Story Time Villas at Windsor Hills??

[littlbugmom]

Has anyone stayed in the Story Time Castle or Kingdom? How do they compare to the townhomes?


I'm looking at the Castle. There are only 4 in my family but we are a family that needs a lot of room. Downtime is important to us. We liked the Vistana Villages 2 bedroom and thought that was enough room.....but the themed bedrooms, the private pool and the gameroom in the Castle look awesome.


Can you compare the Story Time townhomes to the Castle?

Are the smaller pools at the townhomes as small as they look? We are a family of 2 adults and 2 kids (will be 10 and 6)

If you've stayed in the Castle, did you use the gameroom much?

Can you hear your neighbors in the townhomes?

What about the pool area? Can you hear the people next to you?


Anything positive or negative you can say about either?



Thanks!

 

[sympatico]

Has anyone stayed in the Story Time Castle or Kingdom? How do they compare to the townhomes?


I'm looking at the Castle. There are only 4 in my family but we are a family that needs a lot of room. Downtime is important to us. We liked the Vistana Villages 2 bedroom and thought that was enough room.....but the themed bedrooms, the private pool and the gameroom in the Castle look awesome.


Can you compare the Story Time townhomes to the Castle?

Are the smaller pools at the townhomes as small as they look? We are a family of 2 adults and 2 kids (will be 10 and 6)

The townhouse splash pools are 12 ft by 12 ft and from 3 - about 5 ft deep.


If you've stayed in the Castle, did you use the gameroom much?

Can you hear your neighbors in the townhomes?
We've never had a problem with noise from others while inside the townhouse.

What about the pool area? Can you hear the people next to you?
Whether you stay in the townhouse or the 6 bedroom if you're by your pool you will hear the people by the next pool. I haven't stayed at those particular places but have stayed in townhouses and a 6 br at WH.

Anything positive or negative you can say about either?
Have read a lot of good reviews about them.


Thanks!

Hopefully someone else can give you more info.

 

[cinderella73]

I have stayed in both the larger home and the townhome. Both are beautifully decorated . We love the owners they are always so wonderful to deal with.

Never had any noise problems in the townhome at all.

The pool at the bigger house is very deep and large. The townhome pool is smaller but still fairly deep.

Gamerooms are great and we loved playing in them but they are not air conditioned so when its really hot you would probaly rather be in the pool. Or let the kids play in it earlier or later in the day even. But it wasnt to bad though really at any point. Not unbearable.

We like the ST homes because I searched WH rentals and I didnt find any rentals that had the quality and price they did. They decor is top notch .

I dont care for the pool cleaning people. I dont think they do what they should and I bring my own pool test kit to check the water.

Super close to Disney parks. Closer than some of Disneys own resorts.

And again we loved the owners. They are very patient with our questions and ever do often changing needs. They always go above and beyond .

If you have any specific questions about certain homes lmk and I will be more than happy to help.

 

[cinderella73]

Oh I meant to ask when you plan on going?

If its only 4 of you the townhomes will be more than big enough. You will have room to spare. The bigger homes are really huge. I think you might find it a little to much for your needs.

Its nice to have the bigger pool and gameroom. But the clubhouse and public pool are very nice and very close to the townhomes. I would say most of them are easy walking distance. And usually empty when we are there.

Another thing to consider is also what your familys schedule is and how long you will stay. If you are not staying at least 2 weeks I wouldnt even consider the big house. We stay 2 to 3 weeks at a time so it makes more sense because we have time to use it . But if you wont be there long and you are doing parks a lot then you might pay for something you wont have time to use .

I still love the big house though ... Especially if you have your mother with! Heheh Then you really appreciate the space!

 

[jerrifox]

We've booked with the owners of Storytime Villas for March and they have been very helpful. Unfortunately I don't have any insight on the homes, pools, etc but I can say the owners have been really easy to work with so far.

Hope you have a great trip!

