Orange Lake Resort

Ed J

Removing my ears
Joined
Oct 8, 2006
Messages
935
Need a place for 3 nights this coming trip. There will be 5 of us, last time we got 2 rooms at the DTD Holiday Inn, the place was fine.

I did a search and came up with OLR 2 bedroom for 27500 points. That works out much less than 2 rooms at 50000 points a night and I don't particularly care for hotels rooms with a group anyway.

So have you stayed there? I read some reviews and there are some bad ones. I don't care about the hard sell reports, I have no intention of sitting for one. I'm interested in the "it was clean" or "it was gross" "food was good" or "watch out they rip you for X" kinda stuff. If you are fan of the place give me a building number if you can.

Any comments would be appreciated. :goodvibes
 
There are a few different areas at OLR. We stayed at the West Side and the 2BDR units were a 4 units in a single structure (like a duplex). It was very spacious and clean. The only problem was they would call constantly and leave msgs about doing a tour. You did have to drive to get to a pool but that all depends on where your building is at.
 
We own at OL and love it. There is so much to do and so many dining options onsite or right off site.
 
While we've stayed there three times it's been a while since our last visit so conditions and sales aggressiveness could have changed but I didn't find either to be a problem. Sure, the sales group leaves messages on voice mail but who says that has to be an issue? We used to just unplug the phones at timeshare resorts. Now we just ignore the phone if it rings and delete messages if we listen to them at all. Afterall, anybody who knows us and needs to reach us call our cell phones, not the resort phone.

I think that most negative comments have had to do with the condition in some parts of the West Village of the resort - particularly the villas on Lake Kem Way. We've stayed in one of those Lake Kem Way villas and I thought that it was okay but not as nice as the side-by-side house-style villas that we'd stayed in on Sand Hill (Drive? Boulevard?). The West Village is pretty much the combination of the original parts of the resort (built before 1998/1999) and many villas - Sand Hill, Springer Circle, Tennis Villas - are closer, and easily walkable IMO, to the resort amenities than others - those further up Orange Lake Drive, Lake Kem Way, Cypress.
Two of the newer phases of the resort - North Village, East Village (I think that those buildings are 4- or 5-story high rises) - are also somewhat spread out but not as much as the West Village. The River Island phase (the newest and, like East Village, made up of high rises) is fairly concentrated around the resort's major water feature.

If it were me, and the number of points didn't change by resort section, I'd choose the River Island section if there were going to be kids in my party. If I were travelling without children then I'd be happy with anything in the North Village or villas on Springer Circle or Sand Hill in the West Village.

Dick Taylor
 

We stayed at the Holiday Inn Orange Lakes last fall for 4 nights and it was great. We too had read many negative reviews on the hotel, so we didn't know what to expect, but all was good. The 2 bedroom condo (East Village) had 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a washer dryer, living room, kitchen and a patio. Our unit was on the 3rd floor with a golf course view. While we didn't eat onsite, there were dinning facilities and a lake with boat rentals, several pools, etc. The unit was comfortable, clean and the bedding was good. I'm not sure what folks expect when they write these tough reviews. The property is not new and has small signs of wear and tear but you find that at all the Disney properties too. BTW, We did not get any calls to buy more points from the resort. This is a large resort and you need a car to get around, but overall but it is a solid value and I would give it a recommend.
 
Here's the review I posted on Trip Advisor for our March stay. I was very happy with Orange Lake. If you don't like your unit, just ask for another one. That's what we did.

Review:
My parents did an RCI exchange for Orange Lake the week of 3/20/11 - 3/27/11, my son's spring break week. We were very happy with the resort. Note, though, that the first unit we were given was on a golf course with no pool or ammenities that we would use close by and we went back to the check in desk and asked if we could get something closer to some sort of ammenity we might use. And they gave us a unit walking distance to the smaller pool and hot tub in the West Village right near where you enter the resort (second road to the right) after coming in at the entrance across from Walgreens. We were happy with this. Do, though, be aware that this is a huge resort and unlike many of the smaller resorts in the area where you would always without question be able to walk to a pool, you could end up with a unit where you might even have to drive to get to a pool/hot tub. If you aren't happy with your unit, though, I bet they would move you like they did us if you ask. Customer service seemed outstanding.

The unit we had was an older one story duplex unit that had been remodeled and was in great shape (newer kitchen with granite countertops, nice bathrooms -- beautiful tile, etc., flat screen TVs, paint, beds, furnishings, etc. all in good shape.) The nearby pool area and hot tub met our needs perfectly for a relaxing dip after a busy theme park day. It was kind of fun too, we saw the same people in the hot tub each night, so got to meet some of the other guests. The second bedroom had two queen beds and seemed almost as big as the master, had tons of drawer space, had the second bath connected to it and the common area with locks. We were really happy with the size of this bedroom and the unit in general. In most of the condo resorts we've stayed second bedrooms are smaller than this. The patio wasn't in as great shape as I would have expected, but was fine for sitting out on. I liked the balconies at the Sheraton Vistana Resort and Cypress Pointe, though, much better than this patio. It took us a little longer to get to some of the Disney parks and Sea World from here than timeshares right in Lake Buena Vista, but it was still very convienent for getting to these places. Think 20 minute drive rather than say a 12 minute drive.

