# Bonnet Creek Question



## Imducky (Apr 11, 2018)

I'm planning to go to WDW March 2019 with my 2 granddaughters, ages 3 and 5.  How far is it to magic kingdom?  I read mixed reviews about three shuttles and the cost is 8.00 roundtrip per person, witb 6 people for 7 days...it could add up
Has anyone stayed there with kids 5 and under?  Looking for advice/suggestions. THANKS!


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## bbodb1 (Apr 11, 2018)

If you drive to Disney (or any other park in Orlando), you'll be shocked at the parking costs as well BUT during our visits to WDW from BC, we still drove so we could have the most flexibility in terms of coming and going and NOT being a slave to a shuttle schedule.


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## montygz (Apr 11, 2018)

Imducky said:


> I'm planning to go to WDW March 2019 with my 2 granddaughters, ages 3 and 5.  How far is it to magic kingdom?  I read mixed reviews about three shuttles and the cost is 8.00 roundtrip per person, witb 6 people for 7 days...it could add up
> Has anyone stayed there with kids 5 and under?  Looking for advice/suggestions. THANKS!


We always drive to the parks because we have annual passes and it is the most convenient. However, many people who stay at Bonnet Creek use Uber or Lyft to get to the parks to save money over using the shuttle. A ride to the Boardwalk is $7, and that's for the carload, not one person. From there you can walk to Epcot or take the bus to any park.

Obviously there are a lot of factors involved when budgeting transportation, but it can be substantially cheaper to stay at Bonnet Creek over a comparable Disney resort.


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## chriskre (Apr 12, 2018)

If you are 6 people you'd be better off renting a minivan and driving and paying the $20 to park.
Are you planning on doing this trip with a car or without?  
You could do this trip with strictly Uber but with 6 you are probably looking at 2 cars anyway.


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## Jan M. (Apr 12, 2018)

We've stayed at Bonnet Creek with our granddaughter and had a great time. Take a good look at Bonnet Creek's shuttle schedule before you make plans to use it. It doesn't come and go enough to give you much flexibility at all and I wouldn't recommend it with small children.

If you can find someone renting a stay at one of the Disney properties that is reasonable I would highly recommend spending the money to stay at one of them with the girls. We've stayed at Animal Kingdom with our granddaughter when she was five and Saratoga Springs when she was four. When we stayed at Animal Kingdom we ended up staying at the resort more than going to the parks. There was so much to do and we had a wonderful time. We had a savanna view unit and absolutely loved watching the animals from our balcony. When we stayed at Saratoga Springs we stayed in the Paddock section right next to the kids pool. That trip we spent at lot more time at the parks and it was great being so close to the pool. The Disney resort shuttles to and from the parks run every 10-15 minutes and would be a real blessing if you are taking two little girls.

The other resort we really liked and so did our granddaughter is Vacation Village at Parkway. The section we stayed in both times had both a pool and playground. They have free sno-cones at the different pools on different days so we tried out all the pools. They have games at the pools for the kids. Free face painting at the activity center. They have movie nights at the pools with $1 bags of freshly popped popcorn. She and I both enjoyed the movie nights. We didn't use their shuttle but from what I remember when I looked at the schedule, VV has a better shuttle schedule to the Disney parks too.


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## Arimaas (Apr 12, 2018)

bbodb1 said:


> If you drive to Disney (or any other park in Orlando), you'll be shocked at the parking costs as well BUT during our visits to WDW from BC, we still drove so we could have the most flexibility in terms of coming and going and NOT being a slave to a shuttle schedule.



Lol guess no one here are New Yorkers. $20 to park all day, at a theme park none the less, is a bargain.


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## BDMX2 (Apr 12, 2018)

We generally drive to the parks, it is now $22 to park per day, but that is PER DAY so you can come and go and hit a different park and not have to pay again.  Rental cars are usually cheap in Orlando.  We have annual passes, so parking is free, but I still think I'd pay the $22 for the convenience of being on our own timetable.

