News Disney's BoardWalk Inn to Undergo Refurbishment Through 2026

[TrainsOfDisney]

Right??

It was cool when the Braves played there. But what now?

Bananas

 

[UNCgolf]

Right??

It was cool when the Braves played there. But what now?

I think it sees regular use in terms of youth, high school, etc. sporting events, but it doesn't have anything for a random guest to do. At one point it actually had activities if you visited.

 

[castlecake2.0]

There is work happening in those shuttered locations which leads me to believe something is planned. If not Disney would take their usual route of forgetting it exists.

 

[JMcMahonEsq]

This is not an accurate statement.

How is it not an accurate statement?

What about the location, and WDW's actions surrounding it would lead you to believe this isn't accurate.

WDW doesn't allow public parking for the BW.
WDW doesn't provide bus transportation to the board walk itself, like it does say the parks, or Disney Springs.

WDW doesn't provide late night transporation back/forth from the boardwalk to other resorts.
WDW doesn't provide any access to the BW from the TTC or other "public" WDW transportation.

WDW isn't activity marketing the area to outsiders. It has been removing things like Jelly Rolls, hang out type locations. It isn't putting in entertainment shows like the drones at Disney Springs or other acts to DRAW people to the area.

It is not filling up the empty locations with options that are readily excessable or spur of the moment QS type locations. You are getting things that require reservations to use, like the Bake Shop and Sit down restaurants, much more akin to a resort setting than a general public area.

So, given all those things, what is inaccurate about Penquin's statement?

 

[mattpeto]

WDW long ago stopped advertising BWI's boardwalk as a general pop destination.

The actual boardwalk is a feature of the deluxe resort as mach as the much-vaunted Storm Along Bay is a deluxe feature of Yacht. If you're not a guest of Yacht, you're not welcome to their mini-water park.

BWI takes most of the features and amenities you would find inside a deluxe resort and places them outward-facing toward a boardwalk. If you're not a guest of BWI, then the boardwalk and its stores, food service, and entertainment is not for you, with the exception of the table service restaurants. All table service restaurants welcome and want 'outsiders.' This is why you can park at BWI if you have a TS reservation.

When the boardwalk was once advertised as a gen-pop destination, they had issues with late-night noisy and drunk outsiders hanging out loudly on the boardwalk keeping their paying guests from getting some sleep. And so, they stopped that.

The boardwalk's 'problem' is that is an open-air throughfare for all the Crescent Lake resorts, and for those visiting DHS and Epcot who can walk there or take the boats or Skyway... and therefore, it also has easy access from CBR and Pop and ArtofA guests. This still gives some guests the feel that the boardwalk is a WDW-wide destination when BWI doesn't want it to be that anymore.

Anyhoo, this is just to point out that BWI is happy to turn away anyone from their parking lot who doesn't have a reservation for their restaurants in order to keep the boardwalk from being a hangout for outsiders. Additionally, it deters people from parking there as free parking to EPCOT or DHS, which WDW, as a whole, clamps down on, especially for the Seven Seas resorts for the same reason.

And any complaints about "I just want to hang out at the boardwalk" is met with an implicit "well, if you're not a guest of BWI... we'd prefer you didn't... we exist for our paying guests."

I do think while what you are saying is mostly accurate, they do post hours of the Boardwalk at their app (6:30 AM to 10:00 PM) which makes that outdoor unique from other resort offerings.

EDIT - @surfsupdon beat me to it.

 

[JMcMahonEsq]

I think it sees regular use in terms of youth, high school, etc. sporting events, but it doesn't have anything for a random guest to do. At one point it actually had activities if you visited.

A lot of the High Schools around us use ESPN for a spring training destination for their Baseball and/or Softball teams, (which given the 2 feet of snow hanging around NJ right now, makes alot of sense.)

It's a really nice complex, has some good fields and facilities. Not sure how to properly really leverage that with a typical WDW vacation experience. We travel for all of the summer for baseball, and alot of the fall as well, so we would hit right into the demographic for it. But on a typical vacation that isn't for a tournament, we aren't going to be brining bats, equipment, ect., to make real use of any of their facilities. And i think its really too big, and not a huge amount of interest in just having it set up for batting cages or something like that.

Given the location I am a bit surprised it hasn't been looked at more to be leveraged for spring training and/or minor league games.