my split stay at wdw - BC and WLV - Honest review

[minijeanie]

Myself, grown children and 7 year old grand daughter went on this trip. There were total of 6 of us. First time for my GD, SIL And my sons girlfriend.

MDE:

took over 2 hours to get to our resort - think next time I will rent a car

BC: stayed 3 nights

PROS:
excellent location for Studios and Epcot
lots of choices to dine at
can stroll boardwalk at night and see Epcot fireworks from property
CMS great - all nice and helpful - all smiling - could not of asked for anything better
GD loved Pool

CONS:
The walk to the pool makes you leave the property and then walk back in. You walk out the entrance all the way to end of walkway, make a right and then walk back to the pool. Every time you wanted to go to the slide you had to cross the walkway where everyone else strolled along. Very poor planning IMHO on Disney. The smaller slide for younger kids was actually across the walkway on the beach... This is my second time here and I really really tried to love it but for me it falls short.

Magical bus took forever. we waited one hour for bus to MK..
All bars and restaurants fully packed every night -impossible to get into
I also went a week that seemed to have maximum crowd levels so this is kinda a biased opinion.

Boats to Studios - totally erratic. - we waited over 45 minutes for a boat and decided to walk it. When we got back to resort the boat had just left.


WLV:

PROS:
excellent location to MK -
very homey feeling
electrical pageant at night on water
nice bar and restaurant -

CONS:
pool very small - I cannot imagine this pool accomodating all the new DVC owners once the new rooms are built
rules at pool extremely stringent compared to BC.I found this odd because I figured all rules the same. At BC we could have a drink in our hand and feet in water. At WL you had to be 50 feet away from the pool,


Ok so I guess you figured we like WL better,
But then again different for each family and just my opinion

Granted ...for some reason we went the worst week in the word.
Lines were horrible - everywhere
30 minute wait for a dole whip

30 minute wait for Small World - I have never waited for this ride - ever

We got to do most of what we wanted to do because of FP and ADR's. after that we went back to resort because most lines were 60-100 minute wait.
I helped family from London who had no idea about FP's or ADR's. they thought that since they had the dining plan they could just walk up to the restaurant and get in. I felt terrible

M&G - over 45 minute wait - I personally don't like the way Disney does it now. I prefer the old days when you just seen the characters as they strolled along the park. If you seen your favorite good.. if not maybe next time.
My GD was thrilled with seeing elana of Avalor be introduced in the show at the castle and was just happy to see the characters from afar. We went to one character breakfast and all good.
Don't flame me everyone but you get what you get and you don't get upset.

Don't think life is over if you can't see Elsa - we never got on FFE but GD was happy to just be in WDW... she loved it all

Next trip: I am going in November.

 

[Dentam]

What dates were you there? Interesting to hear about the crowds since I'd been hearing they were expecting very low crowds this fall due to several factors.

 

[minijeanie]

What dates were you there? Interesting to hear about the crowds since I'd been hearing they were expecting very low crowds this fall due to several factors.

We went sept 30th thru oct 6th. Left day before the storm

 

[loves to dive]

Thank you for your comparisons, I've stayed at YC/BC many times (YC is my favorite resort) but have yet to stay at WL. I've visited it and it looks beautiful. About the pool at BC, you can walk through the inside hallways and get there without going down that walk. I think it's done that way since it's shared by both resorts. I haven't used it in years since my son is grown, we tend to use the quiet pools. The buses are the buses are the buses everywhere, you get good and bad service. Strange about the boats, I've never had that long of a wait but to be honest, I walk most of the time since I'm no longer young and try to get as much exercise in as I can.

 

[minijeanie]

It's great that everyone has different favorite resort...that way room for all of us. Thks for advice about inside corridor. But you still have to use walkway to get to smaller slide. I did love beach theme but we live relatively close to the beach and think that's why my kids loved WL better. Personally think just hit one bad crowded week and not the norm. We had fAntastic time though and staff just excellent