THV - Review (Very Long)

[jjbescher]

Treehouse Review

A little information before I get into the review.

We chose the Treehouse Villas because there were going to be a lot of us.
Myself, DW and a 7 month old baby
My Sister-in-law (DSIL1), Brother-in-law and their 22 month old
My other Sister-in-law (DSIL2)

So we really wanted a 3-bedroom and the Treehouses fit that perfectly. Luckily we had bought points into SSR and had enough to book it out at 11-months. Well, in that time, my DSIL1 got pregnant and was due 6 weeks before we were leaving. I thought they were going to bail on us, but luckily they did not.

Since the THV opened, I read many reviews, the good and the bad and tried to get myself into the mindset of what to expect.

We were in Villa 7058, a perfect location to everything. Less then a 2 minute walk to the pool, bus stop, boat dock and the path to SSR. The walk to the Grandstand Bus Stop was about 5 minutes and the walk to the Springs Section was about 7 minutes, a little slower when we had two strollers with us, but not much.

From all the reviews I read, I got the assumption that I was able to park right at my villa and then walk right to the steps. That is anything but the truth. The Villas are grouped together in pods. The pod I was in was 7058, 7059 and 7060. There is a parking area for that pod of those villas and then a path that leads to those villas. See Pictures below.
Treehouse Review

A little information before I get into the review.

We chose the Treehouse Villas because there were going to be a lot of us.
Myself, DW and a 7 month old baby
My Sister-in-law (DSIL1), Brother-in-law and their 22 month old
My other Sister-in-law (DSIL2)

So we really wanted a 3-bedroom and the Treehouses fit that perfectly. Luckily we had bought points into SSR and had enough to book it out at 11-months. Well, in that time, my DSIL1 got pregnant and was due 6 weeks before we were leaving. I thought they were going to bail on us, but luckily they did not.

Since the THV opened, I read many reviews, the good and the bad and tried to get myself into the mindset of what to expect.

We were in Villa 7058, a perfect location to everything. Less then a 2 minute walk to the pool, bus stop, boat dock and the path to SSR. The walk to the Grandstand Bus Stop was about 5 minutes and the walk to the Springs Section was about 7 minutes, a little slower when we had two strollers with us, but not much.

From all the reviews I read, I got the assumption that I was able to park right at my villa and then walk right to the steps. That is anything but the truth. The Villas are grouped together in pods. The pod I was in was 7058, 7059 and 7060. There is a parking area for that pod of those villas and then a path that leads to those villas. See Pictures below.

More to follow.

 

[jjbescher]

The steps to go up to the Villas are longer than 1 normal flight and they seem to have a bend in them. At least ours did. This made it even more difficult to bring stuff up to the Villa. I have to agree with CandleontheWater about her review about certain things about the Villas. http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2446225 is the link to her review. I posted my thoughts of her review in her link.

When traveling with infants or even kids that need strollers, walking up the steps with them (kids and strollers) is annoying. We decided just to leave ours in our car. We bought a small umbrella stroller for the parks and I was glad I did. It was very easy to store in the car and take out. If I did need to bring it into the Villa, it was small enough to be out of the way and light. However, my DSIL1 and DBIL had one of those double strollers and they carried it up and down the stairs every time. It would have been nice to have some type of storage area underneath to put the strollers or even coolers so we did not have to bring them upstairs.

 

[jjbescher]

DOOR ENTRY:
Since the THV can get rain on the door, they put a flap over the key slot on the door. If you only had one hand available (Holding a kid or bags from your trip) then it was VERY difficult to open the door. I had to try to enter the key multiple times to get it to work. After the first couple of days, I learned it is much quicker to just put everything down, open the door, then pick it all up.

 

[jjbescher]

Transportation:
We had a car, but with that many people and two strollers, we did not take it very often. Unless it was just my wife and kid, we tried to take Disney Transportation. Taking the Shuttle bus to the Springs and then to the parks is very time consuming. It could take close to an hour to get anywhere. The walk to SSR (Either Grandstand or Springs) is a decent walk, especially with strollers. The view is spectacular, but it takes about 5 minutes to get to the Grandstand and about 7-8 minutes to get to the Springs. If you just miss the bus at the Grandstand, you can make it to the Springs and catch that bus. We did that a few times. We were lucky enough to get the THV bus when just got off the park bus, but SSR still has issues with the bus transportation. There is definitely more than a 20 minute most of the times.

Pool:
Since we were so close to the pool, we tried to make it to the pool everyday. We almost accomplished that task. The pool is small, with a hot tub. I think it is the perfect size for the amount of THV’s there are. We could hear people in the pool from our deck, but inside the unit, no sound of the pool. We also went to the Grandstand Pool and the Springs pool so we could play around a little more in the pool.

