Bonnett Creek Resort?

[gator287]

We went to Downtown Disney today and noticed the entrance to the "Bonnett Creek Resort" next to Caribean Beach resort. What is this? Anyone care to chime in?
Thanks, Suzy and Ed

 

[safetymom]

This is a Fairfield resort. It's not owned by Disney and not on Disney property. They were having their grand opening this weekend.

If you do a search on this I posted an article from the Orlando paper about this several months ago.

 

[Horace Horsecollar]

For the basic details, see http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=566618

For a long, recent thread, see http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=665452

 

[stemikger]

Whe I saw the entrance to that resort this past August. The first thing I said to my wife is. The entrance is too ugly to be Disney. it lacked that special something. One of the CMs told me that Disney had been trying for years to buy it. A Japaneese tycoon owned it and when he died his family took it over. For some reason no one wanted to sell it to Disney.

Too bad, Disney would have done something better with it.

But don't feel bad for Disney, they still have pleanty of property to play with.

 

[Horace Horsecollar]

Originally posted by stemikger
One of the CMs told me that Disney had been trying for years to buy it. A Japaneese tycoon owned it and when he died his family took it over. For some reason no one wanted to sell it to Disney.

According to MousePlanet's WDW Update for June 28 through July 4, 2004, "The 482-acre property will be sold off by the current joint venture ownership of locally based Brooksville Development Corp. and the estate of the late Taiwanese investor Ling Kai Kung. It is expected that the tract will go for at least $1 million per acre."

I'm sure Walt Disney's real estate team would have liked to buy that parcel in the 1960s for a few hundred dollars per acre. But now, in 2004, it's not a matter that "For some reason no one wanted to sell it to Disney." It's that there's no reason for Disney to pay "at least $1 million per acre," when Disney still has many thousands of acres of undeveloped land that they bought around forty years ago for about $300 per acre.

 

[Lisa P.]

Here's another recent thread with info about this development.

Here are someone's personal photos, from before the main pool area and Village Center were completed (they're both open now).

And here are some promo photos from a vacation rentals website.

 

[seashoreCM]

If you ask me, Disney did not need that piece of land and would not have needed it even today, except for the purpose of shutting out other development. As far as Disney resort rooms go, there is an entire half of Pop Century waiting for guest demand before being built.

It does surprise me that Disney allowed Bonnet Creek to have its driveway onto congested Buena Vista whereas opening onto Osceola Parkway seems like a better way to cut down on congestion. That would also reduce cut through traffic down to the Animal Kingdom and Sherberth Rd. by putting another light on Osceola.

Disney hints:
http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/disney.htm

 

[DC7800]

Originally posted by seashoreCM
It does surprise me that Disney allowed Bonnet Creek to have its driveway onto congested Buena Vista whereas opening onto Osceola Parkway seems like a better way to cut down on congestion. That would also reduce cut through traffic down to the Animal Kingdom and Sherberth Rd. by putting another light on Osceola

In addition, an entrance off Osceola would better have kept the Bonnet Creek development seperate from WDW, instead of the feeling of it being inside - even part of Disney - appearance that we're left with now. Disney had to grant access, someplace other than I-4, but Osceola (for several reasons) certainly seems a better choice. In fact, I thought I'd once read that Buena Vista was only to be a (temporary) construction entrance.

Really, access off Epcot Center Drive near I-4 would have been preferable to this. This would have kept the development seperate from Disney and - practically speaking - kept the traffic out of WDW (access ramps to/from the south only, feeding all traffic back out to I-4 - hence no direct access to WDW).

Buena Vista is congested enough already, further suggesting this entrance really was just poor planning.

 

[Horace Horsecollar]

To see how the Bonnet Creek Resort is located in relation to roads and Disney landmarks, see http://web.archive.org/web/20030608041634/www.guybutlerarchitect.com/page10.htm

 

[DC7800]

Thanks for the link. That map makes the Buena Vista Drive entrance seem all the more strange, as the Bonnet Creek property either borders on Osceola or, I'm guessing, comes very close to Osceola Parkway with a thin stip of Disney-owned property between (because if Bonnet Creek actually did front on the parkway, why would WDW have to grant access at all?). That would seem to be the obvious location to build a property entrance - unless for some reason a Osceola Parkway junction was prohibited. I guess what I'm wondering is who controls the parkway at that point, is it a limited-access roadway, etc.? Epcot Center Drive also borders on the corner of the development, as I had assumed.

I don't know, maybe someone in Disney thought a Buena Vista entrance would be the less convenient choice for the development, since you have to go well out of your way to get in or out of the property, except to WDW itself. I'm not sure I would entirely agree with that line of thought, though.

 

[DancingBear]

Actually, I think the map makes it clear that the connections to Osceola Pkwy or Epcot Center Drive would be too close to the I-4 interchanges.

 

[Horace Horsecollar]

Originally posted by DancingBear
Actually, I think the map makes it clear that the connections to Osceola Pkwy or Epcot Center Drive would be too close to the I-4 interchanges.

Yes, I agree with that. There would have been a conflict with the I-4 entrance and exit ramps.