We stayed at Emerald Footprints in the Emerald Island Resort from 9/30/2006
to 10/8/2006. Emerald Footprints is a 4BR/3BA 2000 sq. ft. vacation villa.
The owners, the Walmsley family, also own a 6BR/4.5BA villa in Emerald Island
called Island Footprints. Their website is http://walmsleyrentals.com/ .
This was our first time in a vacation home. We were originally
going to stay off-site in a suite hotel (Palomino Suites) and
several members of our extended family were going to join us as well.
For a lot less money than we were going to spend at the suite hotel,
we were able to rent a huge house with better amenities, a private
pool, and enough room for everyone.
We LOVED our stay at Emerald Footprints. The house is beautiful, 2.5 years old,
and has a very upscale furniture package and lots of amenities. We liked
the house so much, we wish we had scheduled more time during our
vacation to hang out there.
Make sure when comparing prices of vacation homes you are comparing
apples to apples. Some owners quote prices without taxes or pool heat.
The Walmsley's prices are all-inclusive. Even with that, Emerald Footprints
is a little on the pricey side, but we thought it was worth it.
We paid $1305 total for 8 nights.
There are two huge features that set this house apart from most others:
1. Wireless Internet Access (if you bring your own laptop)
2. TiVo
The wireless internet allowed us to use our own laptop and we were able to upload photos, send emails,
and update our blog. Being satellite-based, the internet was a little
sluggish, but still much better than any low-speed alternative like dialup.
There is also a PC provided by the Walmsley's that some of my family members used.
We are used to TiVo at home and we were delighted that there was one at
Emerald Footprints. We were able to record a few shows (e.g., Dora)
for our 3 year-old and we also recorded a few movies to watch while
unwinding in the evenings.
The only significant issue we encountered was with the pool heat. At first
it wasn't on, then we found that even when on it only runs from
around 9am-7pm. The pool seemed to cool off very quickly after 7pm.
By 10pm it was too cold to enjoy. A pool cover is supplied and we should
have used it more often. By the time we figured all of this out our
vacation was over. When renting a vacation home be sure to find out
all the details about the pool heat if that is important to you.
We just assumed that since the pool was heated that it would be ready to use
whenever we wanted to use it and that was not the case.
Most of the flooring in the house is ceramic tile. I can't really blame them
for this in a vacation home, but we found that after just a couple of hours
in the house our feet would start hurting so we ended up wearing our
sandals around the house.
Other things we loved: washer/dryer, well-equipped kitchen, jacuzzi tub
in master bedroom.
We used the Sherberth Rd. shortcut to get to Disney World most of the time.
Seems like it is faster than going all the way down 192.
In summary, the most important question is, "Would we stay here again?"
The answer is YES. Highly recommended.
to 10/8/2006. Emerald Footprints is a 4BR/3BA 2000 sq. ft. vacation villa.
The owners, the Walmsley family, also own a 6BR/4.5BA villa in Emerald Island
called Island Footprints. Their website is http://walmsleyrentals.com/ .
This was our first time in a vacation home. We were originally
going to stay off-site in a suite hotel (Palomino Suites) and
several members of our extended family were going to join us as well.
For a lot less money than we were going to spend at the suite hotel,
we were able to rent a huge house with better amenities, a private
pool, and enough room for everyone.
We LOVED our stay at Emerald Footprints. The house is beautiful, 2.5 years old,
and has a very upscale furniture package and lots of amenities. We liked
the house so much, we wish we had scheduled more time during our
vacation to hang out there.
Make sure when comparing prices of vacation homes you are comparing
apples to apples. Some owners quote prices without taxes or pool heat.
The Walmsley's prices are all-inclusive. Even with that, Emerald Footprints
is a little on the pricey side, but we thought it was worth it.
We paid $1305 total for 8 nights.
There are two huge features that set this house apart from most others:
1. Wireless Internet Access (if you bring your own laptop)
2. TiVo
The wireless internet allowed us to use our own laptop and we were able to upload photos, send emails,
and update our blog. Being satellite-based, the internet was a little
sluggish, but still much better than any low-speed alternative like dialup.
There is also a PC provided by the Walmsley's that some of my family members used.
We are used to TiVo at home and we were delighted that there was one at
Emerald Footprints. We were able to record a few shows (e.g., Dora)
for our 3 year-old and we also recorded a few movies to watch while
unwinding in the evenings.
The only significant issue we encountered was with the pool heat. At first
it wasn't on, then we found that even when on it only runs from
around 9am-7pm. The pool seemed to cool off very quickly after 7pm.
By 10pm it was too cold to enjoy. A pool cover is supplied and we should
have used it more often. By the time we figured all of this out our
vacation was over. When renting a vacation home be sure to find out
all the details about the pool heat if that is important to you.
We just assumed that since the pool was heated that it would be ready to use
whenever we wanted to use it and that was not the case.
Most of the flooring in the house is ceramic tile. I can't really blame them
for this in a vacation home, but we found that after just a couple of hours
in the house our feet would start hurting so we ended up wearing our
sandals around the house.
Other things we loved: washer/dryer, well-equipped kitchen, jacuzzi tub
in master bedroom.
We used the Sherberth Rd. shortcut to get to Disney World most of the time.
Seems like it is faster than going all the way down 192.
In summary, the most important question is, "Would we stay here again?"
The answer is YES. Highly recommended.
