In a nutshell WBC exceeded my expectations and I would stay there again in a heartbeat. I highly recommend this resort to any and everyone single, couple, family and/or group. Here are a few things I learned while on my vacation last week, 5/18-25/2013 at WBC. We were in a 4 bdrm Presidential Reserve Suite on the 17th floor Suite # 1719 Tower 6.
As we went under the Walt Disney World sign that O so familiar feeling came over me. Im back at my happy place and I look forward to experiencing this with my family. However, did I make the right decision booking offsite? I had never stayed offsite and this would be a new experience for me as well. Would I like it or was it a disaster waiting to happen? Once youre on Lake Buena Vista Dr signs directing you to Wyndham Bonnet Creek were a nice welcome that perhaps I made the right decision to book WBC. If I had not explained to my family beforehand that this was not an onsite WDW hotel they would have been none the wiser. Ive always stayed onsite. After experiencing WBC for the week the best way I can explain it is like this: WBC is onsite, its just not owned by WDW. When we arrived at the guard station she told us we were in Tower 6 and we should proceed there to check in.
Inside I was jumping up and down because thats the tower that I really wanted. That was my 1st sprinkle of Pixie Dust. We arrived Saturday around 4PM. I thought the place would be a mad house and I had a Plan B for our group of 9 just in case I had to wait in line. We arrived and there was NO ONE in line, 2nd sprinkle of Pixie Dust. In less than 5 minutes I was checked in to the resort. No credit card required to check in. Across from the check in counter is the timeshare counter, AKA parking pass people. I turned around to the time share desk and the guy goes into his spiel I stopped him and said I wasnt interested. He said OK and asked how many parking passes I needed. That was that. No hard sell, no fighting and wasting my time. They called and whoever was at the suite answered. I got all the messages when I returned to the suite. I told them to stop answering the phone. LOL!! We get our luggage and head up to the suite. We had to use our room key to access the 17th floor. In the elevator on the floor selection panel it states that you will need to use room key to access Presidential Reserve floors or something to that extent. All 9 of us and probably 12 pieces of luggage fit in the elevator. We arrived on our floor HOLY GUACOMOLE! We were not ready for what appeared behind our door. Weve seen a ton of photos of WBC but pictures do not do this place justice. We opened our double doors and everyone gasped even the kids ages 5 and 7. Were staying here!?!?! Yep, this is our home for the week. Everything was immaculate and well kept. We entered the suite to large ceramic tiled floors. The living and dining room had deep golden harvest tone walls with rich dark wood accents and trim throughout the suite. Dark wood shudders and ceiling fans in all the rooms plus the living area. All the countertops throughout the suite were granite. 4 bdrms: 2 master suites and 2 two double bed rooms. 4 bathrooms a god send for our party of 9. One secondary bath had a shower and the other a shower/tub combo. Even the secondary bathrooms were great and as grand as the master bathrooms. The whole suite reminded me of an updated transitional decorated home in the Mediterranean. My dad made it to the balcony first. His ohs and awes drew everyone to the balcony. Our view overlooking the lake and wrecked ship w/ slide was spectacular. We could see the Epcot fireworks. YES!! The balcony was the length of our suite. 4 separate seating areas along the patio. The patio furniture was black wrought iron. We love to stretch out and relax on the balcony so we would have preferred 4 additional loungers instead of just the two loungers. Each room has a large dresser with plenty of room for clothes. No faux drawers. YES!!! The closets were deep with plenty of hangers for your clothes and your luggage. The kitchen a real cooks DREAM! As a general rule, I do not cook on vacation! But I must admit I looked forward to preparing breakfast on my day Thursday. Each sibling cooked breakfast and I didnt hear any complaints about the utensils, pots & pans, skillet, cookie sheet (even though my sis couldnt find it. It was in the oven along with the other baking sheets/dishes.), bowls, cups, wine glasses, juice glasses, tall glasses, nice blender and coffee maker. There were enough glasses, bowls, plates, saucers for our party of 9. The one thing I liked was that there were more than one set of glasses. They had the tall glasses for ice tea, your short glasses for OJ, and then tall cups ours were a dark blue hard plastic but they looked really nice for whatever else plus they had wine glasses. The stove was electric and flat top. Im a gas stove girl so I wasnt a fan of the stove but it did the job. All the appliances were stainless steel. The kitchen alone was worth giving WBC a try. We only cooked breakfast however; the full size fridge, nice size microwave, blender, coffee maker and toaster which are what I would use on a regular vacation would be worth staying at WBC again.
