Review Sheraton Vistana Resort Review

[ExpatDisneyLover]

I recently returned from a four night stay at the Sheraton Vistana Resort- booked through hotwire. I really loved this resort. First of all the resort is HUGE - not at all walkable so having a car is convenient although the resort offers complimentary transportation within the resort itself.

We were in a studio (no separate bedroom) in the Lakes section. I was traveling with my 73 year old mom who has difficulty walking long distances. I listed mobility issues on my room request and they placed us in a building with an elevator very near the main Lakes and Fountains pools. This was a terrific location!! My mom could actually walk to the pools and enjoy the atmosphere in the evenings. The Lakes was very quiet and relaxing. We were in a refurbished room. The kitchen facilities were great and saved us a lot of money in food costs. We did a little food shopping at the Marketplace on site - a little pricey but perfectly adequate for what we needed - breakfast items like eggs, bacon, juice, raisin bread. It was much more convenient for us to shop there versus going to Walmart.

We also stayed at the Hilton Bonnet Creek during our stay. We saved money by staying at the Vistana - just having a kitchen helped a lot! We spent a lot more on food at the Hilton BC.

 

[ExpatDisneyLover]

Lakes Pool

View from the porch of the Marketplace - had sandwiches for lunch here one day-

 

[BazzaS]

We recently stayed at Sheraton Vistana Resort (I suspect you too were at the Resort, rather than Sheraton Vistana Villages?).

I was impressed with the Marketplace (adequate range, price 'Mark-up' no more than expected), and great freshly prepared sandwiches. The Marketplace is useful for essentials / "that one item you've forgotten", but (given I agree a car is near-essential) the 24-hr Walmart is only about a mile away.

We were in the Palms section.

Pros: nice sized 2-bedroom unit, recently refurbished.
Good location.

Cons: Possibly poor sound insulation; (being woken at 7.00 a.m. most mornings by the young child running backwards and forwards upstairs). One day one of our group saw the family leave their unit, and the child was running up and down the stairs screaming, with the parents making no effort to let the child know they might be disturbing others ..... So, it's a problem with the parents rather than the child or the resort .... But better sound insulation might have helped.
No "wired" Internet, and poor wireless Internet with, initially, abysmal support.
Being told "it's not meant for business use" by the Front Desk got a reply from one of us of "How do you know it is for business use?, we can't even get as far as the log-in page loading without it timing out!", while the reply from the "Support line" of "move unit, or go to the Welcome Centre" wasn't exactly helpful.
In fairness, we did 'luck out' by one of their Directors noticing 5 of us (from 2 of the 2 bedroom units) sitting in the Welcome Centre using iPads, iPhones and laptops .... when we told him of the above, we got a call later offering us use of one of their Sprint 3G USB dongles ....

 

[ExpatDisneyLover]

No fun having noisy neighbors-


I thought the wifi was usable but not that great. I would check my emails and that is about it.

Just for clarification -

We were at the Sheraton Vistana Resort -

 

[delmar411]

We recently stayed a week in a Springs 2bedroom unit. That was the first time we've stayed there before.

It was a remodeled unit but it seems they didn't consult an architect before doing the bathrooms. The counters were all too high for my tall 5yr old to reach the faucets and there was no tub in the second bathroom. The shower heads were all too low for me to fit under without smacking my head (I'm 5'10"), the bathtub was too short for me to put my legs straight in front of me and yet I could barely touch the floor when using the toilet.

The kitchen was fine except there was something wrong with the fridge and it was pouring water down on everything. Possibly the ice maker leaking? We had to throw away a lot of stuff and just used the door part of the fridge.

Also the washer and dryer was a joke. It was smaller than the smallest apartment style ones I've ever seen. I couldn't even wash a single set of bedding in the same load. There is plenty of space in that laundry closet so that was a major error IMO.

The bed in the master was nice but the second bedroom had 2 full beds. Another poor choice and a very bad use of space in the unit.

The grounds were very beautiful and the pools were nice. We didn't use many of the resort amenities though so I can't speak to that. I did feel very badly for bell services having to drag luggage up and down all those stairwells. They must be dead on their feet at the end of the day!

We won't likely be back but it wasn't because of the 'bad' things. It's just not our style place.

There were some good things too...I'll throw them in just so you don't think I'm a negative Nelly! LOL

The wi-fi worked perfectly in our room and was free
the porch was screened in and very large
it was extremely centrally located to attractions and very close to shopping. DH and the boys even walked across the street to grab donuts one morning.
You control the temps in your room w/o regard to movement or doors opening.
The bathroom had a makeup mirror.

 

[bankr63]

How was your experience with the maintenance dept for the fridge? We had some problems with the garbage disposer on our stay last March, but a quick call and the maintenance guy was over within 30 minutes and fixed it up promptly.

We were in Springs as well, and didn't notice the same issues with bath design, but my kids are older tweens. What size of beds should go in the 2nd bedroom? The full/doubles were great for my kids - not sure that bigger beds would fit?

 

[delmar411]

How was your experience with the maintenance dept for the fridge? We had some problems with the garbage disposer on our stay last March, but a quick call and the maintenance guy was over within 30 minutes and fixed it up promptly.

We were in Springs as well, and didn't notice the same issues with bath design, but my kids are older tweens. What size of beds should go in the 2nd bedroom? The full/doubles were great for my kids - not sure that bigger beds would fit?

We are used to queens in the 2nd bedroom. It may just be an expectation issue. I have 4 kids and asking my teen and 7yr old to share the bed wasn't working out well. The 2 little boys shared just fine but they are small.

Maintenance was very prompt. There were a few other minor maintenance issues that they fixed right away the first day as well. Definitely a thumbs up for the staff there, all the departments we dealt with were all super nice and very helpful. They all seemed to take a lot of pride in their work.