We stayed BCV's thru rented DVC points during the 2nd week of Dec. The savings was great - no way we could have afforded to be able to stay there if we didn't rent the points and just booked on the resort side. And, it worked out great! Second time renting points, last year we did AK. DVC is a great way to stay deluxe without paying huge prices! The biggest drawback, which really never came up for us, was not being able to cancel if we needed to and get a refund. Everything worked perfectly, basically the same way any resort ressie would work. Except for having the owner being the liaison, having to make the ressie on my behalf, as well as set up
DDP for me last year, making any requests we needed, and setting up our ME for us. It all just went so smoothly both times. And the BCV's really aren't that far from the main building or the marketplace, or even the restaurants and SAB, just one more building over. And the parks were easy to get to, the building is out front and fairly close to the buses, and the back way to Epcot works great! DHS isn't bad either and only a tiny bit farther from the villa's than the resort.
The studio room is small, but don't think it's much, if any, smaller than a resort side studio room. Our room was nice enough, though it's been a while since it was refurbed(coming soon, though, I think). But we definitely didn't think of it as run down at all. And, really, with the savings, we thought we got a great deal! Little extra money to spend elsewhere, than on just the room! I liked not worrying about what kind of balcony we would get as all villas come with full balcony, also. Not a huge room, but certainly big enough. We were on a trip celebrating my DD23's grad from college last May, so wanted it to be great and it was! I would definitely recommend renting DVC points to stay in a studio at BCV's if it's possible to get one!