Review Sheraton Vistana Resort Questions

[leahsmom0813]

I'm having my daughter's 3rd b-day party while we are there. I'm having 2 kids & about 10 adults. I already checked with the resort and all I have to give them is the car info for my guests. My plan is to bbq some food and hang out by the pool, which section would be the best Cascade, Falls or Spa. Are any of the playgrounds near the pool.

 

[newmouse2008]

We were in the Cascades area with our kids and everything we needed was close by. That would be my choice.

T.

 

[bankr63]

which section would be the best Cascade, Falls or Spa. Are any of the playgrounds near the pool.

I am fairly certain Cascades doesn't have any BBQ's so you'd need to run over to a nearby section. Spas or Falls is probably better for BBQing. All 3 are really close to some of the better pools.

Note that these are all charcoal BBQ's with very heavy grates with wide bars; like you find at campgrounds - can be a bit difficult with some foods. If you have a portable grate bring it along to place on top of the bars.

Starcentral has a good interactive map that shows the BBQ locations, but at the moment my system stalls when it gets to 90% loaded. Hopefully it will work for you!
https://www.mystarcentral.com/flash/maps/01/map.html

Update: found an older paper map and confirmed that Cascades is the only section without BBQ's.

 

[keeperof4]

Planning for Sheraton Vistana Resort next February we have always gone Sunday to Sunday trying to ad a few days. I don't want to make the mistake I made last year(tuscana) , I know that Sunday check in is green, can someone please tell me what are checkins days for blue and red. would like to try spas(red)or maybe courts(blue) this time. Family seems to like spas pool,I heard that they have been upgrading many units in lakes.Why?

 

[bankr63]

Planning for Sheraton Vistana Resort next February we have always gone Sunday to Sunday trying to ad a few days. I don't want to make the mistake I made last year(tuscana) , I know that Sunday check in is green, can someone please tell me what are checkins days for blue and red. would like to try spas(red)or maybe courts(blue) this time. Family seems to like spas pool,I heard that they have been upgrading many units in lakes.Why?

Reds are Friday, Blues are Saturday. For those who are wondering, Keeper is referring to the color of the building numbers on the Sheraton Vistana map (read further back in this thread). The colour on the map signifies the check-in day for weekly stays. Note that Sheraton also has a pool of rooms that they can use to extend stays or rent as daily units, so this is not always significant.

As for the upgrades, Vistana has been renovating all units in all sections to keep the quality of the resort up to standard. This has been about a three year process; Courts is the last section to complete, currently scheduled for September completion (and appeared to be on schedule when we were last there in March).

 

[sasquatch]

Hi all,

I am considering a first time stay at the Sheraton Vistana this November.

Does anyone know if I can do a Thursday - Thursday stay? Are check-ins limited to certain days of the week (F,Sa,Su)?

Thanks.

 

[newmouse2008]

Hi all,

I am considering a first time stay at the Sheraton Vistana this November.

Does anyone know if I can do a Thursday - Thursday stay? Are check-ins limited to certain days of the week (F,Sa,Su)?

Thanks.

There are no restrictions on what day you check in, as long as there is availability.

 

[FrankieDplus3]

Is Diamond Lane for everybody?

I don't own, we booked using the DIS rate code. We check-in on Aug 28th and I'm hoping we can get into Cascades.

 

[FrankieDplus3]

Thank you to everyone that has posted information on this thread. And thank you to everyone that have answered my questions.

Diamond Lane requests submitted today...lookin' for Cascades, close to pool.

3 sleeps til we leave...6 days til we check-in (at Vistana).

 

[disneymam]

Checked in here on Friday 8/26. Internet works well (not slow). We are in lakes section and it seems pretty quiet back here. We have an elevator and you can see the MK fireworks from here

Info that may be useful: Kitchen is pretty well stocked. You get a mini bottle of palmolive for dishwashing and two packs of cascade for two dishwasher loads. We brought our own single load packs of tide for laundry. We also brought standard basket coffee filters and coffee. They have bars of soap in each bathroom but no shampoo/conditioner. Housekeeping comes your third day of the week for towel service.

The fountains pool is nice but the pizza hut pizza is double the price of ours at home. Happy hour at fountains bar is 4-6 and drafts are $2 The kids are really enjoying the activities here also.

Fountains building 10 is not open and under construction.

Super walmart is about a 2 minute drive away and has a huge disney section! We will def. be buying our souveniers there! HTH!

 

[Grumpy Grandma]

Thanks so much for taking the time to post!!!

 

[FrankieDplus3]

We just checked-in Sunday. We arrived early, about 1:30, went to the Diamond Lane check-in area and had no problems. The whole process was seamless. We waited for the couple in front of us to finish their check-in, then when it was our turn, it took less than 10 mins and our room was ready.

