Treehouse Villas Trip Report - Our 9 person stay experience June 2023

[Stargazer65]

Folks suggested I do a trip report regarding my latest vacation staying at the Treehouse Villas. So I will take a stab at it. Some background is also on this other thread:

https://www.disboards.com/threads/poll-full-treehouse-fun-or-crazy.3919804/

This will probably take me a few days and several posts. Feel free to ask questions!

The Preparations:

We booked from June 1 to June 13th. I booked 9 days of that with SSR points at the 11 month period. Then added more days using other points at 7 months. Getting a THV at 7 months was easy for that timeframe.

We've stayed at SSR many times but this was our first time at the THVs. I emailed MS a few weeks prior to our visit and requested a THV on the Sassagoula river bank, south side (towards Grandstand), between the ferry dock and the pedestrian bridge. Mid-afternoon on our arrival day while we were at Wal-Mart getting groceries we were notified our THV was ready, and when I saw the number and checked the map I was happy to see they gave us exactly that.

If you are wondering why we requested that location:
South side gave us easier access to the main resort (and the Grandstand area specifically).
Also closer to the Treehouse pool
Near ferry dock so we could get to the boats easier
On the river…just because my wife wanted to see boats out the window


We noted that there are some accessible THVs with long ramps. These all appear to be on the farthest north end of the THV resort area, near the car and bus entrance.

 

[Stargazer65]

The arrival:

We arrived at THV after getting our groceries. We went directly to the treehouse villa area without visiting the front desk. (The front desk is at the Carriage House in the Main Resort at SSR – there is no front desk specific to the THVs). There is only one car/bus entrance and it is on the north end between the OKW entrance and a main SSR entrance. There are cart paths and pedestrian entrances on the south end that are close to the Grandstand.

The car entrance is unmanned, so if your magic band and phone doesn’t work, you’ll have to fix that with the front desk (there is an intercom there also). We had no problems getting in, and drove to our THV.

We had two small cars (my son drove one and me the other). This was so we could transport 9 people around if needed (i.e. Universal Studios) after the rest of our group arrived from the airport. We also needed the luggage room. We parked both near our place, went inside for a quick look around, and then unloaded our stuff. You are only supposed to park one car at THVs because of limited parking. Extra cars are supposed to be parked at the main resort. In our experience this trip there was plenty of parking available, but we didn’t want to hog someone’s spot if they arrived, so we only kept both there during unloading. I note that some of the spots are for compact cars only, but there are many longer spaces for SUVs and such. The road going around treehouse is one way and pretty narrow so you can’t park an oversize vehicle like an RV there. They would have to be put at the main resort.

After unloading the cars, we drove one of them over to the Grandstand and parked it there, then walked back to the treehouse.

As I mentioned it’s a fairly quick walk from the Grandstand to the south end of THVs. We got back and unpacked the rest of the way. There were only 4 of us at this point (myself, DW, son, daughter). Anticipating five more people arriving tomorrow, my son (26) moved into a bunkbed room, and my daughter (15) picked the chair bed in the living room. My son is 6 foot and said he was comfortable in the bunkbed (YMMV). Me and DW took the Master bedroom of course (paying owner privilege!).

After some settling in, we decided to go to the front desk at the Carriage House since my wife had a package waiting there. Also, we were ready to have a snack there at the Market or the Artist’s Palette. We opted to walk since we were full of energy and excitement and had been driving all day. If you go the most direct route, I estimate it was about a 10 minute brisk walk from our treehouse to the Carriage House. A treehouse near the car entrance may be as much as a 20 minute brisk walk.


After taking care of business at the Springs we went back and settled down for the night.


Next up I’ll talk about transportation options at THVs, more about the Treehouse, and moving the other 5 people in.

 

[Micca]

The THVs are spectacular. Our group of 6 (4 adults/2 kids) have used them a couple of times and loved it. We also always have a rental car, so transportation is not an issue. Looking forward to more of your experience.

 

[Stargazer65]

All Together Now:

So day 2 we had two separate airport pick-ups. These went pretty smooth.

Our first was a 10:30 pickup - my youngest son (18), and two more daughters (both 21).

Second was my other son (24) and his wife (22).

