Okay, now my thoughts on the CL stays we've had so far. I'll try to make this as clear & concise as possible, but I do have a tendency to wander.
CONTEMPORARY
This was our first CL experience, and it's hard for me to be objective about it. We had booked a standard room at the CR, but they upgraded us to a two-bedroom suite.
I'll try to be fair, though.
We were met at check-in by a CM, although not before we waited in the regular check-in line for a few minutes. Obviously, we didn't know we had been upgraded so we weren't looking for a CL CM, and I think because we valeted we got to the check-in area sooner than the CM expected. Anyway, our room was on the 14th floor, Tower Club level. The lounge there isn't huge, but it was never crowded. In fact, we were usually the only ones there. There was, however, always at CM at the desk in front of it and often another one in the lounge area itself. The CMs were nice & helpful and one (bigger, bald guy) was SUPER friendly. The food was fairly average; I don't recall being overall impressed or dismayed by it. One of the best parts of staying CL here is being able to watch Wishes with the music piped in, glass of wine in hand, no crowds. We had a Bay Lake view room, so it was like the best of both worlds.
Our room actually wasn't *quite* ready when we arrived -- one of the bedrooms hadn't been cleaned. Mousekeeping came right away, though, and I actually had a nice chat with our Mousekeeper. We hadn't been to Disney in 10+ years at that point, and she gave me a lot of good info. Our room was well taken care of the rest of our stay. Everything in our room was in good working order, though the furnishings in the living room had suffered a bit at the hands of someone wielding a pen.
In a general sense, we love all the shops & restaurants & hustle & bustle in the CR lobby. And obviously we loved the convenience of the location and being able to wait for the monorail in air conditioned comfort. Didn't love the waits for the elevator, which I imagine can get really bad during busy times of year (we were there the week after Thanksgiving; pretty slow time overall).
We would definitely stay at CR again and, in fact, have tried, but discounted rooms seem to be hard to come by.
POLY
For our stay here, we actually booked CL (standard GV room). We chose the Poly because it's the favorite of just about everyone we know. Quite possible that resulted in our expectations being too high.
When we pulled up to the Poly, a CM came to greet us & we told him we were staying CL. He got someone to valet the car and another someone to take us to the Hawaii longhouse via golf cart. There was a little bit of a wait for this to happen, but it was really busy (spring break) so nothing unreasonable. At Hawaii, a very nice male CM got us all checked in and got our tickets for us & showed us (briefly) around the lounge. While he was helping us, another CM (older lady) showed up for work and was grumbling and complaining as she got settled in. Really unprofessional.
The lounge is HUGE and has an amazing view. There is no shortage of space here. Again, we were there at a VERY busy time, but never had a problem getting a table, even during the morning rush. The food, though, is sort of all crammed in one corner, so it can get kind of congested in that area. Also, I only saw a CM in the lounge on two occasions. One of those times was during the evening offerings. I went to get a glass of wine & the bottle was empty. I asked a CM for a new bottle. He said, "I *just* put a new bottle out." I held up the empty bottle and said, "I don't know what to tell you, but it's empty." He sighed loudly and got another bottle out. REALLY?
That said, the food was very good & was replenished as needed. (On another food-related note, we also got room service one night and it was
outstanding.)
Our room, to answer your other question, was fine. We had no maintenance issues, no mousekeeping issues. It was clean & in good repair. Very spacious, too -- I really enjoyed that it had both a daybed and an easy chair & ottoman. We found the rooms to be very dark, though, which isn't to our taste.
A lot of why we didn't love the Poly in general is just personal preference. Again, we thought the rooms were too dark. It was rainy while we were there, and we didn't love having to run through the rain to get to the GCH or TTC. The pool area seemed WAY too small for the mobs of people around it. And we live in Florida, so the whole tropical vibe is old-hat to us.
Would we stay there again?
Maybe. The room size and the location are major benefits, but considering all the things we weren't so crazy about, it's down pretty far on our list.
BOARDWALK INN
Now this place. Well. What can I say? I love it. I LURVE it.
We self-parked here and hiked up the big hill to the resort (my husband: "If we ever come here again, remind me to valet."). CM David came forward to greet us, "This must be the XXXX Family!" He was SO friendly, escorted us up to our room, telling us about the resort & showing us around a bit on our way. That definitely starts things off on the right foot. Another very friendly CM checked us in. The lounge is decent sized and very comfortable, and there were always at least two super-friendly CMs in there (though many times three or four). The food was pretty good -- I'd rank it above CR but below Poly -- and very plentiful. Also, the CMs there seemed like they genuinely
wanted to help.
Our room was lovely. Bright, spacious, elegant. Not as big at CR and Poly rooms, but we didn't feel cramped or anything. It was clean and in great condition, except for the balcony...that wasn't properly cleaned our first day, but was after that (we didn't complain or anything, so mousekeeping must've just realized it on their own).
In a general sense, we loved the hotel and especially loved the activity & atmosphere on the boardwalk. Didn't love that almost all of the shops & restaurants are outside of the resort. No rain during our stay, but it would be a drag if there was. Obviously loved the convenience to EPCOT and DHS.
Would we stay there again? ABSOLUTELY. The *only* reason we're not staying there in February is because we really are (right now, with one little kid) MK people.
So we'll be trying GF to see if that becomes our new favorite MK resort.
And in April we'll be trying AKL for a one-night, no-park stay...mainly to appease my sister, who ADORES it there. I swear, she gets personally offended whenever we stay somewhere else at Disney, so we're going there (and taking my mom) to make her happy. (Although it is a gorgeous resort, so I'm happy to try it. Who knows? Maybe we'll fall in love, too.)
And I want to try YC, also, because it seems it might be similar to BWI, but with all its shops & restaurants inside.
We're lucky enough to live close by, so we can make several short trips per year. Makes it easy to try out different resorts without having to be too invested in them. I mean, worst case scenario if we hate it, we're only there for a few nights. We would like to eventually have a home base, but we'll see if that happens. We're fickle.
//end ramble
And the YC suite, if I was not offered that there would've been no way of making me happy after overbooking my RPC Deluxe King room! 
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. DH said to book the GF, but if I did that I'd want RPC and the room/view I would want would be overlooking the construction.....so needless to say, I'm having a hard time making a decision 
