Take a step back on BCV - time to re-access

[ron7654]

Sorry to bring a little rain to this BCV celebration, but correct me if i'm wrong.

I looked at the BCV pictures with great enthusiam and giddyness, as i reached for my highlighter pen and anxiously circled MARCH 6, 2002 on my calendar (hopeful that i could be one of the first to score a Sept. 2002 ressie). Having already booked a Grand Villa at OKW for 9/15-9/20, and expecting a great celebration with 9 other guests, I quickly decided "what would be better than staying at a brand new place"? Having looked at the brochure that recently arrived i started to calculate the points to pull off this seemingly wonderful feat. Lets see.....there are no grand villas........no problem....I'll splurge for 2 rooms...lets make 'em both 2 bedrooms (not wanting to feel cramped on a vacation) So instead of taking the OKW GV at 180 points , i'll take the 2- 2bdroom at 150 each (total 300 points). Hmm ....spending an extra 120 points....guess what..i didn't care..... I'll have a BRAND NEW hotel, with a superior location, right smack in the middle of everything, love that SAB!, we'll make wonderful meals in the rooms and gather round the dining room table and sing songs while we laugh the night away , yelling "hey, throw another Disney DVD movie in that thing i wanna see Toy Story again"

Then it hit me....what's wrong with this picture? Lets look at the pictures again....only one sofa in the living room...that can't be...this is a 2 bedroom....hmm........wait a minute......that kitchen's looking kind of small too.....what happened to the roominess i've grown accustomed to at OKW, or even BWV for that matter?..........no problem i can deal with these little setbacks...then i looked toward my "dining room" Is it my imagination or did the Disney Imagineers do a shrinking move on that "dining room table" and the squeeze it in where a hallway/walkway should be? Did Disney forget the reason for the kitchen? to serve "family" meals, and discuss the days events. I gotta tell you that bench that was built into to wall doesnt look all that comfy, and you'd have a real tough time turning it to get a better look at the tv, lol.

These rooms look to be getting real tight folks. I bought DVC for its comforts while vacationing, which includes a nice table to sit together at, to enjoy a meal, and a living room with ample seating to relax in after dinner. As more and more space disappears from these floor plans it's taking on the appearance of a cattle pen. Is anyone else looking past the glitz of BCV yet?

 

[Terry S]

You mention the "roominess at OKW or even BWV". If your comparing a 2-bdrm to a 2-bdrm we all know that OKW is bigger, but I thought I remembered reading somewhere that BCV is actually a little bit bigger than BWV? You can't judge it based on the pictures. Does anyone have the acutal square footage of each resort and or each accomadation?

 

[PamOKW]

I think this is the difference in concept. BWV/VWL/BCV are all expanded hotel accomodations. They're lovely but they aren't meant for spending the majority of your time in the villa. OKW was built more as a vacation home that, luckily, happens to be located in WDW.

I was thinking the same thing about the size of the living/dining area. It works okay as a one-bedroom but it will be pretty tricky to get 8 folks in comfortably when it becomes the living space for a two-bedroom. The pictures of WLV look like the table is somewhat similar in those units, although it doesn't have the bench. I don't think there is a tremendous difference between BCV and the other two hotel-based resorts. Buffet style dining looks like the way to go in these units. I'm also pretty sure that they all only have 1 sofa....only OKW has the sofa and love seat (and the chair/ottoman).

 

[PamOKW]

I just found some sq. footage info from both www.wdwinfo.com and www.wdwig.com

Since the living space is also in the one-bedroom that's where the difference comes in. (No one has BCV info posted yet.)

BWV - 712
WLV - 727 (slightly larger)
OWK - 942 -- a significant difference

Studios are:
BWV - 359
WLV - 356
OKW - 376

The 2 bedroom figure for OKW appears to be for a dedicated one since combining a studio & one-bedroom would be 1,318

2 Bedroom
BWV - 1,071
WLV - 1,080
OKW - 1,333

 

[Crissup]

Square footage is important, but doesn't always tell the entire story. Layout is very important. Using extreme exagerations for illustration, let's say you have a room that is 15'x10', that makes 150 SqFt. Now, you take a room that is 50'x4', that is 200 SqFt. Which will feel roomier and offer more vacation enjoyment? The bigger room wouldn't even be wide enough to cram a sofa or bed into.

I guess my point is, even if the BCV rooms are slightly larger in square footage, that still doesn't mean it will even feel as roomy as BWV. Until people start staying there and we get reports back, who knows. I don't think the mockups are going to be accurate. After all, are we to believe that they change the size of the sales display rooms when they redo them? Not likely, more likely they only change the decore to match.

 

[EROS]

We could CARE LESS about room size. In fact, for our family of 3 we routinely get a studio to save points. We don't travel to WDW to enjoy the finer accoutrements of the DVC rooms . We DON'T cook in our villas.......... and are out and about from early morning until late evening.

Each to his/her own

 

[drusba]

The rooms do not look to me to be any smaller or bigger than BWV. The changes of significance other than the more elaborate looking countertops in the kitchen are (a) they have gone to a wall bench seat for the dining area whereas BWV has two chairs, and (b) the dividing doors between the 1BR and studio (that make up the two bedroom) are close to the front doors whereas with BWV there in the rear where the living room is for the 1BR.

