Hey everyone it's Jacqueline for Pixie Dust PhD! if you’re a fan of Walt Disney World
resorts or you’re feeling overwhelmed by all the choices for a Disney Vacation Club
home resort, then you’re in the right place. Continuing the fast facts series, today we
will be discussing everything you'll need to know about the Boardwalk Villas.
Opened in 1996, the BoardWalk Villas are the second oldest Disney Vacation Club property
located at Walt Disney World. This is second of course the original property now named
Old Key West. The BoardWalk Villas do share a resort area and property with the BoardWalk
Inn, so it is not a stand-alone DVC Resort. However, the Villas are located in their own
wing of the building. This means the Villas aren’t interspersed with standard deluxe
hotel rooms. The BoardWalk Inn and Villas evokes the 1940s feeling of the Atlantic Boardwalk.
The lobby has fancy chandeliers including one fashioned from merhorses, as well as a
really cute elephant over the fireplace. The lobby also has some truly unique chairs called
nanny chairs; I will leave a link in the description below if you want to check out the nanny chairs.
Overall I think the BoardWalk is very uniquely themed. It has a lot of antique carnival-esque
decorations. There’s truly so much decor to explore. And per the name, the BoardWalk
resort is attached to the BoardWalk dining and shopping district. Now let’s get on
to cost. Depending on where you source your information, the initial purchase price directly
from Disney is between $190 and $200 per point; I will leave some links in the description
below. Either way this is the fifth least expensive Disney Vacation Club home resort
property at Walt Disney World to purchase directly. Cheaper is Old Key West, Saratoga
Springs, Animal Kingdom Villas, and Boulder Ridge Villas. The average resale price will
be around $125 to $135 per point. If you are fine with a standard view room and are able
to snag one of those during booking, the amount of points you need to stay at the BoardWalk
is fairly modest. A week-long stay in a deluxe Studio during the lowest DVC season of 2021
will cost you 71 points, so just over 10 points per night. For comparison, you can find similar
costs per night over at Old Key West, Animal Kingdom, and Saratoga Springs. But generally
speaking, discounting those value rooms over at the Animal Kingdom Villas and therefore
comparing apples to apples, the amount of points per night you will need to stay at
BoardWalk Villas are among the absolute cheapest you’ll find at Walt Disney World. This trend
holds true for the one-bedroom and two-bedroom Villas; however, you definitely can find better
value in terms of points per night for the Grand Villas at other resorts. Annual dues
for BoardWalk Villas are around the middle of the pack; they aren’t a steal but they
also aren’t exorbitantly expensive. For 2020 dues came in around $7.37 per point.
The overall cost for the BoardWalk Villas in my opinion is pretty decent. Annual dues
are a little bit high; however, you wont need very many points overall in order to stay
there and the initial purchase price is also somewhat low. Plus, when you consider that
Crescent Lake location, if you are in EPCOT person this resort may be an absolute steal
for you. BoardWalk Villa contracts do unfortunately expire in 2042. This is the earliest expiration
option for all home resorts located at Walt Disney World. That being said, if location
is important to your other close option is Beach Club, which shares the same expiration
of 2042. So if location is the biggest factor for you and you want to be near EPCOT, the
expiration really isn’t a consideration as it is the same for BoardWalk and Beach
Club. Although contained in a single building, the BoardWalk’s inventory is relatively
vast. In total, the BoardWalk Villas have between a 383 and 532 Villas at any given
time. There are 97 dedicated Studios, 130 dedicated 1 bedrooms, 0 dedicated 2-bedrooms,
149 lock-offs, and 7 grand villas. The boardwalk has two categories: standard or Preferred/Boardwalk
view. Standard views are typically going to be of the parking lot and/or landscaping.
