Just Back from Vistana Resort. The good, the bad, and the not so great....

[harvey]

We arrived home today after 7 nights at the Vistana Resort. This was my first off-site experience at Disney.

First the bad:

I had done the Diamond Lane Check-In online and requested a room in the Spas, an inside room (not on an outside roadway), and first floor. At check-in we were assigned a 2nd floor room in the Palms right on highway 535. I was crushed. We went to the unit, and I was disgusted. It smelled horribly of mold (reminiscent of an indoor pool...they must've cleaned with an incredible amount of chlorine bleach!). I thought the layout was goofy with the table do-hickey that ran the length of the room and jutted out at one part. That that was wierd.

I decided I'd take the kids for a walk to get oriented, and found myself more and more disappointed in our unit. As we walked by the Cascades I was just plain bummed. We were a good distance from any activity...... There is no pool, no playground, nothing in the Palms area. The landscaping was very lush and the pond was pretty, but my 6 kids don't care about that. So dh and I went down to request a different unit.

They very graciously gave us a new room in the Lakes section. No questions asked. I was a bit worried as I remembered from reading here that the Lakes were far away too....but I thought anything was better than the room we had in the Palms. We were assigned rm # 1948. It was on the second floor as well, but it was the only room they had available...in fact we had to give them 2 hours to clean it. But the building also had an elevator (GREAT for tired mamas and papas carrying sleeping tots after a full day at MK). I was delighted with it. The layout was awesome, the room very clean (no 'old hotel' smell). We were just one building away from the Fountains and Lakes rec areas as well. It didn't seem to matter that we were not in the 'main' area as we never had need to go over there. The kids especially loved the pools, and playgrounds. There was just no comparison to the Palms.

I would definitely stay again, but only in a newer section. I think the Fountains are actually a bit older and have the same layout as the Palms, but the exterior and interior decor was very nice...so I'd probably stay in that section too.

The staff was extremely accomodating when we asked for a new room. The supervisor was wonderful.


Oh yeah....we received a phone call from maintenence at 11:00 one night. It seemed our jacuzzi was leaking down into the unit below us. They wanted to come fix it NOW. We had six sleeping kids and we were IN the jacuzzi at the time, lol. We begged them to please wait until morning....if it could wait at all. They said okay and showed up at 8:00. I guess the folks below had pots and pans along the edge of their tub to catch the drips. I felt kinda bad, but the maintenence man assured me there was no danger.

So there ya go. The good, the bad, and the not so great about Vistana (which by the way rhymes with BANANA.)

 

[zurgswife]

Thanks for posting....glad Maintenace was willing to wait....

 

[MiaSRN62]

I think the Fountains are actually a bit older and have the same layout as the Palms, but the exterior and interior decor was very nice...so I'd probably stay in that section too.

I own in the Fountains and can tell you from experience that it is indeed alot nicer than the Palms. I stayed in the Spas once, but toured the Palms. We were not pleased with the Spas when compared to the Fountains and newer units. The Fountains is actually divided into two phases. The Fountains II is similar to the Lakes, in that the jacuzzi tub is in the master bedroom vs the master bathroom. The decor of the Fountains II closely matches the Lakes also.
As an owner, I always put in a request for the Fountains II. The only sections that have the elevators though, are the Lakes and Cascades. They are also the only buildings that are 4 and 5 stories too. Glad u were able to get your villa switched. I'll admit, the section you stay in greatly affects your experience at Vistana.