Thoughts on Wyndham Garden resort?

DiannaVM

DIS Veteran
Joined
Sep 22, 2015
So, I am debating to spend the tail end of my November split stay at the Wyndham Garden because it says that its within a short (5-10 minutes) walking distance from Disney Springs. My biggest concern it transportation to the Disney Parks since I am trying to avoid renting a car or having to use Uber/Lyft if I can get to a resort that has complimentary shuttle service to the parks.

I am also kind of looking for amenities though since there will probably be one full day we will just spend lounging at the hotel and not really go anywhere (except maybe to eat if there are restaurants nearby within walking distance that are not at DS).

Thanks!
 
I don't know about amenities because I've never stayed there, but all of the Disney Springs hotels have a complimentary bus service. The buses are operated by Mears and come every half hour. For MK they drop you off at the TTC. We stayed at a Disney Springs hotel in the spring and didn't rent a car. We relied soley on the buses and didn't have any issues.
 
Not sure if it matters to you, but the Wyndham and Wyndham Garden Disney Springs are actually part of the same resort. The difference being if you book the Wyndham, you will have a tower room with inside corridors and if you book the Wyndham Garden you will have a motel style room with exterior corridors. They share the same pool and amenities. Also be advised that with the Disney Springs bus system, each bus goes to 2 parks. (I believe MK and Epcot share a bus and AK and DHS share a bus.) You can get by with their bus system, but I found it took quite a bit longer than the Disney bus system. Also make sure you factor in resort fees when calculating cost.
 
Not sure if it matters to you, but the Wyndham and Wyndham Garden Disney Springs are actually part of the same resort. The difference being if you book the Wyndham, you will have a tower room with inside corridors and if you book the Wyndham Garden you will have a motel style room with exterior corridors. They share the same pool and amenities. Also be advised that with the Disney Springs bus system, each bus goes to 2 parks. (I believe MK and Epcot share a bus and AK and DHS share a bus.) You can get by with their bus system, but I found it took quite a bit longer than the Disney bus system. Also make sure you factor in resort fees when calculating cost.
Thank you. I think we can get by not being to the parks at rope drop on the two out of three days we are staying at Wyndham so its not a deal breaker, just will have to be sure to be ready for the bus an hour early to be sure we catch an earlier bus. My only other concern was getting back to the resort after the Christmas Party. Do they take ticketed events into consideration?
 


Yeah I saw that, I just wondered. I guess I may have to take a Lyft when the party is over, but at least I dont have to find one to get to the party.
 
We stayed at the Wyndham Garden for two nights last year and had a really good experience. It's a very quick walk (maybe 7 minutes) to/from Disney Springs. We were only doing one day at Disney, and we were at Epcot with plenty of time before rope drop. We just made sure that we were down waiting for the bus about 15 minutes before the first one was scheduled to come, and we had no problems. No problems going back, either (I left around 8pm and the bus had only a handful of people on it; others who left later had a more crowded bus... this was in May.)

I thought the pool area was fine- we only spent a few hours one afternoon lounging by the pool and swimming. I had just spent a few nights at the Dolphin, and the pools are definitely better there, but the Wyndham was fine for us. I do have to say, though, that the beds at the Wyndham Garden were by far the most comfortable of the entire week-long, multi-hotel trip (three hotels and a resort throughout FL) I'm pretty picky about beds, so for me, this was a big deal. We were all really happy with the Wyndham Garden, especially for the price.
 


I have high hopes for this one. Provided it works out the way I anticipate, I could see myself staying there during future trips if a cheaper Value Resort offer doesn't come along.
 
I'm thinking of booking at this hotel next year. Post your thoughts after your stay! I'd sure appreciate it.
I have high hopes for this one. Provided it works out the way I anticipate, I could see myself staying there during future trips if a cheaper Value Resort offer doesn't come along.
 
So I am here to give an update on how my stay was at the Wyndham Garden Resort. I will start off saying that generally speaking the hotel is nice. The lobby and the rooms are nicely setup and fairly new, so no outdated stuff. I will put below a list of pros and cons:

PROS:
- decent size rooms if you are only using them to sleep. I would say they are comparable with Disney's Value resorts (if not maybe a little bigger)
-Literally a 5 minute walk to Disney Springs. A plus is that I didn't realize there is a bridge to get you across the street, so that made me feel safer walking back to my hotel later in the night.
- Clean rooms. Eventhough I hung up my towels so they wouldn't need to launder them, yet we had fresh towels every night.

CONS:
-Their transportation to the parks is not the most reliable. Its only every 30 minutes, and each bus route drops off at two parks. So you either gotta make sure you are there WAY ahead of the time you expect to be to the park, or just take a Lyft. We took a Lyft to MK after we over-slept because we had just missed the bus. If we waited for the next one, we would've missed our FP window for sure.
-The staff wasn't the most pleasant either, although not particularly difficult
-No airport shuttle
-The Bonnett Creek Resort desk. They pressured us into going to a time-share demonstration despite us telling them we weren't interested and we also couldn't afford it. He said we couldn't opt out of it because we were "already registered". His promise was we would get $100 cash (since we already had park tickets). What made me even more angry is that as a result, the manager at Bonnett Creek upon realizing we couldn't afford it had to apologize and then we stood in a line for over 40 minutes to get a refund on our deposit (oh because they make you pay $40 to "secure your spot"). This was AFTER we waited for them to pick us up for an HOUR. This experience alone kind of soured my overall perception of the hotel.


In conclusion, would I stay there again? If staying at Disney resort is not an option then yes, but a Disney Resort is always going to be option #1. The transportation is much more reliable and easy than at this resort for sure, but to be fair, hiring a Lyft, while its not free like using the bus, is alot more inexpensive than if you were to rent a car and the most reliable mode of transportation especially if venturing out of the Disney area.


EDIT to add: When I asked the front desk I was told that there would be a bus to take me back to my hotel after the Christmas party, since the buses ran up to an hour (or 1/2 hour?) after the park closes period, no matter if its regular closing or a special event. I didn't get to verify this claim though since we left the party at 12 and of course the monorail and ferry were jam-packed, so we opted to walk to Contemporary and catch a Lyft there instead to get to the hotel quicker.
 

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