What's the boardwalk?

The Boardwalk area is a five minute walk from the back entrance(International Gateway) to Epcot. Guests that stay at the Epcot resorts, Boardwalk, Beach Club, Yacht Club, and Swan/Dolphin, enter Epcot via this entrance(walk or via boat). Following is a good map of the area, and a picture I took in May:

https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/activities/boardwalk/map/

I don't even consider Epcot doable in one day.

The Boardwalk is a resort space that has shopping and dining and some entertainment, you can rent a surrey bike and there are some games to play. It's a great spot to hit when you have some downtime or non-park time, there are a few fantastic restaurants there. I personally wouldn't take away from my park time to head there though.

Totally agree with Kristen.

The only time we've parked at the Boardwalk is when we had a restaurant reservation, so I don't know how parking works if you're just touring.

As for food prices, they're theme park prices pretty much everywhere at Disney World. Some places are more affordable than others, but no place is cheap.

And I also agree, don't take time away from Epcot (or any other park) to visit the Boardwalk.

It's your first trip, right? Don't leave Epcot to walk the Boardwalk. It's cool, but Epcot is MUCH COOLER.

The Boardwalk is very cool to check out, if you plan on coming back and are checking out a new place to stay. Otherwise, stay at EPCOT.

Or, if you decide to park hop between EPCOT and Hollywood Studios, you can take the boat from that back entrance of EPCOT to the entrance of Hollywood Studios (or vice versa) and hop off for a few minutes at the Boardwalk. But, TOTALLY agree, we can't do EPCOT in one day. Minimum a day and a half. We usually do one full day and 2 or 3 park hop half days at EPCOT.

We are staying at the Boardwalk, for the first time, this Fall. I am actually looking forward to checking out the evening outdoor festivities. But I have never made a special trip over there to check out the evening fun.

parking at Boardwalk is free but sometimes when it's busy they will have you park in an employees lot across the street. Just tell the guard you are going to walk around Boardwalk and they will tell you where to park. If it's not busy they will have you park in the self-parking in front of the resort. It's my favorite place, check it out if you have any free time, it's not an all day thing.

If its a busy time of year , they are restricting to resort guests only now and they are being firmer on that. Valet parking is $15.00 a day.

I'm glad to hear that they're being firm on that!

I don't have a problem parking across the street, I think the lot up front should be for BW guests. We always park across the street, don't even try with the guard anymore and that's fine. They are very picky about Stormalong Bay too, everytime we are there they are checking for room keys, which is fine. If I were a guest I would certainly expect them to check.

When we went down to the pool at the Boardwalk they did ask us for our room keys. That was the first time ever we have been asked to show room keys at a pool. Then they put wrist bands on us.

Interesting. I did not see anyone checking, or any wristbands on my trip just a few days before you guys arrived. I loved staying in the BW villas.

What do you guys do with your room keys while you are at the pool? Ill feel weird if my DH to be and I just left our keys on a chair while we both swam.

I usually carry something to put it in or I wrap it up in the towel on a chair. I know it's in there, but no one else does!

Thanks Eeyore. Ill try to disguise it very well on my next trip.

Apart from taking the usual precautions with personal belongings, I probably wouldn't worry about it too much. In the unlikely event it were to be stolen, it would be easy to get it replaced. The room number isn't on the card and I think you need a PIN when you make purchases now (they were phasing that in when we were there in January). So, what can someone do with it really?

I think I read somewhere that you can also leave it with the bartender (assuming there is a bar near the pool).

Thank you Ken. I'm glad to hear that they are phasing in pin numbers. And i have forgotten that they don't have the room number on them. Silly me.

The room keys are also water proof so you can keep them in a pocket of a swim suit if you have one.

I don't really worry about it other than to stick it under my towel or in my bag. However in the gift shop at most of the Disney hotels (and probably the water parks) there are these fantastic little plastic cases that are waterproof and they're designed to hold a couple of cards and some bills. They have a lanyard or a wrist strap on them. I actually keep my credit cards in it all the time at home and get tons of people asking me where I got it. It's super handy.

I really hope you leave other belongings with your wrapped up towel because a cm could mistake it for a towel not being used or the towel being used to reserve chairs which is discouraged at most resorts.

Yes Mandy, Ill keep that in mind!

Lifeguards do go around the pools and pick up towels left unattended then put them in the dirty towel bins especially at moderate and Deluxe/Deluxe Villa resorts.