We did Lyft around a couple of days ago as we were doing an "all 4 parks in a day" challenge...but had to pop back to WBC to dry off after a big storm went through (so thankful for the washers and dryers in the room!)  Here's the prices we paid for the various parks using the basic 4 person Lyft service: 

WBC tower 1 to AK: $10
DHS to WBC tower 1: $7
WBC tower 1 to Boardwalk (to walk into Epcot International Gateway): $7
Contemporary (walk from the Magic Kingdom) to WBC tower 1: $11

I left tips out since YMMV on how you tip. But this just about covers the current costs from all 4 parks (if you go into Epcot through International Gateway - the front entrance would be more), the rates for the larger vehicles might be slightly higher, but I'm not sure about that.


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## cayman01 (Apr 14, 2018)

You want a car. Whether to drive your own or rent. Nothing worse than having two or three wiped out kids and waiting for a shuttle that might be there in five minutes or fifty. And then all th stops before getting to you resort. Get a car. 

 If you are going for a week get some type of Annual Pass for one person which will give you free parking. And discounts on food and merchandise.


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## Lisa P (Apr 18, 2018)

Arimaas said:


> Lol guess no one here are New Yorkers. $20 to park all day, at a theme park none the less, is a bargain.


We can relate but when we moved away from the higher prices *and* higher incomes of the northeast U.S., we viewed the $100-$150 per week parking charges for the parks differently.  The lifestyle change was, for us, totally worth it.  But our perspective on what constitutes a "high" price for restaurants or parking has changed significantly.  Most of the country does not relate to NYC or San Francisco salaries or cost-of-living. 



cayman01 said:


> You want a car. Whether to drive your own or rent. Nothing worse than having two or three wiped out kids and waiting for a shuttle that might be there in five minutes or fifty. And then all th stops before getting to you resort. Get a car.
> 
> If you are going for a week get some type of Annual Pass for one person which will give you free parking. And discounts on food and merchandise.


Totally agree.  Whenever we've traveled with children, we've wanted a car.  Not just for park schedule convenience, but also to visit better-priced, nice offsite restaurants and parks, and even for an occasional visit to an Urgent Care (strep throat, ear infections, etc.) and full-service pharmacy.


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## bendadin (Apr 22, 2018)

So speaking of Bonnet Creek, we saw not one, but two DVC vans at the main building. I wonder if an arrangement is in the works for 60 day FP.


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## BDMX2 (Apr 22, 2018)

bendadin said:


> So speaking of Bonnet Creek, we saw not one, but two DVC vans at the main building. I wonder if an arrangement is in the works for 60 day FP.



I doubt it, something like that would be negotiated at a corporate level, not at the physical location.  I also don't think we should hold our breath on it since Disney would likely need a kickback or something, and that would mean higher dues.  But that said, I personally think the 60 day FP thing is over hyped, we generally get what we want at 30 day or less, even same day with some strategic app refreshing.  When Toy Story Land and then Galaxy's Edge open I may change my tune, but I honestly hate trying to schedule what we think we'll want to do two months from now.  Even if we stay onsite we often shuffle Fastpasses once we're there.


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## Richardsdeals (Apr 26, 2018)

Uber


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## Lisa P (Apr 26, 2018)

Uber/Lyft - good alternatives for small families who fly to Orlando.

Larger families may be better off renting a car and paying for theme park parking.


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## Floridaty (Apr 26, 2018)

At BC now with my family which includes a 3 year old.  Not sure what you are doing for tickets but I would purchase at least one Disney Platinum Pass from Disney for $730.  With the pass you get free parking ($22 per day saved) and free photo downloads which can save you a ton of money if you plan on using the Disney photographers.  You also get 20% off Disney merchandise and food discounts.  We have been to Disney 24 times in the past 11 months and those costs add up.


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## Rhiannon35 (Apr 26, 2018)

We went in Oct. and used Uber even though we had rented a car. Other than MK, Uber drops you off right at the gate, and saves what can be a very long walk and/or waiting for a tram to get to your car. I don't think it was ever more than $12 each way, so not much more -- and sometimes less -- than parking fee. If there are six of you, just get an Uber XL. 
You can find out approx. costs at uber estimator website.