Preferred/BoardWalk views will be of the pool, water, garden, or of that BoardWalk including
views of Crescent Lake. This means, depending on where your room is located, you may be
able to peep EPCOT in the background. The BoardWalk offers a lot of lovely views, but
in my opinion the views from rooms 5001-5017 as well as 5029- 5041 are spectacular. You
will be able to see Crescent Lake and you have excellent views of Spaceship Earth over
at EPCOT. These views from odd numbered rooms between 1 and 17 as well as 29 and 41 of course
do hold true for lower levels other than just that fifth floor. However, in my opinion the
best/least obstructed views are always going to be from the highest floor. In general if
you can see Crescent Lake from your balcony you will likely also be able to see some fireworks
from that EPCOT nighttime spectacular. Your main potential obstructions to these views
will be the foliage around the resort. Note that rooms that overlook the BoardWalk will
reward you with excellent views, however you may experience extra noise. A lot of entertainment
on the BoardWalk is open fairly late, so if you are not a night person and you will be
super annoyed by late night noise this may not be the resort for you. Last, if you are
primarily considering BoardWalk Villas to book with Grand Villas, note that there is
no standard category for Grand Villas. Those are all Preferred/BoardWalk views. As far
as room size goes these are fairly average sized rooms. There definitely are smaller
as well as a larger rooms on property. The one bedroom category suffers the most from
small square footage in my opinion, coming in around 712 square feet. That being said,
one bedrooms over at Copper Creek, Saratoga Springs, and Beach Club are all similar sizes,
so this is not an uncommon footprint by any means. We already know that rooms over at
Old Key West are generally massive, but just as an example the one bedroom over there are
around 300 square feet larger, and you can book those for roughly the same amount of
points. There are also some quirks about the rooms to note. One-bedroom Villas have two
bathroom areas but only one toilet, and similarly two-bedroom Villas have three bathroom areas
but again only two toilets. Following this trend, at three bedroom Villas you have three
full bathrooms and then another half bath, but rather than what I would think of as a
standard half bath, this has a tub and a sink but again no toilet. Another thing to note
is that the studios can sleep up to five people, as there is the bed, pull-out couch, and then
also like a pull down Murphy bed; whereas the one bedrooms can only sleep up to 4 because
they do not have that pull down installed. The art revealed when you pull down that bed
is a very cute sleepy Dumbo, fitting in perfectly with a carnival theme. Finally for the rooms
in general, I think the theming is nice but it may leave you wanting more. I would call
the theme inside the room to be understated and subdued. This doesn't bother me, but you
may enjoy a more busily, heavily Disney themed room. Rooms at the BoardWalk were last refurbished
in 2016, so we have a long time to go before we get a full remodel. So if you don't love
the understated theme of the room and that's a deal-breaker for you it's not going to change
anytime soon. The resort size overall is essentially the entire Boardwalk; so it’s not entirely
massive, you absolutely can walk the whole thing, but it's certainly not compact. The
BoardWalk itself is around a quarter mile in length. If you're staying in a room at
the far end of the resort it can be about another quarter mile to get out on to the
BoardWalk as well. A common complaint about the BoardWalk Villas is that inside the resort
the hallways are pretty dang long, and the elevators are only located near the lobby.
To my knowledge, and please come down below if I'm wrong, those really are the only elevators.
There are however loads more staircases located throughout the resort building. So if you’re
fairly mobile and don't mind using the stairs to get up and down floors to make your way
around the resort, the elevator location hopefully won't be too much of a problem for you. For
transportation to theme parks to Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom you will be taking a bus.
And depending on how busy of a day it is, these buses may be shared with other Crescent
Lake resorts. To get to EPCOT or Hollywood Studios though you can walk or take the friendship
boats. The times to walk to the theme parks are somewhat oddly controversial; part of
this I think is it really depends on where your room is located within the resort. Although
the BoardWalk Villas are located in one building, there is essentially a North wing and a South
wing. The International Gateway to EPCOT is located past the ESPN Club. So rooms located
in the BoardWalk Inn, the deluxe hotel side, are actually closer than those located over
on Villas side. If your room is located at either far end of the Villas I would say it's
probably going to be around a half mile or so over to International Gateway. If your
room is closer to the lobby you're talking closer to a quarter of a mile instead. Overall
you can plan for 10 to 15 minutes to walk to EPCOT depending on your pace. Hollywood
Studios is objectively further from the resort than EPCOT. If you want to have the shortest
walk over to Hollywood Studios you will want to stay on the far end of the South wing,
and that will take you around 15 to 20 minutes total. If this is your goal put in a request
for room generally ending in 123 to 136. And if you don't want to use the stairs at all
or have to navigate the entire length of the South Wing over to those Lobby elevators then
be sure to request a first-floor room. If you aren’t keen on walking to either park
the boat launch and essentially in the middle of the BoardWalk, so not too far from the
