Home-Away-from-Home

[Kimkimba]

This is the last time I'm going to second guess where we will be staying in September. With the current discount code expiring July 8th, I have to book within 2 days, so this is it. Currently we the Poly Concierge GV for our 6 night Sept. stay. DD is 13, and DS is 4, and Dh and I are somewhat of homebodies, liking breaks on our vacation. We are not a family that will do the park from 9 to 9 straight. We need to like where we are staying. I was comparing prices, and 1 bedroom villas at Key West, WLV, BWV, and BCV, are all about $25 a night cheaper at the discount rate if they are available. I wanted to be on the monorail as this is my ds's first trip, but have always had second thoughts. Advice?

 

[TigrLvsPooh]

I've been in that exact situation several times. We love the monorail (especially with the stroller) but the home away from home resorts have won us over. Once you stay in a one or two bedroom villa you'll never settle for a regular hotel room again. It's so nice to have the full kitchen, huge living room, 2 balconies, jacuzzi tub, laundry, and separate sleeping areas. We can put our kids to bed, and then go into our OWN bedroom! We can stay up as late as we want... have wine out on the balcony, fire up the jacuzzi, watch TV, it's the only way to go (in my opinion).

Good Luck making your decision.

 

[jcanary]

It can all depend upon what parks you plan to spend most of your time in. BCV and BWV are right at MGM and EPCOT. We use to stay at the Poly COncierge until we brought the Vacation club, which is the home away from home when we were there celebrating my youngest 5th birthday. Since then we have always done OKW and the kids love the atmosphere. Now that they are older they still prefer OKW but also like BWV since it is so convient. Since you like spending time in your room or at your resort I really think you would like the larger rooms at a home away from home. You will have a full kitchen for snacks, etc. Unfortunately it will be you cooking instead of the Poly chefs but I think you would like the comforts and the roominess of the resorts. I have not stayed at BCV yet, but I hear the rooms are larger than BWV but not as large as OKW. I had friends who went to OKW with kids around the same age as you have and they all loved it. It is nice at OKW because if your DD and DS do not want to sleep together the love seat would be large enough for the DS. There is no love seats at BWV and I am not sure about BCV. I would not be able to go back to a regular hotel room at WDW now that I have spent the last 10 years in a home away from home. You may want to try one, who knows you may come home a new owner.
Good luck with your decision, it's a tough one. I vote for the home away from home.

 

[dalepool]

We love the Boardwalk resorts. The one bedrooms at OKW are larger than the one bedrooms at BWV. We find that the transportation to MGM and Epcot make staying anywhere else on property so inconvient. We even walk to the monorail at Epcot and take it to get to MK....DH is Handicapped and uses an EVC which is a little hard to get on the buses....we are also limited to using buses that have lifts. Using our transportation system we only have to use the buses to go to AK and the water parks. Daughter and her girl friend were 10 on the first visit. (OKW) Then 14 and 15 on the next visit (BWV). Girls say BWV----play area for son. Nice pool for daughter. Another nice thing is that the Swan/ Dolphin, beach club, yacht club and the beach club villas are all right together. Hope this helps. Although I love Conceirge ----Disney Spoiled use with our first one bedroom villa stay. PattyN

 

[VickiVM]

Here's another vote for Home-Away-From-Home. Check out the Rent/Trade board. We're renting points for the first time at Beach Club Villas for this fall and we're so glad we decided to do this. We have 3 kids - 4, 6 &8 plus my mom. We'll be in WDW 6 days but I'm getting 4 day passes because we're not into open-to-close touring either. We're so looking forward to relaxing and going back to our 2 bedroom villa frequently. Also keep this in mind...September will be shorter hours so you'll likely be spending a lot of time in your room. Larger accomodations is so much easier on the nerves (if you know what I mean) when you have children.

Thanks, TigrLvsPooh, for your encouragement which helped me make this decision...we absolutely cannot wait.

 

[Richyams]

Personally, I would rent enough points for the Grand Villa at OKW. Invite your sister and her family.

