Will I like the Boardwalk?

[JenM475]

Just rented points for the a Boardwalk studio in August. I so am excited, but have never stayed here before (usually WL or AK). It will be me, my husband, and our 8-year-old daughter.

Is it too loud at night?

Is it really that easy to get into Epcot and HS?

Is the clown slide as creepy as it looks?

Any advice/tips welcome! Thanks!

 

[CR Resort Fan 4 Life]

It's very easy going getting to Epcot and Hollywood Studios since there are walkways to both parks.

Each time I have stayed on the Boardwalk Inn side I happen to get a Boardwalk view and honestly it was never loud during the evening.

The clown slide is not creepy and everytime I have been there I seen a lot of kids having a wonderful time going down on it into the pool.

 

[kaligal]

Just rented points for the a Boardwalk studio in August. I so am excited, but have never stayed here before (usually WL or AK). It will be me, my husband, and our 8-year-old daughter.

Is it too loud at night?

Is it really that easy to get into Epcot and HS?

Is the clown slide as creepy as it looks?

Any advice/tips welcome! Thanks!

Everyone says it takes 5 minutes to Epcot. I didn't go to DS that trip.

Took us 15-20 from our room. We weren't right on the boardwalk itself and heard no noise. I heard more noise from the Boardwalk when I was near the water at the Beach Club, lol.

If you are one of these people who thinks clowns are scary or creepy - I don't remember the psychological term for it - then, yes, you'll find it creepy. I'm not and didn't think it was creepy at all. I enjoyed swimming in that pool in the early morning. I did not like having to traipse through the lobby to get back to the room.

It's a nice, pleasant hotel. If you stay club level, they put a piece of taffy on your pillow instead of a mint, which I thought was cute. Well, they did when I stayed there, but it's been many years.

Very decent gift shop out on the boardwalk.

The other thing I didn't like was the lack of a restaurant inside the hotel.

I don't know if you'll like it. It was not my favorite, but it wasn't my least favorite.

I hope you do!

 

[7165red]

I think it's a great resort.

 

[bcrook]

I like the location - Epcot and DHS are easily accessible. Plenty of restaurants are close, and the lake and boardwalk setting is awesome.

 

[Ro Z]

We love it. Location is great IMO. We are all adults and love the dining and nite life. With a child I am not sure I would like it so much. But I don't think you will regret your choice. BTW I once had a room overlooking the creepy clown pool and luckily the clown face was covered with a black sheet kind of thing for refurb. I think it IS creepy! Have a great trip!

7 days til BLT

 

[Debrn]

We love it. Location is great IMO. We are all adults and love the dining and nite life. With a child I am not sure I would like it so much. But I don't think you will regret your choice. BTW I once had a room overlooking the creepy clown pool and luckily the clown face was covered with a black sheet kind of thing for refurb. I think it IS creepy! Have a great trip!

7 days til BLT

I loved BWV really easy walk to Epcot and HS. When I booked this trip kids begged for BLT and said BWV is more for grown ups.

 

[Debrn]

I loved BWV really easy walk to Epcot and HS. When I booked this trip kids begged for BLT and said BWV is more for grown ups.

Clown slide was closed bit they were fine with it, went to BC pool and they still choose Poly or BLT pool

 

[Deb & Bill]

If you have a car, parking is a bit inconvenient. It's a long hike uphill from the parking lot.

And, heck, yah, that clown is straight out of Stephen King!!

 

[roydavid7771]

I'll be down at the same time, but on the other side of the lake at BCV. You'll love the BW, such a great atmosphere there! And don't sweat the clown slide, there are quiet pools if it's an issue. Enjoy!

 

[sammysmom]

I am planning on staying there for the first time myself in September. We love the Beach Club and I am hoping that we like the Boardwalk just as much. I am a little leary about the clown slide as my girls love SAB, but I have heard such good things about the Boardwalk, I am sure that we'll love it just as much. Hope you enjoy your stay!

 

[goofy4tink]

Just rented points for the a Boardwalk studio in August. I so am excited, but have never stayed here before (usually WL or AK). It will be me, my husband, and our 8-year-old daughter.

Is it too loud at night?

Is it really that easy to get into Epcot and HS?

Is the clown slide as creepy as it looks?

Any advice/tips welcome! Thanks!

I have stayed right on the boardwalk, from the second floor to the fifth floor....only noise I heard was the dinging of the basketball game, and that ended by 11pm. Of course, there were the inebriated souls leaving Jellyrolls after 1am one night. My studio was overlooking the village green, and those idiots decided to say their 'goodbyes' right beneath my room!!! They probably had no idea how loud they were!!! And added to that was the fact that this is my normal 'old lady gets up to use the bathroom' time...well, it made it hard to get back to sleep. But, that's the only time that happened. So no, not loud at night at all.