 

[can]

We spent Easter week of March 08 at Storytime #1 and cannot say enough good things about it. The decor is above and beyond and there is plenty of room for four people (we had six). The master br is upstairs (king bed) along with a second bedroom (two twin beds) that has it's own bathroom. There is a third bedroom downstairs with a queen size bed. There is a 12 x 12 foot "splash" pool which I think would work well for you. There is no doubt these units are bigger in square footage than the Sheraton Vistiana Resort units.

Story Time townhouses are the closest to the clubhouse/pool area you can get, probably a two minute walk tops. To us, the biggest negative about Windsor Hills was there is only one pool for the entire resort and the week we were there it was, of course, very very crowded. So, if you weren't there early enough, you didn't get a chair. Or, if you were in a home or town home far away enough, you may end up having to drive to the clubhouse/pool area.

The owners are great people to work with. Their townhouse had everything you could want and think of and was exceptionally clean. It turned out they were there for the weekend when we were leaving and Elias came across to introduce himself and ask us how our stay was as we were packing up the car to leave. He didn't have to do that, I wouldn't have known that he was staying across the street, but the fact that he took the time to come across and talk with us tells you what you can expect.

Unfortunately for us, all the dates we were looking at this summer did not have any availablility for us in any of their townhouses. If you look around on these boards, you will find a "back door" route into Disney that will save you time. We thought it was quicker this way than when we stayed on Disney property. I don't think you can go wrong and won't be disappointed by giving it a chance and staying there. Lots of luck and have a fabulous trip!

 

[two*little*birds]

Last year we stayed in townhouse #1. We love it! See my posts here about our stay...

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=27474822

This year we are staying in Story Time Kingdom, and we too are a family of 4. But my FIL and his GF will probably join us for a few days as well.

We know it will be huge for our needs, but we really wanted a full size pool this time - and a seperate bedroom for each child.

We had actually booked another home, and then found out they double booked us. Needless to say I was thrilled to find out Story Time still had availability for our dates... yes we paid more, but you get what you pay for IMO, plus having rented from them before we know the kind of service/home we can expect.

I say go for it! Rent the bigger home and have a blast!

 

[two*little*birds]

I dont care for the pool cleaning people. I dont think they do what they should and I bring my own pool test kit to check the water.

I meant to ask, what did you mean by this? We only found the chlorine was REALLY high in the splash pool which made my daughter break out in a bad rash. If you tested the water and found something, did they correct it?

 

[littlbugmom]

Thank you for the replies. It's so nice to be able to talk to people who have stayed where you want to book. I love the Disboards!


My family and I will be taking a Fall trip next year. We have plenty of time to make our plans but if we decide to go with the bigger house,
I want about a year to cover the extra cost. (paying more doesn't hurt when it's spread out over 12 months) We will be staying 11 nts. We are in the parks most days but for only a few hours at a time. My ds5 has mild sensory and some OCD issues that make a lot of downtime and a lot of space important to us. My sister lives not far from WDW and usually visits us a couple days during our trips.


Staying in a townhome makes more sense but I want to be sure I think this through. The Castle is obviously much bigger than we need but I'd like to consider it for the bigger pool and gameroom. My main concern about the smaller pools is that they will feel too small.

Has anyone felt that the splash pools are too small?

Cindrella73--how deep is the shallow end of the pool at the 6 bdroom?

I love hearing that the owners are so easy to work with. I've been searching for homes with themed rooms and hands down, Storytime looks the best. Their decorating looks awesome with a lot of attention on details.

 

[castanhope]

I could write a book on this subject right now, but I will try to keep my response as to the point as possible! My family (me, dh, dd9, dd7, dd3) and two other families stayed at the Castle a few weeks ago (end of May-early June for 9 nights). It was awesome and we felt the owners were pleasant, organized, and easy to deal with. They always returned phone calls promptly and there were no major issues with the house. One day the a/c was leaking a fairly large amount of water into the garage/game room, so my dh called to report the issue. It wasn't a problem for us, but he was more concerned for the owner and the possibility he wouldn't realize this was happening. He had it taken care of and seemed to appreciate the heads up.

