2016 Walt Disney World Christmas Trip Recap — Part 2

While we were IN DA CLUB, we received a notification that our room in the BoardWalk Villas was ready. It had been a while since we last stayed in the villas. On our last visit, we both agreed that the units were starting to show their age, and (like the Beach Club Villas), looked a bit like your grandparents’ house.

We had since stayed in the regular rooms at BoardWalk Inn, and were impressed. Those refurbished rooms (as we show in our BoardWalk Inn Review) featured a refresh to at least the soft goods–I’m not sure how extensive it was beyond that as I don’t think we ever stayed on the Inn side prior to that.

This was our first time staying in the refurbished BoardWalk Villas rooms and I thought it was a mixed bag. I’ve touched upon the balance of theme and luxury several times already in this recap, and that’s probably in large part because I don’t think the new BoardWalk Villas rooms struck the right balance. The room looked nice, but my main thought was how generic and bland it looked.

I know. I complained before that the room was dated and garish, and now I complain that it’s bland. There’s no pleasing me. In my defense, I think I’ve always acknowledge how difficult it is to strike the balance between theme and luxury, but if resorts like Wilderness Lodge and Animal Kingdom Lodge (the two that face the greatest challenge because of their “rustic” characteristics) have managed to do this, I don’t think it should be too challenging for the BoardWalk Villas.

Moreover, given the nightly room rates/cost of DVC memberships, it’s pretty fair that guests demand Disney find that perfect balance. Unfortunately, I think guests are a part of the problem, accepting whatever Disney presents to them with myriad justifications for its sufficiency.

Many Disney fans are far too forgiving, treating Disney with an infallible reverence (it’s a company, not a church) that is contrary to their own interests. There’s a reason other hospitality companies offer significantly better service than Disney: their guests demand it.

There is no cult-like fandom surrounding Hyatt, Marriott, Fairmont, and other brands positioned at price points that are comparable to Disney. If those brands don’t offer service and quality commensurate with price, customers vote with their wallets. This is not to say Disney doesn’t deliver–most of the time, it does. In those rare cases when it does not, fans practically trip over themselves to justify the negative.

I could blather on about that for another thousand words, but I’m spare you that.Suffice to say, I think Disney needs to go back to the drawing board with the BoardWalk Villas’ interior decor. (And I don’t just mean tossing in a few hidden Mickeys; that is not a substitute for proper theme.)

From there, it was time to head back to Epcot for the sunset. I had struck out on sunrise and sunset repeatedly this trip, and this was my first chance of really anything promising.

This one got really good…for a window of about 5 minutes, and then totally faded. It was nice while it lasted!

After that, it was time for dinner. It had been about a year since we last did Tangierine Cafe, so we opted for that. Still as delicious as always, this remains high on our Top 10 Counter Service Restaurants at Walt Disney World list. It’s really a strong restaurant, and great place to stop during an evening stroll around Epcot. We ended up taking our food outside into a quiet alleyway with a couple of tables in it, and it was a serenely perfect Walt Disney World experience.

And really, it’s these experiences that keep us coming back. While I’m more than willing to point out what I perceive as negatives about Walt Disney World, it’s important to stop and remember the positives, too. We wouldn’t go so much if we didn’t love the place. While the preponderance of our experiences at Walt Disney World are positive ones, sometimes it takes a quiet stroll through Epcot at night or a relaxing spin on the PeopleMover to pause and remember that. It’s easy to fixate on what I don’t like, and more difficult to heap praise on the good, despite the latter far outweighing the former.

In any case, sometimes photos speak louder than words, so here’s a look at the rest of our night…

As you can see, the rest of our night was pretty much spent wandering through Future World (including some time watching manatees sleep), World Showcase, and the Crescent Lake resorts. In ~3 hours we did a total of one attraction, and had an incredible evening. I wouldn’t change a thing about it. We’ll cover the remainder of the trip in Part 3. Thanks for reading–if you have any questions or comments, please leave them below!