Lets go outside. The grounds are what you would expect at a 5 star resort. Well kept, clean, nicely landscaped and a place where you want to be to relax and enjoy the outdoors. We visited 3 of the 5 pools. The kids LOVED THEM!! We loved the bars and easy access to them while we could still watch the kids. The three pools we went to each had a bar. We loved the bartender at the pool with the blue slide. They were out of Moscato dAsti so he created us a drink that would be light and refreshing. He created some drink out of white Sangria. It was delish and we went back to him for our drinks on some days. We tried the burgers, fries, fish tacos, pizza, nachos and it was all your normal fast food tasting food. Nothing to write home about but excellent to kill those hunger pains of a 5 and 7 year old and parents who needed something on their stomachs while drinking. It was easy peasy walking around the lake and accessing the many different pools. There were many gas grills located around the lake for grilling. They appeared clean and maintained. To get beach towels for the pools you have to go to the activities desk and check them out. No credit card required just your room number. I think this is more on the honor system to make sure everyone returns their beach towels. We visited the restaurant in the Wyndham Grand on two occasions. You can access the restaurant thru Tower 6 like youre going to the parking garage and then go up the stairs and walk down the hallway. The restaurant is tucked back in the corner after you pass the bar/lounge area. If youre not looking for it you will miss it. The food was great but expensive. It reminded me of Nick & Sams, The Keg or Sullivans if youre familiar with these restaurants. I meant to go back and check out the sushi but I didnt make it back. The parking garage requires a separate key card that is not your room key. We didnt understand this at first. So make sure if you have multiple cars you receive a garage access key card and a paper parking pass for each vehicle. We probably parked half the time outside resort and the other half inside garage. You need your key card to enter and to EXIT the parking garage.
Staying at this resort for the week was a great decision for my family of 9 ages 78, 70, 65, 42, 34, 30, 26, 7 and 5. We could not have made a better decision. This was the best place to meet our needs which were beds, space and convenient to the parks. I looked into homes 4, 5, 6 and 7 bdrms; condos 2, 3 and 4 bdrms; offsite hotels; DVC resorts-purchasing points; WDW onsite moderate and value hotels. I priced it every which way but it boiled down to beds, being in one place together and with so many people convenience to WDW. We needed at the minimum 6 beds NO PULLOUT COUCHES that is not a place to sleep for a week on vacation. After much research and discussions WBC won our business.
Things I realized while I was on this trip about staying offsite:
I dont like to drive to the parks. I prefer the bus system. We drove every day and by the 3rd day I realized I want to ride the bus. I toughed it out but had my mom and dad not been using a cane and using diamond parking was good for them we would have rode the bus. We didnt use the WBC bus system while we were there. However, I did review their schedule. All though its not continuous service like WDW I believe with the frequency it would have worked fine. We were right in front of the Tower 6 bus stop it was a covered area and looked fine. We always saw buses coming and going. Even with the $5/day per round trip and going to the parks twice a day we still would have saved tons of money over renting a 3 bdrm villa at WDW DVC resort.
Bathrooms are important. The more the merrier.
Separate bedrooms with adequate beds are required for tired grumpy kids and ADULTS!
Our family travels better in one space so the 4 bdrms worked for us. Were 4 sisters and are close and BFFs. So being together was a must for us. We loved it!! We left the men at home except for the grandpas. So we were able to spend a lot of quality time together. A house would not have done the trick because we like the hotel and resort feel. WBC met our needs and expectations.
A kitchen on vacation isnt too bad even if you dont cook. I dont know how Ive gone this long without realizing I needed one.
LOCATION! LOCATION! LOCATION! WBC best non WDW resort on WDW property.
