Cypress Harbour

[luvdisney14]

We thougtht we were trading into grand vista, but not available. How is cypress harbour?

 

[jdm]

Cypress Harbour is beautiful. I stayed there a couple of years ago and am hoping to get a trade for April. I'm actually between Cypress Harbor or Grand Vista.

If you do a search, you'll get a lot of info. I could be wrong, and please someone chime in if I am........ I think they are both beautiful resorts withCypress Harbour having a smaller second bedroom with a funky full size bed and pull out couch for the sleeping arrangements. I remember this as being the only down side on our stay. My kids like room to move around and it was tight. Having said that, the resort was beautiful, lots of activities and the rest of the villa was large and comfortable.

Grand Vista, I believe has a larger second bedroom and I read something about them having a play area for smaller children with those balls the kids jump in etc

. I'll be interested in watching this thread hoping to hear from people who have stayed at both. My kids are 13 and 15 and I'm thinking activity-wise Cypress Harbour will be more appropriate for us and I'll just have to live with the second bedroom setup!!

Good luck, and have fun! I'm sure you'll love the resort. We did.
Jenn

 

[spiceycat]

I think you got them mixed up.

GV has a king bed and queen sleeper sofa in the 2nd bedroom

here is a link
http://www.vacationclub.com/resorts/gv/resortAmenities.jsp

oh guess I am wrong - both have a sofa bed in the 2-bedroom

here is cypress
http://www.vacationclub.com/resorts/cy/resortAmenities.jsp

there use to be site just for cypress harbour - but Marriott took it down.

 

[helens042266]

We stayed in 2002 and absolutely loved Cypress Harbour. We tried to book this time but it was not available through my friend's RCI exchange. We had the 2 bedroom and we are a family of 5 and we had more than enough room. The second bedroom was small and difficult to navigate once you used the sleeper sofa.

The master bedroom was HUGE with a seperate shower and jacuzzi tub. My daughter, who was 5 at the time, still raves about the tub! All of the kids enjoyed a soak in the tub at the end of a long disney day!

The kitchen was good sized and had everything we needed for the week. We ate all of our breakfasts there and some dinners. It was nice to have a fridge to keep water (and beer...) cold.

It rained a lot during the time we were there, so we didn't get to take advantage of the pools as much as we would have liked. The one day that we did, it was a lot of fun. Music, activities for the kids, nice pool bar.

Like I said, we would stay there again in a heartbeat. We LOVED it!

Helen

 

[jeff968]

Great resort. We've stayed there twice and it is our favorite location so far. great setup, not to big, not to small, much to do for all ages, and a great location. We toured GV last year, looks very nice as well.

 

[jdm]

When you toured GV, was the second bedroom bigger? The wesbsite says King bed and pullout so I'm assuming to accommodate that, it would have to be bigger. We love CH in that it has all the lake activities and the clubhouse pool, karoke, bike rentals etc. Did you get the feeling that GV was similiar? Where exactly is Grand Vista located in proximity to CH? We stayed across the street at Horizons last year (which we also loved) but I just don't remember seeing GV in any of our drivings around on any of our trips to Florida.

Thanks
Jenn

 

[stitchesmom]

We have stayed at Cypress Harbour last Feb vacation. We stayed in a 2 bedroom for $188 per night ( how do you beat that). We had plenty of room. The pool was great - kids loved it.

We will go again in a heartbeat. Have fun

 

[jeff968]

GV is nearby, a three minute drive from CH or Horizons. It is right off International drive and has the Marriott VC corporate sales location in front of it. the resort was beautiful but i still like the setup of CH better. I'm not a golfer and golf is a big part of GV. The resort seems larger. The rooms were nice, maybe slightly smaller the CH but we toured Horizons two years ago and found those rooms to be much smaller then CH. Only a few weeks until we travel and I still don't have a place to stay yet. there are three horizons weeks on ebay for our week of travel so we may end up there but they run Thursday to Thursday, weird.

 

[GPALANGE]

How far of drive from Disney are these resorts??

