Holy moly, mind blown by the one bedroom villa we just checked out of at Bay Lake Tower. I am a Boardwalk Villas loyalist through and through, with a little wiggle room for some Beach Club love here and there, so I always go into stays at other resorts with the bar set really high (I enjoyed the Polynesian this summer for example, but don’t see any reason to return any time soon quite honestly). This BLT one bedroom absolutely blew the Boardwalk and Beach Club one bedrooms out of the water as far as size and set up go. I’m going to quickly do a square footage comparison to see if it was my imagination or if the room actually was significantly larger …. according to dvcinfo.com the BLT one bedrooms are 803 square feet while those at BW and BC are 712 and 719 square feet respectively.
Besides being larger, the set up just felt so fancy and nice. The kitchen had an ISLAND! What! I always wonder who comes to these hotels and needs a fully equipped kitchen with all the pots and pans and everything… but now an island !? So fancy. It seriously felt like we were in a fancy high rise condo in a city or something, but with a BEAUTIFUL, peaceful lake view.
I had tried to request a view that would allow us to see the monorail, but I’m not entirely sure that that exists in the lake view category. I asked for an even number room on the south side of the tower so as to maybe end up looking out at the Contemporary basically. We ended up with room 8204, which was AMAZING. The even numbered rooms are on the outside of the tower, and the odd numbered rooms are on the inside, overlooking the pool from my understanding. We were not on the side of the tower where we would see the monorail (again, not sure if such a view exists in the lake view category), but instead we had an amaaaazing view of Bay Lake, and when we poked our head out a bit, a perfect view of Magic Kingdom. If there were fireworks currently we would have had the best view ever, without using the points for a Theme Park View. Honestly I don’t love the Theme Park Views at BLT since they are right over the parking lot, with MK out beyond the parking lot. The lake view is gorgeous, and seeing MK around to the side was the perfect balance.
The wall to wall windows with the gorgeous view really were what made me obsessed with our room, but the size and set up were great too. The living room had a pull out sofa, consistent with most other one bedroom villas, but also had a pull out sleeper chair for a fifth guest. My 230+ lb non significant other took several naps on this chair and said it was very comfortable and he could have slept there all week (although to be honest, he really can sleep anywhere). He also slept on the pull out sofa with no issues as well. So both get the large man seal of approval for sleep comfort.
What is unique about the BLT one bedrooms is that there are two full bathrooms. Attached to the living area is a bathroom with a toilet and a shower/tub. That is a big deal for families with multiple people showering in the morning.
The second bathroom is similar to those in the bedroom at BC and BW: huge bathtub in one area, toilet and shower stall in another closed off area. The bath tub also has a partition that can open into the bedroom so you can watch TV from the tub, which always blows kids’ minds. The shower stall sprays from either a normal shower head on the wall or an overhead rainfall type shower head, which is fancy pants in my book.
The bedroom has a king bed, a comfy chair, and a little desk, as well as an outdated LG TV (a bit small as far as hotel TVs go these days).
You could go out onto the patio via a sliding door in the bedroom or a swinging door from the living room.
It might just be me, but I feel like Bay Lake Tower gets skipped over a lot when people are considering resorts to stay at, and based on this stay, I think it should be at the top of people’s lists if they are planning on staying in a one bedroom or larger with kids. It is so, so convenient to have the extra bathroom and the huge kitchen area. Plus what kids wouldn’t want to see the MK fireworks from their room at night (well… besides mine…. since he’s terrified of fireworks and is happy that “Mickey turned them off” for him 😆). You can also walk to MK from the hotel (about a 5 minute walk). We had to ride a lot of buses, which I don’t love, but we never had to wait more than 30 seconds for one to arrive. We were either really lucky, or they are running really frequently right now. We did NOT experience any issues waiting for buses like people have described. We went to multiple parks at park opening and easily boarded the first bus that pulled up when we got to the bus stop. We didn’t observe any long lines at the bus stop at the Contemporary.
We definitely can’t wait for the Epcot monorail to be back up and running though. Part of the main appeal of BLT is taking the monorail/walking to two parks. Hopefully that reopens soon (maybe with the return of park hopping in January?)
Scrolling back through my pictures, I seriously didn’t do the room justice at all. I can’t overstate the feel of a luxury condo/apartment in the city with a nice peaceful view. Cannot recommend BLT enough to people considering a monorail resort.
Disclaimer: we did not try the pool. We are spending the rest of the week at Beach Club so figured if we have pool time, it will probably be there 🙂