lobby. And while not located right at the BoardWalk, you can make your way over to EPCOT
in order to board the Skyliner. From EPCOT you can take the Skyliner over to various
resorts in order to Resort hop, or you can make your way over to Hollywood Studios as
well. If you’ve got a car there are effectively two lots for the BoardWalk: there's basically
a main lot and an overflow lot. Parking can get crowded with convention-goers, but generally
if you are actually staying at the BoardWalk hopefully you won't have too hard of a time
parking. Because of the lot nature of the parking you won't be parking right outside
your Villa; and if you're staying at the far end of the north wing it is going to be quite
a trek from the parking lot all the way to your room. Part of the parking lot is not
too far from that end of the South Wing; so if you have a car and being near it is a priority,
request a room at the very end of the South wing. For recreation let's start with the
pool. The main pool is the Luna Park Pool. This has a Coney Island carnival theme, and
a 200-foot roundabout roller coaster-y water slide where you pop out through the mouth
of a clown. And this is your classic clown; it’s got the white face, and the scary eyes,
and the large orange hair. If you are not a fan of clowns and want to spend a lot of
time at the pool this may not be the home resort for you. This pool is certainly unique
and overall I would say it is very divisive amongst the DVC fans. The main pool does feature
quite a lot of seating, which is very nice if you're looking to go down and relax. There
are also two leisure pools at the resort, and all the pools feature whirlpools. The
Luna Park Pool also features a kiddie water playground area. For other recreation there's
an arcade, fitness center, you can rent surrey bikes, there's a jogging path, tennis courts,
a guided fishing excursion on Crescent Lake, Community Hall featuring arts and crafts as
well as movies and other activities, and then of course you have all the entertainment along
the BoardWalk right outside your Villa. Dining at the BoardWalk is fairly unique, because
essentially your choices are locations out on the BoardWalk itself. You do have the Belle
Vue Lounge, located inside the resort. Specifically this is located over on the BoardWalk Inn
side of things. In the morning you can find coffee and grab-and-go pastry type items,
and then in the evenings there's an extensive collection of beers, wines, and cocktails.
Other than the Belle Vue Lounge though, you will be making your way literally outside
and onto the BoardWalk itself for any dining options. Flying Fish Cafe is a signature table
service dining experience at dinner. If you want table service but not that signature
experience, head over to Big River Grille & Brewing Works or Trattoria Al Forno. The
former is open for lunch and dinner, and the latter is open for breakfast and dinner. Breakfast
as Trattoria al Forno is a character meal featuring Rapunzel and Ariel as well as their
princes. Being able to meet the princes is a pretty unique experience, so if that’s
something you value definitely check out this character meal. And the most casual of your
table service options in my opinion is the ESPN Club, which is open for lunch and dinner.
There are also several quick-service options. The BoardWalk Bakery is a prominent one featuring
of course baked goods, but also more substantive items such as sandwiches and salad. Furthermore,
there is a to-go Pizza Window open for lunch and dinner. Typically the To-Go Cart is also
open, which features things like hot dogs, chicken nuggets, and burgers. Then there’s
more novelty based options like Joe’s Marvelous Margaritas, where you can of course grab a
tasty drink, as well as a Funnel Cake Cart. Previously there was also Ample Hills Ice
Cream if you wanted an ice cream treat, and we will have to wait and see what fills that
spot on the BoardWalk. Leaping Horse Libations is the pool bar, which features sandwiches,
salads, snacks, and drinks including some very fun BoardWalk themed cocktails. And finally
there's a lot of Jellyrolls. You can also dance the night away over at the Atlantic
Dance Hall. The primary location to refill those refillable mugs will be the BoardWalk
Bakery, although you can also check in over at the Belle Vue Lounge as well as Leaping
Horse Libations while they're open. For shops there are a handful of shops along the BoardWalk
that carry merchandise, snacks, and sundries; this includes Dundy’s Sundries, Screen Door
General Store, Thimbles and threads, and Disney's Character Carnival. There's your overview
of BoardWalk Villas and the general BoardWalk resort area. In general BoardWalk gets a lot
of praise for its prime location; being able to walk to two theme parks truly is a luxury.
It’s also a less expensive option than the Beach Club Villas for similar proximity to
the theme parks. There are a lot of great dining and entertainment options on the BoardWalk,
however that does also mean an increased amount of noise particularly at night. There also
are a lot of complaints about the lack of variety of quick service options, as for the
most part they’re all sort of standard american carnival takeaway food. Some people also really
don't like the theming of the interior [of the] rooms on the BoardWalk. If you found
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If you want to chat about Disney Vacation Club, Disney World, or really anything Disney
leave a comment down below or you can find me on other platforms like Twitter and Instagram
@PixieDustPhD. Are you considering BoardWalk Villas as your potential home resort? For
me personally, the low initial purchase price and that prime location made it a serious
consideration. Let me know what you think of BoardWalk Villas in the comments down below.
I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day and we will see you next time at Pixie Dust PhD!