The we loooooove Bonnet Creek thread! (pics and reviews)

[saucymb]

In just 36 hours we will be on our way! We are getting up Friday morning at 3am to leave by 4 to drive down. Hope to be at Bonnet Creek by early afternoon.

I had all these plans to have my house spotless before we left, as I love returning to a clean, organized house. I also had planned to be all packed by tonight, so tomorrow can be relaxing, just loading the van, running a few last-minute errands.

However, we've had a few surprises in the past few days that have prevented this:

1. My 4 year old son put my 3 year old son in a box and slid him down the stairs. Result: my 3 year old has a broken arm! He is in a cast, though when the ortho found out we were going on an 11 day vacation, he offered a waterproof cast so he can still swim. Whew. He's been a trooper, though. And he won't let anyone sign it, since the girl who put on the cast suggested that Buzz Lightyear could sign it. In his mind that's the only thing that can go on the cast.

2. I found out a few days ago that I am pregnant with number 3! Only about 6 weeks along right now, but WOW the exhaustion has hit since week 3 HARD. I'm struggling to stay away past 8pm, and I have zero energy. So those plans to organize and clean like a mad woman? Gone. At this point, I think I will hire one of the neighborhood teenagers to do a little housework while I am gone. My mom will be here tomorrow night (she's driving down with us) so I'm sure she'll jump in and help.

I'll be checking in while we're there. I love this thread!

 

[JoeU]

I've been trying to find pictures of the pool with the waterslide and the pirate themed pool. Does anyone have pictures of these from their trips that they could share? Or does anyone have a link to share where I could see these pools?

Here's a couple. I'll try to look for more.

Joe

 

[crazyfordisney2000]

Don't worry, the big, newer pirate-themed lazy river has no salt water. There are four big pools at Bonnet Creek, and only 1 is salt water

Thank you!! I am leaning towards BC but my husband is leaning towards Royal Parc Suites. At RPS you get free breakfast every am and is $43 more I almost don't want free breakfast, I would rather just eat light in the room every am but my hubby likes that perk. What to do, what to do.

 

[mommybunnyof2]

Hello Fine Folks,
We have rented a condo from Ken in early Dec. (Hi Ken ) This is our first time staying at Bonnett Creek -- we usually stay on property with great Florida resident deals, but there was nothing in our price range for the weekend we are going. The rate from Ken was awesome!! We are renting a three bedroom deluxe and would like to be near the lazy river and/or have fireworks view. Which tower would accommadate one or both of those? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[KTMcCulloch]

Hi all!

So happy to find this thread! My fiance and I are huge disney lovers and planning on honeymoon at disney originally we had planned on staying on property but my dad is a wydham user and has offered us points to use for a week at BC. A few questions we still want to do most of our dining at disney (being our honeymoon and all...) do you find it harder to get adrs? Also how is transportation are they ever taxis if the shuttle is slow? Thanks appreciate anyyyyyyy advice!!!!!

 

[mamafrei]

My family and I returned from Bonnet Creek in August after a 2 week stay. Had an awesome time! Now we'd like to go again next November.

My question is this.....which would be a better week to go? We are deciding between the 1st week of Nov. and Thanksgiving week.

As much as we'd love to see the Christmas decorations in the parks (after Thanksgiving day), I'd rather do without, if it means that the parks will be a total mob-scene. In short, which of the 2 weeks would be less crowded in the parks?

Any advice or ideas would be GREAT from those of you who have gone during these times in the past!!! Thanks in advance

 

[carlbarry]

I think you will have a 100% response that Thanksgiving is terribly crowded. Before is OK, after is OK. But Thanksgiving will be packed.

 

[Ksquared]

the first week of November is Jersey week (NJ kids have off from school for the teacher's convention). It is more crowded then the following week but certainly much less crowded than Thanksgiving week.

 

[DCTooTall]

Hi all!

So happy to find this thread! My fiance and I are huge disney lovers and planning on honeymoon at disney originally we had planned on staying on property but my dad is a wydham user and has offered us points to use for a week at BC. A few questions we still want to do most of our dining at disney (being our honeymoon and all...) do you find it harder to get adrs? Also how is transportation are they ever taxis if the shuttle is slow? Thanks appreciate anyyyyyyy advice!!!!!

