Please help convince me to stay at Bonnet Creek

[annie1995]

I am having such a hard time with this. I have a great rate, but I just can't get past that we ALWAYS have stayed on site with the dining plan. So, sell me on staying off for the first time cause I just feel soooo lost

 

[shalom]

I am having such a hard time with this. I have a great rate, but I just can't get past that we ALWAYS have stayed on site with the dining plan. So, sell me on staying off for the first time

If you've always had a dining plan with TS, and if you focus on QS this time around, you may discover you really like being freed of that reservation schedule, especially if you're willing to eat outside the rush (i.e., get lunch no later than 11:30 and do dinner early or late). Will you have a car? The dining plan ties you to Disney; without that you can more easily try some of the great offsite restaurants without paying for a meal twice.

Who do you travel with, and where do you normally stay? If you're usually in a hotel room, the space in a condo is glorious! Even if you've stayed in DVC units, unless you've been in the Grand Villas, the regular Bonnet Creek 2 BR is bigger than some DVC 2 BRs and better laid out than the rest, at least for a lot of people. There's a real DR table and seating for all, for one. And the kitchens don't have those weird little "half counter" things a lot of the DVC kitchens have.

No one can tell you whether you'll like being offsite more or not, but I can say that you'll never know 'til you try. A lot of onsiters discover that going offsite means a much more relaxed vacation, or for some other reason end up enjoying offsite more than being onsite. And plenty of people love both equally, for different reasons, meaning they stay onsite when the deal is good, and offsite when that deal is better, and have a great time either way.

 

[miasmomma]

Since you always stay onsite and always have the dining plan, why not try something different? If you go as often as it sounds, what's the worst that could happen? Decide that there's not enough "magic" offsite and next time go back to what you always do. You never know, it may just be another choice that you have next time you book. There may be positives and negatives to each choice, but there is no way to know until you try it for yourself. I haven't been many times to WDW (3, actually), but I know that last time we stayed onsite for the first time, and although there were some things that were nice, there wasn't enough "magic" to keep me from booking Bonnet Creek this winter. Oh, and I have never stayed there either! My family is really looking forward to having space and a great view. That's more magical to me than a towel folded into an animal with some stickers on it! Good luck with your decision, and remember, no matter what, you will have a great time! You are still at Disney afterall!

 

[aubeone]

I am having such a hard time with this. I have a great rate, but I just can't get past that we ALWAYS have stayed on site with the dining plan. So, sell me on staying off for the first time cause I just feel soooo lost

Ohhh....the decisions....I too am having trouble with this very topic. Since we are DVC members we always enjoy a comfortable villa on site. My brother and I are also timeshare owners and I am thinking of using an RCI exchange this summer.

We are a bit spoiled with DVC...but the Sheraton Vistana Resort, Hilton Grand Vacations at International and The Fountains all look great! Time to try something different and visit the world of Harry Potter.

 

[JimMIA]

We've done it both ways.

For food, the only advantages we find with eating offsite are

1. Much more variety
2. Food cooked in the restaurant instead of central kitchens
3. Better food
4. The ability to eat whereever you want, whenever you want, without making reservations.
5. Nicer dining atmosphere -- restaurant vs. cattle car environment of sardine-can Disney TS restaurants.
6. Much lower prices.

Eating onsite, we have the snob appeal of paying high prices for average food -- or if we dine in "Signature" restaurants, paying very high prices for slightly-better-than-average food.

Whether we stay onsite at DVC or offsite, we eat virtually all of our meals offsite.

That said, we do enjoy one character meal most trips.

 

[Brian Noble]

I have a great rate, but I just can't get past that we ALWAYS have stayed on site with the dining plan.

Take the rate you'd pay to rent a comparably-sized condo from a DVC Member. Add to that the cost of the dining plan. Then, subtract from that total the cost to rent the Bonnet Creek condo, a rental car, and pay for theme park parking. That's how much you have left over you'd have to spend on food to break even.

As a very real example, my family often goes for a week during February. DVC rental cost: $3500 for a 2BR. Dining plan: approximately $1450 for the four of us (my youngest is 11). Total for Disney: $4,950. And that's before tickets or any other expenditures.

Bonnet Creek rental: $1400 (and that's probably too high), plus $350 for the rental car (again, too high), plus $100 for seven days of theme park parking (rounding up). Total Bonnet Creek cost: $1,850.

The difference is: $3,100. I can pay for my theme park tickets AND all of our food for a week and STILL have a couple hundred left over. In fact, we almost never spend as much as the dining plan costs, so I'd have even more left over.

I like my magic as much as the next guy---and I spend about half of my visits onsite---but if I had to pay "market rates" for them, I'd never do it.

 

[TheKatie]

Ohhh....the decisions....I too am having trouble with this very topic. Since we are DVC members we always enjoy a comfortable villa on site. My brother and I are also timeshare owners and I am thinking of using an RCI exchange this summer.

We are a bit spoiled with DVC...but the Sheraton Vistana Resort, Hilton Grand Vacations at International and The Fountains all look great! Time to try something different and visit the world of Harry Potter.

We are heading for our second Vistana Stay next April 2012 and i can't wait. I had always stayed on site too but I LOVE the Vistana so much..love having the car, love exploring new restaurants off site, love the freedom to try new things (doing Universal, Seaworld and Discovery Cove this trip) and the travel time to the parks was 15 minutes max and...usually more like 7. and no waiting for busses or being crowded in with the masses. We love it off site!

 

[linnell]

We loved having a kitchen, even if you are of the "I don't want to cook on vacation" mentality, it was nice to be able to fry an egg in the morning or throw a bagel in the toaster and be on our way. Same with lunch, we have two little guys, so going back and having lunch in the hotel was a saving grace for us. I loved having the extra room. One of my kids got sick and he fell asleep in our bed, so me and the other one holed up in the second bedroom and watched TV and relaxed.

 

[budafam]

We stayed onsite for our first 2 trips and we'll be going for a third in May with my MIL which makes our group 5... much cheaper to stay at Bonnet Creek. I'm not looking forward to being off property either BUT I figure it's worth a try...

 

[annie1995]

I think we are just going to jump in and give it a shot! I really want to do Universal this time around as we have never been there. Thanks everyone