Rental homes/condos near Universal?

[aprilfoolwed]

All of the sudden, my two older kids are REALLY into Harry Potter. I hadn't really considered Universal for them yet (thought we'd wait until they were older), but they would LOVE to see the Harry stuff.

DH has a conference on International Drive in June, so I am pricing possible piggy-backing trips.

Two years ago, we stayed in a 4 BR home in Windsor Palms with my parents. We loved the freedom it gave us. Of course, then we wanted to be as close to Disney as possible.

Are there rental neighborhoods like Windsor Palms in the Universal area?

 

[aprilfoolwed]

Oh - forgot to say that we don't need a 4BR house. We'd be fine with a 2-3BR condo, or a single home. I don't know if we're traveling with family this year, so I am just planning for the 5 of us.

 

[sympatico]

Orange County, where Universal is doesn't allow short term rentals so there's no pool homes in that area. The only condo/townhouse resort that is near, on Universal Blvd is Vista Cay. It's located near the convention center area of International Dr. It has the same builder as Windsor Hills. It's not a timeshare resort. Here's the website but there are also rentals from owners on vrbo and other places. http://www.vistacayresort.com/
I've seen this one mentioned on the DIS : http://www.vistacaygetaway.com/
It's #123 on this map:
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=U...8.272032,-81.608849&spn=0.068335,0.11055&z=13
Universal Studios is just 3 miles up the street.

 

[aprilfoolwed]

Orange County, where Universal is doesn't allow short term rentals so there's no pool homes in that area.

Well, that explains why I can't seem to find any. Vista Cay looks lovely, but I really like having the private pool (expecially if I am going to be "stuck" in the house/condo for 3 days while DH goes to do convention stuff).

I guess I am back to looking at Windsor Palms, Windsor Hills and the like. If we do Universal, it will only be a few days, so the drive shouldn't be a major downer. We drove to WDW from Clearwater last year, and survived (just one day - but it was a loooonnnnggggg day!), so 30 minutes is something we can handle.

THanks for the info - now I know I am not just missing something!