SPACE will I ever be able to vacation in a normal hotel room again. This is my 3rd Wyndham property I have vacationed. I love them. No other way to vacation.
I like WDW restaurants and having ADRs for every day. We only made two ADRs Ohanas and Kouzzinas. Logistics, # in our party, different people, different taste, timing of everyones appetite, etc caused me to 2nd guess making more ADRs. Next time with a group Ill make at least 4 ADRs for an 8 day vacation, maybe one every other day.
The notion that we would drive to a restaurant after touring the parks for the day didnt work for us. We ate at the parks or the resort. We ate at Red Lobster on our arrival day other than that we did not eat offsite. We used our lodging savings to eat in the parks. It worked for us.
It was nice to have a car to go outside of Disney. My parents couldnt understand Ive never been off WDW property so I dont know where anything is so stop asking me a million questions. Im seeing and learning it for the 1st time just like you. LOL!
Will I stay offsite again? Absolutely! Where? 90% sure WBC. Will I stay onsite again? Yes, but only DVC w/ a heck of a price at a monorail resort only because I always wanted to stay at a monorail resort. I would choose WBC over value or moderate any day of the week. Its a no brainer for me.
If youre in the middle of making a decision onsite, offsite, if offsite, where let me make it very clear. This is a magnificent resort. Nothings perfect. We had to place two service calls toilet clogged, dryer knob not working. They were there w/in the hour to correct these problems. Did this take away from the resort? No. We called, they came and fixed. No qualms great customer service. If youre nit picky about every little thing and are a diehard WDW onsite fan, I recommend that you continue to stay onsite at Disney. WBC is not Disney. If you go in expecting to be submerged in Disney you will not find it at WBC. WBC is a 5 star luxury resort you will find anywhere in the country. They just happen to be inside the WDW bubble and I couldnt think of a better place for them to be. Definitely a steal! If youre over the, I have to stay onsite at a WDW resort definitely give WBC a try. You will not regret it.
A couple of days before we were to leave my moms husband who is 78 and well traveled said thank you for such an enjoyable vacation. He was most gracious for our hotel selection and the suburb condition of our living quarters. He said he had a great time. He walked all over that resort. He knew it better than all of us. That was all I needed to confirm that WBC was the right place for us.
As we went under the Walt Disney World sign that O so familiar feeling came over me. Im back at my happy place and I look forward to experiencing this with my family. However, did I make the right decision booking offsite? I had never stayed offsite and this would be a new experience for me as well. Would I like it or was it a disaster waiting to happen? Once youre on Lake Buena Vista Dr signs directing you to Wyndham Bonnet Creek were a nice welcome that perhaps I made the right decision to book WBC. If I had not explained to my family beforehand that this was not an onsite WDW hotel they would have been none the wiser. Ive always stayed onsite. After experiencing WBC for the week the best way I can explain it is like this: WBC is onsite, its just not owned by WDW. When we arrived at the guard station she told us we were in Tower 6 and we should proceed there to check in.
