The Sheraton Vistana Resort Thread (key links on p.1)

[dioxide45]

Oh, that's cool. Do you know what kind of shampoo it was? Maybe I won't bother packing it.

The brand is Gilchrist & Soames. The only other thing I might recommend bringing would be a kitchen wash cloth. Or a couple. They only have stupid pink disposable things that I think are supposed to be used as a washcloth, but they suck. There might be a yellow scrubby sponge in the kitchen too, but if you want a real washcloth, bring your own.

 

[bankr63]

It has been a while since we have been there. Do we need to bring our own dish soap, hand soap, and dishwasher detergent?

Is there anything you always bring that make not be so obvious (i know people mentioned good egg pan and spatula). Do they have cookie sheets?

LOL - this one is a fun one, and I may have posted this a while back, but we bring a TON of stuff on all our Timeshare stays - we drive so a small grocery box in the back isn't an issue. If we are flying somewhere we still try to bring as much of this as practical.

My suggestions:
One or two good kitchen knives (all timeshares have the cheapest Dollar Store sets)
A poly cutting board or two - Vistana and others have glass cutting boards - puts the teeth on edge
A couple of good non-stick frypans
Silicone spatula if you like them, tongs too
A BBQ tool and long handled basting brush (Vistana now provides a BBQ spatula)
Instant read thermometer, because I'm not familiar with the grills and no one wants food poisoning on vacay
A lighter - not needed @vistana, they have gas grills, but other TSs have charcoal grills or fireplaces
A small salt and pepper grinder - sometimes they have little ones, but often just a few take out packets
A decent wine opener - there's always one there, always terrible. Of course you could just get screw tops.
Wine stopper - unless you ALWAYS empty the bottle (it IS vacation)
Our own detergent and dryer sheets - they are provided, but we do unscented
Dish drying mats - Vistana doesn't provide drain trays for hand wash dishes
Coffee beans, grinder & French press - because nothing says vacation like a REALLY good cup of coffee on the balcony
Some really basic spices, condiments, and olive oil - because you don't want to buy a whole one down there for just a week
A night light - makes me sound like a 4 year old, but put one in an unfamiliar bathroom if you make those late-night trips.
A small cooler bag to transport lunch and drinks down to the pool.
Zip lock bags or leftover containers. Helps if you are taking lunch to the pool, or the parks.
And finally, our own bedroom pillows. No matter how good the pillows are at a resort, your own pillow is sooo familiar

I know a few of these will seem weird to some, but perhaps it has also sparked some ideas for you as well.

 

[My2CrazyGirls]

LOL - this one is a fun one, and I may have posted this a while back, but we bring a TON of stuff on all our Timeshare stays - we drive so a small grocery box in the back isn't an issue. If we are flying somewhere we still try to bring as much of this as practical.

My suggestions:
One or two good kitchen knives (all timeshares have the cheapest Dollar Store sets)
A poly cutting board or two - Vistana and others have glass cutting boards - puts the teeth on edge
A couple of good non-stick frypans
Silicone spatula if you like them, tongs too
A BBQ tool and long handled basting brush (Vistana now provides a BBQ spatula)
Instant read thermometer, because I'm not familiar with the grills and no one wants food poisoning on vacay
A lighter - not needed @vistana, they have gas grills, but other TSs have charcoal grills or fireplaces
A small salt and pepper grinder - sometimes they have little ones, but often just a few take out packets
A decent wine opener - there's always one there, always terrible. Of course you could just get screw tops.
Wine stopper - unless you ALWAYS empty the bottle (it IS vacation)
Our own detergent and dryer sheets - they are provided, but we do unscented
Dish drying mats - Vistana doesn't provide drain trays for hand wash dishes
Coffee beans, grinder & French press - because nothing says vacation like a REALLY good cup of coffee on the balcony
Some really basic spices, condiments, and olive oil - because you don't want to buy a whole one down there for just a week
A night light - makes me sound like a 4 year old, but put one in an unfamiliar bathroom if you make those late-night trips.
A small cooler bag to transport lunch and drinks down to the pool.
Zip lock bags or leftover containers. Helps if you are taking lunch to the pool, or the parks.
And finally, our own bedroom pillows. No matter how good the pillows are at a resort, your own pillow is sooo familiar

I know a few of these will seem weird to some, but perhaps it has also sparked some ideas for you as well.

Thank you! We always bring a pan to make eggs and a sharp knife! Never thought about cutting board, thanks for that. Yes to all the ziplocks/salt/pepper, laundry det. Sounds like we bring a lot of the same stuff.

