Marriot-Horizons How far from Disney?

[AR81]

Considering staying at the horizons resort, how far is it to disney realistically? Anyone stayed there before, what did you think of the resort? The pictures on the website look awesome but I am concerned about convenience because we are mostly going to disney parks. Only 1 to 2 days will we be doing nondisney stuff.

 

[Dancegrl624]

We stayed at Horizons this past January and loved it! We went to the parks everyday of our trip and it was a great location. When you take a left out of the resort and get to the first traffic signal (a one minute drive), you take a left and you're on I-4!! The WDW exits are the first few that you encounter. It didn't take us long at all to get to and from the parks. I would recommend this resort to anyone that was looking to stay off-property. If you have time to spare, take a look at my TR from January. I have plenty of pics of our one-bedroom villa. Our DD really loved this resort!

 

[Dancegrl624]

For some reason, my trip report link isn't working. If you'd like me to post my pics here, just let me know!

 

[AR81]

If you would like to post them that would be great! So you found it to be a somewhat convenient location. Were you still able to get to the parks for ropedrop? Did you take afternoon breaks or was that too much of a hassle to drive back and forth? I was able to pull up one of your trip reports but I think it is the one where you stayed at Pop...

 

[Dancegrl624]

If you would like to post them that would be great! So you found it to be a somewhat convenient location. Were you still able to get to the parks for ropedrop? Did you take afternoon breaks or was that too much of a hassle to drive back and forth? I was able to pull up one of your trip reports but I think it is the one where you stayed at Pop...

That's my PTR I'm currently working on! Anyways...we made it to rope drop every single day that week. I'm pretty sure we left the hotel around 8am and we were at the turnstiles by 8:30am at the LATEST! We always had very close parking spots. So close that the trams didn't even stop there! We didn't take afternoon breaks back in January. Our DD is 6 yrs old and is able to go all day. Plus, it wasn't crazy hot or humid in January. I'll post some pics of our hotel.

View from the door looking into the kitchen and living room. Directly to the left there was a closet that held the washer/dryer.

View from the sliding glass doors

Gigantic television! There is also a dvd player on the little shelf to the right of the tv

Master bedroom

Another view of the bedroom (very comfy king size bed)

Huge bathroom! We took the laundry basket from the closet and put it in there for our dirty clothes.

I'll post a few more in another post!

 

[Dancegrl624]

If you look in the distance you'll see a long row of trees. On the other side of the trees is I-4.

Looking down onto the quiet pool from our balcony. We were on the top floor (6th). The pirate pool wasn't open while we were there.

Pool area looking up at our balcony/patio

Another section of our pool area

Main building

It was such a beautiful resort! We didn't spend a lot of time there, but it was wonderful. We did end up washing our own towels because we didn't feel like calling to request more. There is no housekeeping, so you will have to make your own beds. Not a big deal to us! Our DD said the pull out couch was very comfy as well. It was huge!!!

 

[AR81]

I apologize for the slow reply.... Thanks for the pics-- they look great. For some reason I had to close out and open back up for it to let me reply--strange. Anyways, from what I understand so there is not any housekeeping services. So do you have to empty your own trash and stuff like that? Do they provide you with enough towels and linens for the week? How was the kitchen stocked? Thanks

 

[AR81]

One more quick question, you stated you were on the 6th floor. Are there elevators? I couldn't tell by the pictures. Some hotels only have exterior corridors with stairs...

 

[Ed J]

We have stayed there and across the street and around the corner, it's close and we do take breaks during the day some times. Like said above it's only 2 exits down I-4 from the parks.

Yes they have elevators, no you'll have to a load of towels while your there. We pack light, do wash and come home and put stuff away instead of doing a vacations worth of laundry when we get home (1 of the advantages of staying in a condo over a motel room).

The pools are great, the bar better and the bar foods quality almost made up for the lack of a restaurant on site. There is no mini store there either, thye are the only 2 negatives I can say about the place, everything else is.

 

[Ed J]

Trash you have to do yourself, but it's easy, on your floor there will be a room with a trash shute. Don't forget to grab a bell hop cart for loading and unloading, makes life easier.

