Disney's BoardWalk Inn

Your front door opens onto a working promenade rather than a lobby corridor. Theming is 1930s Atlantic City. Painted timber facades in sherbet colours, striped awnings, a carousel horse or two, vintage show posters and the sort of lettering that belonged on a seafront before the war. Disney's BoardWalk Inn wraps around the western curve of Crescent Lake, and Deluxe is the tier, one of the smaller deluxe resorts, which is part of the appeal.

Living above a promenade is either the best or worst thing about the place depending on your temperament. Restaurants, bars, an ice cream counter, surrey bikes, street performers and two evening entertainment venues sit directly beneath the guest rooms. The atmosphere at nine in the evening is genuinely unlike anywhere else on Disney property, and the resort was designed around that rather than around a swimming pool.

Location is the other reason people book. EPCOT's International Gateway is roughly 5 minutes on foot, which is the shortest resort to park walk at Walt Disney World, and Hollywood Studios is about 20 minutes the other way. Beach Club, Yacht Club, the Swan and the Dolphin ring the same lake, so a dozen more restaurants and bars are inside a 20 minute stroll.

Deluxe perks apply here in full. Early Theme Park Entry lets every Walt Disney World resort guest into a park 30 minutes before published opening on every day of their stay, at any tier. Extended Evening Hours are the deluxe-only benefit on top, running on selected nights at Magic Kingdom and EPCOT after those parks close to everybody else. BoardWalk Inn guests qualify for both.

Bear in mind that there is no monorail and no Disney Skyliner station here. Transport is the walking paths, Friendship boats and buses. BoardWalk Villas is the Disney Vacation Club half of the same building, sold separately and covered on its own page, and the two share every facility except the room stock.

BoardWalk View puts you directly above the promenade itself with the lake beyond, and it is the category to think hardest about before you pay for it. Water View takes in Crescent Lake or the canal. Garden View faces the interior courtyards and planting, which are quieter and prettier than the name suggests, and Standard View is the entry category, looking over the car park, the roofline or landscaping at the back of the resort.

Deciding between BoardWalk View and everything else is the real question. The view is the best in the resort and on EPCOT fireworks nights you get a share of the show from your own balcony. Noise carries up from the promenade until late, particularly at weekends, and light sleepers regret it. Families who go to bed at eleven love it. Anyone with a five year old who needs lights out at eight should book Garden View and save the money.

Club Level occupies its own floor with a private lounge serving food and drink through the day and a concierge team who chase dining reservations. Suites exist in several sizes, and the resort also has a small number of two-storey garden suites with private entrances that are among the more unusual rooms Disney sells. Availability on those is thin and they book far ahead.

Bed layouts vary by room category and Disney publishes them on the booking page for your exact dates. Check them there rather than relying on second-hand information, because the presence or absence of a day bed determines whether a party of five fits into one room or needs two. Every room includes a fridge, coffee maker, safe and hairdryer.

Interiors follow the seaside boarding house idea with white-painted timber, soft colours, brass and period-styled fittings, and most rooms have a balcony or patio. Corridors here are shorter than at Beach Club or Yacht Club because the building is smaller, which means less walking with tired children at the end of a park day.

Keister Coaster drops you out of the mouth of a clown face at the end of a 200 foot wooden-styled run, and it is the closest thing on the property to an old-fashioned pier ride. Luna Park Pool is the feature pool that slide belongs to, and it commits fully to the seaside funfair idea: around 184,217 gallons of water under vintage-style show posters, with grinning elephant statues spouting from their trunks and a big top entrance to the slide.

Alongside the main pool there is a whirlpool spa for adults, a separate kiddie pool for smaller children and the Luna Park Crazy Play Area for the ones who cannot stay in the water for more than ten minutes. Leaping Horse Libations sits beside the whole lot for drinks and sandwiches, so nobody has to leave the deck to eat.

Two smaller leisure pools sit further into the resort grounds for guests who want quiet, and they are usually empty at the hours Luna Park is not. Lifeguards work posted hours, towels are provided, and access is by MagicBand or room key. Luna Park closes for routine maintenance from time to time, generally in the winter months, and Disney publishes those dates in advance.

Surrey bike hire on the promenade is the classic BoardWalk activity, four wheels and a striped canopy, and pedalling one round Crescent Lake with children in the front is a better hour than it sounds. Boat rentals operate from the marina, there is a jogging path that circuits the lake, and a games arcade covers rainy afternoons.

Evening entertainment is what genuinely separates this resort. Jellyrolls runs duelling pianos for adults only and Atlantic Dance Hall sits at the far end of the promenade, alongside street performers, magicians and jugglers working the boards after dark. Opening days and hours for both venues move around, so confirm them in the app before you build a night out around either.

EPCOT is close enough to treat as an extension of the resort. Popping in for two hours after dinner, walking a few World Showcase pavilions and strolling home is only realistic from the Epcot area hotels, and BoardWalk Inn is the closest of them. The seasonal festivals, food and wine in autumn and flower and garden in spring, are worth a great deal more when the gate is five minutes away.

Beach Club and Yacht Club sit across the lake with Cape May Cafe, Beaches & Cream, Yachtsman Steakhouse and Ale & Compass between them. Their pool, Stormalong Bay, is restricted to their own guests, so do not book BoardWalk expecting to swim there. Everything else on that side is open to you.

Swan, Dolphin and Swan Reserve are a short walk over the bridge. They are not Disney owned, but they share the transport network and their restaurants accept outside bookings, which gives you a genuinely different evening when the Disney restaurants are full.

Disney Springs is around 15 minutes by bus and free to enter, with the shopping, cinemas and the widest restaurant choice on property. It suits an arrival evening while everyone is still on UK time, and a mid-holiday rest day when nobody can face another queue.

Off property, Universal Orlando is roughly 12 miles north east, about half an hour outside the rush. Highway 192 in Kissimmee, some 8 miles south east, holds the supermarkets and pharmacies UK visitors rely on for breakfast supplies. Clearwater Beach on the Gulf coast is around 90 miles west, a straightforward morning's drive for anyone with a hire car and a spare day.

Couples and adult groups get the most out of BoardWalk Inn. Evening entertainment on your doorstep, a signature restaurant, a cocktail lounge and two of the four parks reachable on foot make it the strongest Disney resort for people who want a holiday rather than a childcare logistics exercise. Anniversary and honeymoon bookings from the UK land here for good reason.

Families with older children and teenagers do well. Teens can be trusted to walk the promenade for ice cream, EPCOT is five minutes away, and Hollywood Studios is a stroll or a boat ride. Younger children are the harder case, because the pool is smaller than Stormalong Bay next door and the promenade noise runs past bedtime.

Second-time visitors tend to appreciate it more than first-timers. If you have already done Magic Kingdom to death and your trip now revolves around EPCOT festivals, Hollywood Studios and eating well, this address earns its price every day. First-timers with Magic Kingdom at the centre of the plan should look at Wilderness Lodge, Contemporary or Polynesian Village instead.

Longer stays should compare BoardWalk Villas before booking an inn room. Same building, same location, same pool, with kitchens and in-villa laundry in the larger units. Two weeks with a family of five is exactly the scenario where the villas start to look sensible rather than extravagant.

Anyone who wants a big resort pool as the centre of the holiday should think again. Luna Park Pool is characterful and the Keister Coaster slide is good fun, but it is not a three acre water complex. Beach Club and Yacht Club have that, and their guests keep it to themselves.