Booking Wyndham Bonnet Creek Last Minute

[Megsie1000]

I am ready to pull the trigger on Bonnet Creek but the rest of my group is not. We are going early June. Right now we have reservations to do a split stay between POR and Beach Club (12 nights total - 7 at POR and 5 at Beach Club). But we may want to switch to Bonnet Creek for the first 7 nights for a variety of reasons. Actually, I am ready to ditch both of them, but one of the families in our group has no choice but to at least do the second half at Beach Club b/c friends of theirs have already booked DVC points there and they want to be together. I know this is complicated to follow - just trying to set the scene for some of my questions.

Some of our group wants to try and hold out for free dining at POR. There are rumors that free dining may be offered at the end of February/beginning of March.

My questions are: Will it be difficult to get units if we wait that long? Are we already too late? And if we're waiting until the beginning of March for a check-in for early June, should we just go ahead and wait until the beginning of April and try for the 60-day mark for the lower rates, or is that just a crazy thing to do for the busy summer season?

My other question is that for my nuclear family, I am considering not even moving to the Beach Club halfway through. It just seems like an enormous hassle to drop off the rental car and move ... especially if we're not on Disney property for the first part of the stay. But our stay will be for 12 nights. Is it difficult to get a stay for one week and then only part of another? All of the ebay listings I see seem to be for week-long stays.

Sorry for all the questions but I have never booked a timeshare like this. I have done vrbo for individual houses, but this time I think we all need our own space and a large house is going to be too much family togetherness. LOL

 

[Beemitchcowski]

I am ready to pull the trigger on Bonnet Creek but the rest of my group is not. We are going early June. Right now we have reservations to do a split stay between POR and Beach Club (12 nights total - 7 at POR and 5 at Beach Club). But we may want to switch to Bonnet Creek for the first 7 nights for a variety of reasons. Actually, I am ready to ditch both of them, but one of the families in our group has no choice but to at least do the second half at Beach Club b/c friends of theirs have already booked DVC points there and they want to be together. I know this is complicated to follow - just trying to set the scene for some of my questions.

Some of our group wants to try and hold out for free dining at POR. There are rumors that free dining may be offered at the end of February/beginning of March.

My questions are: Will it be difficult to get units if we wait that long? Are we already too late? And if we're waiting until the beginning of March for a check-in for early June, should we just go ahead and wait until the beginning of April and try for the 60-day mark for the lower rates, or is that just a crazy thing to do for the busy summer season?

My other question is that for my nuclear family, I am considering not even moving to the Beach Club halfway through. It just seems like an enormous hassle to drop off the rental car and move ... especially if we're not on Disney property for the first part of the stay. But our stay will be for 12 nights. Is it difficult to get a stay for one week and then only part of another? All of the ebay listings I see seem to be for week-long stays.

Sorry for all the questions but I have never booked a timeshare like this. I have done vrbo for individual houses, but this time I think we all need our own space and a large house is going to be too much family togetherness. LOL

Not sure if you should wait til the 60 day mark considering you are going in the summer..but I believe most places will "rebook" you at the 30/60 day mark and see if they can lower your rate any
My only advice is to check with Vacation Upgrades. I booked them for our May trip and they were able to "Stitch" to reservations together for 9 nights...same rate every night...and the price included taxes and fees. I do know though if you don't stay at least 7 nights there is an extra fee. Also, Vacation Upgrade has a fair cancellation policy.
As for the rental car..I would probably just keep it...It probably wouldn't be too much more once you have it for a week then you wouldn't have to worry about returning it!..and whats great about car rentals is that you can always go back to the site and change your reservation with an updated code....I started out once with a $250 reservation and ended up with $140 and that was for a minivan for about 8 days! Remember..you will have parking fees when you stay at Bonnet Creek (for the parks) But if someone in your party has an annual pass..you won't have to worry about the fees!

As for the "free dining"..what is the Rack rate for the summer....at least $200 a night..right?....you could get Bonnet Creek for half that..but I guess it depends on how many people will be in your room...and it depends on whether you would take advantage of having a full kitchen and whether or not you mind cooking/preparing meals/ carrying sandwiches into the park...etc...

Good Luck! I have heard of people on here that have thought of doing split stays and they LOVE it! I've also heard that they recommend that you stay at the smaller place at the first part of your vaca and then have the extra room to spread out and relax during the second part of your trip!

 

[Brian Noble]

There are rumors that free dining may be offered at the end of February/beginning of March.

Rumors, or wishful thinking? With the exception of one late May/early June week, it was not offered during June at all in 2011, and it was offered *early*---booking dates were August to December 2010.

http://www.mousesavers.com/historicalwdwdiscounts.html

Given that, plus Disney's stated desire to continue to clamp down on discounting, well...if I were a betting man, that's not where I'd put my chips.

 

[Megsie1000]

If I were a gambling woman, I would gamble against free dining in June, too, but I feel like I have to give others in our party a fair opportunity to get it if it becomes available since they very much want it. I'm not even sure it would be a better deal for me than the 20% we have now since there is just me and 3 kids in one room at POR.

I told the rest of the family that I would wait until March 1 and see. But now I am just worried I won't be able to get Bonnet Creek. It's a big resort, right? I am sold on it and ready to do it today. LOL

 

[GraceLuvsWDW]

You can wait if you don't want a specific unit. There will be a ton of inventory for WBC come on the market in March. What are your dates?

 

[Megsie1000]

2-9th is the first part. 9-14th is the second part.

And I don't care about a specific unit, although it would be nice for us all to be near one another. 2-bedroom deluxes will be fine. Fireworks views would be nice, but it wouldn't kill the trip if we didn't get it.

I don't know how much luck we would have with requests because we will have an extremely late check-in (like our flight doesn't get into MCO until after 11pm on that Saturday).

 

[GraceLuvsWDW]

First part (2-9) shouldn't be a problem-it is a full week and easy to get. So you could wait definitly for that one. The second part is harder since it's not a full week. If you were going for WBC for the second part 9-14 you might want to book earlier.

 

[Megsie1000]

Thank you! I think I'll wait until the other members of our party are satisfied that there is no free dining for our dates and then go from there. If we can't get the 9-14th, I'll just keep the Beach Club reservations for those dates.