AKV, BLT or BW

[autismgoesdisney]

PLEASE HELP!

We are a family of five. Our children (right now) are 9, 7 and 5. I have it narrowed down to Animal Kingdom Villas or Bay Lake Tower. Possibly a 2 bedroom at Boardwalk because I would LOVE to be within walking distance of Epcot when the kids grow up.

I seriously can't decide which one to go for. I LOVE being close to MK, its my favorite park. I love the idea of a Savannah view which from what I see a week at AKV Savannah view is cheaper than a week at BLT standard view. And I love the idea when the kids are older to walk to Epcot!

Can you give me the pluses and minuses of each?
__________________

 

[nalajms]

How many points are you looking at? Have you considered splitting it and buying at both resorts? We do mostly split stays. A few days at MK and then move to BW. While the kids are still young, this will work best for us. As they get older, we'll probably stick to BW because we prefer it over the craziness of MK!

We own at BWV and AKV. If you're only interested in the Savannah view rooms, I wouldn't bother buying there. It's mostly available at 7 months. The value and concierge goes at 11 months.

You can sometimes get the standard rooms at BWV during low season, but it's harder to get a full week of the standard room at BLT at 7 months. Besides the first two weeks of Dec, I've never had problems booking the standard rooms at BWV. Not sure how hard BLT standard rooms would be.

Good luck!

 

[DizBub]

Standard rooms at BLT are usually booked up pretty early. We own at BLT and have used those points to stay at AKV savanna view without issue. Of course, AKV is cheaper to buy either direct or resale, you will fare better buying AKV resale.

Point requirements at BWV standard rooms are probably the very best value on property. You could use those points to book AKV too.

AVK value is the best value for your points and very hard to get. It is a hard choice.

 

[disneynutz]

You may think that you know what you want but we found that until you stay at the resorts a couple of times, you are just guessing.

If we were going to do it over again and if we planned to keep DVC for the long haul and vacation at Disney for the next 30 years, we would buy some SSR points. Use them to vacation at all of the resorts, then buy at our favorite resort(s) to guarantee our dates and room type.

Bill

 

[dundey]

You may think that you know what you want but we found that until you stay at the resorts a couple of times, you are just guessing.

If we were going to do it over again and if we planned to keep DVC for the long haul and vacation at Disney for the next 30 years, we would buy some SSR points. Use them to vacation at all of the resorts, then buy at our favorite resort(s) to guarantee our dates and room type.

Bill

Very good advice!

Having said that, we own at BLT and BWV, so that would be where I'd buy!

 

[Deb & Bill]

All two bedroom villas at BWV are lockoffs. There are no dedicated two bedroom villas there. So you have a queen bed and double sleeper sofa in the second bedroom, plus an entrance to the outer corridor from the room.

So until your children are older, they have access to the outer corridor from their bedroom.

 

[ptlohmysoul]

PLEASE HELP!

We are a family of five. Our children (right now) are 9, 7 and 5. I have it narrowed down to Animal Kingdom Villas or Bay Lake Tower. Possibly a 2 bedroom at Boardwalk because I would LOVE to be within walking distance of Epcot when the kids grow up.

I seriously can't decide which one to go for. I LOVE being close to MK, its my favorite park. I love the idea of a Savannah view which from what I see a week at AKV Savannah view is cheaper than a week at BLT standard view. And I love the idea when the kids are older to walk to Epcot!

Can you give me the pluses and minuses of each?
__________________

BLT is harder to book than AKV. You can always use your BLT points elsewhere. BLT also has lower maintenance fees (currently), albeit higher up front costs. We've stayed in a 2 bedroom at AKV and a 1 bedroom at BLT. I really liked both, but prefer BLT over AKV. I liked the ability to walk to MK, the almost white bathrooms (helps it to "feel" cleaner), and ability to see fireworks from our resort. AKV is unique with the animals, lots of activities for the kids, and quieter at night.

With a family of 5, BLT and AKV are definitely the best, with 1 king, 1 queen sofa, and 1 pull-out chair, along with 2 bathrooms in the 1 bedroom. Other than those 2 resorts, we would likely choose a 2 bedroom to accommodate our family.

 

[bakerworld]

Seriously - how many pts are we talking because if you around 300 that buy 100 at each

 

[autismgoesdisney]

Seriously - how many pts are we talking because if you around 300 that buy 100 at each

We are looking into 200 points. We go every year though and I see that staying at BLT or AKV 1 bedroom would be more points than 200.

 

[yitbos96bb]

Obviously this is your own call on what's best. For me making the decision:

AKV would be out. It's a great resort in a terrible location. I'd rather risk opting in at 7 months.

I prefer BWV to BLT (I'm not a big fan of BLT period... I actually prefer VWL and GFV much more in the MK area). It's going to be far cheaper too. The negative is that the points expire in 2042 vs 2060 for BLT. So depends on how critical it is to you.

Each has their own exclusive room class that is tough to get at 7 months (BW view vs MK view).

In the end figure out if the end dates are important to you. Figure out if you'll use Epcot and DHS more than MK and which resort you prefer.

PLEASE HELP!

