(CLOSED) Disney's BOARDWALK INN and VILLAS Information Thread ~2012~

[fizbobunny]

Originally Posted by garada3

My husband and I enjoyed a long weekend in WDW as my birthday celebration this year. This was our first time staying at the BWI.

Our room requests, placed with the IPO, were that we would prefer a king bed room with a courtyard view near the Innkeeper's Club lounge.

On arrival to the resort, we were greeted by name by one cast member and then handed over to a bellman who tried to take us to the main desk. We mentioned to him that we were staying in the Innkeeper' Club and that resulted in our being turned over to another bellman who showed us to our room.

We stayed in room 4253 which is two rooms in from the door to the Innkeeper's Club, with two double beds overlooking the BoardWalk. The room was located above the sign for Kouzzina.

The room was nicely decorated, well maintained and clean. Housekeeping was great for our brief stay. The room was made up by 2:00 each day for our break and then turn down was lovely each evening with the pillow wishes and taffy. There was a towel "Mickey" on one of the beds with a birthday card for me from the fab five when we arrived along with a box of truffles.

We ordered tuxedo strawberries and champagne from private dining and was surprised by the gift of a white chocolate box shaped like a Mickey head that was filled with small dark and white chocolate Mickey heads.

We enjoyed the offerings in the lounge and there was plenty of seating available. Breakfast included standard continental fare each day. Snacks were goldfish and cookies. Appetizers over our three evenings included various cheeses and crackers, veggies, hummus, some interesting salads, seared salmon and hot items such as spring rolls and other phyllo dough wrapped tidbits. Wine was decent. Desserts were also nice and we enjoyed the cordials on offer.

Several times on our way in or out of the Innkeeper's Club we would encounter a bottleneck at the check-in desk and the Club door. Families would be checking in or out with strollers and luggage blocking the path to the door. Too much happening for the space available.

The staff of the Innkeeper's Club were all very friendly, helpful and polite.

Our impression of the resort itself is that it has a confusing wide-spread layout and is not the easiest resort to navigate on foot. I believe that it could be difficult for those with limited mobility or strollers. We did not use the pools but did take a walk around to see the amenities of the resort and enjoy the BoardWalk entertainment. We took a wrong turn somewhere behind the Clown pool and ended up walking all the way around to the parking lot in the front of the resort.

We would hear the entertainment and guests from the BoardWalk from our room with the balcony door shut, especially the one act that used a synthesized "voice" as part of his act. Our balcony was small, chairs had to be turned sideways for leg space, and set back from the rooms on either side therefore we had limited view to the left and the right but could see directly across to the Yacht and Beach Clubs.

We loved the location for easy access to Epcot. On our second day, we waited 30 minutes for a bus to the Magic Kingdom, and after stops at the Swan and Dolphin, made it thru the gates at the MK just minutes before the opening show started.

We ate at the Flying Fish on our first night. We were very excited to try this place as we had read some very positive comments. We were seated in a noisy/busy location, the service was adequate and except for the crab cake appetizer, the meal was overcooked and over-hyped,. We both tried the steak and potato wrapped snapper combo that was being offered and neither of us were impressed. We were disappointed in the experience.

Overall it was a pleasant experience but I did not have the same sense satisfaction that I have gotten from other deluxe stays at Disney. This was our second try at an Epcot area resort and most likely our last. We just prefer the Mk area resorts.

I'm surprised you got a room with double beds. I thought that the standard rooms had queens?

[fizbobunny]

What does IPO stand for?

[sjs314]

Originally Posted by Momof2Disneyboys

YAY for 16 days Sheila!! You must be so excited!

Hey Shelly and your going right behind me Just saw the link to your PTR heading there now..........

[psac]

Originally Posted by fizbobunny

I'm surprised you got a room with double beds. I thought that the standard rooms had queens?

The standard rooms do all have queens. However, I would swear the Disney queens (this isn't limited to the BW) are slightly smaller than regular queens. We also thought our beds were doubles on a prior trip, and asked the Club CM and he went into the room and confirmed they were queens.

Originally Posted by WDWKOOK

Thank you for the beautiful photos! The new panoramic function on the iPhone5 is great or did you use something else?

Yup! The panorama function on the iPhone5 (or 4S with iOS 6) is excellent. It really works well.

Originally Posted by elgerber

Wth are they thinking?? Can't they just serve Starbucks coffee without taking out the Main Street Bakery and Fountainview Cafe? I cannot believe Walt would approve. Stupid!!!

Fountainview is fine with me, Main Street Bakery is the one that boggles my mind. I still think the best place would be the Tomorrowland Terrace
Noodle place, especially since it's closed during a lot of the year.

[Momof2Disneyboys]

Originally Posted by sjs314

Hey Shelly and your going right behind me Just saw the link to your PTR heading there now..........

Yep - we're right behind you!! Staying at the GF and Poly this time. But next time will be the BWI, so I always like to keep an eye on this thread!

