(CLOSED) Disney's BOARDWALK INN and VILLAS Information Thread ~2012~

[Mary T in PA]

Hello everyone. Still planning for my first stay at the BWI in April '13. I usually stay at the Contemporary Resort and have come to enjoy the Walkway to the Magic Kingdom. It's a fairly short walk and much faster than taking the Monorail TO the MK - which is a plus for getting a decent pre-"rope drop" spot when running a little behind in the morning.

I have done the walk from the BWI to Epcot before - seems comparable to CR to MK walk? But I have never done the walk from BWI to DHS (didn't even know there was one until visiting this great thread ). From checking out a couple of maps of the property (and remembering boat shuttle rides during a stay at The Dolphin MANY years ago), it seems like that walk is significantly longer than BWI to Epcot.

Can anyone let me know for sure and let me know how they usually get to DHS from the BWI? Thanks in advance!

We usually walk to DHS. Depending on our timing, we will take the boat back, however, we usually end up walking back too.

The walk over to Epcot is just a few minutes, but our walk over to DHS is about 20min, and that's not a fast pace.

 

[psac]

We're staying here this week -I've got to say, the transportation has been very good. As mentioned, BW is the first stop outbound so no problem getting on -as well, we haven't waited more than 10-15mins(mostly less) for the buses to the parks. I did notice on the return from MK we have been the first stop(even better!), but we're last from AK but no big deal. Also haven't waited at all to get back from the parks -we've been fortunate that our timing has been near perfect. We mostly walk to EPCOT and take the boat to HS -those boats have been a little slow but at least predictable. We missed a boat by a minute and walked over to Swan/Dolphin to catch it and got there a few minutes before it docked -that was the ONLY issue we had and only because we didn't want to wait another 20mins for the next boat.

That's a nice change! Hopefully it stays that way. Enjoy the rest of your trip!

 

[Georgi Zhukov]

We usually walk to DHS. Depending on our timing, we will take the boat back, however, we usually end up walking back too.

The walk over to Epcot is just a few minutes, but our walk over to DHS is about 20min, and that's not a fast pace.

Thanks Mary! We'll definitely give it a try.

 

[Notso]

We're staying here this week -I've got to say, the transportation has been very good. As mentioned, BW is the first stop outbound so no problem getting on -as well, we haven't waited more than 10-15mins(mostly less) for the buses to the parks. I did notice on the return from MK we have been the first stop(even better!), but we're last from AK but no big deal. Also haven't waited at all to get back from the parks -we've been fortunate that our timing has been near perfect. We mostly walk to EPCOT and take the boat to HS -those boats have been a little slow but at least predictable. We missed a boat by a minute and walked over to Swan/Dolphin to catch it and got there a few minutes before it docked -that was the ONLY issue we had and only because we didn't want to wait another 20mins for the next boat.

Very helpful! Thanks so much!

 

[garada3]

Apologies if this has been asked and answered, I have only been able to read up to page 77 so far : )

As a first time guest at BWI I have no idea about how the club level is arranged. I have looked at the BWI map and understand which side of the 'H" the Inn is. I am assuming that the club level rooms are in the upper right portion of the 'H' that fronts the water.

I understand that the club is on the fourth floor (with some deluxe rooms on the third too) behind a key access door. Just before this door are three club level rooms with boardwalk views.

I have read that these rooms are sometimes subject to the 'busyness' of the comings and goings through the key access door.

What about the rooms directly inside the door? Do they have the same commotion level?

Are there rooms on on both sides of the hall - boardwalk view and garden view?

If we want a standard room away from the access door, do we request 'away from the access door' or is there another way to phrase this?

I do not care if it is boardwalk or garden, unless there are some not-so-good garden views?

Thanks for all your advice - back to reading this thread.

 

[bwifan]

We were in a deluxe concierge room in June. We were right next to the key card door. I think our room was the very first one on the left. It did not bug us in the least. People are usually coming and going when we are coming and going like the morning and evening. I never noticed a thing. I was more worried my loud kids would bother the concierge staff.

