BoardWalk Villas vs. Beach Club Villas Disney World Resort Guide 2023

Planning a trip to Walt Disney World can be complicated — especially when you’re trying to choose between 25 resort hotels. If you’ve narrowed down your choices to these hotels, how do you make your final selection?

Beach Club

Well, we’re here to walk you through the differences between Disney’s Beach Club Villas and Disney’s BoardWalk Villas.

Whether room size, location, pools, and/or restaurants are most important to you, we share the information that you’ll need to make an informed decision. After all, we want you to stay at the hotel that is best for your family!

Let’s get started and look at all the details so that you can plan your Disney trip with confidence.

BoardWalk

There’s no doubt that Disney vacations are expensive, and no one wants buyer’s remorse when it comes to what can usually be the most EXPENSIVE part of your Disney trip. We’re approaching this chaos-agent of a decision with as much logic as possible, so we’re breaking it down into five categories:

Common Ground
Theme/Rooms
Pools
Food
Transportation

Stormalong Bay Shipwreck Waterslide

It takes a lot of research to plan a Disney vacation, but we’re here to help.

Common Ground

Before we mention their differences, let’s take a look at what Beach Club Villas and BoardWalk Villas have in common. First, both are Deluxe Villa Resorts offering many of the same perks. These hotels can be booked by Disney Vacation Club members or cash-paying guests.

Beach Club Boardwalk

Both resorts offer bus transportation to Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom at Walt Disney World. And we love the easy access (walking or Friendship Boats) to Disney’s Hollywood Studios and EPCOT! Disney Skyliner can be utilized to get to Disney’s Hollywood Studios.

Boat to EPCOT and Disney’s Hollywood Studios

And, they have similar price points.

For Beach Club Villas, that means that for the cheapest room at the cheapest time to visit, you can expect to pay around $534 per night (not accounting for any tax or current discounts), and it goes up to $2,401 per night (not accounting for any tax or current discounts) for the most expensive rooms at the most expensive time to visit.

For BoardWalk Villas, that means that for the cheapest room at the cheapest time to visit, you can expect to pay around $596 per night (not accounting for any tax or current discounts), and it goes up to $3,672 per night (not accounting for any tax or current discounts) for the most expensive rooms at the most expensive time to visit.

Extra Theme Park Hours Benefits for Disney World Resort Hotel Guests

Theme/Rooms

Beach Club Villas have villa-type accommodations with studio (sleep up to five), 1-bedroom (sleep up to four), and 2-bedroom (sleep up to eight) layouts.

BoardWalk offers studio (sleep up to five), 1-bedroom (sleep up to four), and 2-bedroom (sleep up to nine), and 3-bedroom (sleep up to 12) layouts.

Three-bedroom Grand Villas are available first for Disney Vacation Club (DVC) members to book, so they’re pretty difficult to score and pricing is not readily available to the public (unless you call Disney to book for a specific date).

If you’re looking for convenience, a villa’s amenities might make your trip a whole lot easier!

Minnie is ready for a day at the beach

While the prices and room sizes are similar at both resorts, neither resort stands out for the themeing inside the villa rooms.

Beach Club Villas

Opened in July 2002, the villa accommodations are in a separate building, however there is a covered walkway leading to the resort’s main building.

Villas are currently being refreshed with a planned completion estimated for late 2023. From pictures that we’ve seen, Disney is adding the popular queen-size Murphy pull-down bed as well as convenient USB charging ports. It’s nice to see the new carpeting, curtains, and upholstery. And we love the picture of Donald, Huey, Dewey, and Louie swimming by day (and then sleeping on the beach when the bed is pulled down)!

Daisy and Donald Duck at the Beach Club Resort

The Beach Club embraces pastels and the soft tones of the beach at sunset. Plus, this is a very quiet location compared to the sometimes-noisy BoardWalk.

BoardWalk Villas

Welcome to the charming turn-of-the-century Atlantic boardwalk themed resort, aptly named BoardWalk Inn. The BoardWalk brings in vibrant colors reminiscent of a seaside amusement park. In essence, the BoardWalk Inn balances the fun of the theme with the luxury of a deluxe resort.

Stroll the boardwalk!

Villas were first opened in 1996. The rooms last received a bit of a touch up back in 2016 and with the ongoing construction and other resort renovations may see some TLC, soon. We hope the room updates and renovations keep with the classic Disney charm we’ve come to love and aren’t watered down to look like other standard hotels. Villa renovations are scheduled to begin in fall of 2023.

4 BIG Changes (Including New Restaurants) Announced for Disney’s BoardWalk

Results

What location and price point do you prefer? For now, we’ll recommend the Beach Club villas due to the latest room renovations. Although we would have liked to see more Disney touches inside the villas, we’re happy to see the rooms being refreshed.

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Pools

When the weather is HOT or you just need a break from park queues, head to your resort pool! After all, the pools have their own unique features and special theming. Feature pools at Walt Disney World hotels usually have at least one slide and also offer poolside activities. Look at the hotel’s recreation schedule for more information. Some Disney resorts are so spread out that they also offer leisure pools. These swimming spots are family-friendly with at least one whirlpool spa. Leisure pools are quieter than the more crowded and active feature pools.

Stormalong Bay at Disney’s Beach Club

Note that poolside towels are always complimentary.