Inside I was jumping up and down because thats the tower that I really wanted. That was my 1st sprinkle of Pixie Dust. We arrived Saturday around 4PM. I thought the place would be a mad house and I had a Plan B for our group of 9 just in case I had to wait in line. We arrived and there was NO ONE in line, 2nd sprinkle of Pixie Dust. In less than 5 minutes I was checked in to the resort. No credit card required to check in. Across from the check in counter is the timeshare counter, AKA parking pass people. I turned around to the time share desk and the guy goes into his spiel I stopped him and said I wasnt interested. He said OK and asked how many parking passes I needed. That was that. No hard sell, no fighting and wasting my time. They called and whoever was at the suite answered. I got all the messages when I returned to the suite. I told them to stop answering the phone. LOL!! We get our luggage and head up to the suite. We had to use our room key to access the 17th floor. In the elevator on the floor selection panel it states that you will need to use room key to access Presidential Reserve floors or something to that extent. All 9 of us and probably 12 pieces of luggage fit in the elevator. We arrived on our floor HOLY GUACOMOLE! We were not ready for what appeared behind our door. Weve seen a ton of photos of WBC but pictures do not do this place justice. We opened our double doors and everyone gasped even the kids ages 5 and 7. Were staying here!?!?! Yep, this is our home for the week. Everything was immaculate and well kept. We entered the suite to large ceramic tiled floors. The living and dining room had deep golden harvest tone walls with rich dark wood accents and trim throughout the suite. Dark wood shudders and ceiling fans in all the rooms plus the living area. All the countertops throughout the suite were granite. 4 bdrms: 2 master suites and 2 two double bed rooms. 4 bathrooms a god send for our party of 9. One secondary bath had a shower and the other a shower/tub combo. Even the secondary bathrooms were great and as grand as the master bathrooms. The whole suite reminded me of an updated transitional decorated home in the Mediterranean. My dad made it to the balcony first. His ohs and awes drew everyone to the balcony. Our view overlooking the lake and wrecked ship w/ slide was spectacular. We could see the Epcot fireworks. YES!! The balcony was the length of our suite. 4 separate seating areas along the patio. The patio furniture was black wrought iron. We love to stretch out and relax on the balcony so we would have preferred 4 additional loungers instead of just the two loungers. Each room has a large dresser with plenty of room for clothes. No faux drawers. YES!!! The closets were deep with plenty of hangers for your clothes and your luggage. The kitchen a real cooks DREAM! As a general rule, I do not cook on vacation! But I must admit I looked forward to preparing breakfast on my day Thursday. Each sibling cooked breakfast and I didnt hear any complaints about the utensils, pots & pans, skillet, cookie sheet (even though my sis couldnt find it. It was in the oven along with the other baking sheets/dishes.), bowls, cups, wine glasses, juice glasses, tall glasses, nice blender and coffee maker. There were enough glasses, bowls, plates, saucers for our party of 9. The one thing I liked was that there were more than one set of glasses. They had the tall glasses for ice tea, your short glasses for OJ, and then tall cups ours were a dark blue hard plastic but they looked really nice for whatever else plus they had wine glasses. The stove was electric and flat top. Im a gas stove girl so I wasnt a fan of the stove but it did the job. All the appliances were stainless steel. The kitchen alone was worth giving WBC a try. We only cooked breakfast however; the full size fridge, nice size microwave, blender, coffee maker and toaster which are what I would use on a regular vacation would be worth staying at WBC again. Lets go outside. The grounds are what you would expect at a 5 star resort. Well kept, clean, nicely landscaped and a place where you want to be to relax and enjoy the outdoors. We visited 3 of the 5 pools. The kids LOVED THEM!! We loved the bars and easy access to them while we could still watch the kids. The three pools we went to each had a bar. We loved the bartender at the pool with the blue slide. They were out of Moscato dAsti so he created us a drink that would be light and refreshing. He created some drink out of white Sangria. It was delish and we went back to him for our drinks on some days. We tried the burgers, fries, fish tacos, pizza, nachos and it was all your normal fast food tasting food. Nothing to write home about but excellent to kill those hunger pains of a 5 and 7 year old and parents who needed something on their stomachs while drinking. It was easy peasy walking around the lake and accessing the many different pools. There were many gas grills located around the lake for grilling. They appeared clean and maintained. To get beach towels for the pools you have to go to the activities desk and check them out. No credit card required just your room number. I think this is more on the honor system to make sure everyone returns their beach towels. We visited the restaurant in the Wyndham Grand on two occasions. You can access the restaurant thru Tower 6 like youre going to the parking garage and then go up the stairs and walk down the hallway. The restaurant is tucked back in the corner after you pass the bar/lounge area. If youre not looking for it you will miss it. The food was great but expensive. It reminded me of Nick & Sams, The Keg or Sullivans if youre familiar with these restaurants. I meant to go back and check out the sushi but I didnt make it back. The parking garage requires a separate key card that is not your room key. We didnt understand this at first. So make sure if you have multiple cars you receive a garage access key card and a paper parking pass for each vehicle. We probably parked half the time outside resort and the other half inside garage. You need your key card to enter and to EXIT the parking garage.
