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Last November, I stayed at Disney’s Beach Club Resort with two of my kids before our DCL Very Merrytime cruise. We didn’t plan to stay there, but we got a last-minute pixie dust upgrade from a moderate resort.
Our night at Disney’s Beach Club Resort gave us a small glimpse at to what we could expect this summer (well, now next summer) since we rented DVC points to stay at the Beach Club Villas on our next trip. We loved Stormalong Bay, arguably the best pool/water area of any Disney resort at Disney World.
I joined a Beach Club fan group on social media to keep up with the latest news on the resort. But over the past few days, the page has been inundated with people saying that Disney has called them to move their 2021 reservation to another resort because the resort will still not be open next year. What?!?!
Extended Closure of Disney’s Beach Club Resort
Folks with early 2021 reservations and late 2021 reservations have reported getting phone calls from Disney or their travel agent. The line is that Disney is not planning to reopen the resort yet. This is not a temporary closure due to remodeling. Disney is offering guests a comparable room at Disney’s Yacht Club Resort (right next door) or at another Disney resort that is planned to be open in 2021. Some people were reportedly offered villas (not regular rooms) at Bay Lake Tower or Animal Kingdom.
This change is for the regular rooms only, not the DVC Beach Club Villas. The DVC villas at the resort are currently open, even though Stormalong Bay water park is currently closed.
If my family’s trip next May comes to fruition (namely, my family gets a reliable vaccine), for now it seems like our reservation will remain at the Beach Club because we are on the villas side. My hope it that Stormalong Bay will be open, and it will be a lot less crowded due to half the resort being empty.
I am very surprised that Disney is making the call to keep this resort closed for such a long time. I can only assume that resort attendance and future bookings are very low, and opening the resort with those numbers is not justifiable.
However, I’m sure there are many families who are waiting to see how 2021 and the vaccine situation pans out before making vacation plans. I know many families are craving normalcy, and going to Disney World is one of the ways to get back to “normal.”
Do you plan to visit Disney World in 2021? What do you make of these extended resort closures? Will Disney World still be a ghost town next year?
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Author: Nancy
Nancy lives near Dallas, Texas, with her husband and three kids. Her favorite vacations include the beach, cruising and everything Disney.
Beach Club is opening May 30th 2021.
We had reservations for Beach Club November 2020. Just tried moving them to November 2021 and received the same report. Will not be open in 2021.
Plus even if, and that’s a big IF, the vaccine is safe, will it be effective, or be more like the flu vaccine which is more of a miss most of the time.
@Lynn Yeah, it will probably be like 40%-60% effective. But that’s better than nothing. 🙂
We just got back from the boardwalk villas Friday. I can easily see Disney not opening the beach club(or Boardwalk Inn) back for a while. The park capacities are really low right now. The social distancing in the queues makes the physical queue lines long but they move quickly. If they open up all of the resorts, the capacities would increase so much that I don’t think they could properly social distance in the parks. They have a lot of employees dedicated to covid related activities. I have never seen so many employees cleaning trash cans and handrails. We felt safe but I have no idea how disney is going to make money for quite some time.
@HawaiiDreaming I hope you had a good trip there! I can totally see Disney not opening certain resorts right now or even the rest of this year, but I’m puzzled why they are already moving people with reservations for next July/Aug/Sept 2021. Future reservations must be very, very low. And you’re right, Disney probably isn’t making money. 🙁