Boardwalk Questions

[jhaig]

We plan on taking a day off from the parks and spending a late morning / afternoon at Disney's Boardwalk. How far of a walk is the Boardwalk from the Epcot entrance? Are the other resorts (Yacht / Beach Club /Dolphin & Swan) also within a short walk? And is there enough to do over there in the morning? Should we wait until later in the day?

 

[LaurenT]

It's a 3 minute walk, Beach Club and Boarkwalk Inn are on either side of the water. Dolphin and Swan are a little further down. You can easily walk to all of it, biut it is nicer in the evening.

 

[AJKMOM]

The Boardwalk area is right outside the International Gateway entrance to Epcot. If you have been in Epcot, it is between the British and French pavilions.

If you arrive at the front of Epcot, you will need to walk thru the park, using an admission day.

If you were planning on this being an "off" day, take a bus to Hollywood Studios and instead of going into the park, look for signs to the Boardwalk. It's a nice walk from there, about 15 minutes or so. Or, you can take the boat at DHS and get there without the walking. The boat will let you see the area as you are riding.

It stops at the Boardwalk, Swan/Dolphin, and YC/BC along with Epcot. Sorry I don't know the order of stops.

 

[Robo]

 

[MomOfMonkeys]

We are heading south to Disney in 3 weeks and are having a few free days.....I have read about resort tours where you can tour the different sites such as Wilderness, Swan, etc.. and it's free. Has anyone done this? We go every year, and have stayed off site only a couple of times, and always come back to Disney. We have stayed at the Carribean once, but all other times have been at the All-Stars, and twice at Pop Century. Is it worth the time to take to see the other resorts with a tour, or are we better off just jetting around and checking out each one ourselves. It's hard to believe as many times that we have been to Orlando and Disney we have never set foot on some of the resorts.

 

[LaurenT]

I don't know of an official tour, other than the DVC tour - you could certainly take that, just to check it out. You'll get to see Saratoga Springs resort that way and find out how DVC works, and they'll throw in an Ice Cream and possibly some other thank you for your time (a gift card or special fast pass or such).
Other than that, yo could do the monorail loop and stop at each resort for a walk around, the grand floridian and poly are both worth a look. You can visit Beah Club, Yacht Club, Boardwalk, Swan and Dolphin by just strolling out the international gate in Epcot.
I personally recommend you do a meal at Boma..not only is the food awesome, but Animal Kingdom Lodge is incredible.

 

[mickin]

bw is by-far my fav disney resort. there is so much to do all day and its so nice to just sit and watch stuff around you at night. no matter what time of year bw is the place to be. i do miss the bw buskers though, and the sax quartet that moved somewhere else, and the crepe station.

 

[DebbieB]

We plan on taking a day off from the parks and spending a late morning / afternoon at Disney's Boardwalk. How far of a walk is the Boardwalk from the Epcot entrance? Are the other resorts (Yacht / Beach Club /Dolphin & Swan) also within a short walk? And is there enough to do over there in the morning? Should we wait until later in the day?

There's really more at night than during the day. I love the boardwalk in the evening with the entertainers out.

 

[Best Aunt]

OP, I don't think there's much to do there during the day other than eat in one of the restaurants on the Boardwalk and look in the shop. You could sit on a bench and feed the ducks, or sit on a lounge chair on the little beach area at the Beach Club, but not much else.

I wonder if you would have more fun over at the Animal Kingdom Lodge. I've never been there, but I believe you can see the animals from public viewing areas.

 

[cyndiloveswalt]

We stayed at BW in Oct. It was great, not only a quick walk into Epcot but also a really nice walk to DHS (about 10-15 mins along the water)
We were on the BW 2 different nights and there were great magicians, my kids got picked to be helpers and loved it. We didn't really spend any time there during the day. Have a great time!

 

[sjs314]

A few years back we visited BW one evening it was "alive" with entertainment and just and overall feeling of fun fun fun, last year we were in Disney with my son and new DDil and decided to take the water launch over to BW one afternoon from DHS, much to our surprise it was dead hardly a soul around, nothing to do but stop to eat which we did no wait at all. I would say go but definately in the evening hours in order to fully aprieciate the resort which is one of the nicest ones in Disney.

