Marriot Grande Vista????

[karenbaco]

Should we request anything special here? what section, what floor? We are 2 families in two seperate 2bdrm condos, can we get rooms with doors side by side or connecting somehow? Traveling Sept 17-24th traded thru Interval International.
Thanks
Karen

 

[utahkennedys]

We have stayed there last Spring and were in the Magellan building which I really liked b/c our room was renovated (not sure, by now maybe they all are?) and it was very close to the main pool and buildings. I would not have wanted to be across the bridge by the other pools for what it's worth.

 

[Connears]

You might want to see the review in this section. I am enclosing my recent stay. Would not return, but maybe DVC shades my viewpoint. The villas we stayed in had outdoor corridors and we had a one bedroom lock-off which was attached to a studio-if opened it would be the two bedroom. Don't know what was next door to that, but 2 bedrooms won't attach to 2 bedrooms.

We (DH DS and I)stayed here 6/21-6/25/06 while attending a conference at Orange County Convention Center. We were solicited to tour timeshare with rate of $199 for 4 nights(we upgraded to 1 bedroom villa for $149 more total). Let's start by saying we have been DVCmembers since 1994 at OKW and HHI since 2002 with many stays under our belts(also at BWV and BCV). We thought it was a good opportunity to try the offer out for the conference as we didn't want to waste DVC points for the conference. We have APs and went to parks after conference with DS(15).

POSITIVES:
Very convenient location on I-drive very near conference made for easy drive. Villa was very nice with full kitchen master bath with jacuzzi, washer/dryer screened in porch. Pools were also very nice. That is really all the positives I can give.

NEGATIVES:
We checked-in and when we opened the door to our villa, it was totally uninhabitable! Ceiling in bathroom had caved in onto floor and shower,kitechen and bedrooms were dirty. I wouldn't have minded if there had been a housekeeping error, but this room should NOT have even been in the inventory. When we called the desk she forwarded me to the room assigner and she gave me a new villa, but I was told I could wait upto an hour for new keys and assist with luggage unless we wanted to go back to get the keys ourselves(which we did). The buildings are numbered differently from the rooms and it is very confusing(We were in building 98 but our room was 8207). They building all have outdoor hallways and only one elevator. Some building have luggage carts and others do not(our first did, but not the final one). So DH had to lug everything to 2nd floor. New villa was fine.

We asked to be directed to where we could rent dvds and 3 different people sent us to 3 different places!

Everyday there were huge garbage and linen carts in the parking areas which was really unattractive.

Addendum:
Other positives included $100 disney dollars for doing timeshare tour. Very low pressure tour which we of course did not buy. We also we given $50 resort dollars after we spoke to manager about check-in fiasco(which was not the reason we spoke to her, but we did accept it).

Connears

 

[lovethemagic]

I have stayed at MGV twice (including once last month) and unfortunately I don't know the building numbering well enough to give you advice on what to request, but I did want to pass along that I do think it's very important to request a specific building.

On my first trip about two years ago we were in what must have been a newly renovated unit and it was totally beautiful and flawless. Very nicely decorated, all furniture, linens, etc. seemed brand new and the unit was spotless. We were also very conveniently located to what was then the main pool (were still building the new one across the bridge) as well as the marketplace and other amenities so we used them all the time.

On my more recent trip, not so lucky. First was accidentally placed in a smoking unit. Although it appeared very nice and was an okay, but not great location, the smell was overpowering so I headed back to the front desk to wait in line again. Although I had requested a new or newly-refurbished unit, definitely got neither. Furniture was quite worn, unit needed painting, had old carpet and a fair number of bugs (although not totally avoidable in Orlando, particularly with doors opening to outside). It also seemed to be the very most distant building from both of the main pools and the marketplace and other amenities so we hardly used them.

Moral of the story is that MGV is actually a very nice resort with good amenities, but the actual units and desirability of location varies widely so it definitely pays to do your homework, make requests and make sure you get them.