If you decide to walk to Epcot, it takes under 10 mins to get to the International Gateway. The boat takes about 8 mins, but you do have to figure on some wait time.
Walking to DHS takes under 20 mins, depending on what you use as your starting point. If you find the stairway that is closest to the DHS end of BW,then it is going to take you less time to get to HS. The boat takes longer...especially when you add in wait times.
The walk to both parks is quite enjoyable..unless it is raining, thunder/lightning, or steamy hot!!

The clown slide??? Are you kidding??? Scary?? No way. We all love it. My dd, now 18, used to be terrified of clowns, so when we first stayed there, when she was just 10, I was a bit nervous about her using the slide. Wasn't an issue. To this day, one of the things I love most are the memories of her shooting out of the clown's mouth, shouting "clown barf!!''. I guess if someone really has a clown issue, it may be off putting but we love Luna Park.

 

[LSchrow]

we love the BWVs!!
most of our stays are BW view, and we have not had many noise problems (as others, maybe an occassional inebriated person once every few trips, but it doesn't last long...maybe they eventually just pass out )
we just love the strolls to 2 parks, nighttime street performers, bakery, jellyrolls, mini-golf a short walk away, quiet areas to read/relax, pool activities, movies, etc
just think about how many ppl visit the BW vs the other resorts...we consider ourselves very fortunate to be able to be living the dream every time we stay there

 

[Cee]

Yes, you will love it.

 

[bumbershoot]

We now LOVE it. And so does my 7 year old son.

I am totally clown-phobic, and was really worried about that pool, but ONE LOOK at the actual slide (and I'm not a slide person!) and I nearly RAN up those stairs! The slide is SO fun that it totally makes up for the clown. Again, not a slide person, but I think I've gone down that thing 15 times in two "sessions" of using the pool.

And for whatever reason, pictures of the clown make it look so much bigger than it actually is.

Just keep in mind that that clown has to have countless bottoms sliding down through it, and you'll feel sorry for the clown, not scared of it.


All of the Disney resorts have pool activities, but this pool was the only one where DS really wanted to join in. We've actually only had two one-night stays there, and our pool day on this last stay was the day of check-out, but we delayed and delayed and delayed some more leaving (to go to Universal) because everyone was having such a nice time at the pool.

 

[figment_jii]

I've stayed at the Boardwalk Villas several times and throughly enjoyed it. I've not been overlooking the Boardwalk, so I don't know if there is a lot of noise from that, but it's always been pretty quiet on the other sides.

It's 0.91 miles from the Boardwalk dock to DHS and 0.36 miles from Boardwalk dock to International Gateway.

The friendship boat goes from Epcot -> BW/BWV -> Y/B -> S/D -> DHS -> S/D -> Y/B -> BW/BWV -> Epcot. It takes about 35 minutes to get from Epcot to DHS via the boat. My family takes the boat because with all the other walking we do while on vacation, we figure why tire out our feet if we don't have to. The boat is pretty nice and relaxing. The worse wait (for us) was catching it at DHS when the park was closing. Otherwise, there really weren't any lines to speak of (we tend to go in October).

As others have said, the BW has a pretty nice gift shop and bakery. The main gift shop is on the BW itself, so you have to go outside to get to it. This is also where package pick-up deliveries your stuff.

I have to say the clown pool does kind of wig me out. I don't like clowns (I never got over Poltergeist as a child) so that pool is not for me.

 

[Leto1281]

We're planning a Boardwalk stay June 2013 and I've been really worried about the clown pool! Glad to see some varying opinions on it

 

[dchronister]

We rented points and stayed here last june and never saw another person outside our room, in the hall or anything, it was sooooo quite, the only way we knew that people were down there was the food trays left in the hall. We were not particulary crazy about this resort, it was just ok, in our opinion. The location was an upside of course. It took us like 5 min to get to epcot and we rode the boat the dhs and that took 15 min at the most. Now, if you have to ride the bus anywhere, that is a pain in the rear, you have to stop a million times before you get to your resort. We would get off the bus at Swan or Dolphin, don't remember which one, and walk over the bridge and go to our room, much shorter. It has its pros and cons, just like every other resort. Our favorite is VWL, so, to us, it just seemed like a let down after staying there. This year we are staying at OKW again and I'm sure after that I'll be saying that I'm ready to go back to BW.