 

[PrincessSuzanne]

We just changed our reservation next week to BWI, I am so excited. We stayed there in January and I can't wait to go back, even if it is only for two nights.

 

[speedo]

I am so excited to stay at the Boardwalk for one night in October. We are going for the food and wine festival at Epcot but on the evening we arrive, I am trying to figure out the best place to eat dinner along the boardwalk. I hope some of you have recommendations and advice. Also are reservations needed? Seems like some places at Disney are neer impossible without reservations (Le Celier).

We are three adult women (My sister, Me and our Mother). I am just starting my research on the Boardwalk, since this is my first stay at the Boardwalk. So any advice would be appreciated!

We will be there on a Tuesday night and going to the festival on wed. I am not worried about eating on Wed! but on Tuesday night we would like to eat at one of the Restaurants on the Boardwalk.

The first page of this forum says the entertainers are only on the boardwalk thurs-sat, is there other acitvity we should expect on a Tuesday night or is it pretty quiet? We did reserve a Water view, which says that is the view for the Boardwalk. So might be nice to see some activity from the room balcony but then again if it is quiet that might be nice too!

Thanks!

 

[PrincessSuzanne]

I am so excited to stay at the Boardwalk for one night in October. We are going for the food and wine festival at Epcot but on the evening we arrive, I am trying to figure out the best place to eat dinner along the boardwalk. I hope some of you have recommendations and advice. Also are reservations needed? Seems like some places at Disney are neer impossible without reservations (Le Celier).

We are three adult women (My sister, Me and our Mother). I am just starting my research on the Boardwalk, since this is my first stay at the Boardwalk. So any advice would be appreciated!

We will be there on a Tuesday night and going to the festival on wed. I am not worried about eating on Wed! but on Tuesday night we would like to eat at one of the Restaurants on the Boardwalk.

The first page of this forum says the entertainers are only on the boardwalk thurs-sat, is there other acitvity we should expect on a Tuesday night or is it pretty quiet? We did reserve a Water view, which says that is the view for the Boardwalk. So might be nice to see some activity from the room balcony but then again if it is quiet that might be nice too!

Thanks!

I think your best bet is to make an ADR, if you want a TS restaurant. May I suggest Kouzzina, we have eaten breakfast there, but not dinner, but the atmosphere seems great for 3 women. There is the ESPN Club, but it looks kind of loud. There is Flying Fish, but we haven't eaten there either. I have heard great things about Big River Brewing, but not been there either.

We stayed there for a week in January and honestly, I can't tell you what evenings there was entertainment on the BW. There are always people walking around down there and coming and going from the parks and other resorts.

 

[VAfamily1998]

I am so excited to stay at the Boardwalk for one night in October. We are going for the food and wine festival at Epcot but on the evening we arrive, I am trying to figure out the best place to eat dinner along the boardwalk. I hope some of you have recommendations and advice. Also are reservations needed? Seems like some places at Disney are neer impossible without reservations (Le Celier).

We are three adult women (My sister, Me and our Mother). I am just starting my research on the Boardwalk, since this is my first stay at the Boardwalk. So any advice would be appreciated!

We will be there on a Tuesday night and going to the festival on wed. I am not worried about eating on Wed! but on Tuesday night we would like to eat at one of the Restaurants on the Boardwalk.

The first page of this forum says the entertainers are only on the boardwalk thurs-sat, is there other acitvity we should expect on a Tuesday night or is it pretty quiet? We did reserve a Water view, which says that is the view for the Boardwalk. So might be nice to see some activity from the room balcony but then again if it is quiet that might be nice too!

Thanks!

Hi Speedo! I was at the BWI in May with my husband, children, and sister in law. One of the nights, Dh, SIL, and I went out to dinner without the kids. We went to Flying Fish and it was wonderful. Dh and I do not eat seafood AT ALL, but SIL recommended it. Dh ended up getting the steak--which was AMAZING--and I got the pasta, which was very good.

