Vistana Resort or Village

[Jim Kosinski]

What is the better choice between the two

 

[blondietink]

Depends on what you want, and where you want to be closer to. We have stayed at both, and own at Villages. Vistana Resort is pretty close to Downtown Disney, but is older and the traffic is worse. Vistana Villages is newer and on International Drive, but really not far from Disney and close to the outlet mall. Traffic is minimal in this area.

 

[shoney]

Just returned from HGVC I drive and passed the sheraton vistana villages each day. There is nothing much right on the road but a 7-11 and a bennihanna under construction. But, you are 5 minutes to SeaWorld and 15 to Universal. You are only about 10 minutes away from the start of I-drive with tons of restaurants. If Disney is your main goal, you may want to stay closer. From all of the research I have done and from comments made by an RCI rep, the villages will be much nicer than the other. Like I said, if you will just be sleeping and visiting only Disney the other may be more convenient. We tend to favor a longer drive for a nicer resort. I am sure no matter what you pick you will have a wonderful vacation! Enjoy!

 

[Shleedogg]

You should definitely check out tripadvisor.com as they have reviews and traveler pictures of both.

That being said, I've stayed at both. For me, hands down, it was the Villages. They are gorgeous. The Resort is really dated but still nice when we stayed. A few years after though when we were deciding whether to stay at the resort or the villages (chose villages), I was looking at pics on tripadvisor and it looked like resort had gone downhill. The prices can't be beat at either. We got a 2 bedroom in Oct for $535. Have a great trip!

 

[digskat]

we have stayed at both in the last 8 months, and they were both very impressive. It really depends on your own tastes. The resort is closer to Disney, and close to dozens of restaurants and shops, but was in a much busier area. We were in a beautiful newly renovated 2 bedroom in the Fountains area, walking distance from 2 pools, a food court, and an internet room. We had a nice big screened patio,with a stairway to the pond. The only downfall, for us, was the resort is mammoth, and very spread out.It has 7 different areas, and it was a hike to the store and restaurant.
Villages is a little further from WDW, but still a short drive. It is located on I-Drive, so you can take the trolley to a couple outlet malls, and just about any restaurant you can imagine. It is in a quiet area of I-Drive, so traffic is good.The Villages are much smaller, built around a central pool area (with 2 pools and 2 hot tubs), and everything is a short walk away. We had a 1 bedroom, and it was a little older, but still nicely decorated. Our room had a small screened patio overlooking the pond. There is no food court, only a small restaurant with takeout. The only issue we had at villages was parking, and some noise from construction. During the day, villages was much quieter.

 

[Detailor]

When folks are mentioning that the Villages is (are?) further away from Disney than the Resort please note that the distance isn't much. The two resorts are about three or four miles apart. I don't think that the distance to any point in Disney is any more than three miles.

Because some Vistana Resort sections have either recently been or are currently being refurbished you may actually end up with a newer villa at the Resort than at the Villages but not all sections at the Resort are up to date. So, on average, the villas at the Villages are newer - as is the whole complex - and much smaller, quieter than the Resort.

While we haven't yet stayed at Vistana Villages it is one of the timeshare resorts in Orlando that is on our short list of resorts that we want to stay at if it comes up for our dates sometime.

Dick Taylor