Rental home options for 6 adults, 4 kids

[ms.yt]

I've mostly stayed on-site for my WDW trips as an adult, but we're going to be traveling with my husband's family next year and staying in a vacation home. I have no idea how to go about picking a reputable rental company, so I was hoping for some help here. We're going to be spending most of our time at WDW, but we'll probably also do Universal for a day, so I guess something pretty close to WDW would be ideal. Any help you can provide would be appreciated. Thanks!

 

[sympatico]

We usually rent directly from owners using vrbo.com or homeaway.com or one of the others like orlando4villas.com. Some of the communities that are closest to Disney are Windsor Hills, Emerald Island, Windsor Palms : all these have community pools and have a manned gate. Formosa Gardens Estates, Acadia Estates and Sunset Lakes have a coded gate. Indian Creek, Oak Island Cove and Rolling Hills have no gate.
Some of these communities have their own listing site for owners:
Windsor Hills: windsorhillsrent.com
Emerald Island: stayatemeraldisland.com
Sunset Lakes: http://sunsetlakesorlando.com/

If you want to use a rental company: allstarvacationhomes.com and floridasunvacationhomes.com get good reviews.

Here's a map to show you where the communities are located:
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=U...8.272032,-81.608849&spn=0.068335,0.11055&z=13
Windsor Hills is #1 zoom in and click on other markers around there to see the rest.

 

[christymarie]

We are currently at Emerald Island for the summer and are loving it. The houses are well maintained and the front gate is well manned with security. We love it here and found our 7 bedroom house using the VRBO website.

Good luck!

 

[MichelleVW]

We found this house on the VRBO website and the whole family just loved it!!!

http://www.vrbo.com/global/siteFrame.aspx?l=11849&k=1

 

[alwaysdisney]

There are 14 of us and we're renting from All Star Vacation Homes. I have heard great reviews from them and look forward to my rental in December 2010.

 

[PrincessBelle39]

We've stayed at both Gigha and Jura villas in Windsor Hills that we booked directly through the owner. We would go back there again. We found them on the windsorhillsrent.com site but they also have their own site valhallavillas.com