They're connected but 1 tower is the hotel, the rest is the timeshares. The timeshare guests can use the hotel pool, not sure if the other way around. The timeshare buildings also have their own pools, I think there are maybe 4 in all? 2 lazy rivers. Biggest difference as far as I know is no housekeeping in the timeshare units. But you get free parking!
We stayed in the timeshare and had access too all pools, and the one right outside our tower had a lazy river, and we visited the one with the pirate ship slide one day. (Be forewarned, kids must be independent swimmers to use the slide, no flotation devices allowed and no parents can help catch, and the lifeguard was kind of a jerk to us about it! Literally the only even slight complaint we had our entire stay!)
It all sounds great. I'm going in January so now I'm praying it'll be warm enough to use that pool. I'm also the type to leave the do not disturb sign on my door so housekeeping doesn't come in. I hate having to put everything away just to go out for a bit when I am on vacation. I just want to come and go as I please and have no problem tidying up myself as needed. I do that anyway.
So, on the slide my daughter can't wear a life jacket? She can go swim on her own, but she's 5 and no 5 year old is really a great swimmer. That's a strange rule to me. Sounds the opposite of safe.
The price won't change after you've paid
the only "catch" is paying for parking at the Disney parks and not getting EMH since you're offsite. Far outweighed to me by the beautiful resort grounds and spacious, well appointed condo units at a fraction of the price. I look forward to hearing your review when you get back!
I went ahead and booked it last night with Vacation Strategy. I was waiting for a quote from Vacation Upgrades but was worried the availability would disappear. Ultimately, I bit the bullet because I saw VC had their prices and it said the 2 BR deluxe was $1500 for 7 nights and I was quoted $1140 by VS. It wasn't until after I paid that I saw their prices (at the bottom of the page) were much lower when you're inside 60 days. I was on my iPad and just didn't see it unfortunately. So I think VS might end up being $200 more.
Oh well. My fault. We are still saving money and the room is much better and by comparison to POR, the pool will be much better too. And now I have the flexibility to do things outside of Disney.
For me downsides were - not making fast passes until 30 days (still got everything i wanted but stalked like a crazy person!), making dining reservations 1 day at a time at 180 days, no EMH, and paying for parking. We loved having a rental car, and truly I'd be tempted to rent one even if we stayed onsite next time. The thought of standing and waiting for a bus after a full day made us almost skip to the car with glee. Can't do dining plan but we spent WAY less than a dining plan would have cost on food.
No catches really! Our price we paid with VU was really all-in, we paid it all upfront but I think they just asked for a deposit at first. For sure rent a car though, bc they have shuttles but they are kind of pricey. I think the only other thing we spent a penny on at the resort was one meal we ate poolside, and a few dollars here and there to tip helpful bellmen.
The thought of standing and waiting for a bus is exactly the reason we decided to go off site in the first place. I have fibromyalgia and standing in one spot without being able to move is incredibly difficult for me. The pain is much lower if I can keep moving. The cheaper hotel gave us the money for the rental car.
We actually got really lucky with our fast passes. We originally intended to stay on-site and had POR booked. So I booked our FPs at the 60 day window. Last night I changed our resort reservation to one night at All-Star Music and kept our 8 day park tickets, which kept our fast passes in tact. It was only $88 more for the room and now we can use EMH on the day we check in, when Epcot is open until 11 that night. And I may add a park hopper so we can use EMH at MK the following night. It also includes MagicBands, which I was going to buy anyway, so really that's really only $44 extra.
Additionally, we already had breakfast reservations at Akershus for the day we will be "checking out" which would cost $125. I was able to add one night of the
DDP with for $177 more and we will definitely use that $52 on park food during those two days. Plus we get the 3 refillable mugs which we can fill up when we go to resorts for food during the week and keep as souvenirs.
Dollar for dollar we're still saving a little over $100 but now that amount includes a 2 bedroom villa, a car, a couple of meals and snacks we were going to pay for on top of our original amount anyway, and a ton of flexibility. I'm pretty happy with my choice.
but are going to end up there a day ahead. Is there any way to extend the stay by 1 day? I am new to the time shares and thought I read somewhere in the thousands of pages of Bonnet Creek that you could when close to the check in date. Can anyone help me figure out if that is true?