Thanks

 

[spiceycat]

depends around 15 minutes to Epcot on ID.

around 5 minutes on I4 (if no traffic - yea in my dreams)

 

[jdm]

We stayed at Horizons last year from Thurs to Thurs after a week long Disney cruise(actually checked in on Sat) and absolutely loved it. We requested building 14 which was brand new and right by the pool. I think 14 and 15 are the new ones. It may be a little smaller than CH but the layout was extremely open and airy. The second bedroom was large with 2 double beds, the trade off being that the Master was smaller without the whirlpool tub - but had a really nice shower. We found it to be one of fav's so far. True, there were not a lot of activities, that I remember- but it was so peacful, those beautiful benches by the lake etc. The pool was a huge hit with my DGD 7 and surprisingly with my DD12 who I thought would have thought it was too babyish. I don't think you'll be sorry if you stay there. We are taking my DN15 with us this year, so I really want more space in that second bedroom. A little thing, I guess but I just rmember the kids being so cramped in the CH room and their stuff everywhere, trying to navigate around that sofabed. Hated that!

Thanks for the additional info on Grand Vista. My one fear is that it may be kind of haughty? Maybe not as family friendly as CH? We don't golf either
We stayed at Star Island one year and while I thought it was OK, the DH and kids didn't think it felt very family-like. They loved that about Vistana and CH. Ah well, nothing is perfect I guess!!

Thanks again
Jenn

 

[jeff968]

Jenn, another thing i remember was road noice from Rt4 at Horizons. Did you notice that at all? We toured horizons two years ago so things may have changed. i know the mini- golf is now open. The wife and I play tennis. I know there is no tennis at Horizons but was told i could get a day pass for CH. I was looking at the Star island location as well which i know has a lot of Tennis. Does it compare to the marriotts?

 

[jdm]

Yes, there was some road noise but not overly. Honestly, it didn't effect me at all. There was mention of this on the TUG boards, that if you request a new unit you'll hear the highway noise. It really wasn't noticable to me. The new units were very nice and in my opinion, worth it.

I have to say, I loved this place. I'd grab my coffee and sit on one of those swinging benches by the lake in the morning. Heaven. The pool was great. How old are your kids? As I said, even my 12 year old loved it. The unit did not feel small to me. It was very open, had a flat screen TV, bright Caribbean colors. We were very comfortable. We didn't do the mini golf and we were on the go quite a bit, so when we were at the resort it was mostly swimming.

My experience at Star Island would be comparable to a Marriott resort. Having said that, the reviews on this place vary wildly. We had a 3 bedroom lockout which was huge. Very clean, comfortable, nice- like a Marriott. There were beautiful tennis courts and the pool was basic but nice. My DH did not like this place. He disliked that we were up on the 5th floor and said it felt more high-risey. He felt there were not many trees and there was a lot of concrete. Like you, we use to go every Feb (we go in March now) and had always been lucky with the weather. This particular trip was cold (2 years ago). I think that in itself put a damper on the whole thing. Also, there was no little store that I can remember. The service at the pool bar was always grumpy and there were not many families there which made it kind of blah. We like chatting with different people in the hot tubs, around the resort etc.

HTH
Jenn

 

[bmbmd]

We were pre-construction owners at Cupress in 1993, and have been there about a dozen times. We have been to Horizons once, royal Palms twice, and Grande Vista twice. Cypress and Horizons are the most kid-friendly, in my opinion, and Horizons has the best looking rooms. You won't find a spa bath tub at Horizons, nor will you find a lap pool. Cypress, on the other hand, is aging well, has a great little snack bar/Pizza hut area, and is more than comfortable. Lots of kid and teen activities, poolside bar, and absolutely beautiful grounds. The location is great-about six or seven minutes to WDW.
This year, we are trying the three bed room villa at Imperial Palms for two weeks in June-I hear they are not aging as gracefully as Cypress. Good luck, and enjoy your vacation.

 

[luvdisney14]

jdm

I got confused for a bit, which place did you love - sit by the lake on a bench in the morning?

 

[jdm]

I was wondering when you say kid-friendly to you mean as in small children? My girls will be 13 & 15 when we go in March. Do you think Grand Vista would be a good fit with this age ? Would you still stick with Cypress Harbour for this age group? We are starting this trip in Miami, doing the keys for 2 nights, up to Daytona for 4 nights and then finishing with the week in Orlando. We intend to be very low key in Orlando and will be spending lots of time at the resort. That's why I'm being overly picky about which one!



luvdisney14-
Sorry for the confusion. It was Horizons. They have this lake with all these birds and gazebos with hanging bench swings and regular benches. It was a morning thing for me to grab my coffee and head out there and swing (not as in wheeee swing, but as in gentle porch swing It was just something I thoroughly enjoyed and remember.

Jenn

 

[luvdisney14]

I am also so picky about picking a resort because we spend most of our time at the pool area. We only go to the parks one or two days. So I know how you feel.