Princess Girls Day 8 pool, home and Final Thoughts

**princessgirls** · 04-12-2007, 11:07 PM

Cast of Characters:

Fred, Julie, Morgan (6), Madison (5)
Bob, Kelly, Carlin (8), Clayton (6)

Accomodations: Venice Beach house, compliments of "Grandpa Bob" (AKA Kelly's Dad)
Bonnet Creek Resort 4 nights

Our last day in Florida was just beautiful!!! We made the most of it, by lounging at the pool and quickly organizing our stuff before making our way onto the road at 3:30 for our 6pm flight. The worst part of the entire trip was driving home from Newark Liberty Airport, our vacation over...

We were all sad to leave one another as we had such a great time together.

Here are my final thoughts:

Going with another family was a lot of fun!! We all had a terrific time with one another. We were well matched as far as ages of our kids and we each have 2 which made it easy.

The parks were crowded, but if you know how to work things, you should be able to see and do most of the good stuff. Keep reading and researching on Intercot!! I was the "unoffical" tour guide/planner for the Disney portion of our vacation and Bob, Kelly & crew enjoyed. We did Chef Mickey's, Crystal Palace, and Alfredo's this trip and all were excellent!

Resort and Staying off property: The Bonnet Creek Resort is really really nice (trust me on this) and it is right next to The Carribean Beach Resort and in the Hub of Disney BUT you are not staying on property. We parked every day, and had to deal with the tram cars from the lots. Although the resort offered busing, it only ran once an hour. There are no packages, everything is ala cart which adds up quickly. Our 5 day Base Park Passes with tax were $774 per family. We decided against the hopper option because that added another $180 per family and I thought that how much hopping are we really going to do for that, there are 8 of us. I'd rather spend that somewhere else.
I guess I'm not a HUGE fan of timeshare, so it just doesn't interest me. I think there are some great deals out there and I don't want to be tied into a timeshare. Bob and Kelly did not buy, they bought a trial membership which actually was a good deal.

I lost one of our Walkie Talkies in Epcot. Stopped in Guest Relations in Animal Kingdom the next day to see what I could do, because I only had a base pass and would not be going back to Epcot. They gave me the number of Central lost and Found and I finally got around to calling last Friday, and I am happy to report that my Walkie Talkie arrived to my house yesterday. Amazing! I can't say enough about Disney. That's why yesterday I booked another trip back.

Our Spring Break was a Magical much needed time of fellowship, laughing and just enjoying life!
Until my next adventure in August, I thank you all for reading!
Julie

pogo · 04-13-2007, 07:00 AM

Thanks for sharing your family vacation with us. It was wonderfull.

We've stayed off property before as well and you can save a little money, but it is not the same as staying at a Disney resort.

For us, we feel the little extra it costs save us some frustration.

I don't get the whole timeshare thing either. Why pay up to $1,000 per year in maintenance fee's on top of whatever it cost to purchase ?

Just but a package when you want and where you want to go.

Thanks again, and I'm looking forward to more reports from you a year or two down the road.

**magicman** · 04-13-2007, 10:55 AM

Thanks for the feedback on Bonnet Creek. You didn't mention where you'd be staying in August when you go back.

We had a similar "lost Item" episode at EPCOT a year or two ago, and we also received the returned item via mail from EPCOT. It makes you feel like good people are prevailing.

I would say that I'm sad for your trip to be concluded, but you get to immediately start anticipating a trip that's right around the corner, so I'll just feel sorry for those of us poor souls without a trip scheduled at this time.

Thanks so much for your reports. I thoroughly enjoyed them.