Mainebound
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jul 24, 2002
- Messages
- 1,699
Hi all,
Just back from a week at a 4 bedroom pool home ("Emerald Footprints") in Emerald Island. We were nervous about our first offsite stay, so we booked 3 nights at the Wilderness Lodge to end our trip. Well, we wish we had stayed in the pool home all trip! I don't know if we can stay in a hotel again.
Getting to WDW, Universal, and Sea World was a breeze. Emerald Island itself is very new and pretty. We did not use public facilities there as we had no need. The home was new and spotless. It was very very relaxing to ocme home to at night. DH and I loved not sharing a room with our DS5 and DS3 and they loved not hsaring with each other. We saved money on food, ate more healthful and delicious breakfasts than we would have otherwise, and had fresh coffee or cold beer whenever we wanted! We had an indoor jacuzzi and outdoor spa, as well as a pool. No fighting over lounge chairs. DS5 was thrilled with the PS2 and Broadband, as well as the pool table and air hockey. It was great stepping out of the car and being inside in 5 steps. If you felt like a snack or drink, you didn't need to get dressed an trek to the lobby.
The kids slept so well, and really needed the respite fomr the activity of the parks.
The home had two sitting areas, so Grandma could watch Imus while we did something else in the den. This home had 7 TVs with Direct TV, as well as the computer and free local calls.
The only negative was that we arrived late (11:00pm) and had to stop at the Management Company in Lake Buena Vista, use a code to get into the lock box, then retrieve a code to get into our pool home. The management company was on the way, but we had a devil of a time getting their lock box open. We must have tried for 20 minutes, with two crying preschoolers in the car. We finally got it. But that was the only glitch the entire week.
I was worried about the homes being so close together -- they have only a few feet of spce between them. But we hardly saw anyone out, no neighbors at all. No noise at all. It was so quiet!
I was also worried about traffic. We only had one bad morning, a Sunday, there was an accident on I-4 and we were backed up for a little while, but otherwise I would say it was as fast or faster to get from the pool home to any park except MK than it was to use WDW transportation from the WL. Driving to the parks was not a problem in the least, and we have two in strollers and a Grandma with us!
The cost for the week in a 2000 square foot 4 bedroom home was about $1100. Divide by 7, that's about the cost of one 300 sq. ft.room room in a moderate resort. In fact, our WL stay for three nights (2 rooms with an AP discount) was equal to the cost of 7 nights in the pool home. NOT worth it.
I would not hesitate to recommend an offsite stay in a villa to anyone. It was great.
Just back from a week at a 4 bedroom pool home ("Emerald Footprints") in Emerald Island. We were nervous about our first offsite stay, so we booked 3 nights at the Wilderness Lodge to end our trip. Well, we wish we had stayed in the pool home all trip! I don't know if we can stay in a hotel again.
Getting to WDW, Universal, and Sea World was a breeze. Emerald Island itself is very new and pretty. We did not use public facilities there as we had no need. The home was new and spotless. It was very very relaxing to ocme home to at night. DH and I loved not sharing a room with our DS5 and DS3 and they loved not hsaring with each other. We saved money on food, ate more healthful and delicious breakfasts than we would have otherwise, and had fresh coffee or cold beer whenever we wanted! We had an indoor jacuzzi and outdoor spa, as well as a pool. No fighting over lounge chairs. DS5 was thrilled with the PS2 and Broadband, as well as the pool table and air hockey. It was great stepping out of the car and being inside in 5 steps. If you felt like a snack or drink, you didn't need to get dressed an trek to the lobby.
The kids slept so well, and really needed the respite fomr the activity of the parks.
The home had two sitting areas, so Grandma could watch Imus while we did something else in the den. This home had 7 TVs with Direct TV, as well as the computer and free local calls.
The only negative was that we arrived late (11:00pm) and had to stop at the Management Company in Lake Buena Vista, use a code to get into the lock box, then retrieve a code to get into our pool home. The management company was on the way, but we had a devil of a time getting their lock box open. We must have tried for 20 minutes, with two crying preschoolers in the car. We finally got it. But that was the only glitch the entire week.
I was worried about the homes being so close together -- they have only a few feet of spce between them. But we hardly saw anyone out, no neighbors at all. No noise at all. It was so quiet!
I was also worried about traffic. We only had one bad morning, a Sunday, there was an accident on I-4 and we were backed up for a little while, but otherwise I would say it was as fast or faster to get from the pool home to any park except MK than it was to use WDW transportation from the WL. Driving to the parks was not a problem in the least, and we have two in strollers and a Grandma with us!
The cost for the week in a 2000 square foot 4 bedroom home was about $1100. Divide by 7, that's about the cost of one 300 sq. ft.room room in a moderate resort. In fact, our WL stay for three nights (2 rooms with an AP discount) was equal to the cost of 7 nights in the pool home. NOT worth it.
I would not hesitate to recommend an offsite stay in a villa to anyone. It was great.
