Join us as we head to Beach Club Marketplace for late-night bite!
Did you even know that Disney’s Beach Club Resort has a counter service location? Well, if you didn’t, you’re not alone. Actually, if it weren’t for the fact that it’s a Rapid Fill Refilling location, I’m not sure anyone would know that there’s hot food for sale here.
Let’s take a look at this shop and see if it’s worth your time to stop in.
Atmosphere
You’ll find Beach Club Marketplace tucked into the side entrance of the Beach Club Resort if you enter from the courtyard located behind the lobby. Sound confusing? Yeah. It is.
Disney’s Beach Club Resort
If you enter looking for just a restaurant, you’ll quickly find that Beach Club Marketplace serves more than just one purpose, and looks more like a gift shop than anything else. Because that’s basically what it is.
Beach Club Marketplace
This isn’t your typical Disney World Resort counter service spot, like Gasparilla Island Grill or Captain Cook’s, where it’s clear that the whole point of the space is food.
Beach Club Marketplace – Merchandise
The shop primarily serves the purpose of a merchandise and sundries shop, with plenty of Dry Goods to prepare simple meals in your hotel room or suite.
Beach Club Marketplace – Dry Goods
In addition, you’ll find lots of chilled drinks, including full-sized bottles of wine and grab and go prepared foods.
Extensive Refrigerated Section
But it is also a spot where you can score a freshly-made meal, albeit a simple one. Open normally from 7:00AM until 11:00PM, you’ll find an assortment of hot and cold meals for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. There are about two tables sitting inside, but your primary seating will be outdoor patio seating overlooking the entrance to the Beach Club Villas.
Outdoor Seating
Eats
If you’re looking for variety, definitely do yourself a favor and head to Epcot, or even BoardWalk Bakery in the neighboring BoardWalk Inn. But if you’re starving, or too tired to take another step, or everything else is closed, then you’ll find a few things here that might appeal.
I’ve stopped in here for sandwiches before, and they’ve been OK. On this visit, I was coming in from a long day of research and I was…hungry. If you can believe it. It was going on 11PM and I just needed something quick and easy before crashing into bed. There aren’t a lot of hot options for lunch and dinner, so I went with the Individual Pepperoni Flatbread.
And I was actually pretty surprised at how tasty it was. I wasn’t expecting much (clearly), but the flavors here were very good and I even ended up getting this again later in the week!
Pepperoni Flatbread
And, since I take advantage of every opportunity to eat at Disney, even when exhausted, I decided to grab a few other goodies to show you while I was at it.
I couldn’t resist trying the Lemon Meringue Tart. Lemon tarts are a favorite of mine, and it’s a goal to try every one on property, so here we go!
Lemon Meringue Tart
After I removed the Chocolate Garnish and the thick cap of what seemed like Italian Meringue, I could see the Lemon Curd Filling a little better. This was nothing special, but lemon curd is awesome no matter what. FYI — this is definitely more creamy and “curdy” than a typical lemon meringue pie filling.
I wouldn’t suggest anyone run out and pick this up unless it’s 11pm and you must have a lemon tart. The one at the Boardwalk Bakery is MUCH better.
Lemon Meringue Tart — Inside
I also spied a couple of cupcakes I hadn’t seen here before. The first was a Red Velvet Cupcake.
It was super cute, and found in the refrigerated section. It LOOKS great, but I quickly found out that it had been sitting for a while and the frosting was hard and crusty versus smooth and creamy. Same with the cake. Bummer.
Red Velvet Cupcake
But then, there was also a Reese’s Pieces Cupcake that I couldn’t pass up. This one was slightly better in flavor than the red velvet, but the texture and consistency issues remained. So based on those two cupcakes, I can’t recommend getting the refrigerated cupcakes at the Marketplace. Two out of two were bad. 🙁
Reese’s Pieces Cupcake
Whew! Not my proudest hour when it comes to a healthy snack, but at least the pizza was good! Time to crash into bed and get ready for another big day!
Overall
The Beach Club Marketplace remains for me as a “last resort” stop — someplace I go if I’m starving and nothing else is open or available.
There are incredible counter service spots at many of Disney World’s resorts. Spots like Contempo Cafe and the aforementioned Captain Cook’s are destinations that I make a point of visiting because they’re so darn good. So why in the World do the twin premium resorts of Yacht and Beach not have a decent counter service spot between them?? I can only think that it’s because Disney doesn’t feel like there’s enough business, especially with Epcot so close by.
It’s unfortunate, because I’m a frequent visitor to these resorts, and I would love to see more/better counter-service and grab and go options — especially after hours.
Does Beach Club Marketplace cut it for you as the counter service offering at Beach Club Resort? Leave a comment and tell us what your thoughts!
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Are the Oreo bonbons still there?
AJ the pizza is really good and if you ask they will make it without sauce and with extra cheese. I have also found the sandwiches to be pretty good here.
Its a shame you did not get a coconut bar as those are my husbands favorites.
