The I Love BWV (yes, Hallways and Clown Pool too!) Thread

[CarolynFH]

It is irritating that they changed the Pool/Garden View to the same cost as the Boardwalk View

They didn’t change anything. Originally the Preferred view included what’s now P/G and BW view, with BW view being only a request. After many expressions of great unhappiness and reportedly even public meltdowns at the front desk when that BW view request wasn’t met, DVC made BWV a bookable category but didn’t change the points costs for either set of rooms.

That made it easy for them a few years later when people kept complaining that the view from the studios and 1BR that look onto the Village Green wasn’t really a BW view as initially classified. They were able to reclassify them as P/G view without having to change the points for those rooms, which immediately became desirable precisely for that partial BW view.

 

[miss0033]

Ah. Thanks for clarifying that.
I misinterpreted a comment someone made that the P/G rooms "used to be fewer points", I made a poor assumption they increased P/G to match boardwalk. Rather than that they probably increased the price for both room types at some point when they were together.

I still feel P/G should be 1-2 points cheaper than Boardwalk and resort view should be 1-2 points more to maybe help relieve some pressure on the category. Unlikely to happen, I get that.

 

[CarolynFH]

Ah. Thanks for clarifying that.
I misinterpreted a comment someone made that the P/G rooms "used to be fewer points", I made a poor assumption they increased P/G to match boardwalk. Rather than that they probably increased the price for both room types at some point when they were together.

I still feel P/G should be 1-2 points cheaper than Boardwalk and resort view should be 1-2 points more to maybe help relieve some pressure on the category. Unlikely to happy, I get that.

The comment about “used to be fewer points” might have related to the reallocations in 2021-23 or 24, when summer points went down and fall/winter points went up and there were other adjustments to the charts. It made the cost of some owners’ usual vacations go up. I think there may be a 1 or 2 point difference for some dates, but in general P/G and BWV villas cost the same number of points for any given date.

I do agree that BW view should cost more than P/G view and a lot more than Resort view, but I don’t expect they’ll ever go through the mathematics to make that happen. Given that the Residential Units at BWV are of so many different configurations and combinations of villa sizes, it would be a nightmare to keep the total number of points for the resort and the ownership percentages balanced and legally accurate. It’s not like changing cash prices!

 

[mrsap]

Construction Work at Former Big River Grille at Disney’s BoardWalk Resort

We noticed loud construction work being done inside the former Big River Grille & Brewing Works at Disney’s BoardWalk Resort this morning, February 19.

Big River, which closed in January 2024, has been out of operation for over two years. But we noticed loud construction, which sounded like interior demolition, happening at the former restaurant today. The front of the location is blocked off by refurbishment hedges.


We noticed a rental trailer sitting out in front of the front entrance, tucked behind the hedges. As of right now, there has been no announcement regarding what will replace Big River. Though we can assume that if interior work is being done, an announcement will come sometime in the foreseeable future.

 

[zackiedawg]

Crossing fingers to not be disappointed...and that some kind of quick serve/moderate table-serve restaurant goes in there - something with a bar-food type menu like the old ESPN, or like Rix, Cityworks, etc. Get moving on the Jellyroll's replacement as well...that entire end of the boardwalk has been dead for so long now - just drunks coming out of Atlantic from conventions and events and wandering by.

 

[Choppers]

@Choppers - For Studio Resort View, try the 085/097/099 "corner". View is decent for the category, not too far from lobby, but very closer to secondary elevator, secondary stair, and a back door right out to the main Pool.
085 on floors 3, 4, and 5 have a more open balcony. 097 and 099 (as well as 085 on floor 1) have a more enclosed balcony.
With the new, miserable chairs, we don't spend much time on the balcony anymore...

Otherwise, we enjoy 3123 and 3125. Quiet end of the building, same distance to walk to Epcot and HS (to us anyway), quick walk outside to bus stop (quick than back through the main lobby anyway). Not being close to elevators doesn't bother us as 2-4 flights of stairs is no problem, YMMV. And a quick walk down to speedway to get Mountain Dew, as we are not coke people. My wife won't do first floor, walk out rooms; PTSD from a past experience. But with a grade level room on that end, I imagine you could walk right out your room and not even bother with the stair.

For resort view there isn't a ton of options, or "Better rooms" they are all about the same in our experience. X085 has always looked a little bigger on floor plans, but we've never stayed in a x085 room to confirm.

EDIT: Sorry, mixed up the 2 requests... @VGCgroupie I guess you could use my statements above, just slightly different for 1BR instead of Studio.

For Pool/Garden, we weren't fans of the view of the main pool. We like to go back to the room during the day, and didn't care for what seemed like a loudspeaker at times for pool activities in the afternoon. I'd highly recommend X130, X132, and X136 for the reasons stated in my 2nd paragraph above, and that it's view is of the quieter pool.

