Anyone NOT like Bonnet Creek?

:rotfl:


Well here's what I can tell you.

Wyndham Bonnet Creek is definitely a different experience than staying onsite. Beyond the cost, there are going to be some other pros and cons for you.

The most obvious to begin with is that it is a timeshare, and in general, they will try and convince you to attend a sales presentation. The reality is that it's VERY simple to get around this if you know how. The first is to straight out lie when you get your parking pass. The 2 tricks that have been used successfully by others here on the DIS is to indicate your income level at the lowest level. The other is to tell them when you get your parking pass that you are married and your spouse isn't with you. Since they like to have both people in the room when they try to sell you, not having the spouse able to attend is usually a show stopper as well. outside of that, You can always turn off your room phone or turn off the ringer, which will keep their attempts to call you back from annoying you.


The other big thing is that it's not a Disney Hotel, so that means certain onsite benefits won't apply, such as EMH, and free parking at the parks... As a Timeshare Condo, you also don't get daily house(or mouse)keeping. You do however still get a washer/dryer in your room which can come in handy allowing you to wash clothes/etc during your trip. Personally, I'll often throw a load in before bed or while at the parks.

On the flip side however, The resort is still located "within the gates", so you don't ever have to leave the Disney Bubble by going outside the Arches if you don't want too.

You also get a much larger unit for much less than what you'd pay for a Disney hotel room. With a family your size, The "Magic" of being able to spread out (kids in a room with 2 doubles of their own, or even a bed a kid if you include the pull-out couch), have some privacy with your husband after you send the kids to bed (Master suite with a king bed), or even of having 2 bathrooms available for the morning routine, could possibly outweigh the "Magic" you get from staying onsite at Disney in a regular hotel room.

Because of WBC's location, you are virtually surrounded by Disney. depending upon where you are on property, You could look out over Typhoon Lagoon and Downtown Disney, Or see EPCOT with the MK behind... Or even look over CBR/Pop/AoA towards MGM.



For those who are die-hard Onsite people, I personally feel WBC is probably the best option for a baby-step into your first offsite experience. There comes a time when money or space requirements start to make Disney onsite options less than ideal. WBC's location and resort amenities make it much less of a off-site transition than many of your other options. As your kids get older, and bigger, It's likely that sooner or later you are going to outgrow being able to have a comfortable and relaxing Disney Vacation all crammed into a single moderate or Deluxe room.



(Oh... and I know some people mentioned the place feeling cheap because of the laminate countertops or furniture. Reports are that recently refurbed buildings have started receiving granite countertops and the furniture has been replaced with some with a much nicer look/feel).

We loved having a washer/dryer at WH. I would think it's better to have laminate counters than no kitchen, all crammed in DW hotel room. Guess that's not a big deal to us if the place is clean. Don't have granite at home so don't feel that is a game changer to saving hundreds of $$ Have thought about BC, but a 4-bedroom is pretty pricey and kids all loved their own private pool. Walk out of bed and take a quick dip. :love:
 
just came back from my 8days at BC last week. We had a 3 bedrooms ( 2 families w/ 8), nice resort, well depends on what you are looking for and comparing to. we are happy with what we have, for the same price we pay, we can just stay in 2 hotel room onsite at one of the disney star resort.
anyway, we had no problem w/ the parking pass desk...mainly i guess because the lady there mistaken me and the other mom from the other family are "partner"... we were at tower 6, my gf and I went in to check in while the husbands and the kids were searching for parking space ( we have 2 cars), didn't know how the she got an impression that we are "together" and comment to me and the other mom "u two make such a good couple":worried: anywhere, i guess she's too embarrass to buck as for a tour. we did have a miss call on the room phone for a few days...so i say just ignore any incoming call to your room.

we like the resort and will stay there again.
 
Jennifer - I hate time shares and hard sells. We'll just stay at whatever deluxe is discounted.

Thanks,
Your husband

I started reading this because I too am interested in this topic. Its always appealing to get more for your money.

Then I read the above post. :lmao: The man created an account just to post this. That just made my day.

my husband has the same attitude.
 
We were so excited to try Bonnet Creek last year, I tried very hard to like it, I really did, but I'd rather be crammed in a hotel room! :rotfl:

The only 2 glitches we had were our air conditioning didn't work, they gave us a new room right away. It sucked we had to move everything, but they didn't hesitate to give us a new room. Then the phone didn't work properly. We couldn't call out to order pizza or call our family. They finally sent someone up after 5 days to fix it. Not a huge deal, just an inconvience.

