Best two bedroom condo, villa in orlando area

[ftmyersgirl]

I received many great suggestions from the on site board at disney. Unfortunately I could not get a two bedroom villa at any of the resorts we wanted to stay in.

We were going to get two rooms, but decided against it because we wanted to spend time with our one year old grandson while in our rooms.

Now we are back to the offsite recommendations.

We want to know which of the offsite villa, condos, resorts offer the most luxurious rooms and public areas. We can be as much as 20 minutes from disney and we are not restricting ourselves to the less expensive places (nor are we trying to spend unnecessary money) we just want the most luxurious resort that gives us the same feeling as a Grand Floridian or Beach Club Villa would of if we could of arranged that.

I have read about Marriott Cypress Harbour, Marriott Grande Vista, Vistana Resort, and Orange Lake Country Club

are there others?

Which are the most luxurious ie: great comfortable king beds, nice furntiure, immaculately clean rooms, upscale lobby, restaurants.

Thank you.

 

[cinamin27]

My vote is for the Wyndham Palms Resort & Country Club.

I just bumped the thread on the q's & a's from my stay in mid March.

The villas were wonderful and are located on the grounds of the Mystic Dunes Country Club so this should fit the need for your feeling of a luxury resort. They are located about 10 minutes or so from Disney, 15 minutes + to Seaworld & about 20 minutes from Universal Studios.

If you are a Wyndham by Request member (you may join for free on the Wyndham Hotels & Resorts main website) then you will also get a few extra perks during your stay. Your by request membership will also offer you specials for accomodations. I received an email last week for $500 to include 4 nights & 4 rounds of golf (1 round of golf is regularly $95) or if you choose not to golf then you could select park tickets. I'll come back & post the details later today.

http://www.thepalmsresort.com/visitors.htm

 

[Lorix2]

We stayed at the SHeraton Vistana Villages and LOVED this place.

Very upscale, luxurious accommodations and comfy king bed w/jacuzzi in your room.

We had a 2BR/2 bath unit with enclosed screened porch (top to bottom), full kitchen, washer/dryer, living area, dining area set for 8, 3 tvs, etc.

The grounds are gorgeous, there is no restaurant, but there is a deli which was excellent. We filled the fridge and made lunches for the parks, snacks by the pool, etc...we ate breakfast on the balcony every day.

Housekeeping was fantastic.

There is a huge pool w/waterfalls and a great kiddie area on the other end of the pool. A playground w/sandy bottom, beautiful ponds, basketball court, small gym, activities, video rentals, small store/deli.

You would NOT be dissappointed I can assure you

If you ask specifically about this resort, you'll only get excellent responses (or try the search function if it's working yet)

Feel free to ask any questions

Lori

 

[chris1gill]

Unequivocably, the best 2 bedroom villa in all of Orlando (offsite that is) is at Hyatt's Grand Cypress Villa's, if you can swing it (we can't LOL)... here's the site, it is stunning from all accounts that I've read:

http://www.grandcypress.com/index.asp

 

[cinamin27]

Originally posted by ftmyersgirl
I checked out the rate and it was around 89.00. Sounds almost too good to be true.

I does sound too good to be true! We only stayed 3days/2 nights and did not encounter ANY problems at all. We did not do much exploring of the grounds, the mini golf, or check out the Country Club. Now the longer the stay, you may have other experiences than us. There was no one in our group that found anything at all wrong with the villas or the resort itself. My only complaint was that we did not stay long enough.

Being a Wyndham by Request member, I was able to check in as early as 12pm & check out as late as 2pm.

The actual furniture it self in the living room would be as good or even better than any Disney resort. We had a HUGE leather sectional sofa & the 52" big screen tv is something you dont see even in the Disney deluxes! (at least not in our tiny room at the AKL back in September) I absolutely love being able to spread out in 2 different bedrooms & have the 2 bathrooms so you're not sharing the same steamy bathroom with everyone taking consecutive showers in a regular hotel with only 1 bathroom. & to be able to watch TV in a living room setting at the end of the evening instead of from your bed is great.

Hey, ya never know, once you try out a 2 or 3 bedroom villa stay at a resort, you may never go back to the Disney deluxe hotels like us!

