The best "standard-view Boardwalk Villa" Story!

As some of you know from my reports from Disney last week, I scored a nifty 1-bedroom villa after waitlisting for standard view to save points, and expecting a view of the road...but got a nice surprise. ; Here's that original post:

I promised I'd post pics of the room, for those familiar with the normal 1-bedroom layout and sizes, and for others just curious what a 1-bedroom villa looks like. ; Note: these aren't 'pro' style shots all nicely lined up - they're snapshots taken informally and quickly when we first got to the room and started to unpack!

First off, here's the bedroom...nothing too different there:

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And the small private balcony outside the bedroom - private not only from any neighbors, but also from the main balcony of our own villa!:

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Bathroom...this is the vanity section and whirlpool tub, plus walk in closet, that is on the bedroom side:

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The other part, with the toilet and shower, is accessed either by a door from the bedroom section of the bathroom, or a separate door from the living room...so the person sleeping out there can access these without disturbing the bedroom:

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So far, mostly standard. ; The only thing different, and the only thing that is less than the normal room, is the slightly smaller shower (but it's still a respectable walk in with a door).

Now for the living room, which is where it starts to get different:

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I'm standing in the kitchen for this shot. ; Normally, the Boardwalk living room is a long rectangle with sliding doors to the balcony at one end, couch & TV facing eachother, and a kitchen bar and kitchen at the other end. ; The only dining facilities are the kitchen bar, or a slim bench seat and table against the wall. ; In this case though, the kitchen is open to the living room, with no bar. ; There is enough extra space for a full 4-place table with chairs for dining. ; The layout of the living room is widthwise, rather than lengthwise, and the space is walled on one entire width by 3 separate large sliding glass doors, in a bay shape. ; The couch sits in front of one sliding door, rendering it a window, while the other two remain usable to access the balcony, which wraps around some 30 odd feet, the entire width of the kitchen and living room! ; The room was situated on a bend in the building, facing out, so the whole floorplan was built around that curve, in 3 bay-window style angles. ; The extra space produced in the living room was significant...you can see in the living room shot above how much space there is beyond the couch in front of the other sliding door - with just a lonely chair over there. ; There is EASILY enough room for a queen inflatable matress on the floor without interfering with movement around the villa - something you cannot do in most 1-bedroom villas (except OKW). ; The space was exceptional! ; And the kitchen felt much more open and usable, since it was not just a narrow slot - you could have several people milling around the kitchen space at once without bumping or crowding.

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Now, with Boardwalk, there are two point schemes: ; Preferred view, and Standard View. ; Preferred View can be any of the following: ; Boardwalk view (on first-come first-serve request), river view, pool view, garden view, or inner courtyard view. ; I often book preferred view with a Boardwalk view request - but I'm still not guaranteed to get something I love - for one, I'm not a big fan of pool views, and don't think they should be in the same class as river and garden views. ; But generally, you get a nicer view than Standard. ; Standard view is usually one of the following: ; Back of some maintenance or storage shed view, parking lot view, or front entrance/valet stand view. ; So Preferred is usually better for most people.

This trip though, view wasn't important - I was willing to look at the valet stand or generator building if need be - I just wanted to save some points, and be close to the lobby. ; We started off on the wrong foot immediately, when we were told we were nowhere near the lobby. ; We were in fact 10 rooms away from the farthest point in the entire building from the lobby. ; The walk from the room to the lobby was like walking from Spaceship Earth to France. ; No kidding. ; You could hold a marathon through those halls. ; We lobbied like crazy, and were given the concession that they could move us the next day, but we'd have to spend the first night over in Siberia. ; And of course, having been down there before, I knew the view was pretty much a parking lot.

So weren't we surprised to finally reach the room, open it up, and find that strange and lovely big place with the odd layout! ; But even more surprised were we when we got a load of the balcony and the view. ; No kidding, I've had preferred view rooms with worse views, and only ever had one balcony that came close to the size, and none with quite the wraparound view that went nearly 180 degrees in 100% privacy, with nary a balcony or window on either side that could see onto our balcony.

Here's that standard view:

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Remember...folks pay more points for 'water views'...and don't see this much water! ; And rarely can see as far either...many preferred view rooms have more preferred view rooms looking back at them from across the courtyard or pool. ; Here's the view a bit more to the right, on the next segment of balcony:

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Now technically, that IS the parking lot...so we did get a parking lot view. ; And the bridge in the first shot is the front entrance road, so we have a street view too. ; But call me crazy...this is one of the nicest parking lot/road views I've ever had!

Here's the kitchen glass door out to the balcony...starting at the far left corner of the balcony:

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Here's looking around the first bend, to the longest segment of balcony, that faces that pond and parking lot:

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And here's around one more bend, to the final segment of the main balcony, where you would come out from that living room door:

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Note how the building juts out there...with no windows. ; That's the bedroom wall, so there's no way for anyone to look onto the balcony. ; The same wall exists on the left side over by the kitchen. ; And the balconies above and below are not tiered, so none can see onto the others. ; And remember, there's one more small balcony attached to the bedroom, and it too is fully secluded and private. ; From the bedroom balcony, you could see the river to Hollywood Studios and the Tower of Terror. ; From the main balcony, you could see Japan and American Adventure in Epcot, and a good chunk of Illuminations.