Now the Treehouse 9 is all together!

How it was having 9 people in a treehouse for eight of the days:

The treehouse layout worked well for this mixed group: Two married couples had the queen bed rooms. Two single guys had the bunkbed room, and three single girls had the living room beds. Now keep in mind this may work well for some and not for others. With exception of me and DW, we were a group of young people and teens, and it was like living in a dorm room for them. They loved it.

For me and DW, we had our privacy with our own private bathroom when we wanted it. Probably the biggest drawback was that the 7 of them had to share 1 bathroom. For some, that may be a deal breaker. But we found ways to make it work. We often let them use the master bathroom when we were dressed. They staggered wake-ups, plus some times the sink could be shared.

For the most part we all clicked pretty well. On park days where we wanted to leave pretty early, here was a sample routine:

• At 6:30 us married couples got up, used bathrooms and dressed.
• Then the single girls typically used the master bathroom, and the single boys the guest bathroom.
• We all chatted and talked about the day’s plans over coffee and breakfast snacks in the dining room while everyone got ready.
• We had a set time for a family meeting and prayer 10 minutes before departing (7:50) – everyone was supposed to be ready by this time
• At 8:00 we went to the bus stop, or cars (if going to Universal Studios)
• At night it was easier because we typically all filtered back to the room in separate groups, some stayed out later than others.

On non-park days it was more relaxed, and there were more independent plans, so things worked even easier then.

 

[Stargazer65]

Getting around at the THVs:

Some generalizations

As most of you know, the THVs are more isolated. The nice part of that is the peace and quiet. On the flip side, it does take longer to get around.

Many say that you really need the car if you are there. It is much easier for moving in and out, but other than that the only other time we used it was for going off property.

We did walk more this trip than previous trips due to the remoteness. You may not like that aspect due to your needs or preferences, but we were fine with it.



Bus Transportation

There is a bus that makes two stops at THVs and drops you off at the Springs. From there you can catch buses to TPs and DS. We did not do this, we always walked to the Grandstand bus stop, and walked back home from the Grandstand afterwards. The kids used the bus to go to the Springs Pool, and I used it to go to and from Artist’s Palette/Market a time or two.



Boat Transportation

There is a boat launch to take you to the Springs behind the Turf Club area, as well as DS. The boats in this area were shut down pretty much the whole time we were there due to low water (local drought conditions). This affected OKW and Port Orleans as well. This was kind of a bummer since we planned to use the boat for DS trips. Other resort boats were running.



Walking

We walked to DS a number of times. It’s not too far if you’re in good health. It’s about a 1-1.5 mile walk from THVs to DS depending on starting point at THV and specific destination at DS. So allow about 30 minutes. I did it once in about 15 minutes, but I was fast walking by myself.

There are two ways to walk to DS depending on which side you want to enter, we did both:

West side by Cirque du Soleil – This walk goes from the THVs via the Nature walk. You can also walk to OKW this way if you take a right over the first bridge, although we did not visit OKW this trip. (BTW- Sometimes carts drive the path and give rides partway. There is a Mickey shaped sand trap when you pass the golf course which is cool.) When you get to the Strawberry Parking lot the path goes around it, but you can shortcut across if you want. Walk around the Cirque du Soleil and in the west entrance. I should note that this walk is very sunny during the heat of the day.

East Side at the Marketplace – This way is takes you through the Grandstand (or around the golf course), through the Springs, and Congress Park. There are more shady areas this way, but you need to know your way around SSR or you may find yourself taking a longer walk than necessary. You could do half a walk if you wanted in this direction by utilizing the Treehouse Bus.

Other walking was to and from the Springs to get food at the Artist’s Palette. If you want to get a lot of quick serve from your room, the THVs aren’t the best for this. It was about a 10 minute walk from our place. (Keep in mind, the Carousel is about the same distance from Artist’s Palette, so some of that is just the nature of SSR, not just the THVs). The Treehouse bus gets you there and back without walking, but it usually takes up more time unless you catch it just right. The kids walked to the Backstretch Pool Bar to eat once (and went swimming there) that was a few minutes closer, but fewer options.