ADR's are no harder to get onsite or offsite. The only advantage on-site guests receive in making ADR's is the ability to make ADR's for their entire reservation when their first day hits the 180day mark. So worst case.... a 9 day head start for the super commando who plans out their entire trip at the earliest possible moment.


I don't recall Taxi's waiting on-site at the resort when I was there last year, however it is Disney. There are a TON of Taxi's in the area, so I don't see why the front desk wouldn't be able to call one for you, and it'd probably be no longer than a 5-10min wait for a taxi to pick you up at the resort. (With the Hilton and Waldorff next door and more "traditional" hotels, they may have a taxi stand which can send a cab over to the Wyndham)

 

[ctrcar]

We'll be staying at BC for the first time next week. Is there anything we need to bring or do that will be different from our usual hotel stays? Do we need detergent for the washing machine? Our own soap, shampoo, conditioner, lotion toiletries? How is this stay going to be different than what we are used to? I thought I read somewhere on this endless thread that there isn't maid service. We'll be there for 10 days. Is there no maid service the whole time? What else is different?

 

[Echo queen]

We'll be staying at BC for the first time next week. Is there anything we need to bring or do that will be different from our usual hotel stays? Do we need detergent for the washing machine? Our own soap, shampoo, conditioner, lotion toiletries? How is this stay going to be different than what we are used to? I thought I read somewhere on this endless thread that there isn't maid service. We'll be there for 10 days. Is there no maid service the whole time? What else is different?

You will need to bring all of the items you mentioned above, there is laundry detergent but I'm not sure how much they will give you for free, usually one box on the washer, if you like dryer sheets bring them. They may do a mid week sheet change they will let you know, that's the only cleaning I recall. They will replace your dirty towels with clean ones just call house keeping. You will have a full kitchen. Are you planning a grocery run? I find it best to make a list and stick to it so we don't end up throwing food away. BC is great I'm really looking forward to going back.

There is dish washing and washer soap, toilet tissue, and paper towels.

 

[Upatnoon]

We'll be staying at BC for the first time next week. Is there anything we need to bring or do that will be different from our usual hotel stays? Do we need detergent for the washing machine? Our own soap, shampoo, conditioner, lotion toiletries? How is this stay going to be different than what we are used to? I thought I read somewhere on this endless thread that there isn't maid service. We'll be there for 10 days. Is there no maid service the whole time? What else is different?

Your room will have bath soap, shampoo, dish soap, dishwasher soap, cleaning sponge, toilet paper, paper towels, tissue. The only thing they don't provide that we use are dryer sheets.


You may run out of some of the items, but you can request more.

 

[ctrcar]

Your room will have bath soap, shampoo, dish soap, dishwasher soap, cleaning sponge, toilet paper, paper towels, tissue. The only thing they don't provide that we use are dryer sheets.


You may run out of some of the items, but you can request more.

Great! Thanks so much for the info. We're packing up today so this will help a lot.

 

[Portugal1000]

Hi

I have stayed at BC for the past 2 Decembers and will be there again next month for 2 weeks. We have always stayed in the main building which we love due to being close to the pool and other activities. When we were there they had complete building 5, the one with the new lazy river. Am I right in saying that sice there a new building has been completed and has yet another pool with a pirate ship and slide? HAs anyone stayde in building 6? I have seen a few photos on Trip Advisor which show 1 bedroom Presidential rooms, they look lovely. Are they a different type of room. Do they do 2 bdroom versions? We have a 2 bed deluxe booked for next month and I am going to ask for main building again but I also like to ask for a second choice just in case. I think we have been lucky before because our main concern is being on a low floor whereas most people seem to want a firework view, well thats what the guys on reception told us.
Also, is there anything else new since last December? Would be great if there was a proper onsite restaurant.
Thanks

 

[horseshowmom]

ADR's are no harder to get onsite or offsite. The only advantage on-site guests receive in making ADR's is the ability to make ADR's for their entire reservation when their first day hits the 180day mark. So worst case.... a 9 day head start for the super commando who plans out their entire trip at the earliest possible moment.