Those cupcakes and tart were probably sitting in their cases all day long. I would be really surprised if they tasted fresh! At least they were pretty though 🙂
Tricia — Thanks for the tip! And we definitely agree about the coconut bar — we reviewed it a while back. It’s certainly worth a stop in for that decadent treat. 🙂
My family of 3 stayed for the last week of summer 2015 @ Beach Club Resort and had a blast. We only made use of the counter service one time to grab blueberry muffins and few other baked goods which were fine. But I recommend make quick hast over to Epcot or Broadwalk bakery for newly baked items. We’ll worth the long wait @ bakery.
Thank you so much for sharing this. We always stay in the Boardwalk/Beach Club/Yacht Club area and it’s so disappointing that it’s so difficult to find quick service food items (not just sweet treats) late at night. This is a good one to know about…! I wish they would add more options to that whole area. Many of the other resort areas seem to have a much great greater selection–and with two DVC resorts (in addition to the regular resorts) in such close proximity, it’d be great to see some more interesting additions…! 🙂
I stayed at the Beach Club Villas 2 weeks ago, and found the food at the Marketplace VERY disappointing. While the breakfast was passable, the lunch and dinner offerings were terrible. The flatbread and chicken Caesar salad were the best of the bunch, but that is not saying much! My biggest complaint was with the sandwiches. The turkey appeared to be turkey loaf, and not turkey breast, and the ham and gruyere also tasted like processed “meat.” I did however, try one of the red velvet cupcakes, and fortunately, that was fresh! The best thing that I ate from the Marketplace! Oh, and the New England clam chowder was okay as well, but being from New England, I have to say that it was not authentic. We would NOT have eaten there as much as we did, except that several members of our group became sick with very bad colds and did not want to leave the hotel…
With all that said, if staying at the Beach Or Yacht Club resorts, I would DEFINTELY recommend hopping on the boat, or taking the short walk over to the Boardwalk Bakery. The are also a quick service establishment, and their Lobster Roll is to die for!!!
The Beach Club Marketplace is actually quite good, especially for breakfast and for oversized sandwiches at lunch. You forgot to mention the quick service location at the pool, which is awesome!
Melody — We didn’t spy them on our last swing-through, but we’ll check the next time we’re doing a menu walk through that part of the ‘World. 🙂
We were just there 2 weeks ago because that was all they had left as far as rooms. We are value resort people. I have to say, it’s a beautiful resort, but like us we usually use the quick service dinning plan. The marketplace was not impressive to us. We wasted 3 meals unfortunately. But we could have eaten at other areas.
I like the refill port! This entire resort is so stellar that I guess there has to be weak spot somewhere. All in all, it’s a nice little all purpose shop.
Agree that the quick service food there is fair to poor. it’s also very very limited.
We are DVC members and stay at Beach Club Villas often – love Beach Club but are not fans of the Marketplace – not as a place for food or even as a store. Have found selection to be disappointing on both counts.
The sandwiches and newer menu at Boardwalk Bakery are more appealing in my opinion. Plus it’s always a nice walk around Crescent Lake.
As much as I love the Beach Club Villas, this is definitely a mediocre spot. I LOVE the boardwalk bakery – on our last trip, we spent a full day at universal and were WIPED OUT when we got back to the room, so we grabbed a “quick service” meal from there and everything was great – esp the key lime tart ( I LIVE for key lime pie/tarts/anything and FL has the best of all of them). Regardless, can’t wait to get back down there – 324 days left!
We just returned from a 10 day stay at Yacht and Beach Club. I agree- the Marketplace is lacking in selection. I think the Yacht Club is getting refurbished in 2016. We stayed on the Yacht Club side, and we were a little disappointed there wasn’t a refill station on our side. Perhaps the resort will get a new bona fide quick serve location after the refurb? Since the resort serves a lot of convention travelers, I’d think they’d get a lot of business!
Lastly- the Marketplace had a vanilla Elsa cupcake- I think it was the Olaf birthday cupcake. My daughter and I shared it one night and it was delicious! Reminded me on the Elsa cupcake we had last year from Starring Rolls.
The Oreo Bon bons are the only reason to stop by. Last time we were there, we were told they only get a certain amount each day and when they’re gone, they’re gone. So maybe that’s why they were awol.
MeLissa — Thanks so much! That makes sense. 🙂
Wish they’d bring back the gelato! Still missing it after all these years.
Melody — Yes! We’re still seeing them on our visits to Marketplace. 🙂
We love everything about the beach club and the food is absolutely amazing in all the eateries, We adore Cape May and Beaches and Cream cream and we love the marketplace for a quick breakfast or lazy lunch , their sandwiches are huge and very tasty. We cannot fault this hotel on anything, It’s the best.
We will be traveling to Beach Club for the first time in the spring. My youngest son loves his Mickey waffles so I will become a frequent flier at Beach Club Marketplace. Do you wait in line for your food like at a value resort? Or do they deliver it to your table like at Wilderness Lodge?