Our son and his wife were married at Disney on April 1. We had three 1BR villas at BWV, and I thought I'd post to let you know how things worked out and what my thoughts were on the refurb, etc. Two of our villas were BoardWalk view (on 3rd and 5th floors). My parents booked a standard view on cash, so we worried that they might get bumped to another resort or to the Inn rooms. (They really needed the villa for the walk-in shower and room for a variety of medical equipment.) They were actually upgraded to a garden view 1BR, so that worked out perfectly.
We have been owners at BWV since 1999, so we've been around for any number of refurbishments and changes. We still love the BW and felt like the changes made in the rooms were mostly positive. Our BW view villas had the pull-down beds in the living room, and that was really nice. My parents' garden view room (on the first floor) did not. They just had a sofa that converted into a bed like old times. (The rest of their villa had been refurbed, though, and looked just like ours.) Funny side-story - in all our years at BWV, we have never made much in the way of requests for room locations, etc., and we've usually gotten really nice locations. But this time, I actually called and talked to one of the managers and asked him to please make a note that for our villa, we really wanted to be at least on the same floor as my parents. (They are both in their late 80's, and I wanted to be able to get to them if necessary.) We ended up on the fifth floor in room 5003. The almost last room on the highest floor. LOL Mom and Dad were on the first floor but at least on the same wing. So I got lots of exercise going back and forth. Never making a request again. Hahaha! On the other hand, the fireworks view from 5003 is pretty spectacular.
Finally, some thoughts about the refurb - everyone who has complained about the balcony furniture is right. We need to have a revolt as owners and say, "What the heck?" I do not think DVC could have found less comfortable patio furniture if it had actually gone out of its way to do so. We did use pillows when we went outside (and were careful to bring them back in). The other thing I noticed was that not having a switch for the light on the right hand side of the master bed is kind of a pain. My husband had control over the lighting, and he generally goes to sleep faster than I do. So, I was left using the little spotlight. This is not a huge issue, but it was annoying enough to make me notice it. Otherwise, I thought the refurb was fabulous. I like the changes to the dining area / kitchen, and I felt like the bathroom area was nice as well. (Though weird question: The bathroom seems to have gotten smaller? What did they do with the extra space? LOL)
Sorry for the extra long post. The wedding was spectacular, and the BW was a great place to stay for it!