Marriott Advice - Children ages 10+11

[Pan's Dad]

Hi and Help!

We have an 11yr old athletic boy (loves hoop) and 12 yr old girl (loves arts and crafts, singing). Both love pools. We have a choice to use my inlaw's timeshare for a wk for free thru Interval

We can get the Marriott Grande Vista, Marriott Cypress Harbour, Marriott Horizons or Sheraton Vistana for late August.

We are unfamiliar with any outside resorts but it seems the best pool is Horizons; yet it appears to be lacking in activities and from pics - rooms and resort does not seem as nice as others?

Appears Grande Vista may have the best rooms, resort setting? Would kids have fun there? Not sure if this is geared towards older crowd - i think the kids would be bored in just a big pool --

Cypress Harbour sounds like it has the most activities. Not sure how fun the pool is

Know nothing about sheraton vistana.


My questions are:

1. Which would you choose based on your experiences and on having children those ages?

2. Do you find the 'activities" are really done by the kids? Of course we will be doing Disney or Sea World a lot- seems I might want to focus on a nice room and pool area...how nice are the Horizons rooms as that pool seemed to be the best.

3. Do any of these pools have slides, like the disney resorts?

4. Do you think it would be worth paying and extra $150 for a two bedroom for the week?

5. Can visitors come see you at these resorts? My brother's family will be staying at Disney.

6. Do any of these resorts have good places to eat nearby?

7. After all this, I am debating going in Oct - which I really want to do but the school thing is bothering me even though our kids are A students..I seem to be the only one concerned with the heat in my family - i cannot imagine enjoying walking disney parks in that heat, but i may give in. i can get down there in early oct but kids would miss 4 d of school...we live in the Albany NY area.

it was so easy when kids were younger and we went end of Nov, beg of Dec! (i coach basketball so my time is limited begining in October forward)

thanks for any recommendations.

 

[spiceycat]

Cypress Harbour is the family resort.

I happen to love Grande Vista - but some of the rooms have not been updated - the rooms are so bad - but the outside area really need some work.

Horizons has fun things to do - both in the pool and outside - they were surpose to be up a theatre and putt golf course - or did this change.

here is what II says about this resort
Just minutes from Orlando's popular attractions, this child-friendly family resort features roomy two-bedroom accommodations; The Welcome Center; a themed pool and whirlpool spas at Horizons Harbor; Harborside Bar & Grill; WaterWorks, an outdoor water playground; The Boardwalk; Horizons Landing, a lakeside dock; The Gym; The Den; Function Junction, an outdoor pavilion; Putt-of-Course, a miniature golf course; Horizons Hall; and Horizons Gallery, for guests interested in learning more about Horizons. When completed, the resort will include Car Pool, a self-service car wash; CineMa's Theater. Construction is ongoing at the resort.

 

[mulanrouge]

I would suggest the Sheraton Vistana.

They have five pools (none of which have slides that I can remember). But they also have lots of activites - mini golf, tennis, and planned activities for kids as well.

It is centrally located to most of the parks (disney, universal and seaworld). We have stayed there twice and have nothing bad to say about it, at all.

If I remember correctly, they also have two (or three?) restaurants located on property. So if you would like to order something to your room (w/o worrying about cooking, or "fast food") you are able to do so.

We have also stayed at the Marriott Cypress Harbour. They had two pools (neither had slides). I was not overly impressed with the room we were in (needed some updating, sofas torn, wallpaper fading etc.), however it served it's purpose and gave us somewhere to lay our heads at night). They did have activities scheduled for people of all ages, and the resort in general was clean, and the staff friendly. One downside to this resort, is that there is not a restaurant located on property. They do have a pizza hut, but if you want something other than that, you are pretty much out of luck (aside from their convenience store which sells sandwiches etc.). I know after long days at the parks, it would have been nice to order something other than pizza.

I have looked at booking Marriott's Grande Vista as well. It looks like a beautiful resort.

I can not really comment on Marriott's Horizons, as I do not know anything about it (except that I think it is located across the street from Marriott's Cypress Harbour).

We have been to WDW in October and found it to be perfect weather. We hardly had any rain, and found that it was not too hot (plus you will have the added bonus of the food and wine festival at Epcot!)

Good luck with your trip planning.