Hi Steve,
I booked with Ocean Florida last year for our Easter 07 trip. I explained exactly what I wanted re the villa (4 beds, games room and 2 master suits etc). Each time I spoke to them they said I would get what I wanted.
Flights were fine - Virgin from Manchester. We picked up our 2 cars with no problems - nice sizes. However, it was late when we got through Orlando airport and found the hotel to pick up the villa location details. The management agency was closed so it was a night box pick up.
When we finally got to the villa we used the unlock code provided - nothing happened. It was made all the worse as the outside light had not been left on so we were trying to unlock the door by the light of a mobile phone. After many attempts my DH went and spoke to the security guard. He was allowed to call the emergency telephone number. He got through to find out it was the wrong number. Finally he got the right code and we got into the villa (I have shortened the tale - it tooks forever!)
When we got into the villa we found we had 5 bedrooms and no games room. We only needed 4 bedrooms, with 3 children we really wanted the games rooms. We were too tired to do anything about it, we crash. It was a villa which had 4 bedrooms upstairs with the heating/boiler up there. We only had 1 master suit.
The heating vibrated ALL night long. The villa did not have the finishing touches I would have liked - ie curtains, tea towels, kitchen untensels etc. Anyway we crashed. At 1am the management agency called to see if we had got in okay. I was the only person to wake up and I explained how disappointed I was in the villa.
The agency came out the next day - not when they had argeed to - we wasted a full day waiting on them. We had called as we'd found a cockroach in the kitchen. YES I know Florida is full of them - but I wanted to make sure we didn't have a nest. YUCK. Two women came out - eventually. The bug was the type which lived in trees and had flown in - okay I don't know that much about bugs but fine as long as there isn't 100 more hiding I'm fine.
As for the villa, well I was told we had been upgraded. Looking around the villa I couldn't see the upgrade factor - come on we had 1 TV in the whole villa and no drawers in the bedroom. We had lamps resting on the floor and not on any drawers! Talk about rustic.
The upgrade was in an extra bedroom - a bedroom which had a broken window and could be opened from the outside! My Father in Law actually fixed the thing during the holiday to make it secure! We didn't need an extra bedroom. The agency couldn't help out - they didn't have anything to offer.
So, to round up I was disappointed and would never use them again. However, I was disappointed as I had been promised a certain standard of accomadation and didn't get it. Had I gone with an open mind and thought we take what we get it would have been better. I will always book direct with owner now, I want to see what I'm getting.
I hope you have better service and a wonderful time.
Vicki
