Yacht Club Resort at Walt Disney World
A recent Burnsland post took a look at the Beach Club Resort at Walt Disney World, so now let’s take a look at its sister resort, the Yacht Club.
This first photo shows the entrance to the main lobby as you arrive from walking around the Epcot Resorts at Walt Disney World. Like its sister resort the Beach Club, the Yacht Club was designed by architect Robert A.M. Stern, and is in fact a part of one very large building that houses both the Yacht Club and Beach Club Resorts. However, thanks to some good planning and a very large area, most people do not realize that the two resorts are in fact one building. Not that it really matters all that much whether they are or not, I suppose.
If you have been following along with the photos from our July 2017 Florida trip, you can see that the clouds that were present through most of that trip also followed us here. And even some rain, as you might notice that the ground surfaces are a little bit wet. But that did not bother us any.
This next photo takes a look inside the lobby. The doors into the building in the first photo are just to the right of the frame here, in case you are wondering. And the doors visible across the way go out to the parking lot. Although you cannot tell it from this angle, there was actually quite a bit of renovation work going on in the Yacht Club lobby, with a temporary shop set up in one corner, and several other areas walled off. In fact, to check in to this hotel, guests had to go to the lobby of the Beach Club, which was probably just a little inconvenient for them. It did not affect us all that much, except that we usually like to look in the larger gift shop that was closed for remodeling.
I do always like the look of this lobby with the antique-looking globe out in the center on top of the large compass, and the little nautical touches found here and there. It will be interesting to see what all has changed once all of the work is complete.
One interesting feature of the Yacht Club is that there is a lighthouse at the end of a pier out over the water of the lake. Of course, the lighthouse is not actually necessary, but it does keep with the Yacht Club theme. And it helps me be able to remember which one is the Yacht Club and which one is the Beach Club, because yachts would possibly have need of a lighthouse at night. And yes, the pier does actually serve boats, because you can catch a boat from there to Epcot. Not actually a yacht, but still pretty cool.
For me, the lighthouse also provides an interesting photographic element, as you can see here. I like the way the lines of the pier and the rope railings lead your eye to the lighthouse at the center of the frame, with the Boardwalk Resort off in the distance. Pretty cool. And the fisheye lens here makes the lighthouse look even farther away than it actually is.
I also think the pier leading to the lighthouse is a good place for a portrait, as you can see from this photo of Laura. I switched lenses here to get more of a feeling of depth with the lighthouse being out of focus in the background. Because having the lighthouse be in focus and Laura be out of focus would just be silly.
As I often say, who you go with is much more important than where you go, and for me a photo of Laura would be good no matter what might be in the background. I hope you have someone like that to travel with as well. But not Laura, because she is already taken.
For this photo, I walked down toward the lighthouse and faced back toward the Yacht Club to give a different perspective of the building. Once again, I like the way the pier and the rope railings lead your eye to the building. I like the wet surfaces reflecting the sky and the dark clouds up overhead. And there is Laura near the center, too, apparently one of the very few people braving a few scarce raindrops to be outside at that time. A little rain never hurt us, though.
If you are wondering, the building that you can see behind the palm trees at the far right is the Beach Club Resort, which helps you get a feel of just how large the two combined resorts in one building actually are.
And finally, here is one last Yacht Club photo, a quick shot of the two of us on the pier with the lighthouse behind us. This was taken from almost the same spot as the portrait of Laura up above, but the fisheye lens gives it a much different feel. But it would have been difficult to see much of anything besides our faces with the other lens, so this look is just fine for me. Because who would want a photo of just our faces, anyway?
A wife of noble character is her husband’s crown. - Proverbs 12:4
About the photos:
As you can see, there are a variety of photos here, using a variety of camera settings and a variety of photo processing tricks. But all of them are similar to what you have probably seen and read about here before. But these photos do have an overall theme, and not just due to their being from the same location. Although some things are different, they all fit together with an overall common look. Sometimes it is good to have a variety of styles in a post, and sometimes in these days of all sorts of processing types, it is good to have some similarity between all of the photos in a post, because that is getting to be a little more rare lately.
Photo: Each photo is a single Raw exposure, processed in Photoshop. Read more about photography tips, photo software, camera gear, and more at Steve’s Photography Tips.
Camera: Olympus OM-D E-M10
Lens: Rokinon 7.5mm f/3.5 Fisheye Lens and Olympus M.Zukio 25mm f1.8
Date: July 21, 2017
Location: Yacht Club Resort, Walt Disney World, Florida