We are a family of five. Our children (right now) are 9, 7 and 5. I have it narrowed down to Animal Kingdom Villas or Bay Lake Tower. Possibly a 2 bedroom at Boardwalk because I would LOVE to be within walking distance of Epcot when the kids grow up.

I seriously can't decide which one to go for. I LOVE being close to MK, its my favorite park. I love the idea of a Savannah view which from what I see a week at AKV Savannah view is cheaper than a week at BLT standard view. And I love the idea when the kids are older to walk to Epcot!

Can you give me the pluses and minuses of each?
__________________

 

[jillgunter]

We bought at BWV because we wanted to be close to Epcot and HS. We go in October now, and we love the Food and Wine. BW has really low points for when we travel. We bought 210 pts, so we can always stay in a 1 bedroom. If you want a 2 bedroom you will have to borrow from the next use year every year if you are only buying 200 pts. I would buy enough pts so you dont have to borrow.

We are like you, we prefer to stay near Epcot for when our DD is grown up and out of the house. She is almost 8 now.

I love AKV but its just to far out.

BLT is nice but price per point is much higher. And you need more points.

Good luck with what ever you choose. They are all great resorts.

 

[DVCcurious]

Don't buy AKV: We stayed at Kidani in Feb 2013. I called 10 days in advance and requested close to the lobby and sunset savannah. We had a car so the buses were a non-issue. Our request was granted and we were right near the lobby on the sunset savannah. It was awesome, we had giraffes right out our window and zebras and the whole thing.

Jan 2014 we went back to Kidani. Again I called up 10 days in advance and requested close to the lobby and sunset savannah. We got put in room at the very end of the hall on the Pembe Savannah. Pembe sucks, there are no giraffes, no zebras, no huge bull animals with the big horns. Just a few small deer/antelope things and a couple birds. It sucked. I went up front to complain. I told them I called right at the 10 day window and requested Sunset Savannah and close to the lobby. They said "requests are just that, they are not guarantees, sorry". This was MLK week so I can't believe the resort was full T-F when school was back in session and I can't believe that everybody else had already called and made a request to be on the sunset savannah. Basically Kidani just ignored our request when we called. We had to take the kids to the lobby viewing area so they could see some zebras and giraffes. Our savannah view was a joke. Oh gee, we had a deer stop by today, yippee. Not worth the points we paid for a savannah view. The buses were horrible. We sat at the bus stop for 45 minutes waiting for a MK bus.

My point is this: Kidani carries with it the risk you won't get what you want. You can end up on the Pembe Savannah a mile away from the bus stop.

BLT and BWV have no chance you'll be disappointed. A Boardwalk view is a view of the boardwalk, it's not like they'll give you a view of a sidewalk out back and charge you boardwalk view points. BLT is the same thing. I'd advise you to avoid AKV unless you really don't care about where you end up being placed. But if you want to see a giraffe from your window there is a chance you'll request savannah and end up with a pembe view of no giraffes, no zebras, but a couple of deer. Very disappointing.

I love wild animals more than most people. I've spent at least a couple hours each trip watching them from the public viewing areas. But we will never stay at AKV ever again. It's just not worth the risk. Why should I take a chance of getting a Pembe view 1 mile away from the bus stop when we love Beach Club, Board Walk, and Wilderness Lodge and we know we can stay there without getting screwed?

 

[nabi]

I like the deer and "antelope things"....would've taken it no prob! Birds are nice 'til the poop on spouses car! Lol

If you desire walking distance buy two smaller contracts and split stay or alternate years...makes for variety.

 

[MagicJourney]

We are owners @ BLT, and in the process of adding BWV and AKV for the same reason you mentioned. I guess we have similar taste. Our preference is BLT>BWV>AKV. So I'd say go with BLT, especially MK is your favorite. You never know if your kids gonna prefer Epcot, or still enjoy MK when they grow up. Plus, BLT has lower MFs, Longer RTU, and it's relatively easier to reserve BWV than BLT at 7 months. Even if you decide to focus on Epcot in the future, you could add a BWV contract (personally I think that's what's gonna happen), or just sell BLT and buy BWV. The 2060 expiration of BLT will definitely help the sale 10 years later.

 

[bakerworld]

We are looking into 200 points. We go every year though and I see that staying at BLT or AKV 1 bedroom would be more points than 200.

I'd try to purchase around 120 to 140 at BL and the rest at BW. You could make that work every other year at both places in a 2BR. It's nice to be in walking distance to parks and accessible to the Monorail - especially which your children ages because soon they'll want to go off on their own. I see that you want a 2BR but the 2 full baths at BL with the sleeper chair really make the 1BR doable. That said we just did a 5N in a 2BR at BL and we only own 100 pts there. My 'kids' are 32, 29, 25 and the 32 had a +1.

IME, if September works at all for you, AK Value 2BR have been available there at the 7 month window every time I looked.

 

[DisneyDiana]

I noticed your name. My son has autism and there is nothing more calming for him after a chaotic trip to the park then sitting out on the balcony watching the animals. The CMs posted at the savannah lookouts have always been amazing with him, (he questions them incessantly about all the animals). The atmosphere is quiet and calming. We own AKV for the access to the value villas. So far we have been fairly lucky getting savannah views though we would be happy no matter where we end up as long as we are at Jambo.