The we loooooove Bonnet Creek thread part2

[DCTooTall]

Originally Posted by JayhawkFans

Do you think checking in late at night will have any impact on the quality of room we will be assigned? We won't check in until midnight on Wed/Thurs (9/5-9/6) I'm considering staying somewhere else our first nite & then checking in early afternoon the next day. I realize the afternoon check-in could take longer but wonder if we would have better luck with room assignment than late at night ....

To be honest, I don't think there would be a lot of difference in room availability between midnight on a Wed/Thursday and afternoon Thursday. Since this is a timeshare resort, most people tend to stay a full week starting on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday. Mid-week you don't tend to run into a whole lot of turnover, which means you are likely to end up with pretty much the same room choices either way.

Originally Posted by eeyorepixie

Hey me again with a couple more questions

Now I really am dreaming of a fireworks view and I love coffee in the morning by MYSELF so this is important to me. (write now outside by myself drinking coffee as I post)

It seems some of the buildings have a fireworks view but it is over a parking lot and some have a fireworks view that do not overlook a parking lot.

What buildings have a great view of the fireworks/epcot ball without the parking lot view?


I was reading a post and realized I need to be walked through a bit the checking in part...


When we pull into WBC can we park with no problem and all go in to check in?

We will be checking in at 10:30 am will we have a good chance of getting a room earlier?...I will totally wait for my request but want honest answers, so I can have realistic expecations. We are not going the busiest time but busy enought Aug 17-27, my thinking is won't be super crowded.

If I have to have my family stay in car while I check in, and I have to get a parking pass....how long does this take so I can warn my family...so the natives do not get too restless and duct tape their dad and head for the pool

Towers 1, 2, and 3 (and maybe one wing of 6) will have some rooms that are on the lake side of the building which you can then also see some fireworks. HOWEVER, since the fireworks tend to go up in the area above the main building (and between the main building and Tower 4), If you want a "good view" you will need to be on one of the top floors of the lake/fireworks view buildings, and luck out that you get a room with a balcony facing just the right way so you aren't looking off to the side. You can also run into issues with Tower 4 and Tower 5's placement depending upon your room location with obstructing the fireworks view. (Personally I tend to request a lake/pool view since i can enjoy the lake all day/night, and am at the parks most nights when the fireworks are going off anyways)


As for parking/checking in, There is a parking area in front of the checkin lobby. You can feel secure in letting everyone leave the car when you go inside to checkin. They are pretty lax on checking for parking tags in the first place, and even then, the lot(s) used for people checking in are given even more leeway.

[Momma2PrinceNPrinces]

Originally Posted by DCTooTall

Since this is a timeshare resort, most people tend to stay a full week starting on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday. Mid-week you don't tend to run into a whole lot of turnover, which means you are likely to end up with pretty much the same room choices either way.

Our stay would start on a Wed and end on a Fri too. So you think that would mean a bad room location since it's mid week?

[DCTooTall]

Originally Posted by Momma2PrinceNPrinces

Our stay would start on a Wed and end on a Fri too. So you think that would mean a bad room location since it's mid week?

No. There are plenty of great room locations at the resort. Plus you do have people who check out mid-week or rooms that may sit empty "orphaned" for a few days after the weekend.

My comment was more basedf off the fact that since the majority of the turnover happens on the weekends (I'm feel comfortable saying 90% at least), the odds of the selection dramatically changing between midnight and noon on a mid-week day are slim.

[Minniedap]

Just returned from 11 nights at Bonnet Creek, June 2 - June 13. This was our first stay. We have stayed at Disney Resorts for the past 10 years. We did love this resort. We arrived on Sat. June 2 at 11 AM. Checked our luggage with Bell Service. Our room was ready by 1 PM and Bell Service promptly delivered our luggage. We were in Tower 1 unit 130, this was ground floor and lakeview as we requested. The childrens playground was right next to our patio. My 3 grandchildren loved it. We had our own vehicle so we did not use the transportation but it was located right outside Tower 1. On the Saturday, June 9 housekeeping did come in. We did not expect them so had left many items in view which we would have put away. Now for our only issue, we seen 3 cockroaches in our room by the 8th day. My son-in-law called and asked if they had an exterminator contract. An employee came to our room and told us he had put in an order for them to spray our room between 10 AM and 5 PM the next day. He said he realized we were from Wisconsin and not use to bugs this size. Overall we loved everything else about this resort and do plan on staying again, we just will not request a groundfloor.

