Also just back from Wyndham Palms-Any ?

[Disneymomma]

If you have any questions about Wyndham Palms, we stayed there too. I'll be glad to anwser any questions.

 

[teachingmykids]

Did you feel safe? Would you stay there again? Was there a 'staff' that was onsite 24/7?

 

[Disneymomma]

I am going to be totally honest. I know that some people have absolutely loved it here and that is why we decided to try it. However, the first night we got there, there were people smoking weed in the walkway between the pool and the basketball court. I am not lying! I reported this to the person behind the activities desk at the pool. She said okay, and went back to her work. I asked if she would call someone (SECURITY maybe?) and she pointed to a phone on the wall and told me I could call. This was after a disastorous check in and now we arrive at the VERY small and crowded pool area to have marajuanna smoke blown into our and our children's faces as we try to go to the pool. I did indeed call and security did not come during the time we stayed there at the pool. I also reported it to the "front desk" which is located in a trailer! They were indiferent as well. The next morning, when we exited ourt villa, we had to step over Turkey legs all over the floor of the corridor to make it to the steps. When I went to the "front desk" to inform them and to let them know that I do not come to Orlando to have my children witness drug use or to have to step over garbage to get to the car, the one gentlenman told me that maybe I should not ever leave my house if I don't want them to see this. I was really furious by the indifference of all the employees by now and quietly explained that I do not to expect to pay good money to stay in a "5 star Resort and Counrty Club" to have to deal with these issues and that it was his, as well as everyone else's job there to ensure that all their guests have a wonderfully enjoyable and safe trip! I can stay in Philadelphia for free to witness weed smoking and have to step over trash! At that point, if I raised my voice and got started, I don't even want to think about what could have happened. There was no help at all from any employee, even the supposed managers! So, honestly, I did not feel safe at all! Even after the hurricane, there was a staff member on the desk at about 12:00AM, after that I am not sure if someone was there. (I am assuming there was.) Even if they offered me a free stay, I would never go back. That is how badly we were treated. Personally, I am a happy person and totally excited to be in Florida whenever we go, I am not a picky person looking for things to complain about. The service/employees was/were terrible. The rooms were beautiful though. I can't reccommend it to anyone! We were SOO disappointed.

 

[Mudd77]

Wow! Sorry you had such a terrible experience at Windsor Palms. I think that is the first bad report of the place I have ever read. My family stayed there in May and had an excellent time. In fact we are already booked for next year in the same house. But then again we stayed in our pool home the entire time we were there with little interaction with the workers. Again, sorry to hear about it.

 

[teachingmykids]

We are going to Universal next month and planned to drive by and check it out. We have condo reservations for a WDW trip in November. Hopefully, it will be enough 'off season' that we won't encounter too many problems.
Thanks for such an honest report, that's why we have this wonderful board.
Make sure you tell the owner of the problems you encountered, they might have more sway with the employees than visitors. I often get the feeling that these resorts are so big and booked that they don't really care about repeat business. (So, one family doesn't come back, who cares....)

~~g.

 

[TiffJ]

Are you sure it was Windsor Palms? We have been there twice & it has a huge pool area and you dont check in with them because everything is individually owned. The subdivision consits of condos, townhouses & pool homes. They only ones I have seen that have corridors are the condos. I just hate that place to get a bad wrap it doesnt deserve. We loved it!

 

[teachingmykids]

TiffJ,

Like I said, we plan to do a drive by next month, can we get on property without having reservations? Do you have to prove you're booked to get in the gate? I want to know where it is since on the Nov. trip we will be arriving in the middle of the night.
Thanks,

 

[Bella the Ball 360]

Is Windsor Palms the one right next to Wyndham Palms?? We drove by there every day this summer and I was thinking that I might try it but I thought it was just individual homes. Also, I would have expected that there would be security and it would be gated like Wyndham Palms (no relationshipt between the two).

 

[disneysteve]

Disneymomma - I'm sorry you had such a bad experience but I must say that the place you are describing doesn't sound like Windsor Palms at all. Windsor Palms is not a hotel or resort. It is a gated community of privately owned homes. There is no front desk or check-in since that is arranged either with the owner or management company you rent from. There is a nice clubhouse with a game room, exercise room, theater, sundry store and sales office for the complex but no trailer or anything that I would call a front desk. Also, the community pool at Windsor Palms is pretty large and I don't recall seeing an activity desk.

Bella the Ball 360 - No, Windsor Palms is nowhere near Wyndham Palms.

teachingmykids - I think if you tell the guard you are booked there in the future and just wanted to see the property they would let you drive through. The do have a sales office so you could say you are coming to look at property.

 

[Disneymomma]

I am so sorry for any problems I have caused here. It was the Wyndham Palms, not Windsor Palms. I edited the first post to correct it . I really hope I did not upset anyone affiliated with Windsor Palms.
Hope no one is mad at me. It has been pretty hectic since we got back. This was a very big mistake on my part-SO SORRY!

 

[Mom of Sleepy Bashful and BabyDoc]

from what I gather on these boards, this is not the first time these two resorts have been confused.

And to make it worse, wasn't the "original" name of Windsor Palms, WYNDAM Palms??? You would know, DisneySteve.