I also highly recommend going to Jellyrolls, the piano bar on the Boardwalk. There is a cover charge (I believe $12/per person?) but it was a lot of fun!

 

[VAfamily1998]

Apologies if this has been asked and answered, I have only been able to read up to page 77 so far : )

As a first time guest at BWI I have no idea about how the club level is arranged. I have looked at the BWI map and understand which side of the 'H" the Inn is. I am assuming that the club level rooms are in the upper right portion of the 'H' that fronts the water.

I understand that the club is on the fourth floor (with some deluxe rooms on the third too) behind a key access door. Just before this door are three club level rooms with boardwalk views.

I have read that these rooms are sometimes subject to the 'busyness' of the comings and goings through the key access door.

What about the rooms directly inside the door? Do they have the same commotion level?

Are there rooms on on both sides of the hall - boardwalk view and garden view?

If we want a standard room away from the access door, do we request 'away from the access door' or is there another way to phrase this?

I do not care if it is boardwalk or garden, unless there are some not-so-good garden views?

Thanks for all your advice - back to reading this thread.

Hi! We stayed club level at BWI back in May. Yes, there are rooms on both side of the hall--so both garden view and boardwalk view. Our room was garden view, and my sister in law stayed in a boardwalk view room, so I did get to go on her balcony and experience both. Although the boardwalk view was beautiful, I have no complaints about our garden view! We had a view of a quiet pool and could see a little bit of Epcot from our balcony as well--we probably could have seen some of the Illuminations fireworks, if we had ever been in our room at that time

The Innkeeper's club lounge is has a garden view, so if the room is on the same side (even numbers) it will have a garden view.

ETA: Earlier in this thread (I believe post number 1428?) I have a picture of the view from our balcony

 

[Lisann]

I am so excited to stay at the Boardwalk for one night in October. We are going for the food and wine festival at Epcot but on the evening we arrive, I am trying to figure out the best place to eat dinner along the boardwalk. I hope some of you have recommendations and advice. Also are reservations needed? Seems like some places at Disney are neer impossible without reservations (Le Celier).

We are three adult women (My sister, Me and our Mother). I am just starting my research on the Boardwalk, since this is my first stay at the Boardwalk. So any advice would be appreciated!

We will be there on a Tuesday night and going to the festival on wed. I am not worried about eating on Wed! but on Tuesday night we would like to eat at one of the Restaurants on the Boardwalk.

The first page of this forum says the entertainers are only on the boardwalk thurs-sat, is there other acitvity we should expect on a Tuesday night or is it pretty quiet? We did reserve a Water view, which says that is the view for the Boardwalk. So might be nice to see some activity from the room balcony but then again if it is quiet that might be nice too!

Thanks!

I ADORE Flying Fish. The best meal I have ever had was there. And my two sisters were there, too. I had diver scallops. And you absolutely cannot forget to order the heirloom tomato, basil and mozzarella salad. THE BEST. My sisters and I are STILL talking about it. Also, the grape martini is delicious.

Just my two cents!

 

[Waltgirl]

The doors to the rooms, are they metal or wood? Most resort doors are metal but the pics make them look wooden...

Thanks!

 

[deadhedjen]

Just returned from 9 days at BWI. We stayed in a Deluxe CL Room on the 3rd floor.

Our only room request was for a large balcony. I knew about the 3rd fl/4th fl DXCL rooms before requesting/booking.

While I will say the larger 3rd fl balcony was enjoyable esp for our family of 6, the walk to/from the lounge was not so nice.

The stairwell was a filthy mess the entire 9 days. I looked at the same coffee spills, the same yellow swedish fish, the stray moldy french fry, and the same clump of dirt on the steps the whole trip. Yuck. There was a cookie just past the door on the 4th floor but someone cleaned that up a day or two in.

Just felt like we were rats scurrying through some back alley way.

And please don't tell me I should have mentioned something to a CM, because I don't feel I should have had to. Everywhere else was tidy, why not the area they tell people to use.

The length of the walk itself to the lounge was not unbearable. 4th floor would have been MUCH closer, but we were OK trading off the walk for the bigger balcony.

