Boardwalk Resort Parking Question

[Mceee]

We have a trip planned for mid-September, and we have decided to drive our vehicle. We will be registered guests at Boardwalk Villas. Recently I heard of some parking issues we may have while there. Something about... "due to limited parking at the Boardwalk, some guests may be required to use only valet parking."

My question is... does that apply only to guests visiting the Boardwalk, or actual registered guests of the resort? I probably won't be needing my vehicle that much, but I don't want to be required to use valet when I do ($25 per day!). Perhaps they say this because they don't want those who tend to hedge the truth about visiting the Boardwalk just so they can park there and go to Epcot.

Has someone experienced anything related to this?

Thanks,
Mitchell

 

[_auroraborealis_]

My question is... does that apply only to guests visiting the Boardwalk, or actual registered guests of the resort?

It may apply to both. It is really dependent on how many guests (staying at the resort) show up with cars, and hard to predict. They don't know how many people are driving.

During past refurbishment, sometimes people staying at Boardwalk have had to valet because there just weren't spaces.

 

[Mceee]

It may apply to both. It is really dependent on how many guests (staying at the resort) show up with cars, and hard to predict. They don't know how many people are driving.

During past refurbishment, sometimes people staying at Boardwalk have had to valet because there just weren't spaces.

Hmm... seems odd that they would arbitrarily add a $25 per day fee (which would add up to $200 for our stay) to guests who simply want to self-park. I'm gonna hope this does not happen. But going back to my original question... "Has anyone actually experienced this during their stay at BWV?" If so, I would really appreciate how that went for you.

 

[cvjw]

We have stayed at bwv three times in the last year, and parking has been an issue on every trip. We have never been forced to valet park, but we have had to park out by the road, behind the guard hut every trip. During our trip last September, we were lucky to find an open space due to food and wine.

There are several issues with parking in the bwv self parking lot. First, about half of this lot is allocated for valet parking and we have never seen more than a few cars parked in this section. Such a waste.

Secondly, another big chunk of this lot is allocated to the workers who are refurbishing bwv. And thirdly, the guards allow people not staying at bwv to also park in this lot.

All this adds up to not many spaces left for bwv guests to park in on a good day. Be prepared for a hike to your car!

 

[drusba]

The issue for the last year or so has been that there were several large, commercial trucks taking up a significant portion of one side of the parking lot. Those trucks were used by the construction crew that has been working on the BWV refurb.

Most of the work is now done (what is left involves the outside areas), but I do not know if the number of trucks has decreased since I have not been there in a few months. BWV has two parking lots. The one that you need to go through the guard gate to get to and is divided by the road leading to the front entrance, and the one across the street from the guard station entrance that is essentially behind the Safeway (formerly Hess) store. That latter lot is a long distance from BWV and even much of the parking on the main lot is not close to BWV. For the most part there has been no real issue of having no parking space to get, but instead the issue of where. When there is an event like a convention group at BW, or sometimes just in the evening during very busy times, the main lot can fill but usually the one across the street is still open, although due to its distance some may decide to go the valet route anyway.. Nevertheless, a convention can at least create the risk that both lots could fill and valet may be the only option but I have not heard of that happening yet. Likley in mid-September, you will be fine parking in the main lot.

 

[NH-to-FL]

We have stayed at bwv three times in the last year, and parking has been an issue on every trip.

It has been a few years since our last stay at the BWI but our experience was like cvjw's. Openings in the self park lot were occasionally hard to get. One trip it was because there was an event in the conference center that made it difficult to find spaces during the day. Other trips, who knows what the reason was. We ended up parking valet a few times just to save all the extra walking. My recollection over 15+ years of BWI stays is that the parking situation got gradually worse. I think more folks started using the lot to get to Epcot. Somewhere in there, as cvjw notes, the space allocated to valet increased. I wish they could more dynamically allocate valet verses self park spaces.