Wyndham Bonnet Creek or Holiday Inn Orange Lake Resort

[MomDad&2boys]

Anyone have opinions on these two resorts? We are DVC members and spending most of our trip resort hopping onsite but we have a few extra days to account for in between reservations. We've stayed at WBC before and thought it was great. I'm disappointed that they don't have basketball courts but loads of other activities. We have never stayed at Orange Lake so really just basing this option off the photos of activities. Would love feedback.

 

[BigredNole]

Orange Lake is nice, but nicer rooms are harder to get. There are tons of activities going on for kids most of the day. It is a bit out there, but not horrible. 192 traffic can be bad going to parks. It is about 20 minutes to the outside parks and 45 minutes door-to-entrance at MK. When I stayed at OLR, my feeling was that it is a place you stay at to stay at the resort.

 

[mmmnj]

Stayed at orange lake twice. Once we stayed in a two bedroom waterpark . And the second time we stayed in a three-bedroom. The place is absolutely huge and I mean Huge! They offer a shuttle but I found that to be very inconvenient . So is driving though. The waterpark two bedroom wasn't bad . It was clean and I found the location to be convenient with little ones . But even though you're paying a premium on the waterpark it doesn't mean you're actually going to be having a water park view as we didn't. And the time we went with the three-bedroom they assigned us to a room and there were cobwebs outside of the door and it was a really not up to my standard. They ultimately gave us a building which was way at the other end of the resort on an upper floor The room was clean and the beds were decent and the three-bedroom was a rather large , but there was nothing at all luxurious about it .. nothing luxurious about the bathrooms or any of it . Traffic and getting to and from Disney and sea world was less than easy and pleasant. Getting around the resort was time consuming, quite a distance from one end to another ! Although my 7 kids and I enjoyed resort activities amenities the pools, the crowds and overall experience with the room and there was people smoking at the pools that resort staff did nothing about, I would never go back to stay again . Yes it was great having the watersports jet skiing and the activities they had , however I feel like there's such as thing as tooo big and I wasn't overally happy with the room. There's many other comparable affordable places like Marriott hatbour lake , Marriott grand vista, Wyndham bonnet creek, hilton grand vacation sea world and Intl drive, Marriott lakeshore reserve , there many and I personally have tried orange lake twice and won't be back with my kids nor honestly really feel like recommending

 

[greenclan67]

Omg I love love Orange Lake. Honestly, the first time we stayed in Dec that year, I had already booked it for March as well. So in dec when we stayed I was underwhelmed and wasnt looking forward to March. March was the game changer. We fell in love with it. Love the atmosphere, the grounds, activities, and so on. We went last Mafch for 12 days, didnt fo one park. And left property maybe 4 times. Otherwise we did a staycation. Love the 2 berm villas in West Village. Drive up units, walk out yo your patio. I have stayed at BC aa well & we liked it, but I prefer OL.

 

[Captainkidd76]

We were deciding on these 2, but chose Bonnet Creek. Haven't stayed at either, but read Orange Lake can be hit or miss. Never read anything bad about BC. Seems like a better location too.

 

[HopperFan]

Stayed at orange lake twice. Once we stayed in a two bedroom waterpark . And the second time we stayed in a three-bedroom. The place is absolutely huge and I mean Huge! They offer a shuttle but I found that to be very inconvenient . So is driving though. The waterpark two bedroom wasn't bad . It was clean and I found the location to be convenient with little ones . But even though you're paying a premium on the waterpark it doesn't mean you're actually going to be having a water park view as we didn't. And the time we went with the three-bedroom they assigned us to a room and there were cobwebs outside of the door and it was a really not up to my standard. They ultimately gave us a building which was way at the other end of the resort on an upper floor The room was clean and the beds were decent and the three-bedroom was a rather large , but there was nothing at all luxurious about it .. nothing luxurious about the bathrooms or any of it . Traffic and getting to and from Disney and sea world was less than easy and pleasant. Getting around the resort was time consuming, quite a distance from one end to another ! Although my 7 kids and I enjoyed resort activities amenities the pools, the crowds and overall experience with the room and there was people smoking at the pools that resort staff did nothing about, I would never go back to stay again . Yes it was great having the watersports jet skiing and the activities they had , however I feel like there's such as thing as tooo big and I wasn't overally happy with the room. There's many other comparable affordable places like Marriott hatbour lake , Marriott grand vista, Wyndham bonnet creek, hilton grand vacation sea world and Intl drive, Marriott lakeshore reserve , there many and I personally have tried orange lake twice and won't be back with my kids nor honestly really feel like recommending

This is my biggest concern and a factor in my view of some of these resorts. I want a resort with walkability. NO shuttle or driving.

WBC is totally walkable, we only use our car to leave the resort. Now I have stayed a few times at Sheraton Vistana Resort, but always with plans to only use our pool/amenities and very little resort time. There I would have to use my car to explore other areas of the resort and when walking I don't want to have to navigate parking lots. I stayed at Marriott Grande Vista and was quite happy I could get to the amenities I wanted walking.

I think it's what you plan to use the resort for, will you be enjoying the amenities or primarily just your unit.

 

[BigredNole]

OLR is only walkable from a few locations in my opinion. In West Village, you have the towers next to check-in and a handful of villa units. Other than that, I would be driving or shuttle. In RI, the towers are all walking distance to that area. I would not want to be in that area though. My opinion and it may have just been that weekend is that if there are rooms available, they open it up to suckers for the timeshare spiel. Many of the people there I would not trust to leave just a towel on a chair let alone shoes. And yes, my daughter's new water shoes were stolen. They were less than a week old and almost $50. Lesson learned. Trust your instincts. We wound up just staying in WV the whole time because the people were more of what I expect to be around and all the activities are right there.