Just back from Windsor Palms

[Kate-n-sam]

We had a wonderful time in a beautiful 4 bedroom home, I'd be happy to answer any questions for you!

 

[baileybelle]

We booked a 3bd/3ba condo at windsor palms in october thru aaadream homes. Is it as wonderful as it looks? Who did you book thru? As close to Disney as they say? Thanks for any info.:thewave:

 

[Sandy Feet]

Hi Kate-n-sam
Glad you had a good time. Tell us about your home...who did you book thru..was it well equipped?...should we take our own towels to use at waterparks?....do you think we should bring a nightlight or 2 for the bathrooms?...
I was also wondering when we should plan on leaving home to arrive at WDW or Universal in time for opening?

 

[tboss]

We will be at Windsor Palms starting May 22 in a condo.
I'd love to hear anything you have to say about the complex in general.

 

[disneysteve]

We stayed in a 3-bedroom condo at Windsor Palms in November. It was wonderful. We booked through this site: http://www.windsor-palms-resort.com/

The condo is very spacious. Ours was beautifully furnished and very nicely equipped. We were on the 2nd floor. As mentioned, there are no elevators so try to get 1st or 2nd floor if you can. 2nd can be better because the central air units for the building are on the ground and can be a bit noisy if you have the unit right near them so ask about that. The buildings have 8 condos per floor.

The pool is very nice. How close to the condos depends on which building you are in.

Here is a site map of the complex:
http://members.aol.com/sgitler/site.JPG

The condos are the hourglass-shaped buildings. The pool is next to the clubhouse.

Here is a floor plan of the 3-bedroom condos:
http://members.aol.com/sgitler/condo.JPG

Happy to answer any questions.

 

[Big V]

Here are some photo's of Windsor Palms:
My Windsor Palms photo's

 

[Kate-n-sam]

Sorry I'm so late to respond, I seemed to have developed some kind of post traumatic disney syndrome...(migrane).

Anyway, we booked the house through the owners, who we found through the windsor palms association website.
http://www.windsor-palms-resort.com/index.html

here is the home we rented
http://www.windsor-palms-resort.com/adams.htm

One of the reasons we chose this home was because of the fence in back, the property didn't back to another pool.

The house had everything we needed as far as amenities. There were plenty of towels, but no large beach towels for the water parks. There were no household items of any kind. We had to purchase laundry supplies, garbage bags, and dishwasing supplies right down to the sponges. The kitchen was well stocked as far as appliances and dishware is concerned. We absolutely loved having the laundry facilities, we used it daily between the 7 of us.

I stopped into the sundry shop once for a cup of coffee and a paper. (starbucks) It was well stocked with candy, souveniers, dairy items, newspapers and the like.

The kids enjoyed the playground, we never used the big pool, but it looked very nice on our trips by. Some had reported in the guestbook at the house that it gets very crowded, so get there early if you want a lounge.

We shopped at the publix on 192 west of the complex one time. After that we shopped at the grocery store right at the end of formosa, in the marketplace plaza. Some claim it to be expensive, but I didn't notice really on most items and the convenience could not be beat. It's not a super store, but I found the selection to be fine, and the China theme was neat. Also, never crowded when we were there and the staff very friendly. There are a DQ, Outback, Sushi, and Italian restaurant in the plaza as well. Also an Eckerd drug store. We bought our pool floaties there. (Expensive I thought)

The only bad things I can say, and they wouldn't deter me from staying there again would be an occasional line to get in to the complex. There are 2 lanes, one for residents and one for renters. The rental line would sometimes build up as they would check people in. The other strange thing was a weird smell outside on occasion. Maybe someone could clue me in...it smelled a few times as if there was a sewage treatment plant nearby, and depending on the direction of the wind it would waft into our backyard. Nothing overbearing or anything...makes me wonder what was on the other side of that fence The third thing, which wasn't so bad was transient groups of 20 somethings on either side of us. It seems to be popular for locals (college aged, probably living with parents) to rent a house with 3 or 4 couples for 2 nights, party it up then go back home. Really not a problem, but I could see it might be on occasion since the pools are about 15 feet apart, and there was 'fun' going on in the hot tub, loud volleyball games and bad language sometimes. My kids were in bed when the partying was going on and it didn't bother DH or I. Again, I wouldn't not rent there because of these, just giving an honest opinion of our stay. We really had a lovely time.

As far as the park commute, I timed the MK toll booth to be 12-13 minutes, we were on a tram to the ferry/monorail at about 20 minutes. EPCOT was about the same, but since you don't have to go through the TTC we were walking in the gates after about 20 minutes tops, from the house. We used the Sherberth road entrance to get to AK, it took about 6 minutes. We didn't go to MGM, but we passed the entrance on the way to the TTC, it is probably no more than 10 minutes from the complex. We never encountered traffic on 192, so we took it to the Disney World exit (world drive) off of 192 east and followed the signs from there.

Well, I hope this answers your questions....let me know if there are any others!


I just wanted to add to Sandy Feet, our house had several nightlights. We asked the owner before hand, or I would've broughht some along.

Also, I have to say, unbelievable value for the dollar. I'm not sure we will stay on site again. We have always rented a car anyway, so Disney transportation is not an issue for us. The private bedrooms and the kitchen, the laundry and the private jacuzzi cannot be beat. We paid in total for 8 nights, tax and pool heat 1168. We'd be looking at least twice that for a 330 square foot room at the WL. We spent a 1/2 day at the WL and another at the Poly, playing in the arcade, dining, rented surry bikes, shopping, etc, so I really didin't feel we missed out on "the magic" at all. Actually it was kind of nice to get away in the evenings.