The food store is close too, out of the resort make a left, right at the light, down a mile or 2 on the right.

 

[Detailor]

Just butting in...

I've walked around the resort (now known as Harbour Lake) and I'm sure that they have elevators - I not been to a Marriott resort with more than two-story buildings that didn't have them, in fact.

To get more info on this resort I'd suggest going out to http://timeshares.marriott-vacations.com/ownership/resorts/marriott-harbour-lake/overview.html. Of particular note might be the resort map and the villa layout charts. There are also a couple of slide shows showing resort features and the villa interiors.

You're right that this isn't a typical hotel experience - it's a timeshare resort - so you take care of your own trash (there'll be a trash room near the elevator). You also do your own dishes and have in-unit washer/dryer and they supply you with a small starter supply of laundry detergent and enough dish detergent packets for the week. The kitchen and bathrooms are all quite well stocked for the maximum number of people designated for the unit (I think that two-bedrooms are 8 and one-bedrooms are 4). There are usually extra blankets and there's the bedding for the sofabed in the livingroom (usually located in the storage unit under the television. And you'll have both towels for in-unit use and a corresponding number of pool towels in your villa (you're responsible for them so don't leave them at the pool when you go back to the villa).

Dick Taylor

 

[Dancegrl624]

I apologize for the slow reply.... Thanks for the pics-- they look great. For some reason I had to close out and open back up for it to let me reply--strange. Anyways, from what I understand so there is not any housekeeping services. So do you have to empty your own trash and stuff like that? Do they provide you with enough towels and linens for the week? How was the kitchen stocked? Thanks

One more quick question, you stated you were on the 6th floor. Are there elevators? I couldn't tell by the pictures. Some hotels only have exterior corridors with stairs...

As others have stated, there are elevators. They are in the middle of the building. We would take the elevator up, but the stairs down. Our room was the last one at the end of the corridor directly across from the stairs. There are plenty of garbage bags and they are already in the garbage cans. I think we had 8 towels in our room. 4 were already out and there were an additional 4 under the sink in the bathroom. There were also 4 hand towels and 4 washcloths. We ran our dishwasher whenever we needed it. There were plenty of dishwasher soap packets under the sink.

If you take a right out of the resort, there is a Walgreens about a mile or so away. There is also a Public's grocery store as well. We went there our first day and bought some groceries. Also down that way is the Premium Outlets. I've been there before, but not on this past trip.

 

[dfarner]

Just butting in...

I've walked around the resort (now known as Harbour Lake) and I'm sure that they have elevators - I not been to a Marriott resort with more than two-story buildings that didn't have them, in fact.

To get more info on this resort I'd suggest going out to http://timeshares.marriott-vacations.com/ownership/resorts/marriott-harbour-lake/overview.html. Of particular note might be the resort map and the villa layout charts. There are also a couple of slide shows showing resort features and the villa interiors.

You're right that this isn't a typical hotel experience - it's a timeshare resort - so you take care of your own trash (there'll be a trash room near the elevator). You also do your own dishes and have in-unit washer/dryer and they supply you with a small starter supply of laundry detergent and enough dish detergent packets for the week. The kitchen and bathrooms are all quite well stocked for the maximum number of people designated for the unit (I think that two-bedrooms are 8 and one-bedrooms are 4). There are usually extra blankets and there's the bedding for the sofabed in the livingroom (usually located in the storage unit under the television. And you'll have both towels for in-unit use and a corresponding number of pool towels in your villa (you're responsible for them so don't leave them at the pool when you go back to the villa).

Dick Taylor

I pulled up the link to the resort map. It looks like a very large resort. Is there a large water slide at both pools? It looks to me like there is a pool with a long slide and then another pool with a pirate ship. Does the pirate ship pool have a longer slide for older kids as well? My oldest daughter likes the longer slides and we wouldn't want to have to split time between two pools (My youngest is all about the pirate ship!). Also, have all the buildings been refurbished in the last year or two?

Thanks!