 

[Stargazer65]

Hanging around the Treehouse Villa area:

Outside:

Our deck was nice, although we didn’t use it for any events, it was mostly an outside waiting room when we were getting ready to go somewhere

The only critters bigger than a bug that we saw in the time we were there was lizards and birds, no snakes or gators.

One morning I saw that a spider had spun a web across from one railing to another midway on the stairs. I’m not afraid of spiders, so I relocated him to a tree…but some of the girls would have been prevented from leaving since it is the only egress route from the Treehouse. I could see some people probably having to call maintenance to remove the spider so they could leave haha.

A few mosquitoes graced me when I was sitting around outside around dusk, but generally it was fine otherwise.

Kids made use of the treehouse pool many times, it’s very close if you’re in the south loop

It was neat walking around after dark. It has a campground feel like Fort Wilderness, dimly lit with ground lanterns and very different from the SSR main resort areas (When you leave from the Grandstand Bus stop at night after leaving the park, you are walking from the main resort into the woods to your house. There is not much light emanating from the THV area, so that makes it seem strange and interesting.)

When you walk around at the THVs you are mostly using the road, but the road is not much larger than a golf cart path, and traffic out there is very light

Every THV has a grill for charcoal, but we never got around to grilling anything because our schedule had us eating out for dinner most of the time


Inside:

Like the outside, the indoor THV décor and lighting is darker than some may like and it definitely has more of a cabin in the woods type appeal (it’s like a budget CCV cabin). If you want more bright and cheery probably stick to SSR main resort.

More on that indoor light – Many of the lights seem really dim, if you want to read or sew you often need to turn on all the lights in a room. Some of the overhead lights almost qualify as night lights. This was actually an advantage in the morning, I could turn on the kitchen lights and barely disturb the girls in the living room.

DW and I liked the master bath arrangement. The tub and shower share a space behind the glass door adjacent to each other. You could go from shower to clean yourself, to jetted tub to soak, to shower to rinse, and out. The shower head was the hose type so you could spray down the tub. The tub was a little tight for two, but otherwise fine. YMMV on this arrangement, some may think it odd.


Condition:

As many of you know, the THVs are probably getting due for needing a refurb. I could definitely see signs of wear and tear in ours, but everything worked fine. Some minor issues:

The Master bathroom sink drained really slow when we moved in. I was going to call maintenance, but I could see hair under the drain stopper. I unscrewed the stopper myself and pulled out the hair ball and then it was fine (some might have been totally grossed out by this). Of course this could have happened in a brand new place also. I did mention it on the survey.

I would have preferred the water for the tub to be hotter, but my wife thought it was just right. Again YMMV, I never used the cold water spigot in the tub, because the hot water was comfortable by itself. I’m not sure if this was by design for safety, or if it should be hotter.

 

[hhisc16]

Hanging around the Treehouse Villa area:

Outside:

Our deck was nice, although we didn’t use it for any events, it was mostly an outside waiting room when we were getting ready to go somewhere

The only critters bigger than a bug that we saw in the time we were there was lizards and birds, no snakes or gators.

One morning I saw that a spider had spun a web across from one railing to another midway on the stairs. I’m not afraid of spiders, so I relocated him to a tree…but some of the girls would have been prevented from leaving since it is the only egress route from the Treehouse. I could see some people probably having to call maintenance to remove the spider so they could leave haha.

A few mosquitoes graced me when I was sitting around outside around dusk, but generally it was fine otherwise.

Kids made use of the treehouse pool many times, it’s very close if you’re in the south loop

It was neat walking around after dark. It has a campground feel like Fort Wilderness, dimly lit with ground lanterns and very different from the SSR main resort areas (When you leave from the Grandstand Bud stop at night after leaving the park, you are walking from the main resort into the woods to your house. There is not much light emanating from the THV area, so that makes it seem strange and interesting.)

When you walk around at the THVs you are mostly using the road, but the road is not much larger than a golf cart path, and traffic out there is very light

Every THV has a grill for charcoal, but we never got around to grilling anything because our schedule had us eating out for dinner most of the time


Inside:

Like the outside, the indoor THV décor and lighting is darker than some may like and it definitely has more of a cabin in the woods type appeal (it’s like a budget CCV cabin). If you want more bright and cheery probably stick to SSR main resort.