So sorry that happened to you, though. Mistakes happen at a resort, things go wrong.........especially with a hurricane. But it's how the staff handles it that really counts. I never look for perfection, but how mistakes are handled. This sounds like a bad one.

Common courtesy and a little customer service go a long way, don't they???

 

[Disneymomma]

I totally agree with that! Let me know how you like Vistana when you get back, I think we may like to try them. Have a great trip!

 

[disneysteve]

Originally posted by Mom of Sleepy, Bashful and BabyDoc
And to make it worse, wasn't the "original" name of Windsor Palms, WYNDAM Palms??? You would know, DisneySteve.

You are correct. The complex currently called WINDSOR Palms was originally called WYNDHAM Palms. The Wyndham company made them change the name. There is now a totally unrelated complex called Wyndham Palms. Just in case that isn't confusing enough, when they changed the name to Windsor Palms they didn't rename the main road in the complex - Wyndham Palms Way.

Disneymomma - Thanks for clearing that up. I knew your description didn't sound like Windsor Palms at all. Again, sorry for your bad experience.

 

[tyco]

Disneymomma,

I too am sorry for your terrible experience - I would have been FLIPPING OUT!!! I don't blame you one bit! We were at Silver Lake resort for the hurricane and I must say they were wonderful - Try it sometime (if you haven't yet) - I see you were at Wesgate a couple of times - We passed that resort and I wanted to know what people thought - Was your last visit their a pleasant one? Would you recommend it?

May your next Orlando trip be the best one ever!

Sue -

 

[Bella the Ball 360]

So let me get it straight, you had the bad experience at WYNDHAM Palms Golf Resort right?? NOT Windsor Palms which is right next door.

I must say that I was at Wyndham this summer and it was not all it was last year. However they were very prompt to fix any problems or be accomdating.

 

[Bella the Ball 360]

I must say that the trash outside was for the daily trash pick up but I find it kind of gross.

Disneymomma, write Wyndham a letter. They will hit the roof about how callously you were treated. We went on the tour and they told us this is the first property that Wyndham owns and they want to find out any problems. Even when it came to the timeshare presentation we had to sign that we were not pressured and we need to speak to 3 people.
I do believe it too because I mentioned to the sales person that out toilet ran all the time we were there and she said that it should not no sooner did we return to our room than the front desk called and asked if they could come and fix it. I cannot believe the way you were treated. Did you pay full price for the room or get it on a deal? NOT that it makes a difference in the way you were treated but really if they want to sell timeshares they they trade on this place being safe and family oriented. I did see lots of less than savory people staying there this time and we asked the salesperson. She did not have an answer.

Let me tell you my letter would have been in the mail yesterday. I know that is what I usually say when people have a problem like this but I have done it most of the time I at least get a letter back.

 

[teachingmykids]

In your letter you might want to include, "on my HUGE WEB BOARD THAT EVERYBODY READS WHILE PLANNING THEIR TRIPS, vacationers were disappointed to hear of my experience." If Wyndham (or any other resort) had any sense at all they would be reading this board daily.....too many of us count on actual experiences when making decisions.

 

[Bella the Ball 360]

Teachingmykids,

I mentioned the Disboards to the salesperson at Grade Vista. I told her of some of the concerns that people had and she said she had never even realized that these boards existed. She made me write down the address so she could see what people were saying.

I had the same experience at Wyndham Palms when I told the Salesperson some of the good and bad things I had read and she too asked me to give her the address of some of these boards. She too wanted to find out what people were saying. Now it is pretty clear if we could get upper mgt. to read them then we would really have a voice.

At Vistana Village management read Tripadvisor because while reading a bad report about Vistana I noticed that someone had mixed up the name in a similar situation to Wyndham and Windsor. They were giving Vistana Villages a bad report but anyone who had been there would know they meant to say Vistana resorts instead. The management of V V came on and clarified the situation AND defended his resort since the poster had gotten the wrong name so at least some managment people do read what we say .

 

[Disneymomma]

Thanks to all of you for your replies.

Bella The Ball 360-I am writing the letter as we speak. We did do the tour while we were there and also let them know of our concerns as well.They replied that they have no control over what the "owners" do. The third manager at least apologized.

Teaching MY Kids-I am going to include this information in the letter as well so they know that others will hear of this experience.

I just want to thank all of you for your kind replies and let everyone know that you win some and lose some and based on what we read, we thought Wyndham Palms would be great, but were disappointed by the level of service, or should I say lack of service and the lack of security. I also want to let you know that all the problems surfaced inmmeadiately within 24 hrs of us arriving and the hurricane occured 4 days after that. I would never have held them accountable for anything having to do with that! So, there was plenty of time for them to address these issues before the storm! All in all we had a great time, and thank goodness we stayed at Cypress Point for 10 nights before we got there, because that is what I will reflect on as we conjure up memories of this trip.

 

[Bella the Ball 360]

Just to let you know, after reading this thread I began to think about how I was not all that happy with WP myself this year. It was only good not great. My husband told me I was too pick. Lots of little things but after realizing that this place may be having a downward swing I decided to write a letter also. I e mailed their customer service about 3 hrs ago and they replied immediately. They told me that the manager of this property will be contacting me.