Vistana Villages or Resort??

[disneyobs]

My boss has been generous enough to give us one week of his RCI exhangeable timeshare, and I have narrowed it down to these two. We have 3 children , age 9,7 and 4 and will also be bringing my Mom along for a holiday. Are they both within close driving distance to Disney? Are the amenities similiar, or is one a clearly better choice than the other? This all depends on availability etc, of course, but I want to be able to tell him my favorite choice so he will try to exchange there first. Thanks!

 

[jeff968]

I have stayed at both and we were at the Villages just two weeks ago. They are both nice places but we liked the villages better. It is a brand new resort so everything is new. It is smaller which we liked, I think there were 10 buildings. They had the main section right in the middle so no matter what building you were in you could walk to the pool. It is a beautiful place. The V resort is also nice but you could get stuck in one of the older sections. The VR has 7 pools but mostly everyone hangs out at the cascades pool. It did have some extras over the VV like a resturant (which wasn't very good) and a general store with a Pizza hut (which the kids liked). As for location, they are both near disney so I wouldn't let that factor in. The VV are actually off a quieter section of I-drive where the VR is off of 535(?) which is much busier. Let me know if you have any other questions.

 

[spiceycat]

the Villages are nicer and newer.

the resort is closer - much closer - but there have been several complaints - mostly about the older section - it is not up kept properly and it some cases it is hard to image that Vistana would allow it to get so ruin down - cases there the doors (inside) - were off the hinges - the oven door wouldn't close - just lots of stuff that a top resort should not have!!! Some of the bathroom area not being cleaned - little things.

the resort is also big - the Villages is still expanding - so it is smaller.

 

[woodybuzzy]

we are staying at the Vistana resort. Can anybody tell me how the transportation was to Disney? Do they have transportation to Universal? Was the transportation reliable? How often did it run?

 

[spiceