BLT Questions - Spending the Day at BLT; Complimentary View Upgrade; Restaurants?

[Indecisive]

I am considering renting DVC points. We would be renting a 2 bedroom villa. We will have 4 adults (parents and grandparents) and 2 boys who will be 4 and 7. I keep changing my mind about my order of preference for Villas. I know we could be happy at AKL, VWL, BCV, or BLT. Despite BLT's obvious convenience factor, it strikes me as a little less "kid appealing" than the other options. Is that true? Or am I way off? In particular, if we spend a full day of our vacation "off" from the parks, will there be enough to do at BLT? The pool seems a little "uninspired" to me in comparison to the other choices, but perhaps the pictures don't do it justice? Is the slide fun? Do they have enough other activities at BLT to keep us entertained for a full day at the resort?

Also, for point rental, it amazes me what a huge price difference there is between standard and magic views. When you rent DVC points, is there any chance of getting a complimentary view upgrade? I know I couldn't count on it, but just wondering if that ever happens?

Lastly, how good are the restaurant options at the Contemporary? We obviously won't be at Chef Mickey and California Grill every day, so how are The Wave and Contempo Cafe?

Thanks in advance!

 

[mb_uh]

Great thing about BLT pool is that the small size allows you to watch the kids.

Room upgrades are really not an option, the better views will be sold out.

Contempo Cafe is great. I am not sure how much there is to do we have trouble leaving parks to swim.

 

[ThumpersWorld]

You may also want to consider BCV. We stayed in a 2 bedroom villa last May. 4 adults (parents and grandparents) and 2 boys (6 yrs and 4 yrs). We loved it. Perfect amount of room for the 6 of us and we all loved SAB. There is so much to do at the resort and the pool area is a water park all in itself. Everyone including my parents enjoyed the SAB. And it was nice to be able to go on the Boardwalk at night. There was a lot to do even if we weren't going into EPCOT. And there is also the ice cream shop Beaches and Cream at the resort too.

 

[mousefan1972]

We are sitting at the airport waiting to go home after a wonderful week at BLT. My 7 year old has been crying all morning because he's so sad that we are leaving. We enjoyed the pool every afternoon for 2-3 hours. Resort IDs were being checked everyday, so the pool wasn't crowded. My kids loved the pool slide and the games the activity staff played with the kids every day. They also played ping pong; there's a table poolside. We had a standard view 1 BR and had a view of the lake, Space Mountain, and the fireworks. If you use a DVC members points for your stay, complimentary upgrades are not available as time shares are designed to be booked to capacity at all times. We ate at the Wave for dinner Thursday night and it was very good. Chef Mickeys was just ok. The Contempo Cafe is good for quick service.

Hope this helps, anything else ask soon while my memory is fresh, lol.

 

[montrealdisneylovers]

At BLT you are right on the monorail and can hop on it to go over to the Poly, Grand Floridian or simply ride it. Some kids think of that as a ride in itself. You can also walk over to the bus depot and catch a bus to any of the other resorts. You can go to AKV and check out the animals or to BWV and check out the boardwalk then bus back to MK and walk back to BLT. You have the nightly electric water pageant and fireworks. You can also ride the boat to Wilderness Lodge and Fort Wilderness. You can walk over and take the ferry to the TTC and back again.

As far as the pool goes, yes, it is a little small but kids seem to love the slide. You can also go over to the Contemporary and use their pool and slide.

We never get bored at BLT because once you have enjoyed the resort itself, you can easily get to and from other places at Disney and enjoy those venues as well.

 

[Minniesgal]

BLT is actually my kids favorite resort and they love the pool.

Upgrades are virtually unheard of in DVC rooms due to the high occupancy rates, book where you want to stay

 

[missycj96]

My dd loves blt- we stay there every summer. The community hall has lots of crafts and activities and the pool is a kid favorite. You can even take the boat to fort wilderness and let the kids play in the playground. If you want a standard room you will need to rent from a blt owner far in advance.

