Disney's BoardWalk Villas

As I mentioned earlier, we stayed at the Boardwalk Inn and Villas. I was excited to try out a new hotel in a neat area where we hadn't spent much time. The only other time we had been near there was when we took the boat from Hollywood Studios to eat at Beaches and Cream at Yacht Club in Oct 2015.

Here is what the Disney site says about Boardwalk:
Timeless elegance meets old-fashioned charm at this waterfront Resort hotel. Delight in saltwater taffy-colored cottages, private courtyards and picturesque gardens—plus the ragtime sounds and carnival pastimes of the exciting Coney Island-style boardwalk. Reminiscent of turn-of-the-century Atlantic City, Disney’s BoardWalk Villas is located within walking distance to both Epcot and Disney’s Hollywood Studios. 

Boardwalk Lobby- photo from Disney site

We had a preferred studio {which means we paid a bit more to have a room in a good location) on the Villa side. We were very close to the main pool and to the bus stop which was awesome! A one bedroom would have been really nice, but it wasn't in our budget, and the studio was fine! It had a queen bed, a double fold out couch, and a fold down Murphy bed. I called to request a crib when we were 10 days out {when you can make room requests}, but there wasn't one in our room when we got there. So I called housekeeping and they brought one right away. John hung up one of the shower curtains to block off a little area for the crib to block some of the light from the room. Curran was thrilled to sleep on the Murphy bed, Sallie Cate was thrilled for John to sleep with her on the fold out couch, and I was thrilled to have the bed to myself. :)  SC is going throug a terrible phase where she's scared to be by herself and is waking up every night and coming to our room. So John said he was so excited about going to Disney just to get more sleep since we would all already be together! :)

Our room looked just like this but set up in the mirror image layout. And we were on the first floor and had a view of the quiet pool and Community Hall.

 If you look towards the far end of the room where that flush mount light is, that's where we put baby John's crib. The door to leave the room was off to the left.

That little table pulled down to reveal the Murphy bed.

The kitchenette. The 1 and 2 bedroom villas have a full size kitchen.

The bathroom. {tub/shower and toilet were separate and closed off}

The studios in the Villa section all have kitchenettes with a fridge, sink, microwave, coffee maker, toaster, and some plates, bowls, cups, and plastic utensils. It also came with a dish rag, sponge, dish soap {but I had packed my own for bottle and pump parts}, and paper towels. I knew that they kitchenette would be a wonderful addition in traveling with an infant. Something about washing bottle and pump parts in a bathroom sink just doesn't seem clean to me {even though it's really the same difference}. It was also nice to have that extra counter space and kitchen cabinets to store all our snacks and cereal. The 1 and 2 bedroom villas have full kitchens!

The only thing I didn't love about the Boardwalk was the main pool. There was a "quiet pool" directly outside our patio door, but of course the girls wanted to swim at the main pool where the big slide was. The pool felt dated and not very nice to me {at least compared to the other places we have stayed}. The Boardwalk has a carnival/circus theme, and I was not crazy about the creepy clown head at the bottom of the slide. But that was not a big issue, and if that is the only negative takeaway from our stay there, then I call it a win.

Boardwalk offers the same sorts of things all the other resorts do: a Disney movie every night on the lawn {we wanted to do this a couple of nights but ended up being too tired}, s'mores, stories, and songs around the campfire, games in the community hall, fishing, a playground, and they also have bike rentals, tennis, a miniature golf course next door, and surrey bike rentals.

The Boardwalk area in front of the hotel was really nice! It felt very clean and the views on the water were beautiful!

There are no restaurants actually in the hotel like there are at all the other resorts, but there were lots of options to choose from on the Boardwalk. As I mentioned in my Animal Kingdom post, we ate at Trattoria al Forno one night, and they will soon be offering a character breakfast with Disney couples, including Rapunzel and Flynn Rider and Ariel and Prince Eric! That will be a fun addition to the Boardwalk area. Ample Hills creamery had the best {and possibly priciest} ice cream I've ever had. In addition to the restaurants, there were vendors that sold hot dogs, French fries, and margaritas, and they had magicians, mimes, and other entertainers in the evenings. It was such a neat area, and we will definitely stay there again!