Help Rci

[DisneyDazed]

Which RCI resort would you guys reccomend to stay in?? Any suggestions will be sooo appreciated. TIA

 

[Sparkie]

We stayed in Silver Lakes on Black Lake Road once. I thought it was nice. Not fancy but nice and clean. Biggest plus.... you can take the service road and be on the back side of Animal Kingdom and 5 min from the enterance to the park.

 

[SammieG]

we have stayed in 5 or 6 resorts via rci and the one that is by FAR the nicest is Hilton Grand Vacation Club on I drive.

We just got back from Silver Lakes .. and as previous poster said.. its ok.. not fancy but ok... whereas HGVC is just great!

 

[steelebug]

Although it gets mixed reviews we have stayed at Orange Lake several times. Once already this year and going back the week after Christmas.

 

[Brian Noble]

The top RCI resorts in the area are the two HGVCs, and Bonnet Creek. BC is relatively rare in Weeks. HGVC does bulk-deposits, and isn't too hard to get, but they aren't super great locations for Disney.

There are a smattering of the Palms Marriotts and Vistana Villages units as well. They are very nice, and closer, but most of their inventory goes to Interval.

Orange Lake's newer sections (North, East, River Island) get good reviews. East isn't very convenient to pools. West has some really nice units, and some older ones. Decent location, perhaps as good as Vistana Villages, but not the Marriott Palms.

Vistana Resort, the Cypress Pointes, and Grand Beach are all nice resorts, very close to WDW, and have fair availability. Silver Lake is perhaps another 1/2 step down, but with an awesome location. Orbit One is another with a great location (but not much else beyond large, well-kept units and a reasonably nice pool).

If you're doing a Weeks exchange, it all depends on how strong your trader is.

 

[sherry7]

My co-worker has a timeshare at Orange Lake, and she raves about it.

 

[DisneyDazed]

I aprpecciate all the help. I tell you my head is spinning from all this info without your helps I would be doomed. We are actually using a week of our friends. We are just paying the transfer fee?

 

[McRed]

We are staying at the Villas at Summer Bay Resort in October. The brochure and website look pretty nice. If anyone out there has been to this property, let me know what you think about it.

 

[TheRustyScupper]

Orange Lake Country Club & Resort:
. . . 99 holes of golf
. . . official Putt Putt course
. . . eight swimming pools
. . . huge main pool with zero-entry
. . . party pool with bandstand
. . . several hot tubs
. . . two water parks, one with lazy river tubing
. . . games room
. . . 80-acre lake
. . . watercraft
. . . sailing
. . . skiing
. . . organized nightly parties 7:00pm and later
. . . organized volleyball, basketball, tennis
. . . organized activities 9:00am-6:00pm daily
. . . weekly free "hold'em" tourney
. . . internal resort shuttles
. . . shuttles to theme parks (fee)
. . . daily arts and crafts
. . . daily water aerobics

 

[AutumnKlassic]

We are staying at the Villas at Summer Bay Resort in October. The brochure and website look pretty nice. If anyone out there has been to this property, let me know what you think about it.

Hey I'm from Kentucky too! Fairdale.
We stayed at Summer Bay in May in a two bedroom unit. It was nice, a little small but good for a family with two small kids. We didn't have a balcony, just a little aisleway in front of the condo. The master bedroom was just off of this aisleway and at night the lights from outside shined into the room. We bought some vinyl table clothes and clothes pins and put up over the curtains to make the room darker at night. It seemed a LOOOOOOONG way from the parks because when driving down the road there is nothing to look at for a couple of miles. But it really isn't too far away, just seems like it is. It might be too far away to go back during the middle of the day, so pack what you might need for the day because you don't want to waste a moment of your vacation. Also the couches were leather, so they kind of stuck to your back side.

 

[CrazyforBuzz&Woody]

The in-laws are owners at Summer Bay Resort, we've been there many times with them. The are considered a "Gold Crown" resort. In fact we will be there in November, but staying in the Homes located near the main (largest) pool and club house.
We have also stayed at Sheraton Vistana Village.