 

[llp479]

Just returned from BWV and did the tour of the new BCV. By moving the door to the front of the unit they eliminated the closet in the entry way of the one bedroom. They added a "water closet" in the main bath, but it made the shower smaller.

We met with our guide and she said the square footage is actually slightly smaller than BWV. The studio feels larger, because by moving the doorway, they eliminated the wasted space in the studio's entry way. The kitchen area looked about the same as BWV, but the unit did seem slightly narrower than BWV.

 

[BCV23]

Before purchasing, my DH asked our guide about square footage in the BCV units. He told us:

studio: 356
1BR: 726
2BR: 1,083

I like the look of the table and banquette...more flexibility IMHO.

 

[TDC Nala]

I am with Eros..I don't care. I'll be staying in studios mostly, maybe sharing the room with one or two friends or relatives (I won't have any difficulty getting traveling companions with a DVC membership.) If I plan to have my whole family (parents and brother's family) traveling along, I'll either book something at OKW or let my dad book a couple of rooms at Shades of Green. Otherwise, I'm just glad about the BCV's location.




Buying In April

 

[Lisa F]

I think that BWV's (as well as VWL and probably BCV, though that is sight-unseen) are PLENTY big to spend signficant amounts of time in and enjoy as a "home away from home" and not merely an expanded hotel room.

When we recently brought some friends along to share a 2br, there was more than enough room for 5 adults to play games, have dinner, watch a movie and have a very enjoyable evening "at home."

Maybe it's because I have always been a fairly urban type of a person and don't live in a 3000+ sq ft house that I find the units at the BWV to be not merely adequate as expanded hotel rooms but downright luxurious. They are wonderfully designed little apartments with everything I could ever want on vacation, including being walking distance from my favorite park.

As far as the design of the new BCV, I think that the table with the bench thing is a really adorable design. A round table is just about the most inefficient table you can get so by switching to oblong they are actually making better use of the space there. It looks like the bench provides seating for 3 (at least hsa 3 cusions) so with the two chairs at the bar on the other side of the table, you have seating for 5. Maybe this is disney's nod to those families with 3 small kids who use a 1br?

Lisa

 

[TIdoublegaER]

I have mixed feelings. I'm happy and excited to see the new restort (and those still to come.) Just the fact that they are new and are available to us is a joyous thing in and of itself. I do agree; however, that they "appear" small. That is a bit disappointing. IMHO, it seems like Disney knows that they can make a resort that size and still sell it, so why would they (as a business move) make anything larger that would cost more to build, for no more $$ return? I didn't expect them to match the size of OKW, but a compromise of something between OKW and BWV/VWL would have been nice. My wife and I have discussed that we certainly are looking forward to staying at each of these in the future, but that we'd never be able to take any guests along to BCV/VWL/ or BWV. Those would be trips for just our family. If we want to take guests ... it'll be OKW or HH.

All that said, only one more thing to add ....

God bless Disney!

 

[Caskbill]

When considering room size at BWVs and BCVs I would think the main reason for the size is to continue to maximize the number of rooms possible in as little real estate as possible. The area is prime, right next door to Epcot and MGM, and tying the villas to existing resorts makes sense.

OKW on the other hand is built around a golf course, with room to spare. That's what makes the larger accommodations possible. When Eagle Pines is built, it too should have the large spacious rooms similar to OKW. When you have the space to build, larger accommodations are possible. I hope they also do something similar, making larger villas, when they build the DVC Institute resort.

This room size vs location makes perfect sense to me. In the prime locations, use hotel type construction to maximize occupancy. The DVC member trades off some size for location.

VWL could have been more like OKW, or even HH in their layout, but they chose to stay with the 'hotel' concept.

 

[PamOKW]

I didn't mean calling BCV/BWV hotel-like as in insult. In fact, I see it as the positive of the resorts. It offers something different and equally as lovely. It depends on what type of vacation you are looking for. As some have said, they want a nice place to sleep and relax so a studio is ideal. If you are bringing the whole family together and plan on sitting down to meals together, then the living area could be trickier. If you plan on doing all different types of vacations it's great to have all these choices!

I agree that the smaller size is the way to maximize the prime real estate of the area. Nothing is small....just smaller when you get to the 1 & 2 bedrooms. I think the GV's at BWV and OKW are about comparable in size although different in layout.

 

[EROS]

Pam is RIGHT. Different strokes for different folks. I guess that families have many varied needs at DVC resorts. I'm still aghast at all of the HAND-WRINGING over room sizes, layouts, etc. . I've stayed at many,many hotels and resorts both in the U.S. and Overseas. My memories of those stays have LITTLE to do with "Room Dimensions" .

Next trip to Paris................I'm bringing a tape measure .......

 

[ron7654]

Thank you all for the input, i enjoyed hearing some other points of view. Nice work on square footages. Will post pictures of BCV when i visit in March. You still gotta love the mouse!