is a pool home worth the extra $$$

[sln88]

We have done the skyauction condo thing for our past 6 trips. They have always been perfectly fine for us since we spend most of the time at the parks.

For some reason, I started wandering over to the pool home rentals. I guess the idea of having the pool right there is enticing to me. Rather than pack up stuff to go down to watch the kids swim, I would be right there. No worry about if I can drink a beer by the pool. No worry about pool hours.

But, I am kind of a tighwad. Will this convenience justify the extra cost? Are there downsides to a home vs a condo? I am worried about the distance. They say 10-15 minutes but I am not buying it when I look at the maps(27, Davenport, etc)

How much are you paying for a lower end home during low season? How do you know the home will actually be there when you get there? It seemed like they were all owned by people in the UK

sorry, I tried to search, but as usual, the search on this board does not work for me.

 

[ihave2kidsCT]

After roach place (Windsor Palms) we went to neighbor's at Aviana-- Davenport--off 17/92
Driving around was he--. We didnt have gps and got lost every time we left. To get to Disney would be 25 mins. w/o getting lost. There are trailor parks, milk stands, horses in front of houses--we would comment on how poor the area was--ecckk!! The gas station on the corner--- saw some interesting folks there--not safe

My vote-- I would NEVER stay past Windsor Hills- Aviana was 15 mins from there.

The pool thg-- I liked it somewhat-- not worth extra $$-- you still have to skim it-- worry about kids near it 24/7. They used it 3 times-- each time for half hour to an hour while I was making dinner.

I like the club pools-- kids interact with other kids, outside pool, get sun, etc

 

[isla bonita]

For us it was great. My children are big on swimming. They could forgo the parks to hang out and swim. It is not for every one but it suits us just great. When it has been a late night at the parks the pool at the rental home is open 24/7 for us it is a big plus. No strangers in the pool. That is a big plus for me.

 

[sln88]

wow- now I am torn. The driving part sounds bad. I am not sure how some of these places can advertise as 10 min from Disney. When I look at maps, it looks way farther than that.

I can see the pool being nice tho- but you both have good points on it. My kids are not "huge" at swimming at resorts, but if it was right out the backdoor, they may use it more. OTOH, seeing other kids at a resort is nice too, but since we go in the fall, there are not tons of kids around anyhow.

still undecided on the whole thing.

 

[december]

I just booked a town home with a pool for July 09. We'll have it from Sat - Sat. The total for the week was $800. For a 3 bedroom, 3 bath, with our own parking space in Windsor Hills, I think I got a great deal!

 

[cole6179]

I haven't been to Disney yet and we are still deciding on a home. But, a home/villa is the choice for us, as we are bringing my mother and meeting my in-laws and have 2 kids under 4.

From the research I have done, Emerald Island, Indian Creek, Rolling Hills, Windsor Palms, Formosa Gardens are some of the closer neighborhoods. Here is a map that may help you on your search. http://www.thedibb.co.uk/villa-map.php

I have also been asking for a street name or address when trying to decide so that I can mapquest it for myself.

We have rented homes elsewhere on vacation and really like the privacy. No having to pack up to go swimming.

 

[sympatico]

wow- now I am torn. The driving part sounds bad. I am not sure how some of these places can advertise as 10 min from Disney. When I look at maps, it looks way farther than that.

I can see the pool being nice tho- but you both have good points on it. My kids are not "huge" at swimming at resorts, but if it was right out the backdoor, they may use it more. OTOH, seeing other kids at a resort is nice too, but since we go in the fall, there are not tons of kids around anyhow.

still undecided on the whole thing.

