Personally I wouldn't stay there without a car but we did end up taking the bus back to the resort a few times when we split up after lunch at a park. Usually there was a THV bus waiting or just pulling up to the Grandstand stop when we arrived.
The THV shuttle runs every 10 minutes vs normal busses running every 20 minutes.
Everyone is different, some people wouldn't want to go to WDW without a car because of the busses. For me, I wouldn't hesitate to stay there again without a car, just knowing it might take a little extra to get around . They are so unique and I enjoyed them that much.
Now, I won't only stay at THV, but I think depending on the group size/make up, they are awesome. Our friend her and her baby got the second bedroom and my two kids and her older one slept in the bunk room taking turns with one on the floor. That left me and my wife with our own room. Our next trip with friends will work out the same way....so THV's we will be going
The living area, not including the big dining table, is very small and congested. We enjoy sitting in the living area and it isn't really set up for that at the THV.
It is interesting you had this take on it. When we have stayed at Villa's we feel very cramped, the dining room table is pushed up against the living room area so you can't really spread out. We were at THV with three adults and 4 kids under 5, so it was nice that the kids could be at the dining room table coloring while the adults were in the living room area.
Yes there is less room between couch and tv, that seems to be space we don't use much. I could even see if you there were 4 or 5 adults it could be cramped, but I think any of the living areas are...
We will be at THV in a couple weeks for 2 nights, so I am really interested in this thread. I am one of those people that goes in with low expectations and is generally quite surprised. This will be our first time at THV, so we have done a little research on it. Quite frankly, DS and DD are looking forward to the bunk beds most of all. We will only have 4 in the villa, so I think we will have plenty of room. We will have our van (as we always do at WDW), so transportation should not be a negative.
I did have a question...Is it true that most everyone requests a villa near the grandstand on the water? Are there any better locations to request and why?
I will be keeping up with this thread to see if any other THV experts weigh in.
Chris
A lot of people request water views (just because it is a water view and this is just a request everyone makes) and near grandstand so you can walk to the bus stop. I requested near grandstand path and it wasn't granted initially, but the desk CM hooked us up and got our villa moved. While there I realized I should have just requested near the south bus stop. The numbering system at THV isn't simple because of the way it is set up and I think a room assigner has a hard time knowing what you want, etc. There are basically two locations in THV North and South. The South section is near the south bus stop, grandstand walkway, boat dock and pool. The north section isn't too far away from the boat dock that you can't walk to it, but it can make the trip to grandstand further. But the North side is great if you have a car, because it is near the entance/exit. The roads are narrow and one way, while there are a lot of turnarounds in the loop, you could end up by the south bus stop and have to follow a bus out of the resort vs being near the exit and getting out quick to drive yourself.
I just think you will have a better chance of getting a room requesting "south" or near the "south" bus stop vs the path. There are only two villas on the path to granstand, so they may misunderstand what you want and just figure if one of those two aren't available they will stick you wherever. (also the water views are in the south section)
There are 7 of us (at the moment-we keep adding people) and we're staying in the Treehouse Villas. I'd like to hear about the resort in general, but I'd love to hear about those! They look so neat!