Staying at this resort for the week was a great decision for my family of 9 ages 78, 70, 65, 42, 34, 30, 26, 7 and 5. We could not have made a better decision. This was the best place to meet our needs which were beds, space and convenient to the parks. I looked into homes 4, 5, 6 and 7 bdrms; condos 2, 3 and 4 bdrms; offsite hotels; DVC resorts-purchasing points; WDW onsite moderate and value hotels. I priced it every which way but it boiled down to beds, being in one place together and with so many people convenience to WDW. We needed at the minimum 6 beds NO PULLOUT COUCHES that is not a place to sleep for a week on vacation. After much research and discussions WBC won our business.
Things I realized while I was on this trip about staying offsite:
I dont like to drive to the parks. I prefer the bus system. We drove every day and by the 3rd day I realized I want to ride the bus. I toughed it out but had my mom and dad not been using a cane and using diamond parking was good for them we would have rode the bus. We didnt use the WBC bus system while we were there. However, I did review their schedule. All though its not continuous service like WDW I believe with the frequency it would have worked fine. We were right in front of the Tower 6 bus stop it was a covered area and looked fine. We always saw buses coming and going. Even with the $5/day per round trip and going to the parks twice a day we still would have saved tons of money over renting a 3 bdrm villa at WDW DVC resort.
Bathrooms are important. The more the merrier.
Separate bedrooms with adequate beds are required for tired grumpy kids and ADULTS!
Our family travels better in one space so the 4 bdrms worked for us. Were 4 sisters and are close and BFFs. So being together was a must for us. We loved it!! We left the men at home except for the grandpas. So we were able to spend a lot of quality time together. A house would not have done the trick because we like the hotel and resort feel. WBC met our needs and expectations.
A kitchen on vacation isnt too bad even if you dont cook. I dont know how Ive gone this long without realizing I needed one.
LOCATION! LOCATION! LOCATION! WBC best non WDW resort on WDW property.
SPACE will I ever be able to vacation in a normal hotel room again. This is my 3rd Wyndham property I have vacationed. I love them. No other way to vacation.
I like WDW restaurants and having ADRs for every day. We only made two ADRs Ohanas and Kouzzinas. Logistics, # in our party, different people, different taste, timing of everyones appetite, etc caused me to 2nd guess making more ADRs. Next time with a group Ill make at least 4 ADRs for an 8 day vacation, maybe one every other day.
The notion that we would drive to a restaurant after touring the parks for the day didnt work for us. We ate at the parks or the resort. We ate at Red Lobster on our arrival day other than that we did not eat offsite. We used our lodging savings to eat in the parks. It worked for us.
It was nice to have a car to go outside of Disney. My parents couldnt understand Ive never been off WDW property so I dont know where anything is so stop asking me a million questions. Im seeing and learning it for the 1st time just like you. LOL!
Will I stay offsite again? Absolutely! Where? 90% sure WBC. Will I stay onsite again? Yes, but only DVC w/ a heck of a price at a monorail resort only because I always wanted to stay at a monorail resort. I would choose WBC over value or moderate any day of the week. Its a no brainer for me.
If youre in the middle of making a decision onsite, offsite, if offsite, where let me make it very clear. This is a magnificent resort. Nothings perfect. We had to place two service calls toilet clogged, dryer knob not working. They were there w/in the hour to correct these problems. Did this take away from the resort? No. We called, they came and fixed. No qualms great customer service. If youre nit picky about every little thing and are a diehard WDW onsite fan, I recommend that you continue to stay onsite at Disney. WBC is not Disney. If you go in expecting to be submerged in Disney you will not find it at WBC. WBC is a 5 star luxury resort you will find anywhere in the country. They just happen to be inside the WDW bubble and I couldnt think of a better place for them to be. Definitely a steal! If youre over the, I have to stay onsite at a WDW resort definitely give WBC a try. You will not regret it.
A couple of days before we were to leave my moms husband who is 78 and well traveled said thank you for such an enjoyable vacation. He was most gracious for our hotel selection and the suburb condition of our living quarters. He said he had a great time. He walked all over that resort. He knew it better than all of us. That was all I needed to confirm that WBC was the right place for us.
. I need to see if I can somehow get your room it sounds like 
. 