I just made ADR for Boma for Dec. 23rd and had no problems at all. I also got Kona. About 3 years ago, we were there for Christmas week (checked in on Christmas Day) and got our ADR's the week before we left. I think they tend to wind up with lots of cancellations from people who made them 6 months out. I really like that you can do it all online now too.

 

[Cdn Gal]

We'll be staying at BC for the first time next week. Is there anything we need to bring or do that will be different from our usual hotel stays? Do we need detergent for the washing machine? Our own soap, shampoo, conditioner, lotion toiletries? How is this stay going to be different than what we are used to? I thought I read somewhere on this endless thread that there isn't maid service. We'll be there for 10 days. Is there no maid service the whole time? What else is different?

We stayed there for 10 days this past August. On day 6 I think it was I was surprised to go back to the room early and find that our room was being cleaned up! After a 7 day reservation the maid told me that they will come in and clean the unit. There was no prior warning about this though.

 

[geenerbell]

What time is check in? Is internet still free?

 

[madams2]

What time is check in? Is internet still free?

We just got back Saturday. I was in building 2 and internet was free. I found the wirelss to be too weak to use. There is a cord that comes off the phone that you can plug your laptop directly into that works just fine.

Check is 4 PM. I had an issue because I requested a specific room and at 6 PM it was ready yet. We wanted to get in so I told them to give me a different room and I was checked in

 

[geenerbell]

We just got back Saturday. I was in building 2 and internet was free. I found the wirelss to be too weak to use. There is a cord that comes off the phone that you can plug your laptop directly into that works just fine.

Check is 4 PM. I had an issue because I requested a specific room and at 6 PM it was ready yet. We wanted to get in so I told them to give me a different room and I was checked in

Which building do you think is the best? We have a 2 bedroom deluxe. We will have a car but I would like to use shuttle some of the time.

 

[madams2]

I just got back from BC after a 6 night stay. I spent the past 7 years at either Marriott Harbour View or Marriott Grande Vista. This year we changed it up mainly because of this thread and Ken got us a great rate that saved me about 50% off of Marriott (thanks Ken). my views...

The rooms are definetly smaller than Marriott but that didn't bother me. How much time do you really spen in the room anyway???

BC has 4 pools and 2 lazy rivers that my kids loved. There is a pool by building 2 that has a water slide but the pool has no shallow end for my 4 year old. the pool by building 6 has a pirate ship, 0 depth entry, and a water slide which my 7 year old son loved.

Food was nothing special but we had a rental car. I don't have the patients to wait for buses so we always get a car (from dollar.com because they are on site at MCO and always have had the cheapest prices for me). We hit Publix and stock up for the week. We also go out to dinner a couple of times there so the BC food didn't matter too much

The location of BC is awesome. I thought Marriott was great for location but it still took me 15-20 minutes or so to get to the parks. BC couldn't be any closer without being considered a Disney property. I was able to leave the room at 8:30 and make rope drop at 9 AM for Epcot and Hollywood Studio no problem at all (we goofed on the MK rope drop and never made it).

The only issue I had was check in. We got there around 3 PM and I was told I can't check in until 4 PM. So we used the pool. I came back at 4 and the room wasn't ready. Around 6 we called the front desk the room still wasn't ready. The only thing we asked for was a fireworks view. We complained that check out is at 10 AM and it shouldn't take more than 8 hours to get a room cleaned. We asked them to give us a different room because we just wanted to get in and they did. It was 2 floors lower (floor 6 instead of 8) and still had a fireworks view. Other than that, we really liked BC.

I would HIGHLY recommend Ken over at vacationupgrades. He was great to work with and the price is right.

We would definetly stay at BC again. Ever year we say we aren't going back to Disney but this was year 8. If I could find something else for next year maybe we won't do Disney but you never know. They do a GREAT job and I have an awesome time with my family

BTW, fireworks view....over rated in my opionion. I have never been at Epcot for the fireworks mainly because my children don't like the noise. They start at 9 PM, go for a couple of mintues than stop. I assume there is something going on on the ground that we can't see. 10 minutes later they start up again for a couple of minutes. They are nice to watch, don't get me wrong, but if I had to pay extra (or wait to check in like I did) I would probably skip it. My kids only watched them 1 night anyway