[psac]

View as I write this:



Hellooooo from the Boardwalk. We've been here since Friday, and with the exception of a few missteps, we've been enjoying it so far.

Arrived via Towncar after a quick stop for cereal, coffee, water and snacks for our Villa stay. Met by a greeter who brought us over to the check-in lines (did not do online check in), and with the lines all taken, he went over to the concierge desk, and asked if they could take us, which they did. For our 1br boardwalk view, we asked for high floor near elevators, and got just that. Fifth floor about a third of the way down the hallway. Nice room, no housekeeping issues.

The first night we tried Bluezoo for the first time, and liked it. Will definitely add it to the list for future trips.

Saturday was a crazy day with a mini-marathon at AK in the morning and a half-marathon at Epcot in the evening (easywdw had it as a 9), so we decided to just pop into Epcot during the day, did the whole Seas, spending time enjoying the aquarium, etc., then hit the food and wine for lunch, and high-tailed it out of there before it got too crazy.
(Too be continued...)

[psac]

Saturday evening is where the fun began. We had reservations for Kona for dinner, so we decided to leave early, take the bus to MK (took about 40 mins including wait), stayed for a little bit, then took the boat to the Poly. Had a good dinner there, as always, then jumped in a cab back to the BW. BIG MISTAKE. Remember that Epcot half-marathon? Well, they closed off most of the roads in the area, including around the BW. It took us 45 mins to get there, and the meter on the cab (which normally is around $15-20) was $48.15!!!! The cabbie said to just give him $25, which was super-nice, so we gave him $35. Afterwards we did read the flier in our room which said guests should take the WDW buses after 8pm because of numerous road closures. Whoops.

But the fun didn't end there. It really got fun when our smoke alarm went off at 4:30am.

Of course we jumped out of bed, and began putting clothes on. The alarm went off after about 3 minutes. We looked in the hallway and out on the balcony, and everything seemed fine. Called "the front desk" (ha), and they didnt have any record of any issues or other reports. We were shaky from being jolted out of bed so quickly though.

Eventually we decided to go back to bed. Until the smoke alarm went off again at 5:15am. This time it went off after about a minute. I threw my pants on again and went down to the lobby. They weren't aware of any alarms, so apparently it was just our room. They said they would send someone from Engineering, but they would have to get there from the Yacht/Beach club.

We decided to stay up since we had planned to hit AK at rope drop, so we took our showers and wearily started the day.

[psac]

That guy got more sleep than we did. Someone from Engineering came at about 7-7:30 and took the smoke alarm with him. We got to the bus stop a few minutes before 8, the AK bus came right away, and we went straight there, getting on line at the turnstiles at about 8:15. Did our usual half day there, and went back. (To be fair, every park is a half day park to us. We spread things out.). We had the smoke alarm back in the room and a message from one of the managers apologizing for everything and saying to contact her, which we didn't do because we collapsed in bed and took a nice long nap.

We met up with friends also from NY who are down for a few days, showed them the lobby, which they went crazy over, and went to Flying Fish. A fantastic meal, everyone enjoyed it. It's always #1 or 2 for us. The waiter comped our desserts because he realized we never had bread plates for the table and were just using the paper drink napkins. We didn't really care, but were happy for the comp. We watched two performers on the boardwalk, both of whom we liked, and the friends headed back.

Today was thankfully un-eventful. We layed by the pool in the morning, went over to Beaches and Cream for lunch, then came back exactly when the room was being cleaned, so we went back to the pool to sit in the comfy rocking chairs. Tonight's agenda is Brown Derby and the Osbourne Lights. And hopefully no smoke alarms!

[psac]

Panoramic living room/kitchen in the 1BR. (Yes, my wife likes Coach bags!)

[MMrules]

95 days til we are back at the world! I cannot wait!!!

[jackemail]

psac, I am LOVING your photos and reports. Thanks so much for posting them!

[garada3]

Originally Posted by fizbobunny

I'm surprised you got a room with double beds. I thought that the standard rooms had queens?

Originally Posted by fizbobunny

What does IPO stand for?

I stand corrected, the room had two beds, which Disney says are queen beds.

IPO is the itinerary planning office which is a pre-trip planning service for concierge guests.

[Cee]

Originally Posted by psac

Panoramic living room/kitchen in the 1BR. (Yes, my wife likes Coach bags!)

Love the panoramic view. I just booked my solo trip for May in a 1BR at BWV and cannot wait. Fully expecting to enjoy a Spa Day and some good walks and good food while I'm there.

[philatiger]

We are staying at BWV this coming December and have a 1 BR garden/pool view. Are there any rooms or areas that are better than others? We would like to make a room request closer to the main building if possible. thanks for any help.

[psac]

Originally Posted by philatiger

We are staying at BWV this coming December and have a 1 BR garden/pool view. Are there any rooms or areas that are better than others? We would like to make a room request closer to the main building if possible. thanks for any help.

It's all one BIG building. Your best bet would be to request close to the elevators, since the elevators are only in the center lobby area.