Disney's Yacht & Beach Club: from this pearl of a place, the whole Epcot Resorts area is your oyster

Randy Mink

Sporting a nattily nautical motif, your rambling clapboard "cottage" is an impressive jewel in the necklace of deluxe hostelries strung around the shoreline, a movie-set harbor complete with a lighthouse that welcomes you home after frolics in Walt Disney World's fantasy parks. Heady throwbacks to New England resort villages of yesteryear, the shingled, oyster-gray Yacht Club--and its sister, the blue-and-white Beach Club--recall the grand seaside homes of Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard. Even though you're on a freshwater lake in the middle of Florida, you can almost smell salt in the air.

Crescent Lake is the centerpiece of the Epcot Resorts Area, a magical kingdom all its own, a royal realm we discovered on our latest trip to Disney World. Just steps from the hotel, you can rent a mini-speedboat at Bayside Marina, go on a fishing charter, lounge on the beach, or hop a water shuttle to Disney-MGM Studios or Epcot Center. Stroll 10 minutes around the lake and you're at Disney's Boardwalk Inn, whose old-fashioned shoreside amusement strip features street performers, music clubs, and restaurants, including ESPN Club, a must for sports fans. Also nearby is Fantasia Gardens miniature golf, across from the monumental Disney Swan and Disney Dolphin resorts and their wide range of inviting eateries.

The Epcot Resorts Area, in short, is a pedestrian's paradise. It's nice to know there are so many options right outside your door. And you can even walk--yes, walk--to Epcot Center, where the high-tech wizardry of Future World mingles with international cultures at World Showcase's 11 pavilions. From the Yacht & Beach Club's "oceanside" front yard you can see Epcot's trademark silver geosphere beyond the trees.

We stayed at the stately, 621-room Yacht Club, where guests are greeted by desk clerks in navy blue blazers and bellmen wearing knickers, blue-striped shirts, and snapbrim caps. In the lobby, accented with oak floors, brass fixtures, and rich millwork, oriental vases brim with plants, and a huge globe harks back to the days of early navigators.

Yacht Club guest rooms, all with French doors that open onto porches or balconies, are done in crisp blues and whites that echo the New England maritime theme. Our first-floor nest, with two queen-size beds and a daybed, had a framed map of Nantucket, a picture of old-time sailing ships, and red-and-blue curtains with a Mickey Mouse pattern. Furniture in all rooms is white.

The 572-room Beach Club, just down the wide boardwalk, has a more whimsical feel. Architect Robert A. M. Stern, who designed the Yacht & Beach Club (and Disney's Boardwalk, too), says the Beach Club is done in "stick style," the prevalent architecture for seaside wooden cottages in the 1860s and '70s. "It's a little bit of this, a little bit of that," he said. "Like grandmother's fabulous beach house--ceiling fans, chintz, gingham." A seashell motif, white wicker furniture, and French limestone floors adorn the lobby.

In between the hotels is Stormalong Bay, a water playground with meandering lagoons and a 150-foot waterslide that begins high atop the mast of a shipwreck. The three-acre pool, really a mini-water park, is the dual resorts' centerpiece and our kids' preferred spot to hang out. Surprises include whirling currents, a bubbling bay, waterfalls, and a sand-bottom area. In tucked-away alcoves far removed from Stormalong Bay, each hotel features an unguarded "quiet pool" and whirlpool.

Crescent Lake has a sand beach with striped cabanas and chairs, but swimming is not allowed. The marina offers canopy and pedal boats as well as motorized watercraft. You might land catfish or bigmouth bass during a two-hour guided fishing excursion on the 25-acre lake and adjoining waterways.