We got the Diamond Lane requests we asked for (Cascades, close to a pool) and more. We are in a 1st floor premium one bedroom with a patio, facing the lake (between Springs and Cascades).

The room is excellent. Full size Fridge, Stove and Dishwasher. We also have dishwasher soap in our room, enough for three loads, (but, no dish soap for the sink.).

Yesterday, we did our groceries at the Super Wal-Mart, then went swimming at the Springs in the afternoon then went to Cascades for night time swim til about 10:30. (Springs is a much more quiet pool area.) Today, we plan on taking full advantage of the other pools (and maybe that happy hour?).

As for the WiFi...I have found that the speed has been MUCH quicker this morning than it was yesterday evening/night. Last night was very slow for me.

 

[bankr63]

Hi FrankieD,

Glad to hear you got your requests. Hope you enjoy your stay there!

Can you take a peek over at Courts and see if there are renovations going on? They were scheduled to end this month, and for those of who own there, it would be heaven to know that they are finally completed! After 2 years of paying and praying for them to finish, we're anxious to see the end result!

Thanks - have a wonderful trip!

 

[IndyClown]

Anyone have any experience with the Fountains section?

We stayed in the newly renovated Falls area on our last trip through an RCI exchange and really liked it. It was pretty and quiet and we liked that but the pool was just ok. It looks like we would now have access to the Fountains area for our next trip with the bigger pool area and wondered if folks liked that area more.

Thanks in Advance

 

[bankr63]

Anyone have any experience with the Fountains section?

We stayed in the newly renovated Falls area on our last trip through an RCI exchange and really liked it. It was pretty and quiet and we liked that but the pool was just ok. It looks like we would now have access to the Fountains area for our next trip with the bigger pool area and wondered if folks liked that area more.

Thanks in Advance

We're more "South siders", preferring the amenities on that side of the resort. The kids like the larger variety of pools; not that they can't use the North side pools, it's just a long walk and security checkpoint. The North side (Fountains and Lakes) section have a couple of nice pools, and the food court is over there. The buildings are a bit newer on that side as well. Some of the buildings in Fountains II back onto I-4 and should be avoided if noise is an issue for you. For that matter, you might want to avoid the buildings directly on the pool area for the same reason.

Vistana really has no bad sections though, and everything is still close enough that you can easily access whatever pools or restaurants you prefer.

 

[FrankieDplus3]

Hi FrankieD,

Glad to hear you got your requests. Hope you enjoy your stay there!

Can you take a peek over at Courts and see if there are renovations going on? They were scheduled to end this month, and for those of who own there, it would be heaven to know that they are finally completed! After 2 years of paying and praying for them to finish, we're anxious to see the end result!

Thanks - have a wonderful trip!

Hello Courts fans,

Well, I didn't see any signs of construction, so, I checked with the front desk and they confirmed that ALL renovations at Sheraton Vistana Resort have been completed. The Courts area was completed about 3 weeks ago.

 

[dvcterry]

thanks for the recent trip reports. my folks will be staying there on our remaining week this october; however we own at another sheraton resort.

we've read through most of the previous posts...they won't be renting a car. it seems the shuttle is limited. and if they'll need a trip to stock on groceries they'll have to hire a cab. if anyone has any feedback, did they find the super walmart good for groceries?

anything info you provide would be great. tia.

 

[FrankieDplus3]

thanks for the recent trip reports. my folks will be staying there on our remaining week this october; however we own at another sheraton resort.

we've read through most of the previous posts...they won't be renting a car. it seems the shuttle is limited. and if they'll need a trip to stock on groceries they'll have to hire a cab. if anyone has any feedback, did they find the super walmart good for groceries?

anything info you provide would be great. tia.

The Super Wal-Mart is only 2-3 mins away and we used it for our groceries. I found it was pretty good. I was able to get everything we needed.

 

[bankr63]

thanks for the recent trip reports. my folks will be staying there on our remaining week this october; however we own at another sheraton resort.

we've read through most of the previous posts...they won't be renting a car. it seems the shuttle is limited. and if they'll need a trip to stock on groceries they'll have to hire a cab. if anyone has any feedback, did they find the super walmart good for groceries?

anything info you provide would be great. tia.

There is a Publix even closer than the Super Wally World, on Vineland Avenue. We shop at both, but Publix is more of a full service grocery store, clean, well-stocked, good service, with some nice prepared meals, hot rotisserie chickens, etc. If you don't want to do too much cooking, it is a better destination. The WM does have a pretty wide selection of groceries and can probably outfit them with everything they need.

Thanks for the update FrankieD! We're very happy to hear that the wait is finally over!!!

 

[Grumpy Grandma]

bankr63 do you have any idea how much a taxi would be to the Publix? Thanks.