 

[erinch]

Yeti wine tumblers

 

[AnnaKristoff2013]

Just got back from another weeklong stay in Vistana, this time in Lakes. The room and resort were amazing as always. However, the wifi is still awful. I hate to say it because I love this resort, but I just don't think I can stay here anymore. You need reliable wifi to do a Disney trip to stack Genie+, and it was just super stressful to try to use cellular (which itself was often unreliable). Sometimes the wifi works, but sometimes it just doesn't. At 7 am each morning was a time when the wifi definitely did not work. Clearly the management at this resort has decided working wifi is not a priority, since this has been going on for years now. Also, if you have Verizon, good luck getting a reliable data connection using cellular here.

 

[dioxide45]

Just got back from another weeklong stay in Vistana, this time in Lakes. The room and resort were amazing as always. However, the wifi is still awful. I hate to say it because I love this resort, but I just don't think I can stay here anymore. You need reliable wifi to do a Disney trip to stack Genie+, and it was just super stressful to try to use cellular (which itself was often unreliable). Sometimes the wifi works, but sometimes it just doesn't. At 7 am each morning was a time when the wifi definitely did not work. Clearly the management at this resort has decided working wifi is not a priority, since this has been going on for years now. Also, if you have Verizon, good luck getting a reliable data connection using cellular here.

I was looking back at some of my stays in timeshare over the past year and noticed it was almost a year ago that we were booked for two weeks at SVR and cancelled them because of the issues we had heard about the WiFi. We work from the unit a lot and we can't go back because of this. I don't know why they can't get this fixed. Owners are paying for it in the annual maintenance fees.

 

[AnnaKristoff2013]

I was looking back at some of my stays in timeshare over the past year and noticed it was almost a year ago that we were booked for two weeks at SVR and cancelled them because of the issues we had heard about the WiFi. We work from the unit a lot and we can't go back because of this. I don't know why they can't get this fixed. Owners are paying for it in the annual maintenance fees.

I don’t get it, because it’s such a stellar resort otherwise, it’s well maintained, and in this day and age it’s not like it’s particularly hard to install reliable wifi.

 

[bankr63]

I don’t get it, because it’s such a stellar resort otherwise, it’s well maintained, and in this day and age it’s not like it’s particularly hard to install reliable wifi.

Not really trying to defend the resort because it is taking longer to work this out that it should, but as an IT professional I will say it IS notoriously hard to setup a reliable mesh network (the new model that Vistana moved to a couple of years ago). They went from broadcast type antennas outside the buildings to internal meshed routers in the villas. Doing this in a single building has its challenges; I work in a hospital with meshed wireless, and it doesn't work well everywhere. Doing it across 168 buildings in a campus configuration with anywhere from 4-30 villas per building, each with its own router (it appears) and having it work well IS a very tough challenge. Note that our hospital has a full IT support team, I would expect that Vistana probably has a contract IT service that is not full-time.

We have been lucky on our stays to have fairly good wifi service; certainly better than the old system it replaced that was easy to connect to but was dinosaur slow. It may just be that our villa is better situated; closer to the main access point for our leg of the mesh. That said by the time they figure this out it may be too late as new technology will have overtaken. I find that I get very good speed on 5G wireless and now have unlimited bandwidth; last vacation at another resort in Orlando that is all I used - didn't even bother trying the resort wifi with all of the security headaches that brings.

I think Vistana's best option would be to let the major cell providers put 5G access points on the roof of their office building on Vistana Center Drive (to improve cellular/wireless access) and be done with wifi altogether.

 

[AnnaKristoff2013]

That said by the time they figure this out it may be too late as new technology will have overtaken. I find that I get very good speed on 5G wireless and now have unlimited bandwidth;

My experience is that the Verizon network in that area is so clogged that data is nearly useless. The cell signal itself is fine, but good luck trying to get any kind of decent speeds, especially at those same peak times. At 7 am the Verizon network is so clogged that the Disney App is unusable. AT&T seems ok though. (I have a verizon phone through my job and my wife has AT&T).

 

[erinch]

Last June I got reliable Verizon cell coverage in the kitchen or on the patio of our 3rd floor Fountains 1 unit And had no problems booking G+ at 7 am. service on the interior of the unit was spotty at peak times.

 

[ClapYourHands]

We are considering getting a two bedroom for a week. I understand that there are some units that sleep six and others eight. Does checking in on a particular day (Friday vs Saturday) tilt the odds one way or the other?

 

[AnnaKristoff2013]

We are considering getting a two bedroom for a week. I understand that there are some units that sleep six and others eight. Does checking in on a particular day (Friday vs Saturday) tilt the odds one way or the other?

