Offsite villas

[KellyNY]

There are 4 of us 3 adults and DD(16), so I was thinking if I stay onsite I will need 2 rooms and it will cost me, even Value 2 rooms cost a lot, considering we already stayed in May on site.
If I stay at one of the villas, I can get 2bdr for around $99 +/-. I was also thinking about visiting Universal the whole week and maybe just 1 day Disney, so transportation would be nice.

However, I have some doubts,

1. No housekeeping, do they still provide towels, paper towels, toilet paper, soap?

2. I read many bad reviews on Expedia about timeshare presentations and if you do not go or refuse to buy, hotel staff will treat you differently after that, is it true?

3. Are there any activities in resorts?

4. Do they still provide transportation to parks or if I stay at villas I am expected to rent a car?

5. Any good villas? I looked at Holiday Inn, Sheraton, Hilton, no preference so far, any others?

Thank you for help.

 

[Victoria J]

Having stayed both onsite and offsite, there are pros and cons to both. Our family has pretty much decided you definitely get more bang for your buck staying offsite. It really depends on what you are looking for in your vacation and also somewhat depends on your definition of "villa". The answers to most of your questions really depend on where you stay. Even though I have only stayed at a few offsite places, some days it feels like I've researched at least 10,000! SO,

1) Housekeeping will vary with your resort. Some places change the towels and garbage every few days. I think some places will provide full housekeeping for an extra charge. A rental-home development may not provide anything at all. I think everywhere provides towels, they just may not change them. Just like housekeeping, "supplies" will depend on your location. Many places do require you to provide your own toiletries, paper towel, etc. It would definitely be worth asking before you book.

2) I have only stayed at one time share resort, but did not feel differently after turning down their presentation request several times. Yep, not even worth $100 off my room bill to have to sit through a hard sale presentation on vacation (in which I would feel bad for the sales person because I know they are just trying to make a living - going into something like that knowing 100% that I was not going to buy just wouldn't seem right to me). Of course I did not have many out of the ordinary requests or run into many employees who realized I was any different than anyone else staying there....

3) I'm not sure what kind of activities you are looking for. My DS is 5, so unfortunately the only kinds of activities in my mind these days are kid-type craft things!

4) Some places provide transportation to parks, but I have never used it and always heard that it is not very convienent. They don't run every 20 minutes like Disney buses do or may stop at several different resorts on the way, etc. The freedom of a car has always been well worth the cost for us. I don't know that we would ever stay offsite without a car - you would feel so trapped!

5) We have stayed in a 2 bedroom at the Sheraton Vistana Resort and really liked it. The pools were great and we had plenty of room to spread out! We also stayed at Windsor Hills last time. That is not really a resort under the traditional definition as all of the condos/villas are independently owned, but really liked that as well and are thinking about staying there again for our upcoming trip in December.

Hope this helps with your decision! Good luck!

 

[MKB419]

Hi
I am not sure if this is what you are looking for but I listen to the DIS podcast and the people that own the DIS and dreams unlimited travel also own villas. I think they are called dreams villas Maybe you can get some info from dreams unlimited or Webmaster John is the property owner.
MK

 

[kreed]

I have stayed both onsite and offsite and recently just returned from an offsite stay at Wyndham Bonnet Creek resort. It is probably one of the closest non-disney resorts and sits right next to Carribean Beach resort. We requested a fireworks view in building 5 and could see both the Epcot fireworks at nine and the Magic Kingdom fireworks at 10. You can request a certain building and view by calling the resort directly after you have made your reservation. We had a fabulous stay there. Upon check in, you are sent to a separate person to receive your parking pass. Here they will ask you if you are interested in attending a sales presentation. I said no and that I did not wish to attend anything nor did I wanted to be contacted during the week to see if I was interested. I never heard from them again and the rest of the week was about my family, fun and disney parks. We stayed in a 2BR and like you we have 2 adults (husband and I) and three teens (17,16,13) so we do not ever stay in small hotel rooms as it is not a vacation for anyone when we do. There is not housekeeping during the week but you do have a washer and dryer in the unit. I actually like having this luxury and find it very easy to throw a load of wash in the washer and dryer in the evening while we watch TV and unwind. It was also nice to have when you get caught in the summer mid-day torrential downpours in the parks. Lastly, Bonnet Creek does have a free shuttle to the parks. We did not use the shuttle as we like having a car and driving to the parks. Even when we stayed on site we used our car in traveling to the parks because most times it was much more convenient. We were at Bonnet Creek in August, and the shuttle left about every half hour for the parks. There was a couple of hours mid day when there was no returning shuttles. The shuttle schedule from August 08 has been posted somewhere on this site and someone may have a link for it. I hope this is of some assistance to you.

 

[auntyjenn]

on hotels.com they have some really good deals on the Comfort Suites-Royal Parc Suites. They have huge rooms and an alleged breakfast. We plan to stay there in September, so I don't have a review yet. The comfortsuites.com website is the best hotel website though, so you can get lots of info on the resort, then book at hotels.com for the cheaper price (note that some reservations on this site are refundable and some aren't. Make sure you check). Don't know if that's something you're interested in, but we stayed practically next door at comfort suites maingate east that had a really good breakfast and was very easy to get to the park.

 

[KellyNY]

Thanks everybody for info. I still checking and did not make up my mind, to do hotel, condo or villa. I only stayed in resorts so far so the whole idea is quiet new to me. Basically it is price and space against housekeeping and transportation. I will need to read more reviews and research more, thanks for all the links and advices.