Just back from Star Island YUCK!

[imgointoDis]

We just returned from 7 nights at Star Island Resort, and thought it was horrible. I guess it was partially our fault, because I booked the smaller 1 bedroom "villa" (yea right) instead of the larger. However, I would think a 5 star resort would have cleaner accommodations. Mold in the bath tub, fan in bathroom broken, the entire villa smelled like urine and smoke. The couple next door fought 24 hours a day, and we now know their entire life history together! Elevators were filthy, and I can't even describe the filth in the laundry room! There were 2 very small windows with a wonderful view of walls and construction, after having been told at check in it was one of their better views! Staff was generally rude. The first night we went to the Tikki Bar above the pool and found the employees sitting around a table. It was a big effort for one of them to get up and go behind the bar to serve us. Another girl was moving tables and chairs around, literally throwing them and using not so suitable language in the process. We couldn't believe it! The sales presentation was very hard sell. It took saying no to 3 different people, (who by the way, didn't care an ounce about our complaints) before we could get out of there. After 2 hours, I got up and left. I was really excited about staying at this resort, as I had heard good things. I wouldn't recommend it if they paid me to!!! Let me know if you have questions.

 

[Big V]

Sorry you had such a bad time there. When we were there two years ago, it was a very nice place. It must have changed since then. Otherwise, how was your trip?

 

[alde]

Wow .. I've never been there and have, like most, only seen pictures of the place ... which look wonderful .. but pictures are made to look that way. The place smelled of smoke and urine??? My god .. possibly the previous occupants were a bunch of singles and maybe they just trashed the place .. and your neighbors were aguing for hours?... and kids unmonitored in the hottub .. Lousy view from your window? .. At first I was leaning towards perhaps the staff wanted to give you the screws .. but what else can I say .. you had the unfortunate priviledge to share your precious vacation time with a bunch of malecontents. And I suppose that's the risk one always takes when going away .. well unless you're very wealth and famous.

 

[Tiger926]

I am sorry to hear about your terrible stay, but I am not surprised. This property is run by the same group who runs the Clarion Suites Resort World, which is down the road. We unfortunately had the same problems at the Clarion Suites - I would never recommend either of these two properties (we visited Star Island while at other property) as they are poorly managed - terrible customer service, bad upkeep, dirty, etc...and don't even get me started about the timeshare sharks who posed as hotel representatives pretending to hear our concerns about the property.

Hopefully less and less people will stay at these 2 properties so that management realizes that they have some serious problems to correct.

Tiger

 

[kapeppy]

Wow! I can't believe you had such a bad time at Star Island. DH and I stayed there for four nights back in May and had a fantastic room! We did splurge for the larger "villa" and after seeing the smaller one, I am glad we did! We especially enjoyed our big jacuzzi each night after a long day in the parks! They even provided Bath & Bodyworks lotions and shampoos! Our room was sparkling clean and had everything we could possibly need to make our stay perfect including a washer and dryer, dishwasher, fridge, microwave, and stove along with all the supplies you could think of (paper towels, laundry detergent, dishwasher detergent, extra garbage bags, etc.....). Since we had the washer and dryer I can't comment on the laundry facilities. We, too, had to attend a timeshare presentation but had no pressure whatsoever! We were there for just over an hour and a half and when we told our rep that we weren't really in a position to buy at this time, she thanked us for touring the facilities, signed our slip and we were on our way.

We were there for four days and I didn't even notice that there was someone in the other half of our villa, although on the last night of our stay there was a roudy group of kids in the room below us partying until the wee hours. Their party was cut short, however, when the power went out for almost two hours!

We were in building 12 and my only complaint was that there was no elevator. We were on the top (third) floor and had to drag our luggage up and down the stairs.

We loved the location - getting to the parks was a breeze! We generally stay on-site but we would stay here again in a minute if we were able to get a decent rate!

Feel free to ask questions!

 

[RAMWDWFAN]

imgointoDIS,

My son and I had the same exact experience last year when we stayed at Star Island. It was so bad, the next day I called Fairfield, our timeshare people, and asked them to move us to Cypress Palms, which is fantastic. They could not accommodate us, but the rep admitted that a lot of people have problems with Star Island.

We will be staying at Silver Lake Resort this year. I'm hearing a lot of good things about it.

Sorry about your experience and hopefully next time you can stay at a better resort.

 

[Lisa P.]

What a shame. I'm sorry to read these negative reviews but thank you for posting them. Star Island is a pretty large resort, managed by more than one management company. That always raises a red flag because it's more likely that too many things get passed off as the other company's problem.

Fairfield manages part and another company manages part (it even has two separate listings with Interval International (exchange company). Our experience there was several years ago and we had mixed reviews. The 3BR we were in was huge, very clean, beautiful and luxurious. But the staff was absolutely awful. Even then, it was evident that anyone getting one of the smaller units would likely be disappointed. The larger 1BR is no comparison!

In more recent years, I've read that they have been doing a lot of refurbishing and have had some change in staff. The place was getting plenty of much more positive reviews. Seems you had the terrible misfortune to get a bad unit and had to deal with poor staff. I hope your next trip (elsewhere) is much better.