the back end of Epcot did not let you in exactly at the same time as the front gates--and there is not transportation to the front gates. Boat to Hollywood Studios was great. Sign your kids up for the pirate cruise--ours LOVED it! (Make this reservation prior to going to Disney).

Sand bottom pool was very cool. Sand occupied kids for hours! Best pool we have even been to! We have stayed at 5 other Disney hotels--we will only stay at BCV from now on. Great hotel and great location!

This was our first time staying at a Disney villa. We have stayed at most of Disney's deluxe resorts and were impressed with all of them. However, even after staying at the Contemporary and the Grand Floridian, the Beach Club is our favorite, and this is where we'll be staying from now on!
Our 2 bedroom villa offered a ton more space (plus a kitchen) for my family for less than two rooms at another deluxe. Not only that, but our room faced a garden and it was always quiet. We had plenty of room for the 5 of us to spread out.
Not only is it a short walk from Epcot, but also a short boat ride to Mgm, and the Boardwalk's restaurants and shops are right across the lake! The food at Beach Club though was excellent. We loved the ice cream parlor especially.
The large pool, albeit crowded, is awesome. We didn't have the time to visit each section of the pool! The Villas' quiet pool was good for some afternoon relaxation.
I believe, along with many others, that the Beach Club is Disney's overlooked hidden gem. This is our resort of choice.