opinions on these skyauction resorts pretty please?

[magic kingdom park]

I've got no problem with 192 but FYI you don't need to travel on 192 to get to Disney from Orbit One. If you come out and turn left, you just cross 192 onto Sherberth Road and come onto Disney property by Animal Kingdom. Very convenient.

We are staying at Orbit One in Oct. first time, I have also heard some mixed reviews, that it is small, but I have stayed at Orange Lake and Vistana, and it was nice, but it was crowded, the small might be good.

Now, can you tell me about the short cut to disney and is this just to AK or are there signs that tell you how to get to the other parks, and how do you get back to the resort, I always get turned around coming out of disney.

 

[spiceycat]

bryan's Spanish Cove is across the street from Sheraton's Vistana - so it is pretty close to WDW property.

Westgate -is a nice resort. but having to deal with their sales people when you are on vacation is in my book not worth it. the resort itself is lovely. but also remember one thing I have always found at Westgate. their sales pitch is called 'maintence meeting' - if your villa was in great shape why go to a maintence meeting - something will be wrong so you will intend.

I have majority things and small things. Majority things - hot water doesn't work, the ceiling was dripping and it took Westgate days to fix it, patio dirty (of course this didn't bother me at CWR), they charge members a very pretty cent in maintence fees. I personally think that maintence fees should be spend on maintence.

Westgate will lie. they have no problem doing that at all. Disney and Marriott generally don't lie. They are told not too. Westgate is encourage to lie and lie some more. Very different ways of doing business.

 

[StephMK]

We stayed at Westgate - the Villas last year despite reading many negative reviews because of SIL's timeshare exchange. I don't know if we were just lucky but we had an excellent stay. Took awhile to check in but that was pretty much the only complaint we could think of for the stay. Maybe it was different since we were an exchange but we reluctantly agreed to meet him briefly. We waited 5 min in the lobby, he was apparently busy, we didn't wait, left & other than one message on our phone, never heard from him again. We had our 3 kids with us so we felt pretty confident they'd be enough of a nuisance and we refused to meet him at our room.

All in all, the room was quiet, in good working order, nice & big & the drive to Disney was a piece of cake. I know that's not the case for all but we had a good stay. Good luck w/your choice!

 

[sln88]

We stayed at Orbit 2 years ago and it was fine. Clean and everything seemed new inside the rooms. No maintenance issues. Washer and dryer and whirlpool tub in room, screened in porch.
Not alot of activities, but our vacation is more about being at the parks, not the resort, so it was fine for us. Last year we stayed at the new Hilton, and although it was beautiful, I can't really say that our vacation was any better than the one at Orbit. I am only not staying there because I wanted to try something new.
Disneysteve has stayed here and really liked it(look for his review and pics)
Westgate was on my list this year, but when I read the reports on tripadvisor, I decided against it. If my husband got hassled by timeshare salespeople, he would be furious.
check out tripadvisor, and spiceycat knows of a timeshare review place-maybe RCI?. The site escapes me at the moment.

 

[spiceycat]

Steve I hope your experience was great as you tell it.

I am staying at Westgate (owner) this Nov....I sure hope it is fine!!!

I have looked into exchanging it - but I am going to trade my 2-bedroom for a studio and that is alot of what I am being showed. Now yesterday I found some good ones and I was delighted - but II must have realized their mistake because today it is just the average 1 or 2-bedroom or great efficiencies.

 

[disneysteve]

Now, can you tell me about the short cut to disney and is this just to AK or are there signs that tell you how to get to the other parks, and how do you get back to the resort, I always get turned around coming out of disney.

Exit Orbit One and turn left. Cross 192 and proceed straight on Sherberth Road. Just follow the road and it leads you right onto Disney property near Animal Kingdom. If you are heading anywhere else, just follow signs to your destination. You go back the same way.

Honestly, I have no problem dealing with 192 at the time of year we visit so I only used the shortcut once when we were heading for AK. But if you dislike 192 or there is any kind of backup, Sherberth Road is great.

