In this post we review the JW Marriott Orlando Bonnet Creek, a luxury non-Disney hotel in the Bonnet Creek Resort area near Disney World.
About JW Marriott Orlando Bonnet Creek
The JW Marriott Orlando Bonnet Creek is a luxury hotel near Walt Disney World. The hotel does NOT participate in any of Disney perks—no Early Theme Park Entry, no 7AM individual Lightning Lane bookings, no Extended Evening Hours. Nightly rates at the hotel tend to be between the prices of Disney’s moderate and deluxe hotels. We’re big fans of the JW Marriott chain overall, this being our fifth stay at the chain.
Location
The JW Marriott Orlando Bonnet Creek is located in the Bonnet Creek Resort area, a group of hotels on the eastern edge of property near Epcot and Hollywood Studios. JW Marriott is all the way at the end of the road at 14900 Chelonia Pkwy, Orlando, FL 32821—a full 1.7 miles from the nearest main road. We’ll discuss transportation more below.
Booking and Pricing
I booked two nights using two Marriott free night certificates (50,000 points), which are a perk of my Chase Ritz Visa card (no longer accepting applications). I didn’t note at the time of booking exactly how many points the room required, but nights around the same time are 50,000 points each, so I assume I got the full value of the certificates. I paid $78.75 for two nights of resort fees (including tax).
A similar two night stay (same days a week later) cost about $440 per night before the resort fee, meaning I got around 0.88 cents per points, above the NerdWallet valuation of 0.7 per point.
Resort Fees
JW Marriott Orlando Bonnet Creek charges a $35 plus tax nightly resort fee. Resort fees, despite being the norm amongst a certain type of hotel, are illegal in the European Union and the subject of various legal challenges in the United States. You can’t opt out of resort fees, regardless of whether you use the arbitrary list of amenities hotels use to justify the fees.
We’re hugely NOT fans of resort fees. As of this post, we haven’t enacted a moratorium on reviewing hotels with resort fees, though it’s something we’ve considered. For what it’s worth, while Disney hotels do not charge resort fees, several popular non-Disney options, like the Swan & Dolphin, do.
Marriott at least now has a checkbox on their website for “Show Rates with Taxes and All Fees” that will show you a nightly rate in search results that includes resort fees and taxes. This is arguably better than the Disney standard of search results that show only a pre-tax rate (but again, Disney doesn’t charge resort fees).
Transportation
We paid $30 plus tax nightly for self-parking in a garage connected to the hotel. I found this incredibly convenient, and honestly I’d very rarely recommend valet parking—available for $40+tax at the JW Marriott—as part of a Disney World or Universal visit because if you’re driving to the parks for rope drop you don’t want to wind up waiting on your car some busy morning.
The JW Marriott Orlando Bonnet Creek offers shuttles to and from the four Disney theme parks and Disney Springs. You can (and should) book these in advance online, though we didn’t have our reservations checked.
At Epcot, Hollywood Studios, and Animal Kingdom you’ll be dropped off either at or near the regular bus depot, just like Disney buses. At Magic Kingdom, you’ll be dropped off at Transportation and Ticket Center and still have to take a ferry or monorail over to the park (figure this is a 15-minute process).
Since guests of JW Marriott don’t get Early Entry, rope drop isn’t as important—the bulk of guests ahead of you in the park are going to be the guests who had Early Entry. The first shuttle times are scheduled to get you to the parks about 30 minutes before they open, which is fine most days.
Unfortunately, going to Magic Kingdom you’ll be cutting it a bit closer with the transportation time from TTC, and that’s the only park where you aren’t at an immediate disadvantage without Early Entry. If possible, you’ll prefer to drive or Uber to TTC leaving the hotel 60-75 minutes before the park opens.
The shuttles run a few times a day and include an option after park close. Overall I’d call this about equal to the Disney bus situation. Disney buses are more frequent, but entirely unpredictable. Personally I prefer the more limited, but scheduled system in most situations.
Resort Amenities & Dining
We were at the parks basically our entire stay, so we didn’t spend much time enjoying the amenities or dining options at the hotel.
The lobby is very spacious, with plenty of room if you want to work or—in case you’re a toddler—run around climbing on things for an hour.