Any of the subdivisions in the Formosa Gardens area are within 5 - 10 minutes of Disney AK, a little more to the rest of Disney. Windsor Hills, Windsor Palms, Indian Creek, Rolling Hills, Oak Island Cove, Emerald Island, Sunset Lakes, Formosa Garden Estates, Acadia Estates etc.
Map: http://www.thedibb.co.uk/villa-map.php
We rarely use the community pool when we rent a pool home and we use the pool at the house every day. When we stayed in a 6 br in Windsor Hills for our family trip we went to the community pool once and the kids didn't want to stay, they wanted to go back to "their" pool. It's very convenient and it beats lugging stuff back and forth to the community pool. All homes have either security alarms on the doors or a fence surrounding the pool, and some places like WH have both for child safety.
You can get 4 br homes in some of the places for $700-$800ish/wk in the low season. Check on vrbo.com for Kissimmee area. We usually rent directly from owners and you can check the tax records site when you get their names to make sure they do own the property. We've rented from owners in the UK many times and haven't had a problem. Makes no difference to us where they're from. Usually try to pay with credit card or pay pal.
We always rent a pool home and very seldom a condo. Love having a private pool to ourselves. Another thing is that you can park right beside your door with the home and it's easy for loading and unloading the car.

 

[tim17]

Our 3 BR rented home with pool is in Kissimmee and it's a twenty minute drive on the Osceola Parkway straight to Disney. It's owned by a Brit but he only charges around $600 a week high season and a lot less in low season.

If you have kids the private pool is a big bonus and it's a great way to relax after a day at the parks. Yes a huge amount of Brits own homes in Florida but we can be trusted and most are managed by agencies in Florida anyway.

 

[MarioParty]

Once you go condo, you never go back LOL.

We were die-hard on-site visitors, until we discovered that for about $100/night we could have a 3/4 bedroom home with a private enclosed pool.

The relaxation and value afforded having your own vacation home is far and away beyond anything we experienced staying on-site, and to be honest we got to and from the parks quicker driving ourselves 90% of the time than we ever did waiting for sweaty/crowded busses.

We swam for at least 1/2 hour every night, sometimes more. In your own private pool it's hard to beat it!

MP

 

[sln88]

Our 3 BR rented home with pool is in Kissimmee and it's a twenty minute drive on the Osceola Parkway straight to Disney. It's owned by a Brit but he only charges around $600 a week high season and a lot less in low season.

If you have kids the private pool is a big bonus and it's a great way to relax after a day at the parks. Yes a huge amount of Brits own homes in Florida but we can be trusted and most are managed by agencies in Florida anyway.

I hope my comment did not come across as me not trusting Brits- LOL. I just found it unusual that about 90% of the responses were from there.
anyhoo- would you post a link to the rental you use or if you can't do that, could you pm me please?

and thanks for the link to the maps- that helps alot. One person sent me one in Davenport on Westport lane- is that far? The site says 10 min to Disney, but yahoo maps shows it more like 20. It also looks like it is in the middle of a cornfield(love the satellite view!), so that may cause an issue with getting fast food for dinner.....

thanks for everyone's input!

 

[JANNYANS]

Although homes in Davenport look a long way out on a map in reality they aren't.Depending on where on 27 you are staying it can take 15 mins or 25 .If you stay near the 192/27 junction then there is a new road -Westside Boulevard which you can use to get to 192 .From there you can take either 429 or Sherberth.My home is in this area and it usually takes me around 13 mins as whichever route I take it is a round an 8 miles journey.The last time I was there was in may so a reasonable amount of traffic was around.
If you are further south on 27 then you can use Championsgate and I-4.
For the extra space and facilities you get a home is going to be a draw for most people but has to be weighed up against the driving time but then when I have stayed on site I have waited longer than 15 mins to get a bus back to my hotel.

 

[dougsmom98]

I suggest for your first time in a villa, splurge and stay in the Formosa Gardens area or another area that you are familiar with. It sounds like you have stayed off site in a timeshare, so find someplace that you are comfortable with. As other have said, we have found the Formosa Gardens area to be the closest to the parks. After a couple of trips, we started getting braver and ventured a little further out to Davenport for our home rentals. We are frugal and we like to get a bigger bang for our buck and staying further out allows us to get a larger home, with more amenities, for less money. The furthest out we have stayed so far is Solana Resort off of 27. For the person who stayed in Aviana, yes that is even further than the Solana and I would have to weigh the price and amenities against the further drive. We have found the places we have stayed at off of 27 to be an additional 10-12 minutes from the Formosa Gardens area and then 5-8 minutes from there depending on the park. We always budget 30 minutes of time for travel just in case, but it NEVER takes us that long. We get to the parks when they open, so traffic has never been a problem for us.

