Vacation Home ideas please

[tjkluse]

Our family will be traveling to Orlando for 3 weeks from 28 November until 19 December. The last 8 nights we will be staying on-site in the Contemporary. But for the first 2 weeks we will spend the time first at Universal and then Disney. First few days will be rest or see Orlando days, then 5 days at Universal and the remaineder at Disney.
I would like to stay in a vacation home as we have 6 children and hotels are pretty pricey when you need 2 rooms. So, we are looking for some place that is close to Universal but also close to Disney. It seems as if all the homes give time and distance from Disney but not Universal. I don't want to end up staying someplace that puts us 30-45 minutes from Universal even if it is close to Disney.
Also, I see lots of praises for Windsor Palms but it concerns me a bit that they require full payment in advance. Has anyone ever had a problem with this? I worry about sending so much money and arriving to find we have no place to stay.

Thanks in advance for your suggestions,
Tammi

 

[JANNYANS]

The reason most homes are ...."from Disney" is that's what the majority of holiday makers want to know .the further East you go the closer you will be to Universal but even those homes along the 27 won't be that far- 20 mins maybe -depending on exact location.
As for payment in advance if you book direct with an owner then that owner needs some sort of commitment from you and cannot afford to have you say you'll take their home and then not turn up -there are still bills to pay .It is easy to check the details of ownership of a home by logging onto the web site of the county where the home is located and doing a search .

 

[FLeisure]

Agree with much of the above post but I can't see you geting to Universal in 20 mins from US27. The best location for Universal is definately the East side of Disney which allows you to join up with I4 on SR 535. From there it will take 15 mins upwards depending on traffic conditions. Getting to I4 from the Poinciana Blvd area (Eagle Pointe/Indian Point/Cumbrian Lakes/Lake Berkley/Montego Bay/Hamilton's Reserve) will take about 5-8 minutes so roughly 20-25 mins on the average day. Disney is about 10 mins.

Windsor Palms is very popular and from there or any of the locations west of Disney (Rolling Hills/Sunset Lakes/Indian Creek/Formosa Gdns/Oak Island) it will take about 5-10 minutes longer. If you hit the traffic at the wrong time of day though it could be longer as you will have to queue on US 192 to join I4 past the Disney entrance.

As far as deposits are concerned, look at it this way; the owner is trusting you with their house. They have bills to meet and they need to be sure that you are actually going to turn up otherwise they will lose out not once, but twice ! IE., they could have booked the house out to someone else.

MC's sometimes take less of a deposit because they have more of a choice. Most MC's have upwards of 30 homes and have different ways of working. Again most will require a deposit.

My advice is to make sure you at least see pictures of the house before you book. Personally I prefer using video to show guests the house and more and more homeowners/mc's are going that route as well. In addition, you should make the usual checks that I have mentioned several times on other threads, and you will get a nice house in a great location at a price far better than a hotel.

 

[kilee]

I just posted recently about our upcomming trip. We are going with my immediate family, turning us into a group of 8. We decided for many reasons to rent a vacation home. Which is a first for us. However, we have rented luxury cabins many times in the past few years in other places (smoky mtns, Lake Placid, ect). These have always required payment up front as well. So, it is not out of the norm to have to pay for these services up front in full. I don't know how to post a link to my previous thread but I used www.orlandovillas.com, I found them to be very nice and very reasonable. I haven't been to the home yet (our trip is in Oct.), so this is just my opinion thus far.

 

[Puffy2]

Here is a link to a couple of private homes (I think reviews of them are included): LINK to vacation homes .

My friend stayed in one of them this past spring and loved it - private pool and all.

 

[MalcolmC]

FLeisure,

We can easily drive from our home on Hampton Lakes (on US 27) to Universal in under 25 minutes and that's using I4 to get there

I did 4 round trips in June (8 journeys in all) and the longest journey time was just 25 minutes, because of traffic. I must admit it surprised me too!

 

[kilee]

We are staying in Hampton Lakes for our next upcomming trip in Oct. Can you tell me what grocery store is the easiest to find near there? Is there a Walmart SuperCenter close by? Thank you.

 

[MalcolmC]

Kilee,

The nearest grocery store is about half a mile away from Hampton Lakes. It's a brand new Publix - opened last month.

Nearest Wal*Mart is at Haines City. Just turn left out of HL and drive south for about 13 minutes. It's on the left as you enter the city limits. There is a Winn Dixie supermarket there too.

 

[kilee]

Thank you!!!

 

[FLeisure]

Malcolm,
What time of day was this ? That really was a good time you did there.....surprising.

 

[MalcolmC]

Originally posted by FLeisure
Malcolm,
What time of day was this ? That really was a good time you did there.....surprising.

9:00-9:30 am (ish) to take people there and 6:30-7:00 pm (ish) to collect them at guest pick up and haul them back!

 

[Straitlover]

Might be a pain to pack up and move in the middle, but have you considered 2 different homes? One week stay near Universal, the next one near Disney.

 

[FLeisure]

The closest sub division to Universal is Indian Wells on SR 535. Trouble is, who wants to stay there thesedays when there are far newer homes around. From I Wells you are looking at 15 mins.

Further, 2-3 days at Universal is more than enough..the plan to rent a cheap hotel room is a good one in these circumstances.

Malcolm.....at 9.30 am I can believe it, but at 6.30, I think you did exceptionally well.

 

[tjkluse]

I think we have decided to try the extra hotel room for the few days. But, since it seems you can get rooms last minute on priceline, we will probably arrive on Friday Nov 28. Take the weekend to checkout the area and do a few other Orlando things including see how far we actually are from Universal (and the house we stay in) and whether we really will have a difficult time driving to and fro.

Two days enought to do Universal?.....that's good to hear. Our main purpose in going is to do Disney. But my sister was there last year and her kids really loved Universal so we wanted to see that too. Actually, if it only takes 2 days to 'do' Universal and we have 5 days, it will work out well. We will be there just a few days after we fly into the USA from Australia so jetlag will be a BIG factor. Having the extra days will make it much easer to take a daily rest without felling like we're missing too much.

Thanks again everyone!

 

[FLeisure]

tjkluse,
Coming from Aussie you are going to really feel the jet lag...the best solution is to try not to do it all. You can't do it, even with a three week vacation!

I think you'll find that driving from the house to Universal isn't going to be a problem and you'll have a more relaxing time if you actually split the days up rather than doing both Universal parks on consecutive days.

You do need to be aware that Thanksgiving is on 27th, so the parks are going to be very busy on the weekend you arrrive. I know you'll be keen to get started but my advice would be to go to MGN first as it is always quieter there.........leave Magic Kingdom until the week after or even into the second week in December when it will be a lot quieter.

Have a great time.....I'm sure you will. And if you have the time I'd like to ask you a few questions about Aussie at some point.