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## kaljor (Apr 27, 2018)

Floridaty said:


> At BC now with my family which includes a 3 year old.  Not sure what you are doing for tickets but I would purchase at least one Disney Platinum Pass from Disney for $730.  With the pass you get free parking ($22 per day saved) and free photo downloads which can save you a ton of money if you plan on using the Disney photographers.  You also get 20% off Disney merchandise and food discounts.  We have been to Disney 24 times in the past 11 months and those costs add up.




I just went to the Disney website to check this as it seemed like a pretty good idea, but the Platinum Pass sells for $904 on their site.  If you know of another place to get it cheaper, I'd love to know.


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## paxsarah (Apr 27, 2018)

It’s possible they’re either a Florida resident, DVC member, or thinking of the renewal price. For the rest of us, it is indeed $904.


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## Floridaty (Apr 27, 2018)

It could be i am only able see florid a resident prices for passes even when I am logged out of my account.  I paid under $250 for my pass and have been to the parks 24 times so far.  I would still consider one pass regardless of the cost to the parks associated with it.


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## laura123 (Apr 27, 2018)

I don’t think you want to go to WDW every day with a 3and 5 year old. They will love BC the pools and lazy river are so much fun. The long lines and short rides tire quickly. My grandkids were begging to stay at the resort.


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## bendadin (Apr 27, 2018)

Our favorite Disney park is Typhoon Lagoon.  We did 2 years of annual passes so now we are doing the water park annual pass ($130.)

My DVC pass is $589 plus tax. All ticket prices are creeping up.


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## T&O (May 18, 2018)

Imducky said:


> I'm planning to go to WDW March 2019 with my 2 granddaughters, ages 3 and 5.  How far is it to magic kingdom?  I read mixed reviews about three shuttles and the cost is 8.00 roundtrip per person, witb 6 people for 7 days...it could add up
> Has anyone stayed there with kids 5 and under?  Looking for advice/suggestions. THANKS!


We drove our rental car and paid the parking fee just to have the freedom to leave when we wanted to. Plus, the kids are still in car seats and crashed as soon as we pulled out of the lot.  Only about 20 minutes to any Disney park, Sea World and Universal.  We took the shuttle the first time we were at Bonnet Creek, about 7 years ago and before kids. At the end of the day, after the fireworks, had to wait for almost an hour in the parking lot before we got on a shuttle back to resort - the first shuttle was full and leaving when we arrived at pick up spot.  By the time the next shuttle came by, there were so many people there, we were left behind to wait for a 3rd shuttle.  Then it makes a few stops before finally arriving at resort.  Couldn't imagine doing that with exhausted kids.


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## kaljor (May 19, 2018)

Does anyone know how the Disney shuttle payment works?  Do you buy a round trip ticket at the resort?  Can you charge it to your room?  Is there a one way fare?  Any details would be appreciated because even though I'll be there with a large family group and we will drive to a park each day, I may want to stay later or be at a different park when they all want to leave.


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## Jan M. (May 19, 2018)

kaljor said:


> Does anyone know how the Disney shuttle payment works?  Do you buy a round trip ticket at the resort?  Can you charge it to your room?  Is there a one way fare?  Any details would be appreciated because even though I'll be there with a large family group and we will drive to a park each day, I may want to stay later or be at a different park when they all want to leave.



You have to book the shuttle in advance. The last time I saw a shuttle schedule there was no one way option. We are checking in at Bonnet Creek on Sunday so I will look at the shuttle information for you to see if any of that has changed. As someone else said you would be better off paying for a Lyft or Uber ride than using the shuttle especially at night when you are leaving the Parks.

If you want to stay later at one of the parks you could take the Disney bus to the Caribbean Beach Resort and have someone pick you up there. It is close to Bonnet Creek. I don't know about the lower floors but I do know you can see the Caribbean from the higher floors on some buildings when you stay at Bonnet Creek. The person picking you up would tell them he/she is just picking someone up and would have to show ID to the guard. I've had my husband pick our granddaughter and I up there when we've stayed at Bonnet Creek; it's easy and convenient.


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## chriskre (May 19, 2018)

Arimaas said:


> Lol guess no one here are New Yorkers. $20 to park all day, at a theme park none the less, is a bargain.



No longer a NYer but I do live in city of Miami where we pay to play also.
The problem is that this is swamp land not primo parking.  
You gotta schlep and take a tram, it's not garage parking or premium spots
unless you pay the $45 for the premium spots.  

I live in FL so I get the annual pass which includes the parking as does DVC,
but I totally get that people get ticked off paying to play.  You don't really
have much choice, well you do but I won't share that publiclly or the mouse
may not like it. LOL  Seems they are closing those loopholes anyway with all the
new construction.  And now charging to park in the resorts overnight $24 is
also ridiculous.  $190 fee just because, then add $24 for resort parking and $22
for theme park parking and it is just getting out of reach for most regular folk.

I'm blessed to own DVC so I'm exempt from most of it, but I totally get it.
I do stay off site alot because I like the bigger units at BC and Marriott and for
now DVC is still comping my parking.  I hope it continues or I will be making
some noise too because this is my one and ONLY direct developer purchase.
And it was not cheap, but it does bring me the most pleasure when I use it.
Just something about DVC that is my happy place.  BC is a close second 
and I do really like it.  Wyndham did a great resort right there.  I'd love to
see part of it become DVC.  Maybe some of the Presidential units or they
could build a small boutique DVC.  
Seems that's the way they are going anyway.


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## chriskre (May 19, 2018)

bendadin said:


> Our favorite Disney park is Typhoon Lagoon.  We did 2 years of annual passes so now we are doing the water park annual pass ($130.)
> 
> My DVC pass is $589 plus tax. All ticket prices are creeping up.



I wonder if you can just buy the After 4pm Epcot ticket and get the free parking too.
All the annual passes come with free parking now. 
That might be an option for those who just want the parking and the AP discount.
Right now the discount is 20%.  It does add up and it's being offered at more places.

I also noticed that Disney is not posting prices on many things anymore.
For example, one day the beach towels were Buy one or get two for $20 each.
Next day they were buy one get 2 for $22 each.  So the discount goes poof with
each click of the mouse.  I did get a cast member to acknowledge that in fact
that is exactly what they are doing.  So it's all about yield management right now.
I guess they are learning from the airlines.  Ugggggh.
Do yourself a favor and stop at the Disney Store in the Prime Outlet Malls before
you spend a ton in the parks.   For example I got mouse ears for $9.99.  Granted
they are retired styles but the parks they were all $24.99.  
The kids clothes was $9.99.  No AP discount but the clothes in the parks were all
$19.99-$29.99.  I wish I had stopped there first.  I ended up buying twice the stuff
because we now have two new grand babies to buy for so I bought bigger stuff and
will save for Christmas but sheesh that's a big difference and the styles are all cute.

Disney is experimenting with making smaller boutique type stores because the big
Disney store just isn't getting the sales that the smaller places are getting.  I really
liked the new Disney Place for kids in Disney Springs.  It's laid out so nicely and easy
to stop by Princess or theme but yeah you pay to play there but they did honor the
20% discount for what it's worth.


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## whitewater (May 19, 2018)

its a 15 minute drive then 45 minutes to park, walk, shuttle/tram, then monorail or boat to gates.  

I would uber or lyft hands down  with cost of renting van for a week 600-1200 (my experience) plus $20 to park per day at parks.  save the money and time and just let others ride.

BC shuttles are slow and take a long time.  not worth the hassle when kids want to leave and you have to wait for shuttle...


