It is always recommended that you see the place first (you are making a very large investment). However, here are the points on BWV (up and down):
1. It is an active resort; you have the boardwalk with nightly activities, an ESPN club, three other restaurants, a candy/ice cream shop, donut shop, night club, dance hall, stores, a place to get pizza and sit on the walk, little kiosks on the boardwalk for food and drink and souveniers, a very well themed pool with a large slide, rental surrey bikes (basically little carriages that operate like bikes), and a community hall for games and tapes (1BR and above have VCR's and you can get tapes for free as a
DVC member). It is a "hotel" type resort with all hotel services (other than limited maid service under DVC although you can purchase additional maid service). The main parking lot is somewhat of a walk but they provide valet service (free to DVC membes but tip expected). There is also a more distant second lot since the boardwalk is an attraction and many come at night. The lobby is small in comparison to WL but has impressive theming. Despite activity,rooms even on the boardwalk remain fairly quiet; also rooms located around the "quiet" (second) pool are generally quiet on the outside too.
2. Rooms are good size (studios about 360 sg ft; 1BR's 712 sg ft; 2BR's the addition of those two). Nevertheless they are smaller than the rooms at OKW which basically has the largest units on site. They are the same size as VWL. They are themed like seashore units--fairly bright; balconies are fairly small (except some larger ones at some of the rooms over the boardwalk) although you can sit comfortably on them (similar in size to the WL balconies if you have stayed at the hotel). You can view pictures at
http://www.wdwig.com/g_bwv.htm The one thing that some find somewhat troublesome is the elevators and distance to them. The design of the resort is a central lobby with BWI off one side and BWV off the other; the elevators are right off the lobby. Depending on where your room is you could have a 2 to 3 minute walk from the elevator to the room (of course there are many rooms close to the elevators also). It seems like a longer walk because the hallways are fairly narrow and you are switching from one hallway to another a number of times as you wind to your room. However, the elevators do go right to the main pool area on the ground floor.
3. Its location is the best on site. Epcot is a 10 minute walk away and MGM a 20 minute walk (you can also take a boat). The YC/BC and Swan/Dolphin resorts are also right there. You are within walking distance of over 20 restaurants (resorts and parks). Epcot and Illuminations fireworks can be seen from the boardwalk (and many rooms on the boardwalk; you can see MGM from many rooms elsewhere).
4. Personal view is that it is the best resort on site (and we have stayed at all the other deluxes other than YC and AKL) and particularly good if the children are beyond the age of treating MK as the only real place in WDW. It is more difficult to get than the other WDW DVC resorts with the 7 month window, meaning that BWV owners currently tend to hog the place using the 11 month window because many are like us and have no desire to stay at OKW or VWL.