On to the Inn Keepers Club...

I won't mention any names, especially since the particular CM seems to be a favorite of those here, but we had repeated negative encounters with one IKC staffer.

This CM approached my son in the snack line and told him he should go change his shirt because it said Penn State University on it. That was our very first interaction with any member in the IKC, and it continued throughout our stay (only from that particular CM).

My son happens to be a current student at PSU, and my husband is also a PSU grad. I mentioned that immediately to the CM hoping it would stop the comments but it turned into a daily thing that was more than annoying.

I could see if it was a College rivalry thing, but it wasn't even that. More like a daily poke and jab to try and somehow make the boys feel embarrassed of their University because of the current goings on at PSU. We didn't get why he kept it up. OK buddy, we get it...can we please enjoy our vacation now?

Anita was absolutely lovely though. Love her. Genuinely a wonderful person.

The lounge always had a nice assortment of food/snacks/drinks which were replenished regularly. Wish we could have utilized the lounge services more often than we did. I think if we were on the 4th floor we would have been there more often.

Our view was absolutely gorgeous. Right above Boardwalk Bakery.
Good sized balcony.
Did have neighbors smoking on their balconies which really didn't bother us (even though none of us smoke) since the wind wasn't blowing our way and we aren't particularly sensitive to smells. But I could see it bothering folks with allergies and such.

The Deluxe Room was huge. It felt like we had 2 separate rooms. Never felt cramped even with the 6 of us. The bathroom wasn't an issue since we talked ahead of time about it. We mostly took our showers in the evening so everyone wasn't fighting for the shower in the morning when we were all trying to get out the door.

Proximity to Epcot was excellent.
We also walked to DHS in the AM since the boat does not start running until 8am. On the map the walk seems far, but it really wasn't bad at all. I enjoyed it. Would have walked back, but the boat was right at the dock so we took that instead.

Bus service was not ideal. Yes, they did get you where you need to go, but it took quite some time getting there. Stops at S/D some times, other times stops at S/D/BC/YC. Depended on where you were headed and what time of day. Cab fare was under $20 wherever on property you wanted to go. We ended up doing that a few times.

A tip for MK bus transportation... take a taxi to the entrance sign of the Contemporary instead. Total was $16 which included the tip ($13.80 I think was the fare) Walk to the MK via the CR pathway. On your return trip home from MK, hop in the YC/BC line if their bus arrives first then walk back to BWI.

Overall we were pleased despite those few negatives. The resort itself was great. Beautifully themed but not overdone. Relaxed and laid back. DH initially said it looked too fancy/stuffy online, but once he got there he said it was perfect.

The stairwell issue didn't seem to bother DH or the kids, but I just felt like we were scurrying through the dirtiest part of the resort like a rat or something. I crabbed about it during one of our walks to the lounge "hey, there's that same coffee spill, clump of dirt, hello there moldy french fry and yellow swedish fish..." The kids told me to quit complaining so I did.

We also enjoyed eating at Big River Grille. The portions there are huge and definitely suitable for sharing. Check out the pricing, because they are quite comparable to your basic WDW quick serve costs. Awesome bargain for those paying OOP.

What else....
The laundry area at BWI isn't that big. Only 5 washing machines and 6 dryers (IIRC). Good thing nobody else was trying to use the machines at the time because I had them all hogged up with our family's wash.

The pool was great too. My DD had lots of fun on that clown slide.

Would I stay there again? Hate to say it, but I don't think so.
Prior to this we stayed at the value resorts. 2 rooms connecting. Never before at a Deluxe. Not even a Mod.
Why? We just weren't "wowed".

Initially, everything was great...from being greeted at the driveway, to having our room ready upon checkin (at 10am!).
Then it started with the hacking from the IKC CM about DS's shirt. It was like he just went out of his way daily to poke at DS and DH. The lounge wasn't even enjoyable at that point. The CM had to have picked up on us not being amused. :

I don't know. We still had a great time at WDW despite that, but I wouldn't put the family through that again. It just sets a tone for the day I think.