All in all, the decor was really nice. The issues I am going to pick apart here are in no way a negative reflection of our experience, but rather something I'm researching heavily as we enjoyed our visit so much that our group went together and put an offer in on an identical model house (new) in Windsor Hills with the intent to rent as well as share to enjoy our own vacation time. We felt Storytime did an awesome job of decorating and their bookings reflect it. I would return in a heartbeat, but we also felt we could improve on some things.

First and foremost, the theme rooms were awesome and our kids loved them. My biggest complaint would be that the headboards, while cute and "custom designed," were very flimsy. The custom designing was very obviously something handmade, which is not a bad thing, but not high quality wood and very shaky to the point where I was hoping the kids weren't going to lean on them and destroy the beds. It was something that looks great in a picture but wasn't quite as impressive in person. Also, none of the kids rooms had nightlights, which was a problem for the younger two and even the older ones getting up during the night in a strange place to use the bathroom. We ended up leaving the hall lights on which was really way too bright and made it more difficult for them to settle down.

The theme decor in the rest of the house was nice but again I thought more impressive in the photos. The largest master bedroom showed a Mickey bedspread which in actuality appeared to be only two denim sheets sewn together with a Mickey stitched on top. Not very lush and I missed my silky comforter from home. The window in the master bath was covered with a shower curtain which I also thought wasn't a very high end way to decorate. The second upstairs master was very nicely decorated with no Disney theme and I thought was the nicest adult room. The downstairs bedroom with the red/black Mickey theme looked kind of dated and wasn't really appropriate for the third couple. If you were using it for a teen it would be ok but it was clearly not as nice as the other rooms. Also, it was advertised as having an ensuite bath, when in fact you have to leave the room and go next door for the bathroom, it is not attached.

The pool was awesome, no complaints there, and I definitely would recommend this size pool over the splash pools. If you are planning on using the pool frequently and for more than just a quick cool off or very small children, you will definitely be happier with the larger pool. Obviously for our size party it was a must, but even if staying with only my family I think the splash pool would have been disappointingly small. The only thing I didn't like about the pool area was the furniture. It wasn't very nice looking or comfortable and not enough chairs for everyone.

I'd say my biggest disappointment in the house was the game room. It was definitely more impressive online. Our kids weren't very interested in the air hockey or foosball (they played for a few minutes and grew bored), and they were really too young for the pool table. The pool table was just a basic model with the baskets for the balls (no ball return or whatever you call it) and not really something the adults were attracted to either. The game system wasn't one we had at home and they didn't provide any games. I am sure our kids would have played for a while had there been a couple games but I wasn't going to go out and buy any! There wasn't really any seating except a couple footstools, and I don't think there was cable on the tv. Some of the cool looking wall hangings online were just cheap beach towels hung up. We thought the game room would be great but honestly we never used it for more than a few minutes. Much more impressive in photos.

Like I said, none of these things really adversely affected my stay (perhaps with the exception of not much to really do in the game room for the kids during a couple stay at home nights) and I would highly recommend the Castle to anyone. We had a ton of room and an awesome time. I'm being picky because I want someone to give my house a glowing review and say there wasn't one single thing to improve once we're up and running at the end of August (hopefully). I can't wait!

 

[cloggie68]

We stayed at Storytime townhouse #3 last April/May for 10 nights and we loved it! We are a family of 4 (mom, dad and 2 little boys age 5 and 6 from The Netherlands). It was our first trip to Florida and I wanted to rent a townhouse or villa from someone with good recommendations on the internet. That's how I found Tanya and Elias and they have been wonderful to us.

The townhouse itself had plenty of room for the 4 of us. The boys shared the upstairs themed room and we had the master bedroom upstairs. We didn't use the bedroom downstairs, we didn't need it.

We all loved the splash pool even though we thought it was fairly cold at first (the boys did not really mind) and we were VERY close to the large community pool too. During the week we asked for pool heat and Elias made sure we had pool heat the same day (probably within an hour or so).