 

[cinamin27]

here's the email special I said I would post. It is only for a 1 bedroom villa so this would not work but may work for you if you wanted to go without your extended family to check it out before your big trip or may be good for anyone here on the boards (you may need to be a Wyndham by Request member to take advantage of the offer, just join for free on Wyndham's website):

Escape to Orlando at the Wyndham Palms Resort and
> Country Club:
> Vacation Adventures Starting at $499
> Bring your family and a sense of adventure as you
> experience the number-one family destination in
> style. This adventure package includes 5 Days/4
> Nights 1-bedroom villa (sleeps four), featuring
> private whirlpool, full kitchen, choice of either 2
> theme park attraction tickets (Disney, Universal,
> SeaWorld) or 4 rounds of golf at our premier course,
> Mystic Dune Golf Club. Offer is based upon
> availability. Includes all applicable taxes. Offer
> expires 12/31/03 and is subject to change without
> notice. Call now to book this fabulous offer.*

 

[ftmyersgirl]

Cinny,

Thank you for the information. It sounds like a great deal but we wanted the two bedrooms this is why we did not stay at the yacht villas in disney because they only had one bedroom available.

I did register for Whyndham by Request. I am member of their frequent guest progam but had never heard of Whydham by Request before you told us. Thank you.

The two bedroom is 89.40 at Kingdom.com. Now, for four nights it is about 360.00. I do not need the golf. We live on a golf course and I do not golf and frankly I am trying to get away from it.

I checked out the villas of grand cypress and they are great but very golf oriented.

I also checked out Vistana by doing a search on this site and the reviews were mixed.

I have to make up my mind pretty soon.

 

[Russell]

No Question! Vistana Villages! The place is amazing! We got a great deal through CondoSavers and was so happy. I changed ressies about six times before settling on this place and I was so glad I did.

 

[Skinsfan]

Orange Lake Country Club has my vote! Immaculate accomodations,(we stayed in a 2 br villa), the grounds are beautiful. There's a Publix nearby and several restaurants. 'bout a 5-10 min from WDW We loved it!

 

[dtauer]

If you've ruled out the Disney options, I second the suggestion of Wyndham Palms. 2 good sized bedrooms, 1 normal sized bathroom and an enormous master bathroom, full furnished kitchen, washer/dryer, leather furniture, 3 TVs, 3 phones, and on and on and on.

For under $90/night, it does sound too good to be true, but we just returned and so did cinamin27, it's for real.

If you have any specific questions, one of us can probably answer them.

 

[ftmyersgirl]

I have already booked the W.Palms through hotelkingdom.com and I am scheduled to be there May 16 through the 20th.

Did you go to the clubhouse? And if so, how was it?

On which floor did you stay and does the place have elevators.

Have you ever stayed at any other condo?


We are set on staying at the W.Palms for May. But we are planning a trip for December and were just curious about the other places before we rebooked W.Palms.

I would prefer to be on site but they are asking 10 dollars to rent the points and I would need over 300 points for December so it is going to be well over 3,000. Big difference.

 

[dtauer]

ftmyersgirl,

Yes, we visited the clubhouse, it was very nice. The proshop had a lot of nice merchandise, although most was golf related. There's a restaurant and lounge there, as well as restrooms with a changing area, lockers and showers. The bad thing is that it is a long way from a lot of the buildings and the main pool. Depending on your condo location you would probably need a golf cart shuttle or drive to the parking lot there.

We've seen a few other condos in the area but never stayed at any, only visited friends there. The Wyndham Palms is one of the nicer ones we've seen but we haven't seen that many.

We stayed on the top floor in our building (4th), there are elevators. I expected a problem because of the single elevator for each building but never had a problem with a wait. It may be because even though the buildings are very large, so are the units, so there aren't nearly as many units as you may first think when seeing the size of the buildings.

The only thing we didn't like compared to the Disney resorts was the theming. When you pull up to a Disney resort, each building and the grounds have a theme. Pulling up at the Wyndham Palms is beautiful, but the buildings look kind of like apartments. The pools are nice, but again no theming.

Unless something drastic changes there between our trip 2 weeks ago, and your trip in May, I think you'll be extremely happy at the Wyndham Palms, especially considering the price.