More on that indoor light – Many of the lights seem really dim, if you want to read or sew you often need to turn on all the lights in a room. Some of the overhead lights almost qualify as night lights. This was actually an advantage in the morning, I could turn on the kitchen lights and barely disturb the girls in the living room.

DW and I liked the master bath arrangement. The tub and shower share a space behind the glass door adjacent to each other. You could go from shower to clean yourself, to jetted tub to soak, to shower to rinse, and out. The shower head was the hose type so you could spray down the tub. The tub was a little tight for two, but otherwise fine. YMMV on this arrangement, some may think it odd.


Condition:

As many of you know, the THVs are probably getting due for needing a refurb. I could definitely see signs of wear and tear in ours, but everything worked fine. Some minor issues:

The Master bathroom sink drained really slow when we moved in. I was going to call maintenance, but I could see hair under the drain stopper. I unscrewed the stopper myself and pulled out the hair ball and then it was fine (some might have been totally grossed out by this). Of course this could have happened in a brand new place also. I did mention it on the survey.

I would have preferred the water for the tub to be hotter, but my wife thought it was just right. Again YMMV, I never used the cold water spigot in the tub, because the hot water was comfortable by itself. I’m not sure if this was by design for safety, or if it should be hotter.

love this conclusion! it’s like a budget CCV cabin)

we are staying at SSR for the first time this July and our friends are staying at a THV for the first time, so we plan to go view the cabins while there

thank you for the detailed report!

 

[Micca]

As many of you know, the THVs are probably getting due for needing a refurb. I could definitely see signs of wear and tear in ours, but everything worked fine.

The dishwasher in our THV broke down while we were there. Maintenance came pretty quickly, and determined it was beyond repair. They actually brought a brand new dishwasher within an hour and installed it. This was a Sunday evening by the way. It's unfortunate that it failed, but that's a pretty decent response.

 

[Stargazer65]

love this conclusion! it’s like a budget CCV cabin)

Conversely, it's also like a deluxe version of the Fort Wilderness Cabins we stayed in once.

thank you for the detailed report!

You're welcome! It was fun to write up.

That's about all I have to say, but if anyone has any questions or comments I'd be glad to talk more about it. Also, I need to add some pictures.

 

[Nursemanit]

Thank you - I was considering doing 3 treehouses this May when I bring my sisters and their family’s- but I chickened out when I found out there would be A 7 month old ( not known -at the initial planning)

The transport is what worried me with an infant / plus stroller plus other kids. It is a shame THV is not just a stop on the bus loop .

Would you use the treehouses with an infant ?

 

[Stargazer65]

Would you use the treehouses with an infant ?

Hard to give a recommendation on that, we would do it...but YMMV and there are easier options. If you stayed where we were, you would have to carry the stroller up and down the stairs. If you get an accessible treehouse, those are even farther from the main resort. SSR is pretty spread out as it is, and the Treehouses take it up another notch for transportation/walking time. If you were at SSR, probably booking preferred room and then request The Springs is easiest for those with small children.

A smaller resort would be easier for small kids.

 

[GinnyBear's_mom]

Thanks for your report, we will be a group of 8 in a treehouse this August. We've never stayed at SSR so we're a little nervous about transportation, etc. We're going for DD's 15th birthday and she chose a split stay between THV and AKL. I appreciate all of the details you included!

 

[peacefrogdog]

Getting around at the THVs:

Boat Transportation

There is a boat launch to take you to the Springs behind the Turf Club area, as well as DS. The boats in this area were shut down pretty much the whole time we were there due to low water (local drought conditions). This affected OKW and Port Orleans as well. This was kind of a bummer since we planned to use the boat for DS trips. Other resort boats were running.

I know the boats were down, but was there any signage indicated how often the boats come?

 

[Stargazer65]

I know the boats were down, but was there any signage indicated how often the boats come?

Not really. From experience in the past, they came pretty frequently. Like 20 minutes or so?