I really missed the Disney magic! I never thought in a million years I would say that. I never really understood the "Disney magic" till after this trip.

The other thing I realized, which I'm sure sounds absolutely nuts, is I found we were much more organized in a smaller space. :confused3 The mess drove me nuts. I found we really spread out way more and the place always looked disastrous. That drove me crazy and I felt like I did more cleaning than I do in a hotel room.
We are a family of 4, if our family were larger, I may feel differently.;)
 
As a family of 6, two rooms at disney prices was becoming obscene. While I had booked 2 rooms with free QSDP, and we frequently visit because of free dining, I did a comparison. I cancelled the free dining as was able to book 2 weeks at WBC, 2 bedroom for $91 a night. I am sure that there will be some differences but I believe that the tradeoff will be worth it. We have our own car so traveling about is not an issue. I will be purchasing an AP because of the free parking and ability to purchase a TIW.

I will let you know when we get back if it was truly worth the trade.
 
We were so excited to try Bonnet Creek last year, I tried very hard to like it, I really did, but I'd rather be crammed in a hotel room! :rotfl:

The only 2 glitches we had were our air conditioning didn't work, they gave us a new room right away. It sucked we had to move everything, but they didn't hesitate to give us a new room. Then the phone didn't work properly. We couldn't call out to order pizza or call our family. They finally sent someone up after 5 days to fix it. Not a huge deal, just an inconvience.

I really missed the Disney magic! I never thought in a million years I would say that. I never really understood the "Disney magic" till after this trip.

The other thing I realized, which I'm sure sounds absolutely nuts, is I found we were much more organized in a smaller space. :confused3 The mess drove me nuts. I found we really spread out way more and the place always looked disastrous. That drove me crazy and I felt like I did more cleaning than I do in a hotel room.
We are a family of 4, if our family were larger, I may feel differently.;)



I can see this being the case for our family too :). Having more space (with our own full kitchen and washer/dryer) for a lower rate than one standard hotel room seems like it would be ideal; however with the space and amenities of a condo or vacation house I envision myself being in constant "mom mode" during our trip with cleaning up after everyone, trying to keep the condo or house tidy, planning and cooking meals, talking myself into doing a load of laundry every night, etc. This may not be the case for others, but I know how I am and it is just all too tempting :laughing:. It is definitely more practical financially for our family to stay offsite in a condo if we can't get a Disney resort discount like free dining or kids stay/play free, and we are looking into both Bonnett Creek and Windsor Hills as options; but a big part of me wants to stay onsite again for the all inclusive aspect of it (Disney theming, dining plan, airport/park transportation, and housekeeping all taken care of). Also, we pretty much just either lounge around or sleep when we are back at the resort because we are so wiped out from being out and about in the parks. I am wary of having to plan how to get around hard sales pitches and that being the start of my vacation; but I guess that's the tradeoff. There are so many pros and cons with both onsite and offsite options that you really have to think hard about what your vacationing style, needs, and trip plans are and take it from there. OP, good luck with whatever you decide :thumbsup2
 
[QUOTE I am wary of having to plan how to get around hard sales pitches and that being the start of my vacation; but I guess that's the tradeoff. [/QUOTE]

Honestly, all you need to do is check off the lowest income box. It takes 10 seconds, and you'll never be bothered the entire time you are there! We got our parking pass in less than 5 - 10 minutes.

No need to plan around the pitch; just check the box!
 
[QUOTE I am wary of having to plan how to get around hard sales pitches and that being the start of my vacation; but I guess that's the tradeoff.

Honestly, all you need to do is check off the lowest income box. It takes 10 seconds, and you'll never be bothered the entire time you are there! We got our parking pass in less than 5 - 10 minutes.

No need to plan around the pitch; just check the box![/QUOTE]

Actually that's not always the case. I checked off the lowest income box and my husband was off in the store with the kids. While they didn't pressure me then, we missed three phone calls and my mom answered one and was tild I needed to contact the front desk because I was supposed to attend a meeting. I didn't call but the next night at 8 pm after I got my two youngest in bed after a very early morning, they called again. I told them that my kids were asleep and they were to never call me again. They said 'it's only 8pm! Who puts their kids in bed that early on vacation! I wasn't happy and they knew it. They never called back.


As for my view on the resort, I wrote my view on the love BC thread and a few people didn't really like a not so positive point of view. I won't post it all again but it was posted a few days after we returned on may 22nd.
 
We stayed at Bonnet Creek last month for the first time. Yeah, you don't have the "magic" but in all reality, we had 5 people and it was WELL WORTH giving up the magic for all that room. The furniture in our room was in great shape, no tears or rips. Everything was clean. You also could NOT beat the view we had. If you want to see a video with our room and our view, check this out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpZBTHVCm5c&feature=g-upl

If we ever go with 5 or more people again, I would not hesitate staying here (especially if you have your own vehicle). I wouldn't stay here if we could fit comfortably in a Disney value resort though. We were never bothered by any timeshare sales pitches either (just mark the smallest amount and they won't bother you).
 
Honestly, all you need to do is check off the lowest income box. It takes 10 seconds, and you'll never be bothered the entire time you are there! We got our parking pass in less than 5 - 10 minutes.

No need to plan around the pitch; just check the box!

Actually that's not always the case. I checked off the lowest income box and my husband was off in the store with the kids. While they didn't pressure me then, we missed three phone calls and my mom answered one and was tild I needed to contact the front desk because I was supposed to attend a meeting. I didn't call but the next night at 8 pm after I got my two youngest in bed after a very early morning, they called again. I told them that my kids were asleep and they were to never call me again. They said 'it's only 8pm! Who puts their kids in bed that early on vacation! I wasn't happy and they knew it. They never called back.


As for my view on the resort, I wrote my view on the love BC thread and a few people didn't really like a not so positive point of view. I won't post it all again but it was posted a few days after we returned on may 22nd.[/QUOTE]

Good reminder! Check off the lowest box and unplug your phone.
 
Another great thing to say is that you are married but your spouse isn't vacationing with you. They will not/cannot sell you on a timeshare without your husband/wife with you. If your spouse is next to you, just say that they are your brother/sister. Works like a charm! :thumbsup2

ITA....my hubby came in at a different time than me, I walked in with my DDs and they never questioned or pressured me.

We just got back from a 10 day, first time stay at BC, and we absolutely loved it. We have stayed onsite before, and it was fun when the kids were young, but we need more room, and I just can't justify Disney prices when I can get a two bedroom condo as nice as BC for $120 a night.
 
We've stayed at BC twice - the only things I missed were:
- being dropped off at the gates at the parks instead of walking in from the parking lot (hey, I'm lazy when I know I'm going to be walking miles all day in the parks.. LOL)
- being totally immersed in Disney

To us, we will probably do an every-other-trip with staying offsite vs. onsite. We really, REALLY enjoyed BC though and I'm very picky about hotels.. It was clean, it was HUGE, the pools were incredible. The people were great - we didn't have any issues with the timeshare stuff because I just said NO NO NO at the parking pass stand and then we unplugged our phone and never heard another word from them.

Having all that space is invaluable when you have young children IMO. We'll have 3 next time we go back and there's no way we could stay in anything less than a 2BR and do that on Disney property is just too $$$ to justify to me.
 
I've read the rest of the thread now - I'm shocked all all the issues with "hardsells" and "pressure". It was literally a 3 minute talk at the parking pass stand "When are you free, Want to see a presentation" I said "Never and No" and that was it. I unplugged our phone, never heard another peep from a single person the entire 10 days we were there.

I'd hardly discount BC because of that - it was NOTHING.
 
We just returned from Bonnet Creek June 17th. This was my first and last trip offsite. Was Bonnet Creek nice? Yes... beautiful grounds, nice pools, great accomodations so what's not to like? Just like a previous poster said there's no "Disney Magic". As much as I wanted to really, really like it I didn't. There was nothing "wrong" with it, I just missed the feeling you get onsite. I guess this sounds crazy but I just didn't get the "warm fuzzies" like I do onsite. No warm welcome at check-in or "Welcome Home" from the gate attendant. I didn't enjoy washing towels, making up my own bed, cleaning up after everyone ( and yes I knew that it was timeshare and you get none of those ammenities). I cooked a couple of times and it just didn't feel as much like a vacation to cook and clean up. I really missed the dining plan tremendously!!! I missed the towel animals and Mickey soaps and again I know this sounds crazy as I type this!! I also really missed the food court when my daughter got a stomach virus and we were unable to go out to eat. We also didn't like driving into town to get food. Bonnet Creek is a top notch facility and is a wonderful value, but it wasn't a good fit for my family. This is just my opinion and most here really like it alot. Again I'm the minority here.I guess I'm a diehard onsiter who will pay too much money for the magic!
 
We just returned from Bonnet Creek June 17th. This was my first and last trip offsite. Was Bonnet Creek nice? Yes... beautiful grounds, nice pools, great accomodations so what's not to like? Just like a previous poster said there's no "Disney Magic". As much as I wanted to really, really like it I didn't. There was nothing "wrong" with it, I just missed the feeling you get onsite. I guess this sounds crazy but I just didn't get the "warm fuzzies" like I do onsite. No warm welcome at check-in or "Welcome Home" from the gate attendant. I didn't enjoy washing towels, making up my own bed, cleaning up after everyone ( and yes I knew that it was timeshare and you get none of those ammenities). I cooked a couple of times and it just didn't feel as much like a vacation to cook and clean up. I really missed the dining plan tremendously!!! I missed the towel animals and Mickey soaps and again I know this sounds crazy as I type this!! I also really missed the food court when my daughter got a stomach virus and we were unable to go out to eat. We also didn't like driving into town to get food. Bonnet Creek is a top notch facility and is a wonderful value, but it wasn't a good fit for my family. This is just my opinion and most here really like it alot. Again I'm the minority here.I guess I'm a diehard onsiter who will pay too much money for the magic!

I think it's great that you tried it! At least now you know that WBC isn't for you. I was super afraid to try offsite but I ended up loving WBC way more than Wilderness Lodge and the FW cabins.

I'm glad that so many people prefer "official" WDW hotels. That what keeps WBC so affordable for those of us who love it!
 
I didn't enjoy washing towels, making up my own bed, cleaning up after everyone ( and yes I knew that it was timeshare and you get none of those ammenities).
You'd be facing the same thing at a DVC resort if you are staying on points.

I also really missed the food court when my daughter got a stomach virus and we were unable to go out to eat. We also didn't like driving into town to get food.
I'm not sure why you felt like you had to. There is a small resort store (a bit better than a "regular" Disney hotel, but admittedly not as good as the DVC resort stores), a couple of counter service locations by the pools, and a few full-service places in the hotel building. And, plenty of places will deliver as well---to Bonnet or to a Disney resort, either way.

And, amusingly enough, we had a towel animal at HGVC-Sea World last week. I didn't even notice him right away, but he was there.
 
You'd be facing the same thing at a DVC resort if you are staying on points.


I'm not sure why you felt like you had to. There is a small resort store (a bit better than a "regular" Disney hotel, but admittedly not as good as the DVC resort stores), a couple of counter service locations by the pools, and a few full-service places in the hotel building. And, plenty of places will deliver as well---to Bonnet or to a Disney resort, either way.

And, amusingly enough, we had a towel animal at HGVC-Sea World last week. I didn't even notice him right away, but he was there.


I wouldn't be staying DVC, but in a regular hotel room.

I was aware of the "counter service" locations there, but Disney food courts have much more than hamburgers and hotdogs. For example we've had fried chicken, ribs, chicken parmesan, carved beef, make your own pasta, build your own salad etc... from the food courts. Much better selection, plus dessert is included on the dining plan.We did take advantage of delivery, but I do like to go out to eat on vacation, not just eat in the condo. In order to do that you must drive into town. Disney resorts have onsite table services. Like I said it was a nice place, just not for us. I just like the "Disney Bubble" better, and so does my husband. Different strokes for different folks!:goodvibes
 
I think it's great that you tried it! At least now you know that WBC isn't for you. I was super afraid to try offsite but I ended up loving WBC way more than Wilderness Lodge and the FW cabins.

I'm glad that so many people prefer "official" WDW hotels. That what keeps WBC so affordable for those of us who love it!



It is a beautiful resort and I am glad I tried it. I've wondered for a couple of years now if I would like offsite and now I know. It is a very classy and affordable place, it just wasn't for my family. I will recommed it to anyone looking for a condo in the area.
 
I was aware of the "counter service" locations there, but Disney food courts have much more than hamburgers and hotdogs.
Well, some of them do. Notably, Old Key West's does not and BW/BC/YC don't have much either. Oddly, the Deluxe and DVC resorts have some of the worst CS locations anywhere on property. My guess is that you'd have been no happier at OKW than you were at Bonnet, so this is less about "offsite" and more about "condos/timeshares vs. hotels." Nothing wrong with that; some people really do prefer hotel-style service/amenities vs. timeshare-style ones.

But Bonnet does have more than hot dogs and pizza. Last time I was there, there was a pizza place (by the "slide pool"), and the Pirate Pool bar location had wraps. I suppose that might have changed. And, the new hotel restaurants have probably added substantially to what is offered, but I have not tried them yet.
 

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