 

[littlestar]

Horizons/Harbour Lake is a very compact resort. Maximum walk time between the two pools is about five minutes max.

 

[Detailor]

I pulled up the link to the resort map. It looks like a very large resort. Is there a large water slide at both pools? It looks to me like there is a pool with a long slide and then another pool with a pirate ship. Does the pirate ship pool have a longer slide for older kids as well? My oldest daughter likes the longer slides and we wouldn't want to have to split time between two pools (My youngest is all about the pirate ship!). Also, have all the buildings been refurbished in the last year or two?

Thanks!

littlestar is right, as is usual, that the resort is fairly compact and the two pools are fairly close to one another. The big slide (Pirates Plunge, I believe) is at one pool and the pirate ship is at the other. As I recall - and please understand that we've never stayed at Harbour Lake, we just did a walkthrough one day while staying across the street at Marriott's Cypress Harbour - there are one or two smallish slides at the ship. I got the impression that the pirate ship pool was aimed at younger children and the non-themed "quiet" pool was aimed at everyone else, included older kids and adults who think that they're kids who might find that slide interesting.

On refurbishment...
I don't believe that this resort has been refurbed yet as it's still pretty new. In fact when we were at Cypress Harbour in February it looked like they were still working on new buildings. It seems to me that the resort first opened in 2003 or 2004 (seems like we first noticed this resort being built while we were staying at HGVC/SeaWorld back in '02). So, if you want the newest buildings you'd want one that appears in the upper right portion of the map (I sort of think that the newest building might be building #31).

Dick Taylor

 

[Dancegrl624]

I pulled up the link to the resort map. It looks like a very large resort. Is there a large water slide at both pools? It looks to me like there is a pool with a long slide and then another pool with a pirate ship. Does the pirate ship pool have a longer slide for older kids as well? My oldest daughter likes the longer slides and we wouldn't want to have to split time between two pools (My youngest is all about the pirate ship!). Also, have all the buildings been refurbished in the last year or two?

Thanks!

It's not very big at all. The Pirate ship is located behind the main building. We never went over there in January because that "pool" was being refurbed. The quiet pool is the one with the big slide (that's the pool in my pictures). While we were there, they were repainting the outside of some of the buildings. This is a fairly new resort. When my family and I were in Orlando in 2002, we stayed at Cypress Harbor (which is across the street). At that time, Horizons was being built.

 

[dfarner]

Thank you all for the info. The resort looks wonderful. We have seriously considered this resort for our upcoming trip, but with the Magic Kingdom being our main destination and the promos that Disney is offering we will probably opt for a monorail resort this time around.

 

[dioxide45]

To answer about towels. You will be provided with towels in the room. You should be able to call down to the front desk and ask for a towel exchange. They will remove the dirty towels and give you new ones.

We prefer to actually just wash them ourselves. Having to call down and then wait around for them to show up isn't really an issue but we can throw some in the washer and then go to bed or head out of the room, we can then throw them in the dryer when we return.

 

[3kidsfordis]

I apologize for the slow reply.... Thanks for the pics-- they look great. For some reason I had to close out and open back up for it to let me reply--strange. Anyways, from what I understand so there is not any housekeeping services. So do you have to empty your own trash and stuff like that? Do they provide you with enough towels and linens for the week? How was the kitchen stocked? Thanks

There is housekeeping service. If you rent directly from Marriott rather than renting someone's timeshare, you get maid service just like in a hotel. I've stayed twice and had daily service-beds made, trash emptied, new towels and pool towels delivered and dish washer loaded.

I found it a very easy commute. Never had traffic going to rope drop. I will stay here again. My stay prior to finding off-site was in the Hawaii bldg at the Poly. Yes, the boat to MK from Poly was great and a definite plus. However, it always irked me that I could rarely get a seat poolside. This was never a problem at Horizons. I also enjoyed eating breakfast at the condo and eating off-site. I'm not all that crazy about Disney restaurants.

 

[jeff968]

We were there in February. Here is the link to my review in the hotel and accomodations review section above.

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2101920