Tropical Palms Resort Questions

[LuckySadie]

Anyone stay here recently? Any weather damage from the hurricanes? Also, I am wondering how quiet they are and if they have heaters. Our trip will be in January and I understand it can get cold. Can you hear through the walls if people outside are talking for instance? There aren't many pictures online but some that I found show the cabins close together and some posts say they are far apart. The location is right and my kids would get a kick out of having our own little house so I thought I would look into it. How about wildlife? Are there little swamps to explore or birds? That would be a nice touch since my son and I love exploring. Oh! one other question. Is the RV area separate from the cabins? Thank you!

 

[alexbigday]

We were there visiting friends who were camping last Thanksgiving.
Damage from last years storms was not bad (not sure about this years storms)
The cabins looked quite close together, in my opinion, but very cute.
From what I recall, they are also close to the campers.

 

[PattnFmly]

Although it's been two years since we've been there, the layout is that there are cabin areas and trailer areas. But the areas are side by side. So theoretically, if you were on the edge of the cabin section, across the dirt road from you could be the edge of the trailer section. But if you're in the middle, well, you're in the middle! The cabins all have a deck with a picnic table and there's not a lot of room between the deck and the next cabin, but we could never hear anyone in the next cabin. Plus we always had the air on in our cabin and did not have any windows open. I would imagine in January you'd probably have the heat on!

 

[C.Ann]

We stayed there in 2001 and absolutely loved the cottages! The cottages are on the left side of the main drive and the RV's are on the right.. Cottages are set up in in circle of 4 or 5 and you hear nothing from the nieghbors.. Great deck with patio furniture - and the heat is very good..

I believe there was a small pond with baby alligators but we didn't get a chance to check it out.. However, we could sit right on our deck and watch the armadillos come out from the bushes right there in front of us to dig around for insects.. It was really neat!

There's a large outdoor heated pool (open 24 hours) and a smaller childrens wading pool with a huge umbrella in the center that showers water down into the pool.. There's a real nice poolside cafe that is open for breakfast and lunch and the prices were unbelieveably cheap.. Real nice - very clean laundramat too..

In the office there is a small general store as well as free brochures, etc..

You're within walking distance of Old Town, but you never hear a thing back there where the cottages are..

Unless things have changed drastically, I highly recommend TP..

 

[momof3disneyholics]

My guest service company operates out of Tropical Palms and I have worked there many times and know the place very well.
The layout is mainly like the others said. There are cabin areas and RV areas.The cabins are close together, but not so close that you will feel cramped and not enjoy yourself. The cabin areas are also landscaped very nicely. It is a very clean place and in very close to WDW. The pool area is nice, and they have a children's pool. They sometimes have live music at the poolside.
It is walking distance to Old Town, so if you know where Old Town is, it is basically behind it.

 

[LuckySadie]

Thank you everyone!!! So thankful for your input!

 

[jtdl]

Tropical Palms is great! We stayed for 3 nights in Feb. As mentioned in previous posts - there is a pond with a baby alligator in it (at least it was a baby in Feb!), we also seen an armidillo one morning in the enclosed pool area, the pool area was great, if you have small children the kids pool was great - one of the biggest I have seen and a play area. There is a snack bar located by the pool. It is open for breakfast and lunch I believe. We never got a chance to eat there. Laundry room is big and very nice. I didn't think the cottages were that close together, we never heard anyone. The only thing I didn't like were the parking arrangments. You just parked wherever, so you could be two roads over from your cottage, which is a real pain when unpacking!

 

[MossMan]

If you are looking for pictures, go to tripadvisor. There a bunch of pretty good pics (taken by people who have posted reviews) under the Tropical Palms section.

I think this place is absolutely great for kids. Having your own cottage ensures there is nobody above you stomping around at 3:00 AM. It also ensures that you don’t have anyone below you to complain when your kids play start stomping around themselves. It was nice not always having to watch our kids so they weren’t bugging other guests with their play. I suppose if your neighbors made enough noise it could leak over to your cottage. But it would have to be an awful lot of noise.

The most noise we ever put up with was an owl who hooted for a few hours one night outside our unit. And that’s another thing I love about the place - how forested it is. Even though Tropical Palms is just off a very touristy area (lots of chain restaurants and outlet stores nearby), the cottages themselves are nestled beautifully in a park like setting.

Now, the cottages are not fancy in the least. I’m sure for the same price the condos at some of the places you can get off skyauction are nicer and more upscale. And maybe if we didn’t have any kids with us my wife and I would choose to stay in such a place. But with two kids we thought the 2 bedroom cottages were entirely perfect for us. I liked being able to pull up right next to the cottage in our rental car, I thought the RV’ers were all super friendly and the atmosphere there helped make our last trip a success.