We are staying at the Boardwalk Villas in a 1bdrm standard view in about a month. We bought the DVC points from an online broker, so we ourselves are not DVC members.
As the time to request a room comes upon us, what are some hints/tricks/things to know about this resort? We are traveling with a 2yo and 4yo. I’d love to be upgraded (who wouldn’t) for view, but being a frequent traveler, I’ve always found that when you pick specific airline seats or hotel rooms in other brands, your chances of being upgraded are slimmer, because they tend to think there’s a reason why you picked that particular seat/room so they won’t mess with that with a surprise upgrade.
Is the possibility of an upgrade pretty slim anyway so I should just go ahead and put in a room request and be done with it?
Also, should I think about getting a ground floor room? Part of me was thinking no, with a fear of the kids running outside, however we wouldn’t have to deal with elevators then, right??
Any helpful hints you cna give me are much appreciated!
My understanding is DIS policy is only to upgrade if the room type you paid for is sold out. No idea if there are ever exceptions to that or not though. I would say checkout if there are any Standard View rooms that offer something you really want (example at AKL some Standard View rooms have a partial view of the Savannah so targeting them makes sense) and if so, try to get them - if not then crossing your fingers for an upgrade may be wise. Unfortunately i don’t know the Boardwalk well enough to offer any specific advice on that resort…
We’ve stayed at BWV twice. We loved our ground floor room, pool view. We walked right out of the building and could head right to the boardwalk and EP, pool or towards HS. It was nice not to deal with stairs/elevator at the end of each day.
You’ll be assigned the room type that the points paid for. DVC is much less flexible with upgrades. Some of the rooms do have a partial boardwalk view even if it supposed to be garden/pool view…but they come with drawbacks. For instance, we had a garden view category room that ended up right off the lobby, and over the service entrance door facing the green towards the boardwalk side. The carts going back and forth over the cobblestone ground were so loud and unpleasant. We never kept our balcony door open. That was a bummer.
You will love BWV. The location is so great. We’ll be there again in January!
Great insights. Thanks!! I requested room 1001 (ground floor, on boardwalk) even though I have a hard time believing it is a 1bd standard-view, but that’s what keeps coming up on the TP Room Finder tool! A blessing is that my kids need to sleep with a white noise machine on anyway–we literally live 100 yards from a few rail lines in Chicago, so white noise has blocked out ALL THE NOISE since they were born
Does the kitchen at BWV have things like soap/sponge? Should I bring those with me? It says on the website it has a coffee maker… is it a regular drip coffee maker or possibly a keurig?
I’ve only stayed in the studio, but those have always come with a little bottle of dish soap & a sponge.
There are also dish towels and paper towels.
You’ll probably also have dishwasher powder provided.
I always bring laundry pods with me. They may provide 1 small box of laundry detergent but I prefer my own stuff from home.
I just love that resort…now I can’t stop thinking about it!
Let me just tell you that 1001 is the absolute last room and furthest away from the lobby (bus stop) & Boardwalk bakery. Good location for walking to HS but super far from everything else. And, it’s a boardwalk view. You need to scroll down to “standard/1 bedroom” for the room category you’re looking. Those seem to all be in the other wing.
The best room I could recommend, with the caveat that it is an ADA compliant room, is 1068. We stayed in 1070 and were right next to the elevator, the Luna pool, and the doorway to the boardwalk. I left a review about 1070 on it’s room view page.