Our one stay with a Garden view on the "north end" of the building, we felt like we were staring at the Swan hotel, and the swan was staring at us... And what seemed like a lot of maintenance vehicle traffic on the service road. If it were me, I'd suggest a view of the Quiet Pool.

It is irritating that they changed the Pool/Garden View to the same cost as the Boardwalk View rooms. For us, the resort view is preferred to the Pool/Garden view... but the low points has made studios a "hunger games" type event to try and book. I really wish they would increase the price of the Boardwalk view rooms and resort view rooms, and decrease the points for the pool/garden view rooms. I'm fine if they want to keep Resort view the cheapest, but Pool/Garden view needs to come comes to that price than being the same as a Boardwalk view room. Just my humble opinion.

Thanks for this. So if I’m making a request would I request ‘rooms in the range of x to y’ or ‘not first floor near lobby’ or something else? Just want to have a good chance of getting something decent for our first ever dvc trip

 

[Best Aunt]

Thanks for this. So if I’m making a request would I request ‘rooms in the range of x to y’ or ‘not first floor near lobby’ or something else? Just want to have a good chance of getting something decent for our first ever dvc trip

You have to be careful if your room request is "not" something. If the castmember misunderstands you, or enters the information incorrectly, you could end up with exactly what you do not want.

I always suggest calling back at a later date and asking them to read your room request back to you.

 

[CarolynFH]

Thanks for this. So if I’m making a request would I request ‘rooms in the range of x to y’ or ‘not first floor near lobby’ or something else? Just want to have a good chance of getting something decent for our first ever dvc trip

I would request the range of room numbers. As @Best Aunt says above, many reports here seem to confirm that putting in “not” results in being assigned that very thing!

PS for a P/G studio that’s “not a million miles from lobby and has a decent view,” I’d request “view of Village Green” (which is a partial BW view) or “of Luna Park” (which is the feature pool and can be noisy in the afternoons when activities are ongoing) or even, to make it simple, “near lobby” or “near elevators” which, due to the building layout, amounts to the same thing. A view of the Quiet Pool is farther from the lobby.

See map here: https://www.wdwinfo.com/resortmaps/boardwalk.htm. BWV is the left half of the resort.

 

[airjay75]

Anyone have any recommendations for a 1 BR BWV BW view room request? Staying for 4 nights week of Easter. We like higher floors and I think I'd rather not have one of the enclosed balconies. @CarolynFH - I read another post of yours that said the 1 BRs on the higher floors didn't have enclosed balconies, so maybe just leave my request at higher floor and call it a day?

Really have no other perspective having not been to the BW before. Welcome any thoughts.

 

[CarolynFH]

Anyone have any recommendations for a 1 BR BWV BW view room request? Staying for 4 nights week of Easter. We like higher floors and I think I'd rather not have one of the enclosed balconies. @CarolynFH - I read another post of yours that said the 1 BRs on the higher floors didn't have enclosed balconies, so maybe just leave my request at higher floor and call it a day?

Really have no other perspective having not been to the BW before. Welcome any thoughts.

Yes, almost all of the ones on the second floor have enclosed balconies. There may be a few on the 5th floor, I’m not sure, but 3rd and 4th floor seem to all be open. So I generally request just “high floor” and have been fine with that. Be prepared for a long walk to your room, though, because many if not most of the 1BR are past the GVs.

Here’s an old but still-useful diagram of room numbers but unfortunately doesn’t show balcony status. https://www.disboards.com/media/bwv-boardwalk-view.62896/

 

[kgou]

Anyone have any recommendations for a 1 BR BWV BW view room request? Staying for 4 nights week of Easter. We like higher floors and I think I'd rather not have one of the enclosed balconies. @CarolynFH - I read another post of yours that said the 1 BRs on the higher floors didn't have enclosed balconies, so maybe just leave my request at higher floor and call it a day?

Really have no other perspective having not been to the BW before. Welcome any thoughts.

Boardwalk view rooms are truly magical! Most of our BWV stays have been P/G view, but we had a Boardwalk view for a night on the back end of our Thanksgiving trip. Amazing view of the fireworks from Epcot and could also see MK! Watching fireworks from the Murphy bed with my kiddos is def a core memory. Have the BEST time!!!!!

 

[AstroBlasters]

Anyone have any recommendations for a 1 BR BWV BW view room request? Staying for 4 nights week of Easter. We like higher floors and I think I'd rather not have one of the enclosed balconies. @CarolynFH - I read another post of yours that said the 1 BRs on the higher floors didn't have enclosed balconies, so maybe just leave my request at higher floor and call it a day?

Really have no other perspective having not been to the BW before. Welcome any thoughts.

I would highly recommend Touring Plans free room finder feature.