Orlando trip – Hilton Bonnet Creek vs Waldorf Astoria

[DJJ]

We were looking to travel to Orlando during the Summer holidays (2 adults, 2 young children). Planning to stay 10 nights at either Hilton Bonnet Creek or Walforf Astoria – will book with Hilton points taking advantage of 5th night free (therefore “paying” for 8 nights). Hilton Bonnet Creek is 70k per night while Waldorf is 90k for our dates so it would work out as 560k or 720k respectively..

Has anyone stayed at either, and if so which would you recommend? I believe both are next door to each other and share some facilities (although I understand you can use Hilton pool if staying at Waldorf but not vice versa).

I would normally go for Waldorf but tripadvisor reviews seem to suggest service and experience is underwhelming. I emailed Waldorf 10 days ago with some questions, and while they responded to my initial email promptly, there were some questions unanswered and they have not responded since (despite few follow up emails from me)

[omicron]

Stayed at the Hilton in 2019 and was happy with that choice. It’s a modern hotel with a nice pool area and lazy river. Not luxury, but typical 4 star with decent service. Good location for the Hilton parks, but obviously you need to drive/Uber/take the shuttle everywhere.

There’s a short distance to walk between the two hotels, so I imagine you will probably end up preferring to use the pool facilities of whatever hotel you end up staying at, rather than walk back and forth every time.

[The real Swiss Tony]

Is there a risk the reviews are “worse” for the WA because people have unrealistically high expectations? It also seems that in general the service ethic in the US has gone down the drain, so people may be more forgiving of the mainstream Hilton brand.

Note you’ll get a marginally more generous F&B credit at the WA. I was in the lobby of the Hilton once – picked up a rental car – certainly looked very nice and felt quite relaxing.

[Michael C]

While appreciating it’s not on the same level at all, I just
had a very pleasant stay at the Hilton Lake Buena Vista. I admit
our needs were very specific, however, as one of the big pluses
was being able to walk to Disney Springs every evening in 5 mins with our little one.

Still, it was far better than the dreaded reviews had suggested. Upgraded as Gold
to higher renovated floor, + 2 x $15 per day to put towards buffet b/fast or anything
else. Free Starbucks & water each day. Having an Avis desk in the lobby also proved
to be v handy: return time was 6pm for non-guests or “any time tonight” for guests.

One thing we did notice re. cars was that, especially for longer trip, Lyft was far
cheaper than Uber, sometimes by around 40%.

[rachyclaire]

We stayed at the Hilton Bonnet Creek last week and walked through the Waldorf (it’s one big building), in all honesty I’d rather we’d gone back to the Hilton Lake Buena Vista Palace (there are two LBV Hilton’s, so possibly not the same one as mentioned above) where we’d had a night earlier in our trip. There is building work on the new ballroom fairly close to the pool at both the BC hotels and it was noisy at times. Buena Vista palace also felt a lot more welcoming and family friendly (we stayed with our four year old), there were some big conferences going on while we were at Bonnet creek and it felt very corporate whereas LBVP at garden games and stuff going on for kids. We didn’t use the shuttle to the parks at either hotel but we did take the shuttle to Disney springs from BC (LBVP is walking distance).

[rachyclaire]

Forgot to add, Hilton BC doesn’t have balconies, some rooms at the Waldorf do I think. If we’d been having a longer stay I think this would have been annoying purely from the POV of getting swimming stuff dry.

[Ali M]

Such an interesting post…
I am looking to book for next year and was almost sure that WA would be so much better but interesting to note that Bonnet Creek reviews / experience is better – also useful to know that can use any pool hehe.
Also impressed that 5 min walk to Disney parks via buena vista.
I would rather save some points and be closer and use the bulk of points somewhere like Maldives – unless there is further devaluation !!!

[0 post]

Signia Bonnet Creek has Kids under 13 dinner included at Harvest Bistro w/ adult entrée purchase included with the resort fee if that’s any help?
Also ask for the Virgin Atlantic discount 😉

[rachyclaire]

Ali M wrote:

Such an interesting post…
I am looking to book for next year and was almost sure that WA would be so much better but interesting to note that Bonnet Creek reviews / experience is better – also useful to know that can use any pool hehe.
Also impressed that 5 min walk to Disney parks via buena vista.
I would rather save some points and be closer and use the bulk of points somewhere like Maldives – unless there is further devaluation !!!

Just to clarify, it’s a 5 min walk to Disney Springs (the shopping/dining area) from LBVP, not to the actual parks. The parks are about 15-20 mins on the shuttle bus.

[memurr]

We stayed at the Waldorf Astoria and enjoyed it. Rooms felt a little dated and the service was not nearly as friendly as the service we received at our Disney resort, but the pool was lovely and we enjoyed using our Gold food credit each day. Waldorf guests have access to the Hilton Bonnet Creek pools as well as the Waldorf pool but the Hilton guests don’t get access to the Waldorf pool. That might make a difference too.

Also worth nothing that the transport from the Hilton and Waldorf to the parks is shared and pretty rubbish in terms of frequency so I wouldn’t stay there without a car.

[iandv]

We stayed at the Waldorf last year, booked through Virgin Holidays and thought it was excellent and far superior to the Disney deluxe hotels.

Not sure if I’m allowed to share a hotel review on here but this was our experience.

https://www.youneedtovisit.co.uk/hotel-review-waldorf-astoria-orlando/

All of the rooms have been fully renovated since our stay, prices seem much higher for this summer so at the moment we are at the Signia

[travelwell]

iandv wrote:

We stayed at the Waldorf last year, booked through Virgin Holidays and thought it was excellent and far superior to the Disney deluxe hotels.

Not sure if I’m allowed to share a hotel review on here but this was our experience.

https://www.youneedtovisit.co.uk/hotel-review-waldorf-astoria-orlando/

All of the rooms have been fully renovated since our stay, prices seem much higher for this summer so at the moment we are at the Signia

Great review. I’ve always looked at this option but we just love staying onsite. Monorail loop ideally!

[iandv]

Thanks, I do like the Monorail hotels out of all the Disney properties, although the Riviera is also a nice property. One of our favourites is slightly further out from the hustle and hustle down in Championsgate called the Omni – has a fab water park for kids