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## BDMX2 (May 19, 2018)

The problem with Uber/Lyft with small kids is that they don't have carseats.   With small kids I'd go rental.  For 6 people I'd do the math on two econo cars for the week vs. a full size van, and include the 2nd parking fee per day to see how it comes out.  Economy size rentals are cheap in Orlando.   If you are a Costco member,  their rates usually can't be beat.   If not,  the are other discount codes to be found out there with a quick Google search.  Depending on time of year an economy car should run about $100 per week.   You should also be able to find a mini van for under $300 a week, those should fit 6 I would think... might be right with carseats,  but i would think do-able.


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## whitewater (May 19, 2018)

BDMX2 said:


> The problem with Uber/Lyft with small kids is that they don't have carseats.   With small kids I'd go rental.  For 6 people I'd do the math on two econo cars for the week vs. a full size van, and include the 2nd parking fee per day to see how it comes out.  Economy size rentals are cheap in Orlando.   If you are a Costco member,  their rates usually can't be beat.   If not,  the are other discount codes to be found out there with a quick Google search.  Depending on time of year an economy car should run about $100 per week.   You should also be able to find a mini van for under $300 a week, those should fit 6 I would think... might be right with carseats,  but i would think do-able.



If you can get a car for 300 a week you rock.  Went 10 times last year. Cheapest was 800


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## BDMX2 (May 19, 2018)

whitewater said:


> If you can get a car for 300 a week you rock.  Went 10 times last year. Cheapest was 800



Picking up at MCO?  We got economy in November for $69 and a full size SUV in April for $145.


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## whitewater (May 19, 2018)

Yep I should note we traveled when the kids were on break. Christmas, Thanksgiving, spring break, memorial day 4th of july, etc....


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## Jan M. (May 19, 2018)

whitewater said:


> If you can get a car for 300 a week you rock.  Went 10 times last year. Cheapest was 800



Where in the world are you renting cars from? I don't think I've ever paid over $180, out the door, for a week and I've gotten the compact up through the full size. For the heck of it I just looked on Priceline and a standard size car for the week of June 23-30 at the Orlando airport is currently $153.15.

We just paid $311 for a 17 day rental in an intermediate size car in Vegas. This was our first time using Autoslash and I have to say I was very impressed and will always use it for future reservations. I usually go to Priceline to see who is offering the current best deal then go to that company's website to make a reservation. You usually get a little better deal that way. However that was not the case with the links Autoslash sent me when they found a lower rate. It always took me to Priceline. After I made the reservation on Priceline I was able to see the discount code used and went directly to that rental car company website but that same discount code didn't get me as good a deal. That seems strange but whatever.

With Priceline you don't have to pay up front for the reservations anymore and you will get a second confirmation email directly from the rental car company. When booking through the rental car companies I've learned not to pre-pay because there is always a monetary penalty if you cancel. If you keep checking you can often find a better deal than the one you started out with. Rental car companies change their rates all the time. However after I've been watching for a while and know what is an exceptionally good deal when I see one, I will pre-pay at that time but only if it gets me an even better rate.

Before we moved to Florida and came down here on vacations we sometimes used Royal, Ace and another one I can't think of right now. There are some smaller Florida rental car companies that you don't see on the websites like Priceline, Travelocity, Expedia or Orbitz.


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## Jan M. (May 19, 2018)

whitewater said:


> Yep I should note we traveled when the kids were on break. Christmas, Thanksgiving, spring break, memorial day 4th of july, etc....



If you typically travel at those times you should just go ahead and make reservations for those weeks and use Autoslash too. As it gets closer to the date and you have definite travel times when you get the emails from Autoslash that they've found a better rate you can always tweak the reservation dates and times as needed.


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## BDMX2 (May 19, 2018)

Ours are generally school vacations as well.  Like Jan M. does, I check a few sites like Priceline and I also Google " x brand name x month code" and get codes to plug in and try for consideration comparison.   As I mentioned,  Costco/BJ's/Sam's choices are often good too, especially Costco. 

Whitewater,  the next time you are headed to MCO ping me with a private message and I'll poke around for a good rate for you.   I love this kind of stuff!