I do believe you will love having a pool right at your home. Our kids would drive us crazy wanting to go to the community pool. We would pack up our stuff and then not be able to find a lounge chair. Even if we found a lounge chair, we would forget something back at the condo and have to run back. Now, we put our feet up and watch the kids while we have some beer or wine. We don't worry about packing up snacks and drinks, we just pop into the house and get a snack when we are hungry. The kids can swim as long as they want. When we get home from the parks, we can go swimming. So many community pools close so early and we couldn't swim on park days.

Good luck deciding.

 

[isla bonita]

I do believe you will love having a pool right at your home. Our kids would drive us crazy wanting to go to the community pool. We would pack up our stuff and then not be able to find a lounge chair. Even if we found a lounge chair, we would forget something back at the condo and have to run back. Now, we put our feet up and watch the kids while we have some beer or wine. We don't worry about packing up snacks and drinks, we just pop into the house and get a snack when we are hungry. The kids can swim as long as they want. When we get home from the parks, we can go swimming. So many community pools close so early and we couldn't swim on park days.
Good luck deciding.

Amy
I could not have said it better myself.

If you have swimmers then this is a great option.

 

[GinaBean]

Although homes in Davenport look a long way out on a map in reality they aren't.Depending on where on 27 you are staying it can take 15 mins or 25 .If you stay near the 192/27 junction then there is a new road -Westside Boulevard which you can use to get to 192 .From there you can take either 429 or Sherberth.My home is in this area and it usually takes me around 13 mins as whichever route I take it is a round an 8 miles journey.The last time I was there was in may so a reasonable amount of traffic was around.
If you are further south on 27 then you can use Championsgate and I-4.
For the extra space and facilities you get a home is going to be a draw for most people but has to be weighed up against the driving time but then when I have stayed on site I have waited longer than 15 mins to get a bus back to my hotel.

I am glad to read this.

The first time we went we stayed at the Sheraton Vistana; we loved it. The second time we went we rented a 3 bedroom townhouse with a splash pool in Windsor Hills, and we loved that. We are going in December and have rented a 4 bedroom home in Davenport with a full sized pool. We can't wait! My kids will be in the pool pretty much the whole time that we are at the house, and dh & I are looking forward to the hot tub. We live in a rural area, so a 20-30 minute drive is nothing out of the ordinary for us, and we would personally rather drive a little longer and have more privacy.

 

[sln88]

I found a place that seems quite reasonable on Kingston circle- off of 192

does anyone have any experience with this area?

 

[sympatico]

I found a place that seems quite reasonable on Kingston circle- off of 192

does anyone have any experience with this area?

Can you post the website you're looking at.

 

[Darcy03231]

We stayed in Clermont and the home we rented was about a mile from the junction of 27/192 (Clear Creek Subdivision). I found it took us about 15 min to get to WDW. We loved staying here. There was a Super Walmart and plenty of restaurants nearby. I rented a 5 bdrm/3 bath pool home for less than room in a value resort. Since we were there in August the private pool was great. The last time we stayed on site at WDW the pools were so crowded the kids really couldn't swim. I definitely would rent a pool home again.

 

[7165red]

Yes it is worth it. We just lovded the pool and extra room to move around.

 

[sln88]

Can you post the website you're looking at.

WWW.EXECUTIVEORLANDOREALESTATE.COM

 

[sympatico]

All I see on that site is buying and selling. You can go to one of these sites and rent directly from the owner and get a good price. There is also a guarantee against fraud if you click the "Rent with Confidence Tab". HomeAway is the parent site for lots of rental sites that you will see across the top of the Rent with Confidence page. VRBO is one of these sites. This is the listing site for Kissimmee:
http://www.vrbo.com/vacation-rentals/usa/florida/central-disney-orlando/kissimmee
Davenport:
http://www.vrbo.com/vacation-rentals/usa/florida/central-disney-orlando/davenport
Clermont:
http://www.vrbo.com/vacation-rentals/usa/florida/central-disney-orlando/clermont

Some of the homes in Davenport and Clermont are a little further away (20 min) but have good prices.