I don't know that you've said what kind of room you have. A studio has a microwave, small refrigerator, toaster and coffee maker. There is, however, a laundry located somewhere near the elevator (I've only used it once in 15 years and have completely forgotten the details. I'm sure you'll come across the information on this board, if you need it, or just ask at the front desk. It's free, except for the soap, for people staying using DVC points which you will be doing.) If, however, you have a 1 bedroom or a 2 bedroom, there will be a stacked washer/dryer in the room for your use. There will/should be enough detergent for one load, so you might consider bringing more. (I usually bring a couple of those pressed blocks of detergent in a Ziploc bag, but if you have a lot of people you might want to bring more. You can buy more at the resort, but it's kind of silly to do so if you just remember to pack a little bit in the suitcase.) Anyhow, I think - and I could be wrong, and it could just be a matter of who you happen to speak with - it will cost you $5 or $6 to get a fresh set of towels. So laundry, to me, looks pretty good! :-D
By the way, it's not the case that you'll get *no* service necessarily. If you stay at least 4 nights then they'll come and change out your towels and empty your trash on the 4th DAY - so if you check in on Sunday, it'll be S,M,T, Wednesday (!) that they'll come and do a quick pickup of trash and towels. If you're staying 8 nights or more, then they'll actually do a full cleaning of the room on that 4th day and just do the Trash & Towels (that's what they call it) on the 7th day. So it's not like you'll be staying a couple of weeks with no housekeeping, just that it's not every day. There's a vacuum cleaner in the closet of your room, dish soap in the sink, and if you've got a 1 or 2 bedroom there will be dishwasher detergent as well as the laundry detergent to use with the dishwasher and clothes washer.
I would expect that the number the DVC owner sent you is the reservation number that you'll use to set up the MyDisneyExperience.com account, yes. If it doesn't work, contact the owner again to make sure it got sent to you correctly.
As LauraLea says, ADRs are your restaurant reservations. They may be a little bit different than what was in place in 2005 - if it's for, say, 8 p.m. you need to be there *by* 8 p.m. but you may still have to wait. I think basically they were trying to cut down on feeling like they had to kick people out in order to sit new people at the time of their reservation, but now it's just that you'll be put in queue for the next open seat if you got there on time. I don't know if you've heard of it, but they have this promotion they do a significant amount of time at the resort called "free dining." (You can't get it by the way; it's only for those people who pay rack rate for a 'regular' hotel room.) They usually (always? I've never used them) have a dining plan that's basically "you have enough 'credits' for a breakfast, lunch, supper, *and* a snack every day you're here" that a lot of people take advantage of. Ultimately, since everyone's trying to get the value from these plans, the restaurants are usually fully booked. So even if you don't purchase one of these plans, if you hope to eat at a restaurant on any particular day you really need to make an Advanced Dining Reservation. Disney will give you an idea of how quickly you can do that -- it may be 60 days from your check-in date, or 90? I don't remember. You'll find it on these boards or on a Disney website. You've got time, so don't freak out over it right now. Oh, hey, someone says earlier in this post it's 180 days plus 10? :
: Anyhow, once you get your MDE account set up you can do what I do and just try to make a reservation every so often -- when you can, it'll work. If you can't, it won't work. LOL!
And kittyab - I bought at BW about 16 years ago now. I've probably stayed there .... maybe 14 times? I really like it. I know that the Beach Club is basically the same in terms of location, and may have a longer contract than BW, but it's just me and I don't need the fancy pool so I'm quite pleased with where I am. When I bought, I don't think there really was a choice in terms of resorts -- not that I would know as I really had no *clue* as to what I was doing! If you do decide to buy, my only advice would be to buy where you want to stay. They keep building new DVC buildings and some are .... less appealing than others, but are bought into because folks think that will get their foot in the door to switch over to the more appealing ones. So if you want to stay at one that is pretty well liked, you really should buy into it to get that 4 month advantage in terms of making a reservation. I go in October every year and have never had a problem getting the room I want because I make the reservation right at the 11 month opening. This year I got three (3) 1-bedroom and one (1) 2-bedroom reservations for the middle of October (Food and Wine Festival will be going strong) with no issues because I called 11 months to the day. That's 4 rooms for basically one member because I own there that no one else will be able to get when their 7 month time comes around. Normally I only get one or two rooms but sometimes I treat the family.
So, yes, if you like the location I would encourage you to consider the Boardwalk.