[eeyorepixie]

This is the second return post in a day talking about cockroaches, I am so not like this I have lived in Florida so I know about the bugs, but cockroachs?

thanks for answering my questions

[Minniedap]

I just noticed "GraceLuvsWDW" and I were in the same buliding and at the same time. When we complained to the staff, the man who came to our room mumbled something about the bug issue as if they were aware of the problem. Maybe if enough people complain about it they will spray more often. It is a lovely resort so I would hate for this to become an issue. We have never seen one of these bugs in a disney resort.

[JimMIA]

Originally Posted by Minniedap

Now for our only issue, we seen 3 cockroaches in our room by the 8th day. My son-in-law called and asked if they had an exterminator contract. An employee came to our room and told us he had put in an order for them to spray our room between 10 AM and 5 PM the next day. He said he realized we were from Wisconsin and not use to bugs this size.

If you saw the large flying cockroaches, those are called Palmetto Bugs, and they are extremely common all over Florida. They go with the territory, like love bugs and mosquitos -- just part of Florida's charm. If it makes you feel any better, we had three in our house last night...probably because we've been swimming and left the patio doors open.

Palmetto bugs are usually >1 1/2 inches and I've seen them big enough to BBQ. Because they are flying bugs, normal exterminating really doesn't affect them much. They come in if you leave a door open -- at WBC, ground floor, that would be a patio door. If they stay long enough, the exterminator's insecticide will get them and you'll find them on their backs.

Something other than ground floor should solve this problem. I've never had them in an upper floor, even in 2nd floor units at Old Key West, which is a lushly-landscaped resort.

Palmetto Bugs are NOT a sign of poor housekeeping like the smaller crawling German roaches usually are.

[GraceLuvsWDW]

Originally Posted by Minniedap

I just noticed "GraceLuvsWDW" and I were in the same buliding and at the same time. When we complained to the staff, the man who came to our room mumbled something about the bug issue as if they were aware of the problem. Maybe if enough people complain about it they will spray more often. It is a lovely resort so I would hate for this to become an issue. We have never seen one of these bugs in a disney resort.

We have had bugs in our rooms at Pop and POFQ in previous years. Personally, a few bugs are not that horrible (I squashed the ones I saw). I would rather do that than deal with chemical fumigation while I was in a room. HOWEVER, they must have a problem because we were on the 7th floor and I saw several smaller (1-2 inch long) roaches that were not Palmetto bugs unless they were babies. We did have tons of palmettos on the balcony at night (creepy, yes, but I live in a place with lots of bugs outside so it doesn't keep me from going on the balcony). I kept my luggage sealed off the floor just in case one wanted to come home with me.

There was a lot of rain the week prior to our stay so that could have something to do with the number of bugs we encountered.

I personally found the other housekeeping issues to be far more troubling.

[JoeU]

Hi Everyone,

We'll be staying in Building 3 in a couple of weeks. Usually, we stay in building 6 when we go, but we were able to get room #950 (4BR Presidential) with the lake and firework view!

In Building 6, they have wireless internet pretty much everywhere. Have they done this in every building at this point, or do I need to invest in a wireless router for this building/room?

Thanks

Joe

[JoeU]

And one more question:

IIRC, the 1 bedroom Presidential suites are all located in Building 6. Is that correct???

Joe

[DCTooTall]

Originally Posted by JoeU

Hi Everyone,

We'll be staying in Building 3 in a couple of weeks. Usually, we stay in building 6 when we go, but we were able to get room #950 (4BR Presidential) with the lake and firework view!

In Building 6, they have wireless internet pretty much everywhere. Have they done this in every building at this point, or do I need to invest in a wireless router for this building/room?

Thanks

Joe

Tower 6 is the only building that was built with Wifi Access. There was a report a week or 2 ago about them installing Wifi in Tower 2. There is also wifi Access in the common areas of the main building (Activity center and lobby), and I believe at the 2 main pool bars (Tower 3 an Tower 4)

Since they installed Wifi in Tower 2, I'm going to assume they are upgrading the remaining towers with Wifi, however I don't have any idea of the progress or timetable for these upgrades. If you want to be ensured that you have wifi I'd probably recommend still bringing a wireless router until we get confirmation from people staying there on each tower.

Originally Posted by JoeU

And one more question:

IIRC, the 1 bedroom Presidential suites are all located in Building 6. Is that correct???