Deck:
The deck of THV is nice. I ate breakfast on the deck a couple of times, but the mosquitoes were too much at night and we ended up eating inside at night. The villa we had, there was plenty of shade in the morning and evening. It was a little too hot to sit out in the afternoon, but we normally we sleeping, at the park or at the pool during that time.

 

[jjbescher]

Grill:
We grilled out a lot. The grill is missing someplace to put the food. There is no table or anything next to the grill or even attached to the grill to put a plate on. You either had to put it on the ground or hold it.

 

[jjbescher]

Villa:
Lighting:
When people say the lighting in the Villa is bad, they were not kidding. The lights with the fans give out nothing more then a night light. You turn on the light and you are thinking, did I actually turn something on. The worst are in the Master Bedroom, Second bedroom with the other queen and the light coming out of the Master Bedroom. Luckily for the trees outside because we were able to keep our blinds open and not worry about people seeing inside the windows, at least for the Master Bedroom. While there they had to replace a ballast in one of the lights in the kitchen area. Maintenance came right away, but the electricians had to come out the second day because they had to wait for the part.

I tried to take pictures without flash to show you the ineffectiveness of the lights, but they did not come out very well.

 

[jjbescher]

Overall, I was very happy with the villa, it could use some more storage space, but when you add an extra bedroom, you are going to have to make the rooms a little smaller and are going to lose some of the storage that you had.

The living space was nice. Plenty of room for 6 adults and 3 kids. We actually cooked and ate in the villa a lot and the table held most of us all the time.

My friends that stayed in the room with the bunk, said it was a little tight, but definitely doable.

If you would like more information or some different pictures, please let me know. I did not go over much description of the inside of the villa since there are many threads and pictures about it. However, I have no problem answering questions about it.

jon

 

[Cee]

Thank you for the wonderful pictures. I loved the THV. We had all adults on our trip. I'm sure the steps and long paths were challenging with little ones and all the equipment that goes with them. I hope you had a great vacation!

 

[Brave teacher]

Thanks for the review!

 

[nolanboys]

Thanks for the in depth review. We can't wait to try them next March.

 

[lilpooh108]

Thank you so much for this review! DH kept asking me how far THV was from the parking lot...I was like, I dunno no one's reviewed it or put pictures up yet ....this will help him decide how much *STUFF* he's gotta lug in from the rental (I'm adding your review page to my favorites on the laptop!)

We are definitely going to book THV w/our SSR points. Love DVC!

 

[jjbescher]

There are some units that are closer to the parking area. This one seemed to be one of the farthest.

 

[DisneyFreaks]

Thank you for your very detailed description and wonderful pictures. We have two THVs booked for November and are extremely excited although I know those steps are going to be a challenge for my bad knees. I would love to see your other pictures as well.

 

[CMOORE185]

We did not have the same problem with transportation that you had. Unless the bus was right there when we left, we always walked to the Grandstand Bus stop (like you said it was a five minute walk), and we never waited more than five minutes for a Bus to the parks. Once on the Bus it took 10 to 15 minutes to get to some parks like MK. We were there Spring Break so it was a busy time too.

 

[lilpooh108]

How far is the check-in area to the treehouse area? Trying to figure out if a quick 2-day trip w/no car is worth it...thanks!

 

[CMOORE185]

How far is the check-in area to the treehouse area? Trying to figure out if a quick 2-day trip w/no car is worth it...thanks!

Check-in area is about a 10 min. walk to THV. You can also take bus there or boat.

 

[CMOORE185]

jjbesher, Did you have any issue with hot water in master bath. That was my only complaint that the water did not get hot enough to take a bath. I had them out there 3 times and they never fixed it.

 

[BeccaG]

I found the lighting low too! Other than that, I loved that I could book the room and give everyone there own space with a door. Transportation can take a while. I know a lot of folks who say they think its faster to drive but with parking and then getting on a tram I can't imagine it being much longer than getting on a bus at SSR. That being said, it does take longer from the treehouses, so I think we will reserve our treehouse stays for those longer than 7 days.

 

[pennst8r]

I had no idea some were that far back. We were in 7023 in October. It's right off the main road/parking and really close to one of the bus stops.

 

[Ali and boyz]

we would need the accessable villa so unsure if they would have it even at the 11 month window as I wouldn't want to book day by day but can I ask you

we have an adapted car (ds is in a wheelchair 24/7) and my dad is in his 80's and cannot walk far either, worried about there being onl space per villa and with us having 2 cars is their parking say near the pool that you can park.