The we loooooove Club Wyndham Bonnet Creek Part 4

[Brian Noble]

(9/8/23 - 9/14/23)

These are not Owner Priority dates at Bonnet Creek.

https://clubwyndham.wyndhamdestinat...rces/reservations/owner-priority-reservations

There is still a chance that the owner in question will run afoul of Wyndham's "commercial use" sweep, but this isn't why.

 

[sara_s]

Extra Holidays is the rental arm of Wyndham. Some owners rent directly to guests. Some use points managers. Some give their timeshare points to Wyndham, who then rents rooms through Extra Holidays.

It is also a way for Wyndham to make money from its excess inventory.

You won't be required to go to a timeshare pitch, although you may be enticed with some kind of offer. You can just say no.

Some timeshare companies do offer "postcard deals" that will give you a cheap teaser rate on a vacation and require you to go to a sales pitch, but this would be pretty clear and I haven't seen those at WBC.

Was just there as a non-owner, and you're not required to do anything. Part of the check-in process is stopping at a desk that will try to convince you to attend the sales pitch but you can gently and firmly say no. I did unplug my phone in the room in case they tried calling with a follow-up.

Thank you all for confirming. My husband said "just blame the baby - he needs to eat/nap/etc."

My stay is so short (honestly it was the cheapest for wanting to be on property) and we wanted to try it out because we want to start doing 1 BR rooms so we can have our son in a separate area to sleep. If we like it, who knows, maybe we'll become regulars!

 

[softballpooh]

Coming back to report we checked in today and had no issues with the reservation. I reserved through booking.com which is the Extra Holidays rental arm for Wyndham. We didn’t have any pressure to complete a presentation. The concierge just provided her name, number to text, and the times to tour the lounge if we wanted to earn the gifts.

I’m missing the Disney bubble a bit, but for over $5K difference between this 2 bed villa and an AK 2 bed villa, there are no regrets in making the choice to stay off property.

 

[sara_s]

Coming back to report we checked in today and had no issues with the reservation. I reserved through booking.com which is the Extra Holidays rental arm for Wyndham. We didn’t have any pressure to complete a presentation. The concierge just provided her name, number to text, and the times to tour the lounge if we wanted to earn the gifts.

I’m missing the Disney bubble a bit, but for over $5K difference between this 2 bed villa and an AK 2 bed villa, there are no regrets in making the choice to stay off property.

That was the deciding factor for us as well - the stark difference in price. Enjoy your stay!

 

[cocoabean1]

If we stay at Bonnet Creek, 2 bedroom, for 10 days, can we make dining reservations at Disney 60 days out for the our entire vacation? (I know this is how it works if you stay on Disney property)

Or do I have to try to make dining reservations 60 days out for each individual day for 10 days in a row?

 

[Brian Noble]

It is not a Disney resort, so no length-of-stay dining reservations. You don’t have to go day by day though, just make most of them when the entire window is inside 60. For most places that will be fine. For those that aren’t they will likely be gone anyway by folks who can do length of stay.

 

[cocoabean1]

It is not a Disney resort, so no length-of-stay dining reservations. You don’t have to go day by day though, just make most of them when the entire window is inside 60. For most places that will be fine. For those that aren’t they will likely be gone anyway by folks who can do length of stay.

Thank you!

 

[missingdisneymore]

Thank you!

If you can't get exactly what you want, do not lose heart. The cancellation policy on dining reservations changed drastically and now can be canceled up to two hours before the reservation time so there are many, many more openings last minute than there used to be. Have fun!

 

[Upatnoon]

We found all kinds of great reservations available by looking in the evening and refreshing the results. People cancel all the time.

I think the end of the dining plan has also helped open up reservations.

For the Disney Springs restaurants, you can also find reservations on Open Table.

 

[TheElectricMayhem]

Hello all, I’ve been reading back thought this thread, so helpful. We are looking into a stay at WBC this Aug but are wondering if their shuttle can accommodate mobility scooters? One of our party will be using one.

 

[VADisneyMama5816]

If you can't get exactly what you want, do not lose heart. The cancellation policy on dining reservations changed drastically and now can be canceled up to two hours before the reservation time so there are many, many more openings last minute than there used to be. Have fun!

Absolutely! Just got back and any place we wanted, we could get..including Fantasmic dining ON NYE! It came up around 12pm that day. Dining was so much easier this trip than ever before.