Joe

That is correct. Prior to Tower 6's construction, the only Presidential units were the 4 bedroom units in the other towers. When Tower 6 was constructed they added 1, 2, and 3 bedroom presidentials to the resort's inventory within that tower.

Since this is a timeshare resort with deeds sold based off a percentage of the total building's "value", they cannot upgrade existing deluxe inventory to Presidential level inventory in existing buildings without potentially running into a large issue with owner deeds due to the increased point value of the existing towers. (DVC AKL got around this issue when they built the second lodge when they reclassified and adjusted room catagories in the original lodge by adjusting the point values in the new building so that total resort inventory remained constant. DVC also does their leases (No deeds since DVC works off a long-term lease type system) differently which allowed for fewer complications when they made these changes.)

[Candleshoe]

Originally Posted by eeyorepixie

Monday I will be at my 60 day mark, I am getting excited to book
Two Questions:

1. Is there a building that has a better fireworks view?

2. Are there TV's in the bedrooms?

TIA


Any advice for booking with VS or VU?

Queenie - I'd have to say VU They've been great so far, and in the under 60 days seems to have one of the best rates. I hear of ebay bids winning for less, but I didn't see any for my weeks.

Can't believe we're missing each other again this year!

I'm totally not sure where to request either. I did building 5 (Thanks DCTooTall!) and told Ken i wanted a fireworks view. he said it would probably be a parking lot as well and i said ok. But now I'm thinking I would prefer the lake view. I dinno!! I can't see us going out on the balcony all that much EXCEPT to "see spaceship earth" or "see fireworks" IF we were there at that time.

I thought wifi was in 4, 5 and 6 but now it looks like I dreamed that part. so I guess perhaps 6 is a better choice if I'd like that?

Or I'll just still with 5 and talk to them when we check in.

Plane lands at 1:30 on a Friday. Figure we'll get to the resort by 2:30 and I'd LOVE to be able to 'check in' and go to DTD to get tickets and fiddle around in DQ for a couple of hours. That's the plan right now.

I have ADRs for Friday night and Sat night (same place) and trying to decide which to cancel. I'd love it to be Fri. night, but not sure we'll be able to check in, get tix, get settled in, AND have dinner.

[JoeU]

Originally Posted by DCTooTall

Tower 6 is the only building that was built with Wifi Access. There was a report a week or 2 ago about them installing Wifi in Tower 2. There is also wifi Access in the common areas of the main building (Activity center and lobby), and I believe at the 2 main pool bars (Tower 3 an Tower 4)

Since they installed Wifi in Tower 2, I'm going to assume they are upgrading the remaining towers with Wifi, however I don't have any idea of the progress or timetable for these upgrades. If you want to be ensured that you have wifi I'd probably recommend still bringing a wireless router until we get confirmation from people staying there on each tower.



That is correct. Prior to Tower 6's construction, the only Presidential units were the 4 bedroom units in the other towers. When Tower 6 was constructed they added 1, 2, and 3 bedroom presidentials to the resort's inventory within that tower.

Since this is a timeshare resort with deeds sold based off a percentage of the total building's "value", they cannot upgrade existing deluxe inventory to Presidential level inventory in existing buildings without potentially running into a large issue with owner deeds due to the increased point value of the existing towers. (DVC AKL got around this issue when they built the second lodge when they reclassified and adjusted room catagories in the original lodge by adjusting the point values in the new building so that total resort inventory remained constant. DVC also does their leases (No deeds since DVC works off a long-term lease type system) differently which allowed for fewer complications when they made these changes.)

Awesome. Thanks for the info. Off to buy a router now.

Joe

[labdogs42]

So, if I want a good price on a 2 bedroom for Christmas week 2012, do i wait until 60 days out to trey and book it? Or do I book it now? I love the idea of doing a condo, especially at the holidays. Then if the parks are crazy, we can just hang out in the condo (as opposed to a tiny room at POP or POR). We have stayed on property many many times, but I really like the idea of Bonnett Creek. I need some tips - help a newbie out!

[ibob52]

Originally Posted by JoeU

Awesome. Thanks for the info. Off to buy a router now.

Joe

There is a benefit of using a personnal router vs a *shared/public* wifi connection ... personnal = private and faster (probable).

Routers were installed in building 4 (end of May) and according to a couple of DISboard posts - Building 2 (early June).

Might be safe to assume wifi will be available entire Resort (Buildings) soon ... but a phone call to Resort would be best.