We all loved Anita though. She didn't do anything spectacular or try and kiss our butts or anything like that. Doesn't appear to have an once of "fake nice" in her. She is just genuinely a lovely person.

On previous trips we've had rooms ready to go early, room requests met,
great CM's, excellent transportation, food options, pools, etc (minus the CL amenities). I guess I just expected the walkway to the lounge to be cleaner, the transportation a bit better, and to be able to enjoy the lounge without being pestered.

We're not extravagant people, but can easily afford the Deluxe Resort route. Will we stay at a Deluxe again? Probably. Even though I didn't experience a huge difference in quality in the jump from Value to Deluxe.

I guess what it boiled down to was that we did not enjoy our vacation to WDW any more by staying at BWI. Actually we enjoyed it somewhat less, unfortunately.

We're headed back to WDW this December for a sports team trip with my girls. Staying at All Stars for the first part of the trip then adding a few days on our own at the tail end of the trip. Still haven't decided which resort we'll book for our stay. My girls already said they do not want to stay at BWI again in December.

I do 99% of the vacation planning and I just feel like I let the family down this past trip. Thought BWI would be a big hit and it just wasn't.

 

[Epcot Resort Area]

The first page of this forum says the entertainers are only on the boardwalk thurs-sat, is there other acitvity we should expect on a Tuesday night or is it pretty quiet?

They perfrom 7 days a week from 6:30 PM - 10:00 PM. However who you see each night is different because the same entertainers don't work everyday.

 

[AirGoofy]

Just returned from 9 days at BWI. We stayed in a Deluxe CL Room on the 3rd floor.

I do 99% of the vacation planning and I just feel like I let the family down this past trip. Thought BWI would be a big hit and it just wasn't.

Sorry you had a bad experience, but I wouldn't feel guilty. What you described could happen at most any resort. I've stayed at all the value resorts and preferred BWV so much more for many reasons, one of which would be the transportation. But, we never take cabs.

 

[Kathymford]

Sorry you had a bad experience, but I wouldn't feel guilty. What you described could happen at most any resort. I've stayed at all the value resorts and preferred BWV so much more for many reasons, one of which would be the transportation. But, we never take cabs.

Our up-coming trip we are doing a split stay just to avoid the buses (nothing against them, just having fun). So we are doing WL for the MK half of our trip, and BW for the rest. If we go back to MK we with either try the long monorail route or take a cab like the PP suggested.

 

[GAN]

Sorry you had a bad experience, but I wouldn't feel guilty. What you described could happen at most any resort. I've stayed at all the value resorts and preferred BWV so much more for many reasons, one of which would be the transportation. But, we never take cabs.

We're sitting in MCO mow waiting to head home -it's funny because we used the transportation exclusively this trip( usually we mix a couple cab rides in there -even when not at BWV) and it could not have been better. And we've been going to DW for the last 20+ years. In fact, one night we had a dinner at BOMA so we grabbed the AK bus figuring we could catch a bus to AKL from there easy enough -the driver overheard us and dropped us off right at the door ...excellent service! The only small complaint regarding BWV might be Bell Services - had a small issue with them.

 

[sfbank]

eadhedjen-sorry you had a bad experience at the BWI. I just got back from a great trip as usual. It is great Disney has all kinds of choices because people are different. I think that might be the same case with being offended with the comments about the shirt. Some people would take offense, some people would let it roll off their backs. It is the difference in people.
It could also be because you did not know them personally or had not been around him or her before. Every year we are there Anita, as well as Linda and the others tease us and give us a hard time about being from the "corn fields" since we are from Iowa. "Oh, do they have those in the corn fields?" is a common question. We have a good laugh about it. Again though, I have known them for 10 years so I think that would make a difference.
At least you can say you tried it and hope your next trip is better

 

[Epcot Resort Area]

deadhedjen,
Thank you for taking the time to write that very detailed review and sorry if you took offense to what that Cast Member said.

As for your comments about Anita they are right on because I feel exactly the same way.