Boardwalk Villas: A review | Disney Parks Addict

I have to admit, when we figured out we were going to be staying at the Boardwalk Villas, I was not as thrilled about the stay as I was about staying at the Animal Kingdom Lodge. Why you ask? The clown pool. The pictures looked freaky and I am not a fan of clowns (neither is my husband!) for this reason alone, this was near the bottom of the list of places we were hoping to stay. But beggars can’t be choosers, so we were happy to have a nice place to stay! The worry was all for nothing, as this was a FANTASTIC hotel, and my kids favorite!

Check-in was quick! And unlike our stay at Animal Kingdom, we actually got the requests for our villa that we asked for! We were right near the lobby and the pool, on the same level as the lobby. I am pretty sure it was the PERFECT location, and if we stayed here again, I would hope for the exact same room, as it was perfect for our needs!

The room was a 2 bedroom Lock-off, as all 2 bedrooms at BoardWalk are. You basically get a studio and a 1 bedroom. You will also get 2 doors to enter your rooms. This worked GREAT because with the magic bands, my kids kept fighting over who would get to open the door with their band. With 2 doors, at least 2 of them could open a door! Less fighting! Plus, since we were on the ground floor, no need for the elevator, so no fighting over who got to push the elevator buttons!

I didn’t go into the studio side much, as my daughter and sister-in-law took it over. You enter the studio side, there was a bathroom to the right with a closet across from it, with sinks in-between, and to the left was a little kitchenette, with a refrigerator, microwave, toaster, sink, etc. There were plastic utensils, paper plates, etc. The room had a queen bed and a pull out queen size sofa bed with a flat screen tv and dresser. There was a balcony with chairs and a table, and then a door that connected to the 1 bedroom living area.

In the one bedroom side, there was a closet to the right as you entered. As you go around the corner, you had the kitchen, with a table to the left, and a bar with more seating on the other side of the kitchen. The living area had a pull out sofa with a queen size bed, a flat screen tv with dvd player, dresser. It then had sliding doors out to the balcony. The balcony in all the rooms were separate from one another, so it was like having 3 separate balconies.

If you turned left instead of right when entering, you would see the washer and dryer, and the entrance to the bathroom. The bathroom was 2 separate rooms. One room had a large shower, toilet, and sink. you could then go through a door to the second half of the bathroom with another sink, jacuzzi tub, and a large walk-in closet. The whole bathroom area was very large! You could then enter the Master bedroom via the sink/jacuzzi room door, or the door in between the washer/dryer and the kitchen table. The Master Bedroom had a king size bed, a chair, a flat screen tv, and dresser. There was also a sliding door out to a private balcony.

The decor was nice. Not quite as new and polished as Animal Kingdom, but still nice. My biggest complaint is that the refrigerator in the kitchen was small, not full size. We had issues with items falling out of the door, and our maple syrup bottle broke because of this 😛

Our room overlooked the main pool area. They were doing some remodeling while we were there, but the pool area was still open

The clown pool. My kids say, out of all the places we’ve stayed at Disney, that this was their favorite pool yet. The slide was GREAT! It was long and quite a bit of fun! It was their favorite hotel slide, so far! The clown wasn’t nearly as large and creepy as I feared. It was still not my favorite thing, but not as horrible as feared 😉 Plus the awesome slide more than made up for it. I did notice that the slide was in need of some paint/remodeling. Noticing the remodeling around the pool area, I wouldn’t be surprised if it happened soon. I did miss having a little kid play area that we enjoyed at Kidani. They need to add a little waterslide or splash play area…

The location for Boardwalk is probably the BEST on site. You can easily walk to Epcot and Hollywood Studios, which we did. You can take the boat too if you’d like, but from Epcot, a walk is much faster. If you are taking the boat to/from Hollywood Studios, get on/off at the Swan/Dolphin as it is MUCH faster to walk than to take the boat all the way around. We would walk to Hollywood Studios and then take the boat back for a nap or when the kids were tired. We did take the boat from Epcot once, the first day of our stay, simply because our kids wanted to ride the boat. Otherwise, just easier/faster to walk. It only take about 5 minutes to walk!

The Boardwalk Bakery was a frequent stop for us, mainly to fill our Rapid Fill cups. They even had a Hot Chocolate machine, which made my kids happy! We also picked up treats to take with us to Fantasmic. We also were able to get our cups filled at the bar near the Clown pool, which was GREAT since our room was right near the pool. Plus they had fun options like Ginger Ale. There isn’t a machine, but you just ask the bartenders, and they get you what you want.

The gift shop was large, and had lots of options for gifts. It also had a variety of grocery items, like milk, eggs, lunch meat, frozen meals and pizza, cheeses, bread, cereal, etc. We would get grocery items here often. WE even picked up a pack of hot dogs and buns one day for dinner. My kids wanted hot dogs. It wasn’t cheap – about $8 for a 8 pack of hot dogs and 8 pack of buns, but considering it is about $8 for just one hot dog in the parks, it was as steal of a deal. Plus you could get condiments for the hot dogs at the bakery or the pool bar!

The lobby was lovely, with several fun sitting areas that were each different. There was even another gift shop just off of the lobby.

The boardwalk was fun at night. When we would walk back from Epcot or Hollywood Studios, we would have a great time checking out all the different entertainers 🙂

They had movies on the lawn, which we didn’t ever attend 😛 There were several resort activities, but we only really did the pool parties.

The buses here were the BEST we’ve ever had at a resort! With the exception of getting to downtown Disney. We NEVER waited longer than 5 minutes for a bus (other than Downtown Disney). Yes, you also had to stop at Swan/Dolphin, but that never took long, as not many people got on or off there. Plus once or twice, we didn’t even go by there. I LOVED the bus service here, which I am sure was better because you could just walk to 2 of the parks. Plus the buses were never full (to the parks), so we always got a seat 🙂 Now, the Downtown Disney bus was TERRIBLE! It took forever to come, then you go to ALL 5 resorts – swan/dolphin, yacht/beach, and the Boardwalk. WAY too many hotels for one route that takes FOREVER just to pickup/drop off, not to mention the actual drive. The buses weren’t nearly as frequent as to the parks and were always packed. Needless to say, we didn’t go to Downtown Disney much! The return trip as better, and there was usually a bus waiting, so little wait… but it would take so long to get there, it wasn’t worth it! The Boardwalk was the last stop, which was good for going, and when you came back, you can always just get off at the Swan, and walk back to the Boardwalk, instead of taking the bus to all those hotels. I am not sure this is always the case, or just because of all the construction in Downtown Disney? Otherwise, the bus service was awesome here – which is saying something about the Disney Buses!

You could also walk to the Fantasia Mini-Golf and over to the Yacht/Beach club for anything at those place you may want to see. We went to the Beach club to east at Beaches and Cream!

Below are some of the videos and pictures we took during our stay at the villas. We really enjoyed our stay, and we wouldn’t hesitate to stay again, or recommend it to others. It is a great resort and the location really can’t be beat and is probably one of the best locations at Disneyworld!