Highs and Lows

[mkingdon]

Now I've had a couple of days to recover I thought I'd post a few good and bad points from our trip.

Lows

Location of villa - we knew we were allocated on arrival, but were told all villas would be within 20 minutes of Disney. Either Dollar had run out of F1 racing cars, or there is another "Disney" on the US27 that I don't know about. It took us 30 minutes each way to WDW, doing 70mph, avoiding traffic and red lights. This was not good.

TCD will be hearing about this. Our villa was at Southern Dunes near Haines City. Too far away - never again.

Weather - Rain/storms and a bit more rain. First week saw lots of the stuff, it took us four attempts to see Fantasmic. However, it only spolied one day where we abandoned MGM and went to the cinema at DTD instead.

Highs

Everything else!!

some fantastic meals.

Whispering Canyon was great fun
San Angel was lovely, both in ambience and food. Got a table on the waterfront
Brown Derby out of this world
Queues in the first week were sometimes big, but second week really quiet.
My waistline expanded at an astounding rate.

Lots of characters in all parks. DDs loved that.

Thought I'd post these whilst I work myself up for a full report.

Craig

 

[vernon]

Sorry to hear that the villa didn't work out Craig, Southern Dunes is a nice development and a great location for people that are looking for a golfing destination mixed in with a few visits to the attractions, but as you found out it can be a bit of a bind to make that journey every day. I agree with you on drive time, it may be possible if EVERYTHING goes right and you max the speed limit all the way, but keeping legal and "normal" traffic, I think 20 minutes is REALLY pushing it,

 

[UKDEB]

Welcome home, Craig. Good feedback on the villa. We normally stick to those around Splendid China, but we're thinking of moving out to the US27 for our January trip because they are so much cheaper (up to half the cost). Even though I think I know the area and distances pretty well, it's really useful to have this first-hand info from someone who doesn't have a villa on the US27. If we stick with our decision, at least we'll know exactly what we're letting ourselves in for.

Glad to hear that everything else went well.

 

[KayleeUK]

Good to hear your thoughts, can't wait for a trip report

 

[Rooster]

We got back last Tuesday after our first visit to Orlando (and the US for that matter). We had a fantastic trip. Already planning our second!

We stopped in a villa in the Santa Cruz development, I guess about half-way (between US192 and I4) down US27. Perhaps because we didn't know any different, we didn't find the distance to the parks a problem. I didn't particularly time it, but it seemed about 20 minutes to WDW. Easy driving and nice quiet location. We looked at other villa complexes along US27 and will probably use one of those next time, although we are still looking around.

Great forum guys. Helped us no end in planning our trip.

 

[kazzie]

Welcome back Craig and Rooster,useful info on the location of villas.Not sure evryone takes this into account when booking a villa

 

[Mrs Dazzle]

Welcome back Craig, glad you had a great trip. It's disappointing when something like your villa isn't quite what/where you anticipated

Sounds like for the rest of your trip it was excellent.

Looking forward to the trip reports - and you too, Rooster

 

[DisneyAli]

Re the villa location:- We have just changed our plans about booking a villa with virgin for this very reason. We have now booked one privately on the Lindfieds development and know exactly where it is because the owner emailed us a detailed map of the location, right down to its actual location on the road its in. Also we have the keycode before we get there so no having to go to villa centres before being allocated.