Bay Lake Tower Theme Park View or Grand Floridian Lake View

[TonyLovesDis]

Going to WDW in February with a 15 Month old. Looking for the most convenient and what you guys would be the best resort for my wife and I. We'll be here for three nights and visiting Magic Kingdom on Day one and Epcot Day 2.

Not that it matters but we'll be at AK the new two days after this stay.

 

[GoofysNCCrew]

Just my personal opinion, I would go with BLT theme park view. You can walk to MK and monorail over to Epcot.

Edit to add: Yes you can walk from both, but considering you had a 15 month old I was opting for the 5-10 minute walk over the 12-16 minute walk (estimates are from various touring sites). I was just considering traveling with a little one can extend those "average guest" times.

 

[kes601]

Just my personal opinion, I would go with BLT theme park view. You can walk to MK and monorail over to Epcot.

You can do the same at Grand Floridian.....

But, like you I would currently pick BLT over VGF due to the construction going on at VGF right now.

 

[McCrae]

You can do the same at Grand Floridian.....

But, like you I would currently pick BLT over VGF due to the construction going on at VGF right now.

The construction work at VGF is basically over. If you stay in the new studios you won’t see any of the work taking place for the new Poly Tower. The new studios are fantastic and I would probably go for this… I own at BLT.
We love BLT and it does have an advantage over VGF with it being nearer to MK and a very easy walk. BLT is due a refurbishment in 2023. The rooms need it. We will return to BLT when the refurbishment is done.

 

[PalmettoPath]

This one is pretty close. These are our two home resorts, so we like them both. I would give a slight edge to the Grand personally (more lawn space etc. for the little one and generally more kid-friendly grounds IMO), but honestly I would not stress about it too much. You really can't go wrong either way. I would request an upper floor at BLT for theme park view to remove as much of the parking lot from the equation as possible. We actually prefer lake views there for that reason. Just a personal thing.

 

[stwaldman]

We did both of these room types (we'll, vgf was standard but that's kinda a wash for these talking points) in our littles first year. We didn't have much of an issue with getting to or from any park in either case, nut the BLT walk is definitely a couple of minutes shorter. I thought the grounds at vgf we're more kid friendly although when we were there, the kids pool was closed (she was 4 months then, so it didn't really matter for us).

Purely based on resorts, I'd probably give a nod to the grand because the lobby, the dining (young kid means sometimes eating at the resort during sleep/naps, and BLT had limited quick service/takeaway options), the grounds, the walk path to poly, and all this made it good for stroller time and toddling around. If you really care about fireworks, then you can't beat BLT theme park view and especially at this age, you just won't get that same experience from a vgf room.

Not sure this helps or hurts, but regardless I think you're picking right by having at least one park with walking access and you will do fine either way.

 

[SleeplessInTO]

If you’re in a one bedroom, I vote for BLT. It’s a shorter walk when you’re pushing a sleeping baby in the stroller.

If you’re in a studio then VGF, the deluxe studio. No need for a second queen bed and the VGF studio felt much bigger than the BLT one.

 

[drusba]

Personally I would not choose theme park view from either BLT or VGF. BLT theme park view is fine if you get higher floor (8 or above) but high floor is a non-guarantee request. You can get as low as fourth floor, and the views from 4-6th floors are basically a points rip-off as your main view is of a large parking lot and a monorail track. At BLT, I now always get lake view and request higher floor (usually granted because most higher floor rooms are lake view). BLT lake view would be a good choice. with the caveat that its studios are smaller than those at other DVC resorts other than CCV and AKV value rooms.

Higher cost theme park view at the new VGF resort studios is something too new to determine if it is worth it. However, there has already been one bad report where someone got a theme park view room, where you are supposed to have a good view of MK, and the actual view from the particular room was of a big tree right outside the room, through which it was difficult to see MK. VGF, whose studios are much larger than BLT's, would also likely be a good choice for a room (other than theme park view). You can walk to MK from both BLT and VGF and GF is the last stop for the MK resorts monorail before going to MK. Poly may also be a consideration -- the walk to MK through GF would be too long but you can walk from Poly to the Ticket and Transportation Center to catch a direct monorail to Epcot. At Poly, construction has apparently begun for the new DVC building so you would likely have construction but its designated location is not actually near other Poly DVC rooms.

 

[kes601]

The construction work at VGF is basically over. If you stay in the new studios you won’t see any of the work taking place for the new Poly Tower. The new studios are fantastic and I would probably go for this… I own at BLT.
We love BLT and it does have an advantage over VGF with it being nearer to MK and a very easy walk. BLT is due a refurbishment in 2023. The rooms need it. We will return to BLT when the refurbishment is done.

You are correct they are finished with the VGF construction, but that is not what I am talking about. They are working on the building next the new VGF2 building now. Then they have every other non-DVC building to do. They have also stated they are going to do a lobby refurbishment. It's gonna be a while and the outside work is loud.

 

[stwaldman]

I wasn't nearly as bothered by the "low floor" theme park view as others are. It's obviously not as instagrammable when there are more cars, but I wouldn't call it a points ripoff when you can still do fireworks that close to MK and have the baby in bed by 830 with time for parents and drinks time after

Also tbh, I'm quite fond of being close to a monorail


Editing to add photo. It seemed fine to me, but it was our first BLT stay, so we didn't have a point of reference.

 

[Sandisw]

The construction work at VGF is basically over. If you stay in the new studios you won’t see any of the work taking place for the new Poly Tower. The new studios are fantastic and I would probably go for this… I own at BLT.
We love BLT and it does have an advantage over VGF with it being nearer to MK and a very easy walk. BLT is due a refurbishment in 2023. The rooms need it. We will return to BLT when the refurbishment is done.

BPK is done, but the Grand Floridian is getting updated so construction is taking place at the resort and will continue.