 

[Lisa P.]

For a deluxe timeshare villa with excellent, beautiful resort amenities, consider HGVC - Hilton Grand Vacations Club at Sea World: Lovely condos, upscale lobby with grand piano and small theater, terrific main pool area w/poolside cabana, nice fitness center, croquet, other facilities & activities. The commute to the area theme parks is quite reasonable, along less travelled highways, easily under 20 minutes from any of them. I'd highly recommend it. HTH.

 

[RobinLyn]

With young children, Horizons by Marriott is a great place to stay with a wonderful water-spoutin' pirate ship pool. It's 7 miles from WDW:
www.vacationclub.com/horizons/orlphotos.asp
(pictures) or www.marriott.com (reservations)

 

[calgarygary]

I also am giving my vote to the Vistana Villages (note, not the resort). The Villages is a newer property where you do not need to worry about the quality/age of the area and all of the rooms are reflective of a luxury resort. The only downside for some is the lack of a restaurant and therefore, no roomservice. We stayed there for two weeks in November and have definitely been spoiled for future hotel stays. The Villages are convenient to Disney (less than 10 minutes to be on property), SeaWorld (just down International Drive) Universal and I4. There is an upscale outlet mall nearby as well as groceries. The entrance into the Villages makes a statement that continues through the lobby and into the rooms. Further, if you want to avoid the sales pitch, just say so and they will leave you alone. We spent months trying to decide where would be the best place to stay and were definitely not disappointed.

Gary

 

[coachv]

I have not stayed here but I will be this June. I went to the tug2 website and posted a classifed ad wanting to rent. I did my homework on all of this though. I ended up renting a 2 bdrm. condo at Grande Vista for 7 nights for $400. I hope this is a good location but everything I read it seems to be. This is a great way to save money but you have to be careful. Lots of con-artists out there.

 

[ttfn3]

Toss up between the Vistana Villages and Marriott Grande Vista. We stayed at both resorts in a 2 BR condo. We loved the pool at V V and the resort was very new. The only "negatives" were the small game room, the pillows (very soft) and the frogs were pretty noisy (not a big problem for us - since we travel with wave machines ;-) Marriott Grande Vista has a great indoor padded play area/climbing thing for kids. We also liked the game room better at the MGV. We enjoyed the view of the golf course and could even see fireworks from Sea World one night. Oh - and we saw the space shuttle launch one afternoon from our screened-in balcony! I must also say that we were very fortunate to find an incredible deal on MGV - $395 for a week (less than half what we paid at V V). Both resorts are an easy drive to Disney.

We have also stayed at the Vistana Resort. It was very close to Disney and we liked the pools. However, our unit faced 535 (very noisy) and the 2 BR unit was a bit worn.

We took a peak at the Hilton Grand Vacation Club and would like to try this resort if we find a good deal.

 

[Popsicle]

Hi, tffn3!

"I must also say that we were very fortunate to find an incredible deal on MGV - $395 for a week (less than half what we paid at V V)."

I've been wanting to stay at Marriott Grande Vista for years. May I ask where you found your deal? Know that was a great price.

We don't have an exact time of travel (just believe it's going to be in late August.) Found a good price for Hilton Grand Vacation Club, but I RRREEEAAALLLLYYYY want to try MGV or Marriott's Horizons.

Thanks.

 

[treesinger]

Vistana Villages was the best! Vistana Resort has been good to us too. But Villages is brand new and the decor is a bit warmer.

Silver Lake is nice enough, but the decor was lacking.

Westgate Vacation Villas, same as Silver Lake. BUT, Westgate is terribly busy in the mornings and their timeshare presentation, should you choose to accept this mission, was hellish!

We're staying at Celebration II in another month. Hopefully it's as nice as the others.

 

[ftmyersgirl]

Jason,

Please post your Celebration II observations on this thread. Thanks

I am trying to buy into DVC but until I figure things out, I will stay off premise when I am traveling with a large group.

As stated, we are trying the Wyndham Palms in May for four nites.

However, should we decide to stay longer, we really want something that is truly special. This is for our December trip.

Next week we are going to stay at the two bedroom in Hilton Head Disney as renters.