 

[MamaMouse0920]

I would think Mike Kennedy could answer this question. No?

I did send him a message and got a generic response that they can't guarantee that an extenuating circumstance won't arise, but they can guarantee that they will keep me up to date if anything were to happen. Based on the "we" and "our" wording in the response I'm starting to think Mike Kennedy is not even a real person LOL and it is just some customer service representative from KOALA.

 

[Biggen]

Just got back from a 4 night stay at WBC. No issues at all checking in. Was able to request a tower and floor. Appears tower 5 is still closed (or at least limited) as there was lots of construction going on there.

Another awesome experience booking with Ken and Denise Price at Vacation Upgrades. They were able to save us about $425 since they actually go out of there way to find last minute vacant rooms at WBC inside the Wyndham VIP 60 day booking window even if you booked with them before that. So we got a $425 refund from them when they found a room vacant that we had already had reserved. Pretty cool!

 

[pmdeve]

Ken and Denise Price are great people to work with.

 

[missingdisneymore]

Ken and Denise Price are great people to work with.

Looking forward to our next WBC stay through them in May!

 

[BostonEd]

Vacation Upgrades gets good chatter here, but how are they still able to operate with Wyndham cracking down on "commercial operators"?

 

[Brian Noble]

No one really knows, but I'd probably still rent from them, knowing that there is a (small!) risk I needed to find something as a backup last minute.

First, it's not clear exactly how Wyndham is identifying commercial scofflaws. Putting together what we've seen from individual instances, it is some combination of: public advertising (especially if you do so on e.g. well-known facebook groups or use Wydnham's photos in your ad), fraction of points with guests, or fraction of stays with guests. It is possible that (a) they do not meet either of the two thresholds on stays/points and (b) Wyndham doesn't know about them. They no longer have images of any of the units, and you need to know their web page exists to find them. (Interestingly, they don't show up anywhere on the first several pages of my results when I search Google for "bonnet creek rentals".)

It's also possible that their business model isn't entirely what they say it is (renting their own excess points) but they are also serving as a point manager for other owners. If those other owners are renting in ones and twos, without directly identifying themselves on VU's site, then it would be hard for Wyndham to ID them.

So, why would I still chance it? Wyndham seems to be approaching owners in two steps. In the first, the owner gets a "You are renting. Stop doing that." For such owners, existing reservations seem to remain in place, but they are told not to add any more GCs for a period of time. If they ignore that letter, that's when things start getting cancelled. VU has a long history as a reputable company, and I'd be confident that if they got the first letter, they'd stop renting their own points and not put any other guests in jeapordy. But, that's just my guess based on gut feeling.

If someone wanted to rent from them, I think it would also be fair to ask whether or not they've been contacted by Wyndham as commercial users. Again, I suspect they'd be upfront with that based on gut feel.

(Disclaimer: I've neither rented from them or rented my own points through them, so I don't have any first-hand experience either way.)

 

[keishashadow]

Anyone book with luke begonia? Cropping up under going prices on VRbO Believe possibly dba Shelby resorts?

 

[softballpooh]

Hello all, I’ve been reading back thought this thread, so helpful. We are looking into a stay at WBC this Aug but are wondering if their shuttle can accommodate mobility scooters? One of our party will be using one.

We just returned from a stay in January and the shuttle offered is not accessibility friendly. It’s a 3rd party service. There were set times once per day for the shuttle to specific parks- not all of them- that could only accommodate a mobility scooter. In addition, the cost is $10 per person and must be reserved in advance. Also, you were not guaranteed a spot on the shuttle that could accommodate a scooter since it’s first come/first served and they only had a small number of scooters they could transport. We were not able to use this service because of this.

 

[TheElectricMayhem]

We just returned from a stay in January and the shuttle offered is not accessibility friendly. It’s a 3rd party service. There were set times once per day for the shuttle to specific parks- not all of them- that could only accommodate a mobility scooter. In addition, the cost is $10 per person and must be reserved in advance. Also, you were not guaranteed a spot on the shuttle that could accommodate a scooter since it’s first come/first served and they only had a small number of scooters they could transport. We were not able to use this service because of this.

Thanks! We finally decided that we will suck it up and stay on site just for the ease of transport. I don't want to be dragging a scooter in and out of my trunk all week.