 

[BLTtinkerbell]

Thank you for this trip report!
We’ve thought about staying in a treehouse, but haven’t yet.
We have stayed in a cabin at FW and enjoyed it, so we’re thinking we might enjoy a treehouse too.
We have stayed at SSR and liked it there!
Lots of great options at WDW!

 

[Stargazer65]

Thank you for this trip report!
We’ve thought about staying in a treehouse, but haven’t yet.
We have stayed in a cabin at FW and enjoyed it, so we’re thinking we might enjoy a treehouse too.
We have stayed at SSR and liked it there!
Lots of great options at WDW!

You're welcome, we stayed in a cabin at FW as well and enjoyed that. Staying in a Treehouse has a very similar feel to staying at the cabins at FW, but with more space and luxury.

 

[MAGICFOR2]

Hanging around the Treehouse Villa area:

Outside:

Our deck was nice, although we didn’t use it for any events, it was mostly an outside waiting room when we were getting ready to go somewhere

The only critters bigger than a bug that we saw in the time we were there was lizards and birds, no snakes or gators.

One morning I saw that a spider had spun a web across from one railing to another midway on the stairs. I’m not afraid of spiders, so I relocated him to a tree…but some of the girls would have been prevented from leaving since it is the only egress route from the Treehouse. I could see some people probably having to call maintenance to remove the spider so they could leave haha.

A few mosquitoes graced me when I was sitting around outside around dusk, but generally it was fine otherwise.

Kids made use of the treehouse pool many times, it’s very close if you’re in the south loop

It was neat walking around after dark. It has a campground feel like Fort Wilderness, dimly lit with ground lanterns and very different from the SSR main resort areas (When you leave from the Grandstand Bus stop at night after leaving the park, you are walking from the main resort into the woods to your house. There is not much light emanating from the THV area, so that makes it seem strange and interesting.)

When you walk around at the THVs you are mostly using the road, but the road is not much larger than a golf cart path, and traffic out there is very light

Every THV has a grill for charcoal, but we never got around to grilling anything because our schedule had us eating out for dinner most of the time


Inside:

Like the outside, the indoor THV décor and lighting is darker than some may like and it definitely has more of a cabin in the woods type appeal (it’s like a budget CCV cabin). If you want more bright and cheery probably stick to SSR main resort.

More on that indoor light – Many of the lights seem really dim, if you want to read or sew you often need to turn on all the lights in a room. Some of the overhead lights almost qualify as night lights. This was actually an advantage in the morning, I could turn on the kitchen lights and barely disturb the girls in the living room.

DW and I liked the master bath arrangement. The tub and shower share a space behind the glass door adjacent to each other. You could go from shower to clean yourself, to jetted tub to soak, to shower to rinse, and out. The shower head was the hose type so you could spray down the tub. The tub was a little tight for two, but otherwise fine. YMMV on this arrangement, some may think it odd.


Condition:

As many of you know, the THVs are probably getting due for needing a refurb. I could definitely see signs of wear and tear in ours, but everything worked fine. Some minor issues:

The Master bathroom sink drained really slow when we moved in. I was going to call maintenance, but I could see hair under the drain stopper. I unscrewed the stopper myself and pulled out the hair ball and then it was fine (some might have been totally grossed out by this). Of course this could have happened in a brand new place also. I did mention it on the survey.

I would have preferred the water for the tub to be hotter, but my wife thought it was just right. Again YMMV, I never used the cold water spigot in the tub, because the hot water was comfortable by itself. I’m not sure if this was by design for safety, or if it should be hotter.

Thank you for posting! We are headed there this weekend. I was wondering about the products in the bathroom. Are they still H2O?

 

[Stargazer65]

Thank you for posting! We are headed there this weekend. I was wondering about the products in the bathroom. Are they still H2O?

Yes they have H20 products in the bathroom. That is one of my wife's favorite things about the non-refurbished resorts. She really likes that you can still get the H20 products, especially the tubes of green shampoo.

Enjoy, you're going to have so much fun!

 

[The Edgington's]

Great review, love the details! Do you remember if the bedrooms had mirrors on the doors?

 

[Stargazer65]

Great review, love the details! Do you remember if the bedrooms had mirrors on the doors?

I don't remember except the one next to the closet I used in the master bedroom. There's a closet behind the open bathroom door: