The grand, turn-of-the-century summer homes of Martha's Vineyard and
Nantucket are recalled in Disney's Yacht Club Resort and Disney's Beach
Club Resort, two deluxe-category hotels at Walt Disney World Resort.
The luxury club hotels on the shores of 25-acre Crescent Lake are designed
by noted architect Robert A.M. Stern, best known for his East Coast seaside
homes. The resorts take guests back to the 1890s with fancy-cut shingles,
French doors and other post-modern embellishments that are the trademark
of Stern's work.
The imagery follows through in Stormalong Bay, a 2 1/2-acre water recreation
area reminiscent of a Nantucket beach with a life-size shipwreck with
water slides, snorkeling in a sandy lagoon and a meandering swimming
area that seemingly flows into the surrounding lake.
Complementing each other, the three-, four- and five-story club hotels
nonetheless have distinctive architectural styles. Each hotel has its
own entrance motif, main lobby, restaurants and retail shops.
The pale-blue-and-white "stick-style" Beach Club is "a little bit of
this, a little bit of that," said Stern with a smile. Stick style, he
explained, was the prevalent architecture for seaside wooden cottages
in the 1860s and 1870s, "like grandmother's fabulous beach house -- ceiling
fans, chintz, gingham."
The crisp colors open up the hotel's lobby with white wicker furniture,
24-foot-high ceilings, natural French limestone floors and a seashell
motif. Cast members are dressed in more casual pastel knickers or dresses.
All of the 576 rooms continue the "summer cottage" ambiance with cool
colors, a scattering of seashells and French doors to outdoor porches
and a white-sand beach.
Magical Kingdoms recommend Small World Vacations to book your stay at this Resort.
