Anyone stay at Sheraton's Vistana?

[threesit@yahoo.com]

Hi!

This is where we are staying, and I was hoping to get some reviews on the property...

Thanks in advance for all your help!

Beth
chefminnie!

 

[cdpa4d]

Hi Threesit,
We stay at Vistana every year. This year is no exception. We are going May 1st - 4th. We are spending 6 days at the GF after we leave Vistana.

Here is what I can tell you about the resort. I am not sure what section you are staying in. We always stay in the Cascades section, which IMHO is the best section of the resort. You may want to request a room in that section if possible.

All the pools at the resort are great. Plenty of chairs and very roomy. Each pool has a great bar and food area. IMHO this is the best part of the resort. The grounds are beautifully landscaped. This makes it great for an evening walk through the resort.

The service is mediocre at best. Very slow and some employees are rude. The resort can get crowded, especially at night after the parks close.

As for the rooms, they are average. The resort has been around for a number of years and the rooms are showing some age (same with the Putt-Putt course). If you plan on using the pull-out sofa bed, you should think twice about just getting a two bedroom unit. The pull-out sofa matresses are terrible. The matress is paper thin and difficult to sleep on.

The resort has a General Store which has an ice cream and pizza shop. The food and snacks sold in the store are somewhat expensive. I would suggest taking a ride to the Wal-Mart in Kissimmee and buying groceries for the week there. You will save a bundle by using this tip. Make sure to stock up on bottled water.

The restaurants are good. On Saturday's from 4:00 to 7:00 one of the cafe's has an all you can eat barbacue. this is great! Try it out if you get a chance.

One other tip. When you check-in the resort welcome committee will try and sign you up for their time-share sales pitch. I believe they will offer you $40 for going to the presentation. I would suggest not doing this unless you plan on buying a week. It is high pressure and your spouse will need to be with you. $40 is really not that much for 2-3 hours of your valuable vacation time.
The resort is 1 mile from the Cross Roads shopping area making it extremely convenient getting in and out of the parks, especially Downtown Disney.

The resort does offer a variety of activities each night for both adults and kids. Make sure you look at the activities sheet after you check in for types of activities and times. Our favorite is casino night!

One final tip which will save you some time and maybe aggravation. The resort has something call Diamond Lane Check-in. If you register your reservation with them 72 hours before your check-in time you can use that lane when you check-in. Trust me, that line will be extremely shorter than the others. this could save you 30 minutes at check-in. Here is the link to the Vistana website.

http://www.starwoodvo.com/resorts/welcome.jsp?resortID=5

Vistana was bought out by Sheraton about 3 years ago. Since then the resort has lost some of its unique qualities, but it still is a great place to stay.

Have a great Trip!
ADP

 

[iluvflorida]

Prior post comments are bang on. I will be at Vistana for two weeks in Feb. Good resort. Definately use diamond lane on the websight

 

[monarchsfan16]

The pools and landscaping are great. Zimmies, one of the restaraunts has excellent food, not to mention a Hagen Daaz ice cream stand. We have not, so far, eaten at other places on property. The General Store has a Pizza Hut, which we used for a late dinner the night we got in. Service was not bad. THe "grocery" selection in the general store was not great, you really have to hit one of the real grocery stores in the area. We have never had a problem with the service of anyone there. Every employee we've dealt with in our 2 trips there (another coming up in Feb) has been very friendly and certainly attempted to help us. Being northerners we're not necessarily used to the broken Spanish accents that so many of the workers have. However, they definitely did try. We have had nothing but the best of experiences at the Vistana, even while staying in the absolute oldest units (in the courts section). The units are kept VERY clean, and maintenance is excellant. If there is a problem it is fixed very soon, also. We have not taken part in scheduled activities before, but there is a very wide variety. We absolutely love the Vistana, and were very happy when RCI found us a place there for this upcoming trip.

 

[maggiew]

Everyone mentions the scheduled activities but so far I haven't read what some of these may be. Can someone elaborate a little?

Maggie

 

[monarchsfan16]

There have been family activities like a bbq/ karaoke night by the super pool (the best pool on the property), plus activities for kids like arts stuff or for adults (not coming up with any examples right now) i know that there are a lot of activities for all age groups every day...i just cannot remember them...check on the website (link in someone's earlier post)...i know they have examples there. the activities are pretty similar every week...

 

[Lisa P.]

Maggie, go to the Vistana Resort website and look at the "Guest Services" page. Click on the link under "Activities" and you'll see a whole week's listing of the current ones offered.

 

[maggiew]

Thanks everyone. We are really considering staying at Vistana or similar place this year. We plan on only going to the parks with a 4 day park hopper plus so will have a few days to relax in between. We may be able to take advantage of some of the activities.

Or we may stay onsite at Pop Century and resort hop during the free days. But it is so tempting to have a 1 BR suite with great pools for less money!

Maggie

 

[threesit@yahoo.com]

He Everyone!

Thanks for all you help withthe questions!

Hey Maggie...Check out skyauction.com! We purchased a week vacation at this resort for less than $100.00 a night and we have a 2 BR suite! Not sure what they are going for now...our actual bid was about $500.00 and then we had to pay taxes.

Just in case you are wondering, we have used skyauction before and it went very smoothly...wonderful site! Can't find it any cheaper!

Thanks again, and God Bless!

Beth