slk537
05-17-2009, 10:00 AM
We stayed in a 2 bedroom villa at The Fountains on Intnl Drive from 5.1-5.5 this month and since these boards are always so helpful to me, I wanted to review and show photos for anyone on here who is considering this resort.
We are very happy DVC members who also have an RCI membership. We only had enough points for 9 nights DVC and wanted to have a two week vacation, so we booked a week with RCI, knowing we'd check out early and move to AKV Kidani Village. We own at Sheraton Vistana, but due to some scheduling issues had a change to Bluegreen The Fountains less than a week before we left. The photos on the website were very nice, but I was still nervous.
So....I'll start with the bad and the good, then overall impressions and then photos!
Bad:
Security - we had to drive past a guard shack when we entered the property each time, but many times the gates would open for us without anyone really appearing to check our parking ticket. Particularly at night. The camera on the guard shack was not pointed at the vicinity of the car so we didn't have a lot of confidence in this. Also, nearly every day we awoke to a pizza coupon sheet slid under our door. We weren't excited about this either. That said, I know security at Disney isn't perfect either...they don't check the buses so anyone could easily get in. But this was something we noticed here.
Smell - there were natural lakes and fountains all over and sometimes in the morning there was a fishy smell coming from some of them. It didn't last long but was kinda nasty at times.
Elevators - at least one elevator in our building was down the whole time we were there. And the other one was slloooooow.
Good:
Pool: The indoor/outdoor pool was a blast! I loved that we could stay safely in the indoor section when the sun was really bright and minimize sunburn, but still have the natural light and be able to head out into the sunshine if we wanted to. We went swimming about 3 times in the four days we were there, and really liked the pool.
Room - Our room was really decorated nicely and had all the features we would have wanted. We were in building 7 up on the 6th floor and our views were outstanding. We were even able to see Wishes from outside our room. The full kitchen, whirlpool tub, huge screened in patio, washer dryer, etc were all great.
Sales Pitch - there was none. We let them know we owned DVC and Vistana when we checked in, so they let it go and left us alone.
Location - we were on the quiet and close to WDW side of International Drive so it wasn't busy. We were very close to a Walgreens and a Publix (could have walked there) and DTD and the Crossroads were both a shirt distance away. We felt just as close to the parks at the Fountains as we did when we moved to Kidani.
Activities - we received a message every day about scheduled activities for families, kids, etc. We didn't do any, but they looked organized and seemed fun (s'mores by the pool at night, movies, dj's, etc.)
Luggage cart - this may seem like a little thing, but we loved that there was a luggage cart downstairs in our building by the elevator. We were able to use it to quickly haul our bags and then all our groceries - we buy a ton of liquids when in Florida and they get heavy. When done, we just returned it downstairs and it was such a lower hassle than having to go to the community hall building or the checkin building.
Overall thoughts: We would stay here again. We loved making breakfast in the room and enjoying pancakes, eggs, french toast, etc on the huge patio/deck. The full kitchen was great for keeping oj, milk, water, soda, etc and I loved being able to throw clothes in the washer/dryer as needed. Having the separate rooms for DH and me and then DS was great. And after a while it did feel like home. This was a very nice part of a wonderful vacation!
We are very happy DVC members who also have an RCI membership. We only had enough points for 9 nights DVC and wanted to have a two week vacation, so we booked a week with RCI, knowing we'd check out early and move to AKV Kidani Village. We own at Sheraton Vistana, but due to some scheduling issues had a change to Bluegreen The Fountains less than a week before we left. The photos on the website were very nice, but I was still nervous.
So....I'll start with the bad and the good, then overall impressions and then photos!
Bad:
Security - we had to drive past a guard shack when we entered the property each time, but many times the gates would open for us without anyone really appearing to check our parking ticket. Particularly at night. The camera on the guard shack was not pointed at the vicinity of the car so we didn't have a lot of confidence in this. Also, nearly every day we awoke to a pizza coupon sheet slid under our door. We weren't excited about this either. That said, I know security at Disney isn't perfect either...they don't check the buses so anyone could easily get in. But this was something we noticed here.
Smell - there were natural lakes and fountains all over and sometimes in the morning there was a fishy smell coming from some of them. It didn't last long but was kinda nasty at times.
Elevators - at least one elevator in our building was down the whole time we were there. And the other one was slloooooow.
Good:
Pool: The indoor/outdoor pool was a blast! I loved that we could stay safely in the indoor section when the sun was really bright and minimize sunburn, but still have the natural light and be able to head out into the sunshine if we wanted to. We went swimming about 3 times in the four days we were there, and really liked the pool.
Room - Our room was really decorated nicely and had all the features we would have wanted. We were in building 7 up on the 6th floor and our views were outstanding. We were even able to see Wishes from outside our room. The full kitchen, whirlpool tub, huge screened in patio, washer dryer, etc were all great.
Sales Pitch - there was none. We let them know we owned DVC and Vistana when we checked in, so they let it go and left us alone.
Location - we were on the quiet and close to WDW side of International Drive so it wasn't busy. We were very close to a Walgreens and a Publix (could have walked there) and DTD and the Crossroads were both a shirt distance away. We felt just as close to the parks at the Fountains as we did when we moved to Kidani.
Activities - we received a message every day about scheduled activities for families, kids, etc. We didn't do any, but they looked organized and seemed fun (s'mores by the pool at night, movies, dj's, etc.)
Luggage cart - this may seem like a little thing, but we loved that there was a luggage cart downstairs in our building by the elevator. We were able to use it to quickly haul our bags and then all our groceries - we buy a ton of liquids when in Florida and they get heavy. When done, we just returned it downstairs and it was such a lower hassle than having to go to the community hall building or the checkin building.
Overall thoughts: We would stay here again. We loved making breakfast in the room and enjoying pancakes, eggs, french toast, etc on the huge patio/deck. The full kitchen was great for keeping oj, milk, water, soda, etc and I loved being able to throw clothes in the washer/dryer as needed. Having the separate rooms for DH and me and then DS was great. And after a while it did feel like home. This was a very nice part of a wonderful vacation!