 

[Dan Murphy]

http://www.wdwmagic.com/Walking-Distances.htm

 

[Jiminy'sGirl]

If one were to take the boat ride (purely a pleasure cruise - I assume this allowed?) all the way around all the red stops on Robo's map, about how long would it take? This sounds like a heavenly way to spend an evening. To me. For my kids, ages 7 and 5, it probably sounds like torture after about the 20 minute mark.

 

[patty57]

At night, Boardwalk has street performers, carnival games and lots of activity. None of those things operate during the day. It's still pretty and you could have something to eat...also you could look at the resorts, but it's much better at night.

 

[mickeyluv'r]

I agree with others, BWK is absolutely more fun in the evening. You can always retn a surrey bike, visit gift shops, get a snack. It's a great place to have dinner. The Swan/Dolphin eatereies are not on DDP, but they are very good. And if you are not on DDP, that may be a reason to go in itself! The exit of Ecpot is also very pretty at dusk, when the sky is often a pink/purple color.

I think it's a little more than three minutes to get from Epcot to BWK, but probably no more than six or seven (and I'm usually a quick walker). Leaving Epcot, the walk up to the bridge is uphill. There's also a free boat shuttle. Getting from Epcot to HS in 15minutes would be a challenge! As I said, I walk faster than the average person, and it took us closer to 20 minutes gate to gate.

It is fun to walk around and just have a look. The Swna has fountains and decor, for one. The BWKlobby has a fair amount of decor with BWK themed decor all over the resort. Pretty much all of the deluxe resorts (Except maybe AKL and WL) have fresh floral displays. Some are quite elaborate! Thre are also nice little gardens tucked here and there in the resorts.

 

[emilysaba]

Our first night in Disney we have nothing planned. Can we just go to the Boardwalk without visiting any of the parks? We are staying off site but will have a car.

 

[Dan Murphy]

Absolutely, and welcome to the DIS, Emily.

 

[Mom2darlingboys]

Our first night in Disney we have nothing planned. Can we just go to the Boardwalk without visiting any of the parks? We are staying off site but will have a car.

As mentioned, you can absolutely go and visit, and it is great fun, especially for the kids at night. In the evening, you can walk the boardwalk as mentioned and enjoy the buskers. We ordered a pizza from the pizza window at Shutters (alas, no longer there!) then walked over to Yacht Club to check out all the hype. Both are lovely resorts!

Come prepared though. If you head over to Yacht Club at night, they have a campfire set up and you can purchase smores packages with marshmallows you can roast over the fire on long skewers. We asked if we could participate (with the pool-hopping rules, we wanted to be sure we weren't overstepping) and they were very welcoming.

Afterwards, they showed a movie on the beach on a big, blown-up screen. My kids were killing to stay but all the loungers set up for this purpose were taken and we didn't bring anything to sit on. I'd suggest bringing a blanket, sheet or towel along and enjoying the movie, then Illuminations fireworks from the beach. We had an absolutely lovely night last year.

 

[TammyC]

In addition to the surrey bikes (which are quite fun), you could also rent mouse boats from the Beach Club marina. There is also miniature golf nearby. If you have sports fans, check out the ESPN club for lunch. I believe there is also an arcade next door.

T

 

[mickeyluv'r]

The boat ride from Epcot all the way to HS probably takes about 35-40 minutes total. I've never taken it the whole way. It has usually taken about 15-20 minutes to get from Ecpot to the Swan or HS to BC. The amount of time it stops at each stop is slightly variable, and I've seen it waiting a little extra time at Epcot, so I'm guessing the total would vary slightly depending on where you started and ended and how quickly each stop loads. The ride is fun, and the boat captains can be very entertaining (kind of like some bus drivers used to do, telling WDW trivia and the like.)

Another highlight is the candy and ice cream shops at the BWK.

I think they still sell pizza slices too. WDW pizza is not the best I've ever had, but the offerings at the BWK are among the best that Disney offers. Cheese slices are inexpensive, but not part of DDP. (at least last time I had it.)