There are several restaurants and bars throughout the hotel. In room dining is available. I’ll point out that the restaurants with “Unreserved” in their name counterintuitively take reservations…but okay. We visited the JW Market for coffee, but that was our only dining at the hotel. We were provided two drink tickets at check-in that went unused.
We did pay a visit to the pool one chilly morning. There are two pools—a main pool and an adult pool—along with a small splash pad for kids.
The resort also has a fitness center, spa, kids’ room, miniature golf course, and climbing wall ($15 per guest). Overall the quality of amenities matches or bests any Disney hotel.
Our Room at the JW Marriott Orlando Bonnet Creek
The room was spacious, with a loveseat and desk still leaving a decent amount of space for Zoe to run around. I didn’t get a good picture of the Pack ‘n’ Play (the hotel asked us if we preferred a Pack ‘n’ Play or crib), but we just put it at the foot of the bed.
Minus one point for carpet, but plus two points for abundant USB chargers, including bedside.
The room is a little plain. It reminds me a lot of the old Contemporary rooms, which have now been replaced. I liked those rooms five years ago, and I don’t hate this room, but I’d say it falls a little short of wowing me.
Overall I’d say this room is worse than the rooms at Disney’s deluxe hotels, which have now all been recently refurbished. (Use the arrows to scroll gallery.)
I’m too dense to immediately figure out how to use the illy coffee machine, and I wish all hotel rooms in the world were equipped with Keurigs. The coffee from this machine was good machine coffee, though.
I’ve stayed in a few Marriott hotels recently and this is the second time I’ve encountered this stupid glass door for the toilet. As far as I can tell the door isn’t lockable. You can see the silhouette of the person using it. There’s definitely minimal sound protection. Just…no. (Use the arrows to scroll gallery.)
The other bizarre feature of the bathroom was the lack of any sort of hand towel rack. The first time washing my hands I searched desperately for a towel (right beneath you, dummy). After I used it I searched desperately for a place for it before just setting it on the counter.
The sink space is a little limited. Emily and I never get ready simultaneously these days, so it’s not a big deal, but with much of the counter space awkwardly behind the bathtub, I could see this bathroom feeling cramped during a morning family rush (you know, with one of you on the toilet pretending no one can see or hear you through the blurred glass door).
The shower took a little bit of time to warm up, as did the sink water.
Conclusions
This is relatively straightforward. The rooms are good and the resort hotel experience is great (though we’re biased by being entranced by the JW Marriott smell, I admit). You’re without any Disney hotel perks, though. So, let’s talk price.
Here are some nightly rates for May 2, 2022, including taxes and fees, for modifiable rates:
Walt Disney World Swan Reserve — $331
Walt Disney World Swan — $346
Gran Destino Tower at Coronado Springs — $374
Art of Animation Family Suite — $543
JW Marriott Orlando Bonnet Creek — $589
Yacht Club — $660
Polynesian Village — $763
Truthfully, I don’t know what is going on with that Swan Reserve price. It’s a brand new hotel with a slightly worse location than the Swan and Dolphin. I’ll be reviewing it next week, but I don’t expect to say it deserves to be at the bottom of this list.
That point aside, JW Marriott prices about what you’d expect for deluxe quality without the Disney perks. When I look at the above list, though, I see the hotel getting pretty solidly beaten from both direction by Disney.
Gran Destino Tower has better rooms and a resort experience that definitely isn’t $200 per night worse than the JW Marriott. Throw in Early Theme Park Entry and the ability to buy individual Lightning Lanes at 7AM and I think it’s easy to pick Gran Destino every time.
Or you can pay $70 more for Yacht Club, which has unbeatable location and great rooms. Yacht Club guests get the extra perk of Extended Evening Hours, a very valuable perk if your family can make use of it.
I love the JW Marriott brand, and I wanted to love the hotel. Heck, we had a great stay at the hotel. But on reflection and looking at price, I have to say it’s for a specific type of clientele that probably isn’t me (at least not me when I’m at Disney World) or the people I write for.
With its ample lobby space / restaurant space / pool space / meeting space, the JW Marriott Orlando Bonnet Creek is probably ideal for meetings / conventions. Family travelers coming to the area for Disney World have better options, though.
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