Once we stayed in the OKW Grand Villa with another family, we had to buy enough points to stay in one every year. It makes WDW an entirely different thing.

 

[mikesmom]

If liking your room is important to you, go for the home away from home. We also are not the dawn to dusk park types and having the extra space, the kitchen, the washer/dryer and the balconies really enhance the vacation.

Be warned though, once you go for the 1 bdrm it's VERY difficult to go back to a regular hotel room. Pretty soon you may be looking into a DVC membership. That's what happened to us (and many others on these boards!)

 

[mirlow]

This will be our 3rd trip to the Polynesian concierge and our 1st BWV stay I know that people love the home away from home resorts, but I don't think it would make much difference to us. We travel a lot and we aren't bothered by the size of rooms. I think it will be great having that space, but it's not my deciding factor. I went with the BWV because I wanted to try an Epcot resort. I thought that the BWV would be the best resort for our family (I didn't want to do YC/BC/BCV to big, Swan & Dolphin to business like and the BWI to formal). My kids stay up late, until we go to bed (we are in the mtn time zone, so 11 feels like 9) so it doesn't matter if they have a bedroom or not. Now it will be nice having that bedroom for nap time. You might want to think about your sleeping arrangements. There isn't a daybed in the one bedrooms. Plus there is only one real bed, so somebody gets stuck sleeping on a pull-out and for us it will be my DH and DS. Some people need that space. I would take the amenities of concierge over space Plus I love the theming to the Polynesian. Although having a washer and dryer is pretty nice! Our favorite park is the MK, so I would rather stay on the monorail than anywhere else. I am sure that once our kids get older and our desires change we will be spending more time at a home away from home in the Epcot/MGM area. Good luck deciding. I drove myself crazy planning this trip. I must have changed plans 12 times. In fact I just called CRO yesturday to finalize them and we leave on the 16th

 

[Bobrow]

Let me tell you why I chose not to do a Home Away from Home and chose concierge level at BC. If there is a kitchen somehow i will get stuck cooking! No matter how much I say no,it always ends up that way and even though there is housekeeping I end up cleaning up too. I'd rather not have to deal with any of it. Nobody can say,"I don't feel like eating out tonight,lets cook in".Sorry no kitchen!

 

[wdwnut]

hi: another vote for a home away from home resort. we're dvc members and have never cooked (what is that white stove decoration doing in the kitchen?) on vacation. i think my dil did use the stove once to heat water for tea. we usually stock the unit with drinks, snacks, fruits, and some breakfast/lunch items. that way if we go back to the room in the middle of the day and feel a bit hungry, there's something to "pick" on. you won't have to cook if you don't buy anything that requires cooking when you shop. if someone really doesn't want to go out for a meal, you can always pick up a frozen pizza at the store and use the oven. having the washer/dryer right in your unit means never going home with dirty laundry. it is so easy to just throw in a load of laundry a day. i can't let you know how comfy the pull-out sofa is because i always take the king sized bed. the people who have slept on the sofa have ranged in age from 12-74, and no one complained to me. we have also taken an inflatable mattress when the people don't want to share the sofa. a full-size mattress will fit into the living room when the sofa is opened up, but it will be a tight fit.

 

[TigrLvsPooh]

Hmmmm... I guess my family knows better than to even suggest I cook anything on vacation! We always have our dinner PS's made well in advance and look forward to eating out every night. I do use the kitchen for breakfast and snacks. Usually we eat lunch in the parks. The big fridge comes in handy for lots of bottled water, pop, juice, beer, formula (the baby), wine, milk, etc. There's no way that will all fit in a small fridge. We like to eat breakfast in the room so we can head straight to the attractions in the morning (no more waiting in line at the Main St. Bakery).

Laundry is also a big plus! We don't have to pack as much, and it's so easy to throw in a load at night before bed.

Now maybe if they added a jacuzzi to one of those concierge rooms I'd change my mind!