When we were there we decided to come back to Florida in 2010. Even though we loved the townhouse we noticed that for the same rate we could rent a villa with a larger pool, something our boys would love now that they can swim better. I would have chosen Kingdom or Castle but the rates were not within our budget this time so now we decided to rent from someone else. Still I think we had the BEST first Florida experience this year and the Storytime townhome (and the owners) really contributed to that and I would recommend it to anyone!

 

[cinderella73]

I meant to ask, what did you mean by this? We only found the chlorine was REALLY high in the splash pool which made my daughter break out in a bad rash. If you tested the water and found something, did they correct it?

Well I never did contact the pool people. If the pool needed something I would rather do it or call Elias and tell him. We had those shock packets you can add to the pool if it needs it. It balances the Ph of the pool as well and you can go in safely in a short time.

I watched the pool people and they not only just came in , stood there , and barely ran a net through the pool and we were there 2 weeks and someone was always at the house. They also didnt see me and kept trying to look around at some of the stuff that was left by the pool. There wasnt anything there but they were clearly looking to if something was. ( We had a bag out there but it only had pool toys and towels) I did not trust them at all. ( Not saying they are all like that but I just watch carefully anywhere I stay , even at WDW)

If you daughter got a rash it was likely from the pool not being clean , rather than to much chlorine. Something most people dont know (I learned from my husband who is a manager at a hotel / waterpark - similar to the Nickelodeon hotel) is when you smell chlorine its usually because the pool water may need to be cleaned. Sweat and urine cause a reaction that causes a strong odor that seems like a chlorine smell but often is because the pool needs chlorine. It can cause rashes and other fun stuff.

Here is a link to a site that explains it and a quote below.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080219161946.htm

Researchers at Purdue University have determined how certain airborne contaminants are created when chlorine reacts with sweat and urine in indoor swimming pools, a step toward learning how to reduce the formation of "volatile disinfection byproducts" that cause respiratory irritation.

But I just want to make it clear to anyone reading this that this does not mean the ST homes at WH are not clean. They do a super job of keeping them up. The pool issues you can have anywhere. And everywhere at WH does. I would rather book with ST homes than anywhere else. And if anyone ever does have a issue call the owner and he will take care of it. They were always super fast to help us with anything we needed. Just saying if you have young kids and the water smells or seems off just pick up a little kit (few bucks at Wal-Mart)and test it. They will fix it for you.

 

[cinderella73]

Thank you for the replies. It's so nice to be able to talk to people who have stayed where you want to book. I love the Disboards!


My family and I will be taking a Fall trip next year. We have plenty of time to make our plans but if we decide to go with the bigger house,
I want about a year to cover the extra cost. (paying more doesn't hurt when it's spread out over 12 months) We will be staying 11 nts. We are in the parks most days but for only a few hours at a time. My ds5 has mild sensory and some OCD issues that make a lot of downtime and a lot of space important to us. My sister lives not far from WDW and usually visits us a couple days during our trips.


Staying in a townhome makes more sense but I want to be sure I think this through. The Castle is obviously much bigger than we need but I'd like to consider it for the bigger pool and gameroom. My main concern about the smaller pools is that they will feel too small.

Has anyone felt that the splash pools are too small?

Cindrella73--how deep is the shallow end of the pool at the 6 bdroom?

I love hearing that the owners are so easy to work with. I've been searching for homes with themed rooms and hands down, Storytime looks the best. Their decorating looks awesome with a lot of attention on details.

I am not sure of the actual depth but I will measure my kid tomorrow because I remember where the water came to on them . The deep end was very deep.. I am thinking 8ft? My boys liked going in the smaller attached spa pool. By the way it does not heat up like a jacuzzi . I thought it did but when we called about adding on pool heat they told us it doesnt. Which was fine because the boys liked being able to play in there and not worry about the depth . If you have younger kids it might be a easier place to keep a eye on them.

 

[cinderella73]

Thank you for the replies. It's so nice to be able to talk to people who have stayed where you want to book. I love the Disboards!