How are you booking? If you are booking through Marriott you can select your room type, and you can select whether it’s a room where the second bedroom has two twin beds versus two full beds. I also booked through Interval International once (a getaway), and the rental was specified as being the one that sleeps 8, so I got a unit with two double beds in the second room. The day you check in shouldn’t have much to do with it.

 

[ClapYourHands]

How are you booking? If you are booking through Marriott you can select your room type, and you can select whether it’s a room where the second bedroom has two twin beds versus two full beds. I also booked through Interval International once (a getaway), and the rental was specified as being the one that sleeps 8, so I got a unit with two double beds in the second room. The day you check in shouldn’t have much to do with it.

I was looking at a Sky Auction listing that says sleeps 6, which confused me as we’ve stayed there before and it definitely slept 8. I did some googling and found that two areas have the twin beds and the other sections have doubles. One site said that different sections are turned over on different days so you can increase your chances of a particular section if you know when to book. I’m not sure if the auction site defaults to 6 to be safe or if it’s definitely a 6-person unit. TBH, a couple of my teens would probably prefer an air mattress over sharing a double bed, but I’d like to have the correct number of beds going in.

 

[AnnaKristoff2013]

I was looking at a Sky Auction listing that says sleeps 6, which confused me as we’ve stayed there before and it definitely slept 8. I did some googling and found that two areas have the twin beds and the other sections have doubles. One site said that different sections are turned over on different days so you can increase your chances of a particular section if you know when to book. I’m not sure if the auction site defaults to 6 to be safe or if it’s definitely a 6-person unit. TBH, a couple of my teens would probably prefer an air mattress over sharing a double bed, but I’d like to have the correct number of beds going in.

I’m not familiar with Sky Auction but if that is one of those sites where you are effectively renting someone else’s timeshare than I would expect the bed count to be accurate. There a number of 2 bedroom units that have the twin/twin configuration in the second room.

 

[ClapYourHands]

I’m not familiar with Sky Auction but if that is one of those sites where you are effectively renting someone else’s timeshare than I would expect the bed count to be accurate. There a number of 2 bedroom units that have the twin/twin configuration in the second room.

Sort of. It’s not an exact match up from owner to renter. I think it’s excess inventory, perhaps through RCI. I also know Marriott does cash bookings, and the resort has availability when we’re looking to go, so not sure if it’s all from the same pool or if the different options would be bucketed. I don’t know enough about timeshares to know how it works. Do people get upgraded in slow times?

I suppose I could just plan on bringing a couple of air mattresses, and see what unit we end up with. Even with double beds, the air mattresses wouldn’t go to waste, as at least one teen has reached the point of not wanting to share a bed.

 

[dioxide45]

Only Courts and Falls are sleeps 6. They check in on Saturday and SUnday respectively. Friday checkin should guarantee a unit that isn't sleeps 6, but the resort can place you in any phase as long as it matches the occupancy you have confirmed. Many of the phases that sleep 8 checkin on any day of the week. The resort map is color coded to indicate checkin dates;
http://vistana-web-static.s3.amazonaws.com/vistana-web/destinations/maps/svr-resort-map.pdf

 

[ClapYourHands]

Only Courts and Falls are sleeps 6. They check in on Saturday and SUnday respectively. Friday checkin should guarantee a unit that isn't sleeps 6, but the resort can place you in any phase as long as it matches the occupancy you have confirmed. Many of the phases that sleep 8 checkin on any day of the week. The resort map is color coded to indicate checkin dates;
http://vistana-web-static.s3.amazonaws.com/vistana-web/destinations/maps/svr-resort-map.pdf

Thank you! This is the information I was looking for! I’ve stayed there once before and it was great. I don’t remember which section we were in, but do remember having to drive to the pool because there wasn’t one nearby.

Would you recommend any particular section to request?

 

[AnnaKristoff2013]

Thank you! This is the information I was looking for! I’ve stayed there once before and it was great. I don’t remember which section we were in, but do remember having to drive to the pool because there wasn’t one nearby.

Would you recommend any particular section to request?

Fountains and Lakes are the most recently renovated, and are quite nice inside as a result. I would request at either of them. I enjoy the Fountains Pool as well and my kids love it’s waterfall feature. If stairs are an issue, Lakes has elevators, fountains does not. Fountains are 3 story units, Lakes are 4 or 5 (can’t remember if they’re 4 or 5).

 

[dioxide45]

Lakes are 4 or 5 (can’t remember if they’re 4 or 5).

There are some buildings that are 4 and some that are 5. Mostly 4. But they do all have elevators. Florida law allows them to build up to three floors without an elevator.

 

[erinch]

We like Fountains 1, because it has the jacuzzi in the bath. Fountains 2 has jacuzzis in the master bedroom. We request 3rd floor , which has a skylight, overlooking a pond, away from the pool.