 

[Indecisive]

Thanks everyone for the great information. It is very helpful! Mousefan1972 (or anyone else), is there a trick to getting such a great view (lake, space mountain, fireworks) at a standard rate? What part of the building would I request? Is the 5th floor a good request for easier access to the monorail?

Thumpersworld, thanks! I am definitely considering BCV as well!!

 

[vgriffith]

BLT is great for kids - po has a great slide (plus a little kid slide). Lots of poolsode activities.

 

[Deb & Bill]

Thanks everyone for the great information. It is very helpful! Mousefan1972 (or anyone else), is there a trick to getting such a great view (lake, space mountain, fireworks) at a standard rate? What part of the building would I request? Is the 5th floor a good request for easier access to the monorail?

Thumpersworld, thanks! I am definitely considering BCV as well!!

Standard view usually gets sold out quickly because the fewer number of points required. So you'll need to book standard view at 11 months out. These are usually the lower floors, both sides of the building. Theme park view also gets booked up early by members who own at BLT.

Lake view is easier to get and may be about all that is left at seven months out when all points become equal.

And BCV is also very small and gets booked up early by members. It can be hard to get at seven months out. There really isn't much of a view at BCV, mostly parking lot/leisure pool, garden, road, woods.

 

[rlovew]

Thanks everyone for the great information. It is very helpful! Mousefan1972 (or anyone else), is there a trick to getting such a great view (lake, space mountain, fireworks) at a standard rate? What part of the building would I request? Is the 5th floor a good request for easier access to the monorail?

Thumpersworld, thanks! I am definitely considering BCV as well!!

All standard views are 5th floor and below. I think there are only 2- 2 bedroom villas on the fifth floor that are standard view so that would be a highly unlikely request to receive- you would have to be checking in just the right day. An even number will give you the possibility of the front of the building which will have fireworks in the evening and parking lot in the daytime. If you are in a lower floor room however realize they do not turn off the parking lot lights for the fireworks and so they will be very visible during the fireworks and make a difference in pictures with some cameras depending on your room location. For the most part the standard views either are highly parking lot or places where vegetation blocks other views as well as the first floor of the building (meaning no balcony and instead a patio).

 

[spiceycat]

even number room and north side - outside C

since some of the MK views are now standard views - the number of 2-bedrooms (lockoff) has gone up.

like all the standard views - except the odd number - don't like looking in other rooms/villa - it seem strange. this is the inside C.

the north side has side views of tomorrowland, service area, tennis court, some swampy/grassland, and lake.

there are very few rooms on the first floor - I have never had one. so their views would be pretty bad.

 

[jaimeadk]

We are staying at BLT May 4-9. We thought one night we would ride the monorail to the Polynesian and let the kids swim there. We are DVC members and the best I can understand the rules, this is acceptable. Can anyone confirm this is okay?

 

[jtowntoflorida]

We have two young children (2 and 6 on the last trip) and have stayed at both BLT and VWL. I think that both are equally kid-friendly, though my daughter expresses a preference for the BLT pool. It has zero-depth entry and a bigger slide than at VWL. However, her preference may be because she simply doesn't remember staying at VWL, and also, it was much hotter in 2012 on our last trip than in 2011, so we had a lot more pool time.

While I love the theming at VWL, BLT is our #1 choice. It's convenient to the MK and the monorail, and the Contempo Cafe is far superior to the CS restaurant at VWL. However, getting to the MK is more fun from VWL because you can take a boat there, which is the only way we traveled to/from MK when we stayed there. We also took the boat from VWL to the Contemporary to get on the monorail, instead of taking a bus to Epcot. We still use a stroller, so while it's fun, it's pretty inconvenient to do that little jaunt.

At this stage in our lives, I'd probably pick BLT over VWL any day. As it stands, we're booked for VWL for October, waitlisted for BLT...I hope it comes through!

 

[mousefan1972]

We have stayed at BLT 4 times and always book a 1 BR standard view (we own there). We have been on the 5th floor twice and the 3rd floor twice. The 5th floor works out well going to the CR via the skybridge, but the 3rd floor was also good as it was easy to go up 2 flights of stairs to the skybridge or down 3 flights to the lobby/pool. Much better than having to wait on an elevator.