I just booked Orbit One for November so we will be staying there for the second time this year. Our priorities on vacation at Disney are a big suite or condo, a separate room for DD and a nice kitchen. Orbit One has all of that. It may not be as new as others or have as many activities or amenities on site, but we don't care about that stuff.

 

[sweet maxine]

Disneysteve, did you book Orbit One conventionally or through some other channel, such as Sky Auction? I'm thinking about booking there for October. I wonder if the condo-type resorts fill up quickly due to the F & W Festival, and if the skyauction offerings during that time will be slim to none.

 

[disneysteve]

Disneysteve, did you book Orbit One conventionally or through some other channel, such as Sky Auction? I'm thinking about booking there for October. I wonder if the condo-type resorts fill up quickly due to the F & W Festival, and if the skyauction offerings during that time will be slim to none.

I booked through Skyauction. I don't think F&W really affects much booking wise since it is spread out timewise.

 

[Mudd77]

Disneysteve, did you book Orbit One conventionally or through some other channel, such as Sky Auction? I'm thinking about booking there for October. I wonder if the condo-type resorts fill up quickly due to the F & W Festival, and if the skyauction offerings during that time will be slim to none.

SkyAuction already has plenty of availability for Orbit One during October. So you should be fine.

 

[sweet maxine]

Thanks! I'll go over there to look and see what's available for my time period. I've stayed at VV @ Pkwy, and Silver Lake, and both of those places were very nice. I have driven down the road that Orbit One is located off of (I think), and it is a very short distance to the back entrance of AK.

 

[spiceycat]

the only resorts that I know that fill up quickly because of the food and wine festavial are the BW, BC and YC including the BCV and BWV.

you can walk back to these resorts.

anytime you have to drive in Florida make sure that the driver is not drinking.

you can believe that both the state troopers, highway patrol and the local police in Kissimmee will be looking for drunk drivers during this festavial.

 

[sweet maxine]

I'm not a drinker, but thanks for that info.

Does anyone know if there is a pool slide and playground at Orbit One?

 

[disneysteve]

Does anyone know if there is a pool slide and playground at Orbit One?

Here is their website that lists all the features.
http://www.islandone.com/ior/oo.html

 

[sweet maxine]

Thanks!

 

[Brian Noble]

I have a cancellable reservation direct with OO in February for about $700, all-in. If I got it (or another very close-by property) via skyauction, that'd be fine, but I figure I'm getting a decent value even at this price, particularly given the location. I haven't stayed there yet, but have been hard-pressed to find many people who weren't happy there.

 

[disneysteve]

I have a cancellable reservation direct with OO in February for about $700

Is that $700 for a week? If so, I would definitely suggest trying to book through Skyauction. We're only paying $260 for a week.

 

[katebeth]

We did westgate this past March. We kinda knew what to expect because of what we read on these boards. We did it to get the free tickets and very low hotel price (We stayed at Westgate Palace. Nice, but too far away from Disney) We went in from the very beginning and were nice to our presenter, but let her know that we were not interested at all, no matter what, in a timeshare. My husband is in sales and was good and not backing down. We have been to other timeshare presentations and did not think that they were any more pushy then any of the others (They are all too pushy in my opinion) We did our 90 min. presentation and were on our way.

 

[Brian Noble]

Is that $700 for a week? If so, I would definitely suggest trying to book through Skyauction. We're only paying $260 for a week.

I absolutely will, and hope to do much better. What I was saying was: even if I *can't* do better, I won't feel bad paying $100 a night for Orbit One based on the reviews I've seen. We stayed in Glenbrook last year, in a larger house for less money, but decided that paying a bit extra would be worth the much better location, and 2BR is all we strictly need. Of course, if I can be closer and pay *less*, I certainly will!

I'm going the week *after* President's week this year. Last year, our week was during P-Week, and skyauction never had anything I would have been willing to take for our dates.