Well I have to say we were not impressed at all ......... We were delayed in Washington for 2 hours, so did not arrive until 11.30pm - the reception staff were dull which didn't set us off on the right foot - who cares that it was nearly midnight, it was the start of our holiday!!
Our villa (2 bedroom) was situated in the North Village, a 10 minute (or more depending on traffic and sales carts) drive away and the swimmingpool a few minutes drive away (too hot to walk).
The villa setout was good but the place needed updating/decorating and a good old spring clean. The couches were torn in places, bedding ripped, beadspreads terribly faded/worn, there were bits of popcorn/food etc behind furniture/under beds which hadn't been cleaned for months, the TV screen had huge sticky finger marks as did the diningroom table and the place in general was not up to our standard of cleanliness. The towels were thin and scratchy and a few had rather large holes in them. One soap per bathroom and no shampoo.
The villa was full of artificial plants/trees/bushes etc (to make it look nice I suppose) but had years of dust attached to them and they looked really grubby, all I wanted to do was bundle the lot up and throw them in the bin Yukkkkkkk...
The nearest swimmingpool was a drive away and far too crowded and noisy for our liking, but saying that my DS (10) enjoyed the fun slide. The so called beach area was very small for the size of the resort and again needed a good clean-up (litter). We didn't use any other facilities except the puttputt - everything else was too crowded for us. The restaurants didn't appeal either especially the one with buffet service - $12.95 for a dried up joint of beef, a couple of other meat dishes and several, what looked like, tinned vegetables Yukkkk again. This was the only place not crowded, (I wonder why !!!!).
On our first morning Sales called to see if we would go on the tour - but we declined the offer and said the place was too big for us and that the villa was not to our standard of cleanliness. She was very sorry for the state of the place, made a few phone calls, and eventualy admitted that they had had a few complaints/problems with those villas and said they would send a maid to make it right. We again declined the maid offer as it needed more than just a maid and a duster. She tried her utmost to get us on the tour but we weren't having it, even for the "free gift".
All the cutlery and crockery is obviously included but as soon as you opened the cupboards the mustyness was just horrid. The colours were just awfull too, bright green sideplates, bright yellow dinnerplates, bright orange coffee mugs yukkkkk..... very cheap and tacky - every dish smelled of strong bleach. 2 dishwasher detergent sachets were included, 2 (1 load) boxes of washing powder and plenty of bin liners, but no washing up liquid. Bleach stained tea towels and coffee pot stands.
We did enjoy watching the golfers first thing in the morning though (about the only nic thing) right outside our lounge window and if golf is your thing, then this is the place to play.
Obviously most of our time was spent off-site, but I have to say the Kissimmee area is a bit tacky and the 192 was bumper to bumper most of the time - took ages to get anywhere.
We ate out every meal and found some nice new restaurants that were recommended on this site - but just a warning that the Golden Coral on the 192 was disgusting and put me off breakfast for the rest of my stay. We love the one near Crossroads on Vineland Ave (I think!!).
I could probably go on and on but I feel depressed with what I've already written and it's all flooding back.....
This was our tenth trip to Orlando and only once before have we stayed in the Kissimmee area.
We are Hilton Grand Vacation Club owners and after OLCC we had 10 nights to look forward to. The Hilton know how to look after their own, professional and have good customer service. Obviously nowhere can be 100% spotless but our experience at OLCC was not a good one and never have we experienced anything like it in all our travels around the world.
We spent each day at the OLCC just wishing the days away. Once we were at the HGVC we soon forgot about it.
We have been owners at the HGVC for the past five years now and upgraded twice. This time we traded-in our Seaworld property and bought at the new HGVC Tuscany Village - it is going to be a gem of a place.
I know this is not the review some of you were waiting for, but I had to be honest and hope that when any of you stay there, that it will be a much better experience than ours.
We have put it behind us now and it is all part of lifes experiences - one good thing has come out of it though - it has confirmed to us that we made the right decision 5 years ago to purchase with HGVC, we have never had a complaint yet and if we did, we know it will be dealt with professionally.
Holly
