Need some direction for family of 8 when choosing a villa.

[goofy papa]

Okay, going down in June are my wife and I, along with our 2 kids (4 & 6), my mom and dad, and my sister and BIL. I would like to find a 2-3 BR villa we could all stay at, since we don't get to see much of each other during the year. My head is starting to spin when trying to research the following resorts. I am hoping some of you can direct me in the right direction. You need to know that my sister is cheap and will not hesitate to stay at a Ramada for $25/nt since she is a Ramada employee. I don't really want to do that. Can you help with these villa's....give me some advice as to good or bad, clean or dirty, great pool, fun activities. We plan on being down there 7 nts and doing Disney 4 days.

Orange Lake Country Club
Cypress Pointe Grand Villas
Vistana Resort
Summer Bay
Westgate Villas

Which of these do you recommend?

 

[disneymom3]

Westgate--If you are talking about the Westgate Vacation Villas--never in a million years. I know some folks have not had any problems but a year later my three year old still refers to this as the "stinky Florida house." Enough said. That and the fact that they were going to test the smoke detectors and didn't bother to warn the guests.

Vistana Resort--this place is the love of my heart! There is so much to do there that my DH wants to go to FL for two weeks--one to be spent at Vistana and one for WDW. I think that they have three bedroom lock offs or you could go with two two bedroom units and request to be situated right near each other. The nice thing about the lockoffs is that you would have a totally separate living space to play games, chat watch movies after the kids go to bed without worrying about noise level. At this resort there are 7 pools many of which have fountains, slides etc. There are fabulous walking paths, 3 onsite restaurants, the cutest little general store etc. You can also rent surrey bikes to tool around in and they have several game room, workout areas etc. There is also a great kids' program with fun activities as well as some grown up activities planned too.

Cypress Pointe--have not stayed in the Grand Villas but have been in a two BR in the other part of the resort. These are nice and again you have the two bedroom with the lockoff for the third. Don't know about the size of the second BR in the Grand Villlas but in the resort side it is pretty small. Decent pools, but not nearly as much to do as at Vistana. However, you can often find it for cheaper at sites like Hotel Kingdom and the like.

Both of these resorts had clean pools, common rooms and villas--spotless really. Great in room amenties for both as well--VCRs, stereos, large screen tvs and really well equipped kitchens. My kids are two, three, and seven and were perfectly content with the pools and playground at Cypress Pointe, but were really awed with the grounds at Vistana. (In remembering, I did not let my kids go in the kiddie pool at OP because it looked grungy.) Vistana has a couple of very shallow entry pools which was especially nice when the two year old was still one so we didn't have to hold him the whole time. (Oh, pools at Westgate, at least the ones by us, were ucky.

Have not stayed at any of the others. Good luck! Do you know about Sky Auction?

 

[goofy papa]

Thanks Disneymom3...I have been checking on skyauction, but they don't have our dates yet for Vistana, but I will keep checking. I just feel a little nervous with Skyauction...like I will miss some hidden charges or get into one of the older areas. But Vistana sounds great.

 

[WDWisTheBest]

We have stayed at Vistana and Westgate Vacation Villas. The Cypress Pointe resort looks very nice and I would stay there anytime. There are many favorable comments about OLCC on other threads in this forum. I can't comment about Summer Bay.

We would go back to Vistana anytime especially for kids activities for children the ages of your kids. That would probably be my first choice as Disneymom3 says.

I must disagree with the assessment of Westgate Vacation Villas. We were there in November in a 2 BR Villa and our unit did not have any bad smells. Nobody tested any smoke detectors. Our pool was huge, warm but not overly so and not crowded at all. We went to two other pools and they were also good, no "ucky" pools anywhere. There were lots of activities there as well, but it was not as organized as at Vistana.

We got a great deal through Skyauction for the Westgate Vacation Villas. It cost about 50% less than the stays at Vistana. No problems with Skyauction, even though I was concerned because Skyauction charges the credit card when you reserve the resort. Your sister would like the price differential.

Also, Cypress Pointe seems reasonable through Hotel Kingdom. I doubt you will find Vistana available on Skyauction. The available dates for Orange Lake Country Club are limited through Skyauction especially for the Ready, Set Go auction which is the most cost effective normally.

Have you considered Windsor Palms, Wyndham Palms resort and country club, or a rental vacation house?

Good luck.