My family and I will be taking a Fall trip next year. We have plenty of time to make our plans but if we decide to go with the bigger house,
I want about a year to cover the extra cost. (paying more doesn't hurt when it's spread out over 12 months) We will be staying 11 nts. We are in the parks most days but for only a few hours at a time. My ds5 has mild sensory and some OCD issues that make a lot of downtime and a lot of space important to us. My sister lives not far from WDW and usually visits us a couple days during our trips.


Staying in a townhome makes more sense but I want to be sure I think this through. The Castle is obviously much bigger than we need but I'd like to consider it for the bigger pool and gameroom. My main concern about the smaller pools is that they will feel too small.

Has anyone felt that the splash pools are too small?

Cindrella73--how deep is the shallow end of the pool at the 6 bdroom?

I love hearing that the owners are so easy to work with. I've been searching for homes with themed rooms and hands down, Storytime looks the best. Their decorating looks awesome with a lot of attention on details.

Oh I forgot to tell you I had 3 kids ages 14, 7, and 6 in the smaller pool and I could still join them comfortably. You cant do laps in it but it was plenty deep and roomy enough for us.

I will post some pics of both pools later. The big one and the smaller one so you can get a better idea.

 

[cinderella73]

Cant be 100% sure but the big pool starts at about 4 and goes to about 8 foot deep maybe 9? It was really deep.

The splash pool at the townhomes are about 12 by 12 in width and graduate from 3 to 5 feet . I think the fact that they call them splash pool makes them sound smaller.

 

[two*little*birds]

Thanks cinderella73, perhaps you are right about the pool not being clean - but it certainly looked clean (no dirt, bugs, etc.) and we were there for 12 nights last year. The splash pool was great for the kids last year, and yes our family of 4 all fit in it comfortably, but now that the kids are a bit older and swimming better we're looking forward to the larger pool (and home).

We always take some R&R time to enjoy our surroundings, besides my kids can't last a full day at the parks.

 

[cinderella73]

Thanks cinderella73, perhaps you are right about the pool not being clean - but it certainly looked clean (no dirt, bugs, etc.) and we were there for 12 nights last year. The splash pool was great for the kids last year, and yes our family of 4 all fit in it comfortably, but now that the kids are a bit older and swimming better we're looking forward to the larger pool (and home).

We always take some R&R time to enjoy our surroundings, besides my kids can't last a full day at the parks.

The big home is really nice. Its hard to get my kids to go back to anything else. Honestly the kids wanted to play in the game room and swim more than parks most days.

Have a great trip!

 

[mom2prettyprincess]

We just booked with Storytime homes in the Castle Villa. This will be our 1st trip to WDW & had orginally booked 2 family suites @ ASMu. And this is going to be so much nicer and easier on the pocket book even though we are giving up our free dining. The more we thought about it, we are going to keep our 1900 Park Fare reservation and I believe one of our breakfast ressies, we just don't want to be tied down to dining at certain times especially taking a 2 & 4 year old.

 

[cinderella73]

We just booked with Storytime homes in the Castle Villa. This will be our 1st trip to WDW & had orginally booked 2 family suites @ ASMu. And this is going to be so much nicer and easier on the pocket book even though we are giving up our free dining. The more we thought about it, we are going to keep our 1900 Park Fare reservation and I believe one of our breakfast ressies, we just don't want to be tied down to dining at certain times especially taking a 2 & 4 year old.

We made the same choice. By the time you do the math its a no brainer really. Stay at a budget resort ( we were looking at the same resort at you in a family suite) at WDW with free dining but we have to plan everything around our meals and order a certain way etc. . Or stay in a beautiful 3 bedroom home closer to the parks than we would have been at a Disney value resort anyway. Plus no stress with the meals and we can do things our way. And save a bit of money in the end.

I think you made a excellent choice. I doubt you will ever want to stay on site again. This will be our 3rd time with ST homes.

 

[two*little*birds]

Yes, we feel the same way as well. We'll still book a few ADR's, but for the most part we'll eat off site whenever/wherever we want. No stress, and no big deal if we don't happen to get a certain ADR.

This will be our second stay with Story Time, and hopefully everything will be as perfect (if not better) than the first time.