Hello! I am catching up on so much work that I really don't have a lot of time to do a full trip report. But I am happy to give highlights.
Beach Club was fantastic! I just looooove that resort. The pool was incredible. Between all of the sandy "beaches" right at the pool and the huge waterslide, there was enough entertainment right on site for my 2 girls for 2 of the 6 days (they are 8 and 3). We stayed in the 2BR room as a gift from Disney.
What happened is that we originally booked our stay from the 2nd through the 7th via our AKV points in the 1BR size. Then I checked for fligths to Orlando from CA and it was better to go the 1st. So I called back and added on a day for the 1st and they didn't have any 1BR available. So I said ok, we'll take a 2BR for the first night.
Well, when we checked in at around 1am FL time, the lady was nice enough to say "just stay in your room!!!" It was the best gift ever. We were on the 5th floor with a partial view of the water. It was still very nice and we were grateful. I didn't make ANY dinner plans at all (and didn't do Disney Dining) because my family just doesn't tend to eat a lot in general and I really wasn't sure how my 2 kids would take the trip and the long lines and so on. Turned out to be a great decision. My inlaws cooked for us almost every night and we just grabbed food at the parks during the day. We also had a LOT of the free hot cocoa at the resort!
We bought the MNSSHP tickets a few months ago for Sunday. We got to the Magic Kingdom at 4pm after a day of swimming. They gave us special wrist bands and we got to stay till park close (I think MN). By 7, the regular day pass users were asked to leave so only those who had these special tickets could stay. What that meant was that the park was EMPTY. Most rides stayed open and we went on everything we wanted to with no wait! It was awesome. It was also a lot cooler in the evening and the park looked great all decked out in Halloween theme. My kids (most kids) had their Halloween costumes on and got tons of candy from the Disney "cast members". They had a great time and I loved the relative quiet of the park at night. We ended up leaving around 10 but I think if I didn't have my 3yo with me, we could have gone for a few more hours easily.
The rest of the days we went to Epcot (we just walked from BCV, since it was faster than the boat and very close). As a matter of fact, we used the Monorail to go from Epcot to the MK. We were there almost daily because the kids ADORED the new Nemo ride. We did MGM (3yo didn't get it at all, my 8 yo thought it was fun). And Animal Kingdom, which both kids enjoyed. We skipped Sea World since we have one here in San Diego.
I loved Buzz Lightyear and we ended up going on it about 10 times since there was no line!
My other old time fave is Thunder Mtn, and now I managed to addict my 8 year old to it too, so it was perfect. Overall the parks were very quiet (kinda eerie actually) probably thanks to the economy. Still, everything was open and the staff was super nice.
My only gripe is that they never managed to link our reservations. We basically had 3-4 different ressies due to the source of the points (developer points, 07 points, 08 points, etc) so every other day our room key would STOP working and we'd have to check in again. My DH was very annoyed by this. We didn't have to move rooms thank goodness but each time they said it was fixed and it wasn't. It was just a wierd little hassle to go through. DH minded it way more than I did. Oh, and we had to argue about the $10 internet vs free internet for owners. Since we got 4 different bills for all the checkout days, they had to keep taking it off our bill. Sigh.
Overall, it was fantastic and both children loooooved it. My inlaws also adored the BCV and went down the slide quite a few times! I captured it on video with them coming down the slide with huge grins from ear to ear. It's hysterical.
I cannot wait for GCV to go on sale so that we can get points there. The cross country flight was tiring and although both kids handled it well (AA through DFW), I wouldn't want to do this every year. GCV will be driving distance which will make it more economical for us too.
So to tie this into Starwood, I HIGHLY recommend an II trade into BCV during off season. You'd probably have to do an ongoing search for a 1BR or 2BR but I have seen them crop up from time to time. I could not imagine going in the summer when it is hot and humid and crowded. This was the perfect time to go! And I bet the park will look fantastic for the holidays too.
Katherine