 

[disneymom3]

WDWistheBest--I am glad to hear you had a positive experience at Westgate. Our stay was a year ago and at that time there were a lot of very negative comments on the board. Perhaps they have improved since then. My DH will still never stay there again, but it's still good to hear when places seem to have made some improvements.

goofy papa--you definitely have to take your chances trying to get Vistana off of Sky Auction. They tend to only list them with pretty short travel dates. For instance there are currently three auctions ending today or tomorrow for Vistana but you have to travel in Jan. (Oh, do I miss our APs!) I would not worry about Sky Auction as far as reputableness. Lots on this board have used them and you would hear about it if there were problems.

The other option is to look at the classified ads on the TUG site and see if you can rent from an owner. I have been offerred some pretty great rates from owners especially when it is getting closer to the date of their week and they want to get something from it rather than just lose their time.

What I have done in the past is to keep the option of some villa off of Hotel Kingdom as a possibility with the hope of getting Vistana toward the last minute. If my first choice doesn't work out, I have never had a problem finding something good and very cheap from Hotel Kingdom. (ANd, hey, there is always the Ramada )

 

[cps5]

"For instance there are currently three auctions ending today or tomorrow for Vistana but you have to travel in Jan. "

Disneymom3 - HELP!

I am confused. I am trying to get up the courage to bid on skyauction. I am looking at 2 auctions (#800461 and #800676) for Vistana. I am going the 2nd week in February and I checked the info on these auctions and my dates appear to be OK. Where does it say that you need to travel in January??

 

[disneysteve]

goofy papa - I haven't stayed at any of the places you mentioned, but just to confuse you more I'll throw out another option. We have rented pool homes numerous times. There are many wonderful neighborhoods where you can rent a 3-6 bedroom home with your own screened-in pool. So no sharing the facilities with anyone but your family. You have tons of space and amenities - all the comforts of home and then some.

We have personally rented in Lindfields and in Windsor Palms and I'd highly recommend either complex. Windsor Palms is newer and also offers a clubhouse with game room, exercise room, movie rentals, etc. Lindfields is a regular residential neighborhood.

Pricewise its tough to beat. You can usually get a 3-bedroom house starting at around $100/nite, sometimes even less.

Check out:
http://www.vrbo.com/vrbo/flcentral.htm

http://www.windsor-palms-resort.com/

Steve

 

[disneymom3]

cps5--Don't worry, not all of them say that! I was looking in the "Auctions ending soon" section and that is where I found them. I know there were some others in the reg auction section.

DisneySteve--I think that is the best idea yet!! Especially with three families footing the bill! With a four br each couple and the kids could all have their own bedroom!

 

[disneysteve]

Originally posted by disneymom3
DisneySteve--I think that is the best idea yet!! Especially with three families footing the bill! With a four br each couple and the kids could all have their own bedroom!

That's why I suggested it. With 3 families splitting the cost, each family would only be paying about $35-50/nite for a beautiful and spacious house with a private pool. I was just browsing the listings at Windsor Palms and one house has a 51" Sony HDTV, DVD player with assorted DVD's, a computer with Internet access included, a 6-person hot tub and more. That home starts at just $144/nite! I think that's amazing when you consider that plenty of folks pay close to $300/nite for a plain hotel room onsite. Its beyond me why more people don't go this route.

Steve

 

[cps5]

disneymom3

Thanks for clarifying that. I just want to make sure that I understand skyauction!

 

[Lisa P.]

Another option is Hotel Kingdom, which we have not used ourselves but many here have. Do a search of this forum for other people's experiences with them.

Click on "Orlando," then on "Luxury Villas" and you'll find discounted rates for Cypress Pointe Resort. It's my understanding that this resort tends to place discount renters in the rooms that are due for refurbishing, so if that bothers you, don't go this route. Phase I (not the Grand Villas) is scheduled for complete refurbishing over the next year or so. But the main volcano pool area and clubhouse were redone last year and reportedly look great.

When I entered June 2004 dates, I saw these rates (not including taxes):
$64/night for a 1BR, sleeps 2-4
$88/night for a 2BR, sleeps 6
$128/night for a 3BR, sleeps 8

Pool homes sound beautiful but our family loves the festive resort atmosphere around a resort pool w/palm trees and a hot tub. This resort has a short but steep & zippy triple slide at the volcano pool as well as nearby playground and the clubhouse. HTH.