Beach Club or Boardwalk - I just don't know!

[toodycat]

Just to clarify on the restaurant point I mentioned earlier. There are no restaurants in the Boardwalk Resort itself. You will have to walk out to the Boardwalk to eat or buy a snack, with the exception of the continental breakfast at the Bellvue Lounge. One of the reasons we’ve started to stay in villas is the access to a kitchen. We bring groceries and make eggs, bacon, fresh fruit and muffins before we hit the parks. It’s quick, inexpensive and everyone gets exactly what they want. The one morning we did not do that, we had breakfast at the Boardwalk Bakery. What we had was quite tasty, but there weren’t that many choices, it was not cheap—-no surprise—- and the line was long. If we wanted a quick snack after returning from the parks, we had to have brought it with us from Publix or walked over to the Screen Door General Store on the Boardwalk. As I said, I would stay at the BWV again in a heartbeat, but the breakfast thing is something to be prepared for if your family is like ours and can’t start the day on an empty stomach or a quick pastry from the Bellvue.

 

[JJ2017]

Just to clarify on the restaurant point I mentioned earlier. There are no restaurants in the Boardwalk Resort itself. You will have to walk out to the Boardwalk to eat or buy a snack, with the exception of the continental breakfast at the Bellvue Lounge. One of the reasons we’ve started to stay in villas is the access to a kitchen. We bring groceries and make eggs, bacon, fresh fruit and muffins before we hit the parks. It’s quick, inexpensive and everyone gets exactly what they want. The one morning we did not do that, we had breakfast at the Boardwalk Bakery. What we had was quite tasty, but there weren’t that many choices, it was not cheap—-no surprise—- and the line was long. If we wanted a quick snack after returning from the parks, we had to have brought it with us from Publix or walked over to the Screen Door General Store on the Boardwalk. As I said, I would stay at the BWV again in a heartbeat, but the breakfast thing is something to be prepared for if your family is like ours and can’t start the day on an empty stomach or a quick pastry from the Bellvue.

Thanks so much. Something I never even knew about. But I’ve never heard anyone complain so that’s a good sign!

 

[mrsap]

So we were torn too... we stayed BCV this past June. We enjoyed it. My only negative would be that my kids preferred the quiet pool to SAB!!! I didn’t get it. Best part was walking to Epcot. Although I was planning on booking there again, after my kids watched bunch of videos yesterday, they decided that BWV looked like a lot of fun and do not want to stay at BC now for our summer trip. They want to try something different, and I agree. So we will try BW for the first time. I honestly don’t think you can go wrong with either one. You can walk to the other resort, as well as Epcot and HS! We plan on eating at 3 Beach Club restaurants while at BW! Good luck deciding!

 

[kandb]

We have stayed at YC, BC and tried BWI last August. We definitely prefer the YC/BC resort rather than BWI. Didn't hate BWI, but just didn't find anything really special about it.

 

[MissionMouse]

Both are close to Epcot and Disney Studios. The difference in distance is minor and we would not pick one over the other because one is slightly closer to a park than the other. The International Entrance is going to quickly be impacted when the skyway opens and people use to staying at one of the Epcot resort will start to feel old and talk about the good old days when you could just walk up to the gate. BWI is actually one big building complex which includes most of the Boardwalk restaurants. If you look for a deluxe to have TS restaurants in immediately proximity to the lobby, then pass of the BWI. I would note we had a nice room and location in the resort, but we adapted to the restaurant layout and had a great time. We did observe a level of people taking shortcuts through the pool area to get to DS when we were at the pool, but they could have easily been resort guest heading out. Some people state they don't like the Clown at the pool slide at BWI, but we had no problem with the theme. Clearly SAB has an advantage with its controlled access and like you know the pool is big, so sitting at a chair and watching the kids remotely will most likely not work. Using the large slide also requires you to leave the pool area and use the slide tower (themed like a beached ship) to access the slide. This can easily pose a level of concern for parents with young children. Also, swimming in December is day by day. Best to consider swimming during the day (12-2) when the temperature is most likely close to its peak. Night is dicey, leaning to be toward the cool or cold side. Producing that freezing sensation when you get out. We usually have observed BC lobby to be busier than BWI. After Illuminations you see a lot of people entering from the Crescent Lake side and exiting to the parking lot side. Both get a level of traffic of people using their parking lots to visit the parks, rather than using the parks parking lot. Their solution was to charge the resort guest to park. Overall, the theme, view and layout you see is what you get, so an item that may turn out to be the key decision maker could be the room avaiability and price.

 

[JJ2017]

Well - this all means we will need more than one trip to check out both!

Pretty sure I will wait for Dolphin rates to come out right at the end of December. Then decide if we will put in a request in this order:

BWV Standard Studio
BCV Studio
BWV Preferred Studio

If none work, I'll go back to the drawing board to compare Poly Studio with Dolphin mix of cash/points.

THANKS EVERYONE!!!!!!!!!!!