Next door to Stormalong Bay are the video games and pinball machines of Lafferty Place Arcade, plus a bright `n' bouncy soda shop called Beaches & Cream, our favorite restaurant at the Yacht & Beach Club. Juicy Fenway Park Burgers come in four sizes--the single, double, triple, and grand slam. To jukebox tunes of the '50s and '60s, families seated in booths or at the counter also feast on hot dogs, chili or cheese fries, chocolate phosphates, and frosty malts. Sundaes range from banana splits to the decadent Milky Way cake, a bundt cake laced with Milky Way bars and topped with ice cream, hot fudge, and butterscotch. For the whole gang, there's the Kitchen Sink, a metal container with eight scoops of ice cream covered in all the toppings. As the stainless steel sink dish is delivered to your table, the lights are dimmed and an announcement is made for all to hear.

You might set aside one evening for the New England-style clambake buffet at the Beach Club's Cape May Cafe, named after the venerable Jersey Shore resort town. Featured are steamed oysters, mussels, clams, redskin potatoes, corn-on-the-cob, assorted baked fish, pasta, barbecue pork ribs, and sirloin beef tips.

Goofy and friends join guests for a character breakfast buffet every morning at Cape May Cafe. The cartoon favorites come around and pose for pictures while you fill up on biscuits and gravy, eggs, sausage, and all kinds of pastries, cereals, and fruits, not to mention pancakes, french toast, and Mickey Mouse mini-waffles. Cost is $15.99 for adults, $8.99 for kids.

A dining haven for adults is Yachtsman's Steakhouse, a wood-and-brass room where choice cuts of beef are on display in a glass-enclosed meat-aging chamber. Menu entrees include filet mignon, thick-cut Porterhouse steaks, chateaubriand, and fresh, market-inspired seafood. (A children's menu is available, but the cheery Yacht Club Gallery is the better choice for family dining.) Next door the Crew's Cup Lounge offers beers from around the world. Designed in southern pine with copper accents, the cozy hideaway is decorated with art and memorabilia of Ivy League rowing teams.

Expansive croquet lawns at each hotel enhance the leisurely spirit of days gone by. Bradford pear trees, Japanese elm, magnolias, and crepe myrtle also beautify the grounds, reflecting Disney's celebrated knack for landscaping. Gardenias and roses bloom in intimate brick courtyards. We saw a wedding at the Yacht Club's Wedding Gazebo, which also helps set the stage.

Like all Walt Disney World on-property resorts, the Yacht & Beach Club offers frequent bus shuttles to Disney theme and water parks and to the Downtown Disney shopping/entertainment district. Other bonuses of on-site accommodations (usually more expensive than off-property hotels) include advance reservations for priority seating at Disney World resorts; the convenience of charging nearly every purchase to your hotel bill; free delivery of packages back to the resort; and guest rooms equipped with the Disney Channel, ESPN, and a closed-circuit TV station announcing Disney World events.

Best of all, these exquisitely designed resorts--idealized visions of Americana--ensure the magic continues when you exit the gates of the most enchanting theme parks in the world.

FAST FACTS

Name: Disney's Yacht & Beach Club

Owner/Operator: Walt Disney World

Location: The Epcot Resorts Area of Florida's Walt Disney World, a half-hour drive from Orlando International Airport.

Accommodations: 1,193 guest rooms. Scheduled to open in August next to the Beach Club is a 208-unit complex called Disney's Beach Club Villas, part of the Disney Vacation Club.

Facilities: Four restaurants, four lounges, poolside snack bar, three pool areas, two tennis courts, two croquet courts, beach volleyball, video/pinball arcade, Ship Shape Health Club, and Sandcastle Club evening program for children 4-12.

Free transportation: Guests can take a boat to Disney-MGM Studios and the Epcot Center entrance by the France pavilion. Buses link the resort to the Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, Downtown Disney, and Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard Beach water parks.

Rates: Standard rooms, sleeping up to five, start at $289.

Contact: Your travel agent or Walt Disney World reservations, (407) 934-7639. The Yacht Club's direct number is (407) 934-7000, the Beach Club (407) 934-8000.

COPYRIGHT 2002 World Publishing, Co. (Illinois)
COPYRIGHT 2002 Gale Group