 

[steelebug]

Autumnklassic and MCRed we are from KY too. GO BIG BLUE

 

[McRed]

Thanks for the info. The Website shows a really nice kids pool area. Did you use the resort's transportation to the parks?

 

[AutumnKlassic]

GO BIG BLUE

GO BIG BLUE!!!!!! my parents are at the game tonight

The transportation was expensive and not very consitant. We had our own car and the AAA parking pass from ebay.

 

[McRed]

Interesting....the information we have says there is Free transportation to all Disney Parks. Did they make you all Pay?

BTW....Go TOPPERS!!!

 

[ICan'tWait]

We've staid at quit a few places in that area, including Summery Bay and Orange Lake. The only one I would avoid in the future would be Grand Lakes.

 

[Dsnymouse]

MCred - We are staying at Summer Bay for the first time through RCI in 3/09.
I also read there is free transportation. I have posted about this on other threads. I got a response that is it free and they do have it. However one poster said it stops at several (4 I thought) other hotels. So the drive would seem long. I am going to check into AAA parking passes on ebay.

Have a great stay!

 

[Wishing on a star]

OP,

It seems overwhelming at first... but really, once you 'get' it, it isn't.

There are TWO factors to take into consideration... Your personal preferences (golf, plush unit, lots of family activities pools, location close to Parks, etc...)

And, another huge factor is availibility with RCI for the dates that you want.

The nicer/plusher resorts will be harder to get into.
Other larger family friendly resorts will probably have units available for you.

With RCI, if you want to request a resort that does not show availability, your friend with the RCI membership week can get on a waiting list by putting in a 'search' for that resort for that time frame. (the catch is that you must pre-pay that reservation fee now, not when something comes available)

We are RCI members, so if you wanted to send me a PM with your preferences for type of resort, unit size needed, and date range, I can PM you back and tell you what resorts are showing available for immediate reservation right now!!!

Personally, we decided that we wanted the big family friendly resort with a lot of amenities, pools, etc... didn't want to spend time waiting for something to become available thru a 'search'. So we recently booked a 2 bedroom at Orange Lake for our next trip!

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

We're owners at Summer Bay Resort. Never stayed at the Villas but I think they're slightly smaller than the main resort and Silver Crown vs. Gold. Yes, it's a bit of a drive and that's the only downside. It's approx. 6 miles west of WDW. I don't use the free transportation cuz I like the freedom to come and go when we want and not be waiting around for a certain time. In general it's a lot easier to just rent a car. It would be a hike even just to the Publix next door w/o a car.

I traded in our lockout half (1Br) to try for a 2br and considered staying at Cypress Pointe. All newly remodeled and big tv but the kid's br doesn't have cable and I know my kids would be a bit sad to not watch a little Animal Planet before bed. Not a big deal really but imp. to them.

I also considered Silver Lake-Points but disclaimer states not all units have a washer/dryer which is very important to me and also they charge a housekeeping fee if your stay is less than 7 nts which ours will only be 5.

Vistana Resort was also available but that's hit or miss too with a lot of very mixed reviews depending on if you get the old or new sections. MiaSRN owns there and could answer any questions you might have about Vistana.

My search was for the last week of Sept which you would think if there ever was there a slow time that would be it but still showed no availability for Bonnet Creek or any HGVC. We ended up getting a 2br at Summer Bay. Lots of room and we know we'll be happy.

You can always search RCI's Extra Vacations inventory. Two years ago we got a 2br at HGVC @ Sea World for only $404 incl. tax. It was really nice and if I can ever get a good deal there, I'd buy a week.

Just look at the amenities and see what's important to you. For us TV's, & W/D won over trying some place different/closer.
Have a great trip!

 

[AutumnKlassic]

Interesting....the information we have says there is Free transportation to all Disney Parks. Did they make you all Pay?

BTW....Go TOPPERS!!!

Maybe it was at Silver Lake we had to pay. We didn't pay much attention to it because we had are own car. I do remeber that the people that did use the transportation were not happy with how long it took you to get anywhere.

By the way Congrats WKU! You beat EKU maybe for the last time the way will play each other.