Disney's BOARDWALK INN Information & Questions

Has anyone used the 'Minnie Vans' through Lyft while on a trip? I added the Lyft app to my phone but read that someone at BWI needs to enter a code on my phone in order for us to use this service. I am curious about the process as I don't use Lyft or Uber. We arrive late our first day and I want to use this service to get us to Disney Spring for our reservation.
Yes. And no, they didn't have to enter a code. On the morning we checked in, before we even left home, I got an alert when I opened MDE, that I could add Minnie Van access to my Lyft app. It was all automatic and totally activated by my BWI stay. No interaction with staff at BWI needed at all. I was already a Lyft user but if I wasn't the link would have downloaded Lyft and prompted me to set up an account.
 
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I had a feeling someone would be interested so i took pix before I left .

Yep that's it! It was standard Boardwalk view cl room . It just randomly has a larger balcony because it's adjacent to a suite.

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This was view of cm desk from my room door .

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This is staircase adjacent to cm desk for those that don't mind climbing.

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View from bed!

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Now you have me really interested! What is the door you speak of that is near the CM desk ? I know of the stairs way down the hall past the lounge that brings you out by the Quiet pool but have never noticed or heard of the stairs you are talking about and we have stayed CL at the BWI many times! Were do they come out on the first floor? Always learning something new on the Dis boards Lol.
 


Yes. And no, they didn't have to enter a code. On the morning we checked in, before we even left home, I got an alert when I opened MDE, that I could add Minnie Van access to my Lyft app. It was all automatic and totally activated by my BWI stay. No interaction with staff at BWI needed at all. I was already a Lyft user but if I wasn't the link would have downloaded Lyft and prompted me to set up an account.

My experience was different from AngiTN's. I had the Lyft app and a Lyft account set up on my phone. Nothing happened automatically, even after I arrived at BoardWalk. No alert in my MDE account. I had to go to the BoardWalk's Bell Services desk, where they typed something into a computer. Then when I opened the Lyft app, I had Minnie Van access.

I was staying at BWV on my DVC points; I don't know if that made a difference as to why it was automatic for AngiTN but not for me. This was Labor Day weekend.
 
My family has our first bwi stay and first cl stay, beginning this Thursday! Would love to say hello to any other disboarders in the lounge!
I will be there on Wednesday. You are in for a big treat. It is my all time favorite place to stay. Just ask Lorenzo, Anita, JJ, Linda, or Michael to point out Kerry to you and say hi to me. My husband and I will be there celebrating my 65th birthday!
 


Two more days to the end of our stay. I wish all of you coming down this time of year, the weather we've had.
 
I will be there on Wednesday. You are in for a big treat. It is my all time favorite place to stay. Just ask Lorenzo, Anita, JJ, Linda, or Michael to point out Kerry to you and say hi to me. My husband and I will be there celebrating my 65th birthday!

I will definitely do this!!! I'll be with my husband, 8 year old son, and 5 year old daughter. We are so excited!!! For comparison, we stayed at All Star Sports last year, which is great, but I'm expecting this to be a little different!
 
Now you have me really interested! What is the door you speak of that is near the CM desk ? I know of the stairs way down the hall past the lounge that brings you out by the Quiet pool but have never noticed or heard of the stairs you are talking about and we have stayed CL at the BWI many times! Were do they come out on the first floor? Always learning something new on the Dis boards Lol.
Since I was with mom i couldn't use it but when I took those pix of the cottages I believe I found that door just to the left of the first cottage 01. Someone recently mentioned it so I wandered a bit looking.
 
My family has our first bwi stay and first cl stay, beginning this Thursday! Would love to say hello to any other disboarders in the lounge!
Bring warmer clothes and rain gear. Thursday and Friday are expected to be cooler and wet.
 
We're officially booked at BWV 11/4-11/11. It'll be just myself and DD (12 at the time) in a standard view studio for our first mother daughter trip. I rented points from a Disboards member. I couldn't be happier. It'll be our first time at BWV (or any DVC resort). We did BC last trip (split with Poly) and I loved the Epcot resorts area so going with BWV was an easy decision.

I am waiting for my TA to release their agency exclusive rates so I can book 11/2-11/4 and take advantage of their ticket deals. It's one of the big reasons I didn't book the entire trip with rented points.
 
Couple photos from my recent stay at Boardwalk. This room was added to the CLUB LEVEL for my stay since my room had maintenance issues. Room 3221 right above the Boardwalk Bakery.
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View from room looking left to right.
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Center night and day.
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To the right side
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Long hallways. LOL
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Tree outside all lit up.
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We just booked our Grand Villa today!!! July 5 - 13th.

This will be our second time in a GV - if you haven't tried one - its like living a real life HGTV experience.

What we like most:
- extra wide balconies - view of both Epcot & DHS fireworks
- ROOM - there is so much room to spread out - makes the 2 BR feel so cramped & claustrophobic
- 3 Bathrooms\Showers
- Open concept kitchen (plenty of room for our groceries)
- Big laundry room to wash daily towels

Dislike:
- takes up a lot of points! Around 910 to be exact.

Only 211 days from today! :)
 
We are so excited about our upcoming stay at the Boardwalk Inn, Dec 20-26th. It's our first time staying at a Epcot Area resort and a celebration of being two years cancer free.

Thanks to everyone for all of the photos and information. I have so enjoyed reading this thread.

Erin
 
Back two days and I miss it already. One of these days, I'm going to figure out what I'm doing wrong with the online check in and room location requests. I asked for a room on an upper floor, near the elevator and got the first floor on the wing across from the elevator wing. Since I was using an ECV, it meant going through two sets of doors each time. And the automatic door button wasn't working on my side. To the resort's credit, it was fixed quickly after we reported it.

Using an ECV this trip gave me an incredible perspective that I've never had before from how extremely helpful the drivers were to how inattentive people are walking through the parks. It' salmost hysterical. Once teenager got a talking to from his father, when he almost walked into my stopped vehicle, with his face in his phone. All I can say is thank goodness, these things have a dead man switch to operate them.
 
Got an email from my Dreams agent with some updates of what is going on around the parks. Under Refurbishments it showed this for Boardwalk:

BoardWalk Inn & Villas

In an effort to make future visits more magical, Disney's BoardWalk Inn & Villas is currently undergoing some refurbishment projects across the Resort. During this time, the Resort will be in full operation with all amenities available, including dining, merchandise and recreation locations. It is possible that construction may be seen or heard, but noise should not be heard from Guest rooms between dusk and 9:00am.


Can anyone who has been there recently elaborate on what this may be? Other places on the list of updates specified things like pool work, room refurb, hard good refurb, etc. Just wondering if this something like the usual "sprucing up" and general maintenance.
 
Got an email from my Dreams agent with some updates of what is going on around the parks. Under Refurbishments it showed this for Boardwalk:

BoardWalk Inn & Villas

In an effort to make future visits more magical, Disney's BoardWalk Inn & Villas is currently undergoing some refurbishment projects across the Resort. During this time, the Resort will be in full operation with all amenities available, including dining, merchandise and recreation locations. It is possible that construction may be seen or heard, but noise should not be heard from Guest rooms between dusk and 9:00am.


Can anyone who has been there recently elaborate on what this may be? Other places on the list of updates specified things like pool work, room refurb, hard good refurb, etc. Just wondering if this something like the usual "sprucing up" and general maintenance.
I am here now and don’t see any of this going on. Not sure what they are talking about. We are staying on the Inn side on the club level and no construction anywhere.
 
Hello All--We returned late Sunday night after a 5 night, 6 day stay, our second BWI stay (7th WDW resort vacation). We really do love BWI.

Here are some thoughts and experiences. We've stayed at almost all of the deluxe resorts, except AKL and WL. We are hooked on the EP resorts, as we spend most time in EP and HS. I love GF but we're not an MK family anymore, and BWI has all we need and more, and we're happy there, so we now feel solidly like this is our home resort.

The chief complaint I had (and really it was the only one) from our first stay was that the mattresses were old and uncomfortable. I admit I was spoiled by the mattresses at GF and other hotels, but the ones from our first visit were stiff and you could feel the springs. The good news is that our room this trip had lovely, new pillowy mattresses. This alone made me indescribably happy. Our room was clean and well-stocked. Every bit of the resort looked fresh and clean and newly painted, and of course the holiday decorations are a delight to behold. It was just so nice to see all the details taken care of.

We had no interaction with front desk CMs. Our room was ready (via text) and we went straight to it. I am happy to report that I got my requested floor and wing (more or less). Asked for 5th floor overlooking EPCOT and courtyard and got 4th floor, same view. Perfect. Housekeeping CMs were kind and patient and helpful when I needed extra things like blankets and cups, etc. I was a bit dismayed that our sheets did not appear to have been changed during our stay (5 nights). Not the end of the world; I don't change my sheets every 5 days at home, but on vacation it's nice to have that luxury of fresh crisp sheets every couple of nights. Also, for the life of me we couldn't get clean glasses or mugs. I realized they were the same, just being placed back on the counter, daily. This bothered me because my son had a bad cold and it was impossible for me to keep track of which glass was his after the room was serviced. On the third or fourth day, I called to ask for clean glasses and was told, "We'll send some up, but we don't refresh them, generally, when the room is serviced." What? Really? You have to use the same glass for the whole week? Didn't seem right to me.

Otherwise, we were totally happy to be there. CMs were sweet and helpful, and my boys discovered the community hall and wanted to spend all of their time playing ping pong and pool. They love the slide at the "fun" pool. Breakfast every morning at the bakery was great. They do have steel cut oats but it's not on the menu. We took a few ubers and lyfts (but not minnie van, as we're just 4 of us and the minnie van is twice the cost). Transportation was great, with one exception of waiting for a return bus to the resort from MK, when we waited a full half an hour for a bus to show up. We took Magical Express from the airport, but Lyft back to the airport, because 4 hours time was crazy for us. We have TSA precheck and left a little less than three hours before and still had well more than an hour of just sitting around the airport.

Loved the walk between HS (took me only 11 minutes) and EP (5 or so min). Every day was 82 degrees and sunny. Perfect. Overall, my family really loves the resort and their time there, maybe more than they love park time, which is another story (kids are outgrowing some of WDW). But I hope we'll have reason to return, nevertheless!
 
Back two days and I miss it already. One of these days, I'm going to figure out what I'm doing wrong with the online check in and room location requests. I asked for a room on an upper floor, near the elevator and got the first floor on the wing across from the elevator wing. Since I was using an ECV, it meant going through two sets of doors each time. And the automatic door button wasn't working on my side. To the resort's credit, it was fixed quickly after we reported it.

Are you making your room requests through online check in? If so, that's your mistake. Call the Disney reservation number and ask them to put your room requests on your reservation. Then do not put in any requests when you do online check in. The online check in room request section is constantly glitchy. It often gives you options that do not even apply to your resort.
 

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