Bonnet Creek is a beautiful property, surrounded on three sides by the Walt Disney World Resort.  The entrance is right next to Disney's Caribbean Beach Resort, and the location is arguably the best of any off-property resort.  The Waldorf Astoria is a Four Diamond-rated hotel located next door to the Hilton at Bonnet Creek with which it shares complimentary bus transportation to the Walt Disney World theme parks.  The opportunity to stay in a luxury resort in such a convenient location at a fraction of the cost to stay at an equivalent Disney resort sold us on giving an off-property resort a try!

We stayed in a Deluxe Double Queen room, which is one of the most basic offered at the Waldorf Astoria.  With two queen beds, this room sleeps up to four guests.  Though one of the smallest guest rooms at the Waldorf... at 448 square feet, the room is HUGE for a standard room!  And for comparison, the largest standard room at a Disney Resort is 440 square feet at the Grand Floridian Resort & Spa.



Our room at the Waldorf Astoria was plush, outfitted with textured carpet, Egyptian cotton bedding, and marble tile in the bathrooms.

January 2, 2014 - Magic Kingdom + See You Real Soon

It was another rainy morning.

December 30, 2013 - Pool and Magic Kingdom

Rachel looked at the week's forecast and decided that this was the best day for her pool day. The sun didn't come out until the afternoon, though, so we spent the morning sleeping in and watching Disney Channel.

Also, something to note is that the Waldorf Astoria is kind of like a Vegas hotel in the way that you may be getting a five star resort room for a three star price, but the food is still the five star price. If you're wondering prices, it's like a bowl of cereal for $7 or a cup of coffee for $4 (though the room did have a Nespresso machine with free cartridges that the restocked throughout our stay). It's just obnoxious because I could buy a box of Frosted Flakes for $4 - I find it immoral to charge $7 for a bowl. My point is it's not higher quality food, it's just more expensive. Food at Walt Disney World hotels is much more reasonable.

Our 2013 holiday started with an Eastern Caribbean Cruise on the Royal Princess.



We planned to visit Walt Disney World for New Year's Eve because we purchased annual passes when we visited in October. However, hotel prices for that time of the year are steep - more than we wanted to pay. So we started looking into other alternatives. We had narrowed it down to the Swan or Dolphin resort which would be convenient, and we know that they are nice because we have stayed there before.... or the Bonnet Creek resort area because I've heard great things about Bonnet Creek, and I've always wondered about it. After much debating, we realized that this was our opportunity to try it out. With our annual passes, we got free parking at the parks, so transportation was not an issue. We also already had Magic Bands, and I had already made FP+ reservations on My Disney Experience (as annual passholders who stayed at a Disney Resort during Magic Band testing, we could make FP+ reservations up to 60 days out on our My Disney Experience account). It was the perfect time to see if an off-site resort could work for us, so we booked the Waldorf Astoria at Bonnet Creek.