Anyone ever stay at Premier Vacation homes? Plus package QUESTION

[mom2smjn]

We have a travel agent who came up with what seems like a good deal...but I am not sure..
Here is the scoop(4 adults,2 junior,2 child):

For $551 per person(736 Adult 368 Junior and 315 child)

8 nights at a 4brm Luxry Premier Vacation Home
rental mini van for lengtgh of stay
5 day Park Hoppers for 8
2 day pass to Water Mania(dont care so much for this as it will be December)
7 day Stay and Play for Universal

Here are my questions
1) are the homes as nice as they seem and are the close enough to WDW

2) We are going for 9 days but have like 14 days worth of tickets it seems a waste

3)Is it really a good deal? The price does NOT include travel which is huge since we are in upsate NY.

Thanks for any advice

 

[LMC]

YES!! We stayed at a Premier home in May 2001. IT WAS VERY VERY NICE!!! We actually stayed in a 5 br and we were only about 7 miles from disney (about 15 min w/ traffic). We will use them again if we ever go in a large group or when our kids are older. This year we will be staying on site or at Fort Wilderness (if we get a camper) because our DS age 8 and DD age 4 love being in the middle of it all.
We were going to use a travel agent but he could not get a discount on the house. Premier has a link through DIS at the main page look at the site map and select vacation homes. There are pictures and rate schedules for the year. There should even be a discount code. Also, if you are a AAA member you can probably get a discount too!!!

As far as tickets, they had someone come to our home that night and we purchased tickets, they may be able to give you prices over the phone. OR, I found that AAA had the best prices (used on other trips).
The time we stayed at Premier, we were w/ my MIL and she is used to the nicer hotels and she was very impressed with the home we had. Very clean, lots of room, a garage (we turned the kids loose in there to play) full kitchen, and laundry on site!

As for the rental car, you should check out the boards where people discuss using priceline for vans. The time we went they were going to about $30 a day/unlimited mileage. We ended up not using because you must return the car to the same location and we flew out of a different airport to come home.

Hope this helps!

 

[dandelion]

Originally posted by mom2smjn
Here are my questions
1) are the homes as nice as they seem and are the close enough to WDW

Can Premier give you any idea which location you would be in? We recently returned from a stay in Eagle Pointe (not rented through Premier though) and found it very convenient. The home was beautiful. The site I used let me see EXACTLY what home we were renting, which I found comforting.

2) We are going for 9 days but have like 14 days worth of tickets it seems a waste

Remember park hoppers are good forever, but will you have another trip anytime soon? I agree with LMC that AAA had the best prices. Perhaps the travel agent could swap you out something else for the water mania tix. Actually it was a AAA travel agent that made adjustments like that - maybe ask them for a quote.

3)Is it really a good deal? The price does NOT include travel which is huge since we are in upsate NY.

I compeletely understand, we're in the Saratoga area. We drove and took the auto train this trip. I liked the train better than the driving but it was still better than paying $1000 for the four of us just to get there and back.

Good luck, and you may want to head to the Orlando board for more info on Premier. That's where the off-siters usually hang out.