We weren't by the main West Village pool activity area or River Island, but there are frequent shuttles and you could easily take one of these over or drive over. We did use the tennis courts in the main West Village pool area, a couple of minute drive away. We found staff and other guests to be super friendly adding to our positive impression of everything.

We took the shuttle over to River Island to look around, and this is a beautiful recreation area. My teen, though, was totally happy with our close by pool and hot tub and opted to go there rather than drive or take the shulttle over to this other area. (We really only had one resort day with all the other attractions we visited in the area, meaning that we were mostly only at our resort in the evenings.) There were planned activiies, but with our busy itinary we didn't participate in any of these.

My parents first signed up to do the timeshare presentation on a Wedneday morning, but later backed out and got their deposit back easily. When the guy asked my mom what was keeping her from attending I got a big charge out of her answer: Shamu, Mickey, the Kennedy Space Center, and Disney Hollywood Studios. There wasn't a whole lot he could say with that answer.

All in all, we thought Orange Lake was an excellent place to stay and would be happy staying here again.
 
We stayed at the Holiday Inn Orange Lakes last fall for 4 nights and it was great. We too had read many negative reviews on the hotel, so we didn't know what to expect, but all was good. The 2 bedroom condo (East Village) had 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a washer dryer, living room, kitchen and a patio. Our unit was on the 3rd floor with a golf course view. While we didn't eat onsite, there were dinning facilities and a lake with boat rentals, several pools, etc. The unit was comfortable, clean and the bedding was good. I'm not sure what folks expect when they write these tough reviews. The property is not new and has small signs of wear and tear but you find that at all the Disney properties too. BTW, We did not get any calls to buy more points from the resort. This is a large resort and you need a car to get around, but overall but it is a solid value and I would give it a recommend.

thank you for your comments above. We just booked a 2 BDR in the East Village for the first week in October through RCI. Your comments made me feel comfortable regarding our decision. :)
This will be our second of 2 weeks in Disney, with the 1st week stay at AKL Jambo 1 BDR Savannah View and a 1 BDR at Saratoga Springs.
Barb
 
We're not fans of OL. It was dirty when we were there and I'm not a fan of the resort design as you have to get in the car to do things right at the resort. That said, it has been a few years so maybe they've "cleaned up" their act. Good luck.
 
We have stayed at OLR two times - in 2006 and 2009, and we will be returning for a week this October. The first time we were in the separate "cabin" type condos, and they were just ok. Not exactly sure where we stayed the second time, but the condo was absolutely gorgeous. I have never had an issue with cleanliness, feeling unsafe, etc. The check-in process seems to be quite tedious, but once that's over and as long as you avoid going on a tour, you should be fine!
 
We're not fans of OL. It was dirty when we were there and I'm not a fan of the resort design as you have to get in the car to do things right at the resort. That said, it has been a few years so maybe they've "cleaned up" their act. Good luck.

Jeff, we are certainly used to getting in the car to do things at the resorts as the time share we own at Massanutten, VA is that way. And it is up and down the mountain no less!! For that reason, we always bank our Massanutten timeshare and trade out to a resort in FL or the Carolinas. At least if we have to drive, we want it to be at the beach :beach:or Disney and not in the mountains!

Barb
 
I've been an Owner at OLCC for over 10 years now and I love it.
I have stayed in about every section, however I own in the Two weeks East Village and also one in the North.

Room are lovely. Spacious and clean. Also, they are very accommodating.
They recently redid the club house and its gorgeous. Also, river island is an amazing pool, lots of fun.
They now have transportation to the parks for a small fee, I believe its 18 bucks round trip. No stops. Its the same as MEARS. There is also a bus that goes around the resort and will drop you off and pick you up right infront of your hotel building.
There are good places to eat, River Island Grill is delish, and so is the new place that is by the club house (it slipped my mind). Also, it is very close to many other resturants around orlando, such as olive garden and long horn, and carrabbas. They also provide transport to Publix Supermarket.
There is lots to do for the kids, two mini golf, a huge slide, river island is just fun in general. While the kids go insane you can rent a cabana that has a TV FRIDGE and nice chairs. Also a good place to get away from the rain.
I'm going tomorrow for a two week stay at OLCC and I cant wait!:)
 
We own at Orange Lake as well as just bought DVC and we love Orange Lake!

We have a villa in West and then points that we can use anywhere. We have stayed in East and North and West! We love it there! I prefer anywhere but west though mostly since West is older! When we were in North the fireworks were great from our balcony!

And having the highway right out the entrance it's such an easy way to get into WDW property and for what like $.50 to $1.00. It's worth it! It's such a convenient location!

We visit the kids pool of all the pools since our kiddos are still small. Now with Super Target across the street it's easier to get food or necessities that we can't find at Kroger. The Chinese play that does Sushi next to Kroger is awesome as is the pizza place by Target!
 
Also wanted to say that we've only seen it CLEAN! Never had any issues and we've stayed there like 5 times at least!

Plus this last time we even had housekeeping come one day...per them not us...and they did a great job! Of course you have to take out your garbage and follow simple little rules about the villas but it's just normal stuff!

We love it there and only reason we bought DVC was to help us get to Disneyland easier. We are staying at Orange lake next spring and we were just there last spring!
 














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