Marriott Horizon's - Have you stayed there?

[ohiodad]

thinking about staying at marriott horizons on our next trip and was wondering what everyone thought. Also how is the room size either 1 bedroom or 2 bedroom units. Have stayed at grande Vista how does this compare ? Thanks

 

[posguy]

I havnt stayed there yet, 3 more weeks to go, but I can tell you that in all my research, everyone seems to love this place, especially if you have kids. Look at tripadvisor.com, there is a ton or reviews and photos.

Anthony

 

[zippehsmom]

We stayed there last August it was wonderful. We had an awesome stay. The room was clean and very nice. The pool was really nice. They had two pool areas. It really is a resort that is geared towards children. My girls participated in a couple of the childrens activities and they had a great time. You should really enjoy this resort. I will try and post some pics.

 

[zippehsmom]

Here are some pictures we took at the resort. We had a 2 bedroom in the building 21. It faced the pool with the slide.

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Street Entrance

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second bedroom

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pool area

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pool

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playground

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pirateship pool

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picnic area

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mini golf area

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Living Room

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kitchen

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kitchen

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big screen

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bathroom

pool area

 

[lorijm23]

We stayed here June 30 - July 5 and loved it. Haven't stayed at Grande Vista but have stayed at Cypress Harbour and found Horizons to be much more family friendly and laid back. The amenities they offer for kids are great and have planned activities everyday all day. If you have kids older than 8, I would request a room closer to the large slide pool. The rooms are nice sized, clean and nicely decorated. Beds were very comfortable. Only draw back is that the pool bar is the only restuarant on site although it is surprisingly good food and nice to grab a table in your bathing suit. Would be nice to have another option but there is alot of choices on I-Drive just a short drive away. If you have any specific questions, I'd be happy to answer.

 

[Mama Mia]

I work for owner services and have stayed at Horizon's and Grande Vista. The square footage is abou the same. Horizon's has a limited number of 1 bedrooms due to the fact that most of their units do not lock off. Grande Vista has 1, 2, 3 and studio units. All of the floor plans are at the vacation club web site.


Horizon's is far more kid friendly and the place I would take my DDs.

 

[chrisann]

exactly what is owner services?

 

[littlestar]

Horizon is great. We are DVC members, but really like staying at Horizons for extra trips. Here's some pictures from our April/May trip. We were in Building 28 (new building by the big slide):

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/pictures?a=67b0de21b339407405f4&sid=0CbOGThs5YsXGA

If you have younger children and are planning on doing a lot of swimming and having fun at the resort, Horizons would be my first choice of Marriotts in Orlando.

If it's an adults-only trip, then Cypress Harbour or Grande Vista might be better.

 

[Mama Mia]

exactly what is owner services?

The Horizon by Marriott is a timeshare. I work in the office that services all the Marriott Timeshare owners. I have worked for Marriott for almost 17 years and have stayed in many Marriotts. By far the timeshare properties are the best properties that Marriott has. There are six Marriott timeshares in Orlando. Royal Palms, Sabal Palms and Imerperial Palm are at the World Center location and are closest to Disney. Grande Vista, Cypress Harbour and the Horizons are closest to SeaWorld. The Palms are great if you want access to hotel services. Horizons is best for kids. Grande Vista has a golf course and is a very large property. Cypress Harbour is great for couples as it is low keyed.

You can rent any of these locations, you do not have to be an owner.

 

[Ed J]

3 weeks for me to

I'll be the short fat loud guy with a beard from NJ walking around with a fishing rod - picked this place based on the google map satellite images of all the Mariots we could pick from.

Thanks to the folks who posted pics or links too, best images I've seen so far and I've been looking .

 

[ohiodad]

I checked vacationclub.com and they do not show a 1 bedroom floorplan for horizon's. Is it the same as grande vista, I heard theres no jacuzzi tub.If possible could you post one here .

 

[Dimap]

We just got back from a 4 night stay at Horizons. It was an excellent hotel, especially for my family (4 children, ages 7,5,3,3). The pools were so much fun. The 3 year olds were too short to do the big waterslide, but there were so many other things that they were able to play with at the pool.

We played miniture golf 2 times while we were their. I must say that I really was impressed with their course. I totally figured it would be smaller and not so themed.

The room was great. Actually, they put us in building 10 at first, and when we walked in their were dead lovebugs all over the floor (YUCK). Also, one of the headboards was missing from the second bedroom (weird). They promply moved us to building 29 which was close to big slide pool. I think building 28 would have had a nice view of the pool.

Anyway, having 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a full kitchen, and a living room was so great. I don't think we will vacation in a regular hotel room again. Also, I ran a load of laundry every night. I was able to pack all 6 of us into 2 suitcases for a week long trip! I came home with all clean clothes!