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## bendadin (May 19, 2018)

I'm here now. I rented through Costco. $25/day through Alamo and I chose an intermediate SUV. In the garage they said free upgrade and to take anything that I wanted


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## AutoSlash (May 20, 2018)

Jan M. said:


> Where in the world are you renting cars from? I don't think I've ever paid over $180, out the door, for a week and I've gotten the compact up through the full size. For the heck of it I just looked on Priceline and a standard size car for the week of June 23-30 at the Orlando airport is currently $153.15.
> 
> We just paid $311 for a 17 day rental in an intermediate size car in Vegas. This was our first time using Autoslash and I have to say I was very impressed and will always use it for future reservations. I usually go to Priceline to see who is offering the current best deal then go to that company's website to make a reservation. You usually get a little better deal that way. However that was not the case with the links Autoslash sent me when they found a lower rate. It always took me to Priceline. After I made the reservation on Priceline I was able to see the discount code used and went directly to that rental car company website but that same discount code didn't get me as good a deal. That seems strange but whatever.
> 
> ...



Happy we were able to save you money on your recent rental. After booking, be sure to track your rental with AutoSlash for future price drops at www.autoslash.com/track. Rates often drop as the pickup date approaches, and by tracking your reservation with us, you'll ensure that if they do, we'll notify you so you can re-book and save even more.

Note that you can sometimes take the discount codes and then go book on your own, but the small commission we make from folks booking with Priceline is how we pay our team. If everyone did that, we'd go out of business, so we appreciate it when folks use our links to book. It helps us keep the service free for everyone.


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## Jan M. (May 21, 2018)

Staying at Bonnet Creek in a two bedroom deluxe this week. Notice the different colored fitted bottom sheet. We always bring our own fitted bottom sheet because at some of the resorts their fitted bottom sheets are far too small to fit the deeper mattresses so either won't go on to start with but definitely won't stay on. Now notice the top sheet. Are you kidding me! It is about a foot too short to be able to tuck in at the bottom. I thought I had it on the wrong way so tried it the other way but I do have it on the right way.

Hey Wyndham for all we pay can you not spend our money on sheets that fit!


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## schoolmarm (May 22, 2018)

Also, if you are flying, just book your car with your airline ticket.  I think that I paid less than $20 per day from Dollar, EZ, and others by using the car option on both Southwest and Delta. I think that Florida is the cheapest place to rent a car (I'm paying $42/day in DC this week), even at the airport!

Jan, thanks for the tip about Autoslash. I travel lots and have never heard of it!


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## Crafty71 (May 22, 2018)

Jan M. said:


> Staying at Bonnet Creek in a two bedroom deluxe this week. Notice the different colored fitted bottom sheet. We always bring our own fitted bottom sheet because at some of the resorts their fitted bottom sheets are far too small to fit the deeper mattresses so either won't go on to start with but definitely won't stay on. Now notice the top sheet. Are you kidding me! It is about a foot too short to be able to tuck in at the bottom. I thought I had it on the wrong way so tried it the other way but I do have it on the right way.
> 
> Hey Wyndham for all we pay can you not spend our money on sheets that fit!


If this is what you get in the condo, it makes you wonder why Wyndham even bothers pushing their "Wyndham At Home" collection...if I wanted to buy different colored sheets that don't fit, I think I would choose Value Village as opposed to some website where everything is overpriced...

Cheers!


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## Jan M. (May 22, 2018)

Crafty71 said:


> If this is what you get in the condo, it makes you wonder why Wyndham even bothers pushing their "Wyndham At Home" collection...if I wanted to buy different colored sheets that don't fit, I think I would choose Value Village as opposed to some website where everything is overpriced...
> 
> Cheers!



The different colored fitted bottom sheet is the one we always bring with us, not Wyndham's. I wish I had taken a picture of how poorly their bottom sheet fit before I took it the rest of the way off. It only covered two corners of the bed and was bunched up in lumps. They make deep pocket fitted bottom sheets that actually fit the thicker mattresses and some resorts have them but not Bonnet Creek.


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