This rainbow shot was taken from the bedroom balcony, to give you an idea of the treetops view there:



Pretty nutty! ; Saved points, got a better view than usual, and a bigger villa to boot! ; And in the end, the distance from the lobby wasn't that big of a deal...because by stepping out of our villa, across the hall was a stairway down to the first floor, and that door opened to a small path over to the bus stop - no more than 100 feet or so. ; A little icing on the cake!

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Exactly. ; We called down to the desk within an hour of getting into that room...tried to sound very ho-hum and resigned, and told them we guessed we'd just stay there rather than the trouble of moving. ; Since they went through such trouble to try to move us, we didn't want to just schitzophrenically change our mind on them and sound too happy there!

The Boardwalk view is fantastic - that's the gold standard as far as I'm concerned. ; But it's not any more points than preferred view - you just have to ask for it on the reservation, and it is first-come first-serve - luck of the draw really. ; I've requested it 5 times, and only gotten it once. ; You'll get a preferred pool, water, or garden view instead if it doesn't come through...which is what I usually get.

I couldn't tell you what's better or worse - DVC is my first and only time share experience. ; It has been wonderful though, as frequently as I go to Disney...the maintenance costs can run around $800 per year with as many points as I have...but considering that I stay 30-35 days a year in anything from studio to 2-bedroom villas...the cost of hotel rooms would far exceed that! ; If I spread out the purchase cost over the past 13 years I've had it, with the number of times I've stayed, I figure I've broken even a few years back, and now it's paying me benefits back.

And if you use your points judiciously as I do, you can spread them out and get a lot for the money - such as going up during 'value' seasons when points cost less, or staying at cheaper resorts like Old Key West rather than always at my home resort of Boardwalk.

 

Justin, thanks for the photo's! ; Amazing luck!

 

Yep...it takes some planning around though. ; January and September are by far the cheapest points months...and the first week of December. ; Next level up is the first weeks of June and October & February. ; If planned properly, I wedge most of my trips on those times...only a few stray into level 3 and almost never level 4 (Christmas, New Year, etc). ; Also, I stay at Saratoga Springs, OKW, Boardwalk cheaper views, or AK Lodge cheaper views as much as possible...that also saves on the points. ; And at least 2 trips a year, sometimes 3, I stay in a studio apartment rather than the larger 1-bedroom and 2-bedroom places...the studio is not much different than the size of a hotel room...but saves mondo points. ; If it's just me, or me and a friend, why not?

When I purchased at Boardwalk, my plan on buying points was to get enough to stay for 14 days in a 2 bedroom villa during level 2 points periods. ; Then I figure out all kinds of ways to stretch that out to more days all throughout the year!

 

thats awesome!

There's not much better stuff at WDW than getting a GREAT room when you dont expect it!

 

Indeed! ; It really does make the trip. ; I still have to say I prefer one other 1-bedroom condo I've gotten at Boardwalk...but that was a Preferred-View, Boardwalk view. ; The balcony was not as long but 5x as deep, and fully covered, and the view across to Beach/Yacht was pretty hard to beat! ; But as far as Standard view goes...those '23' rooms are the BOMB!

 

[Justin's Rainbow][/Justin's Rainbow]

I took the same picture from the contemporary! Looking at our exif I was about 2.5 minutes of you!


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Wow...that's NUTS! ; Divine guidance, like minds, or just coincidental that we are both brilliant photographers with a great eye for a scene. ; ; Definitely pretty close timing there - the cloud formations, the light streak in the thick part of the rainbow...all match. ; Very cool!

 

You should love the 2-bedrooms! ; Studios are just fine and I stay in them alot, but even moving up to the 1-bedroom makes it go from being a resort room or hotel, to feeling like you are genuinely in a vacation HOME. ; And the 2-bedrooms are even better.

This 1-bedroom was bigger and laid out differently than most others - Boardwalk, Beach, Wilderness, AK's Kidani, & Saratoga all share a fairly similar layout and size. ; The BLT looks a bit different due to the shape, the Jambo house AK ones are a bit different since they converted from hotel rooms, and the OKW are different because they are so much bigger than all the others being the original. ; This room was quite close to the OKW 1-bedroom in size - at least in the main living room (OKW's bathrooms are quite a bit bigger, and you get the full walk-in laundry rooms).

 

Absolutely. ; The rooms are semi-famous apparently (as I've discovered since) for insiders at Boardwalk...they're known as the '23s'. ; Mine was 3123. ; Rooms 2123 and 4123 would be the same layout. ; It's definitely worth requesting - the dream is indeed worth having!

 

Ironic connection, isn't it!?