We had a great timeshare presentation deal for the four nights, so we did do the 90 minute presentation. (Very low pressure...and only lasted 90 mins.)They had a great babysitting room for the kids (very safe....computers, toys..all 4 enjoyed it). Since we had already made ourselves familiar with the place, our guy took us over to look at the Grand Vista.

It was beautiful. Different than the Horizons. It seemed more "adult", however, there were many families and their were lots of activities for kids. I would love to get a chance to go back and see that property again.

Anyway, if you have any more specific questions, just let me know. I can't believe that we have been back a week already.

Also, I have photos at the pool, but I don't know how to put them on this site!

Pam

 

[twinmomplus2new]

I have stayed at Grand Vista now twice and we loved it both times. It is a more sedate atmosphere than Horizons. However there are still tons of kids activities ongoing;

We tried Horizons for the first time this summer. Although the inside areas the Villas are much higher end furnishings things of that nature. The money at Horizons went into the Pool complexes at Horizons. (even the guides will indicate to you that is how the Money was spent at each property.)


Horizons is a much "louder" family oriented property. you can expect lots of kids to be running around all the time! While Grand Vista has lots of kids. It still maintains the feel of a Golf resort.

If I went in the winter I would choose Grand vista. even April/May I would choose grand Vista. However Next August, we will be at Horizon's/ For those hot months if you are spending a considerable amount of time at the resort as we did. you can't beat the water play area at the big pool.

I did not partake of the onsite food options. we did The publix run and ate in the villa.

The pirate thing was cute. But, I would encourage you to not book the kids at the pirate breakfast.
my son's wanted to do this. and I signed them up. It is touted as breakfast with the pirates. I said I wanted them to be able to go. But, wanted to check it out at the same time. I did go down and attempt to peek in at the kids. and was told they were upstairs in a locked conferance room. Not in the kids areas.

I was NOT happy about that. So I went to get my boys from the activity. It was in the manageers area and you had to be buzzed in.
When I was buzzed in. I was very surprised to see about 15 kids sitting absolutely silent watching cartoons eating a bowl of cereal. So I went in and sat with them during the activity. There was NO interaction with the kids they simply sat there. Then Captain Horizon came in handed out paper hats and left. that was it. My son's were incerdibly bored and I was disgusted. Not a fun time for the kids at all. It was suppossed to last an hour and a half. I took mine after the hour. later I saw a litle one in the pool. who said He wished he could have left when I did. It was so boring.
It is my only criticism of the property. I did address my concerns in the Marriott survey, But did not recive any feedback.
I would as I said go again. But only let them do actvities were I am present.

 

[jeff968]

We've stayed at MCH twice and visited Horizons and GV a few times. All the resorts are great. I would say the units at Horizons are smaller then MCH. It seemed like a good amount to me. And they don't have the hot tubs. Still, the resort looked very nice. There are many family related activities at Cypress Harbor. They just installed a water park a few years ago and they have the activity center with lots to do. I have children at the age of 6, 14, and 16 and they all find activities. My son's favorite is the remote control slot car racing. I can definately see the attraction of Horizon's for younger families.

 

[figmentfan1]

We stayed at Horizons in the end of May on my sister's time share (they had a week expiring). We really liked it. We are very much Disney people so we loved how easy on and off the Interstate it was. It was very easy to get to the parks. My DS loved the waterslide at the resort. He must have gone 50 times. We ended up losing my son at the pirate ship pool one day and I was very impressed with how the lifeguard and personnel there snapped to action. He had followed someone out a gate (he is 5) and was knocking on doors trying to find us... luckily a very nice lady found him and brought him to us...

It is a very family-oriented resort... we were in one of the new buildings... I want to say 25, but I'm not sure. One night we had someone bouncing a ball in our building at like 11pm and we called to complain. The security really went all out to help us... the one guy even came into our room so he could hear what we were hearing... come to find out there had been a BUNCH of complaints... a kid bouncing a ball on the 4th floor (ugh!)... the next evening we were coming through the gate and the same security guy was at the gate and referred to my husband by name and apologized again for the inconvience. It was a nice touch. We didn't do any of the activities because we pretty much spend all our time as a family and my kids are small... my oldest has mild PDD... so he is not interested in strangers either.

Rooms are nice, great amenities and set-up (we had a 2 br)... we have stayed in many time shares over the years (including Grand Vista) and it was one of the larger ones we've stayed in.

JE

 

[leanne11]

they have a villa for $142 in May and i can't find out if it is a 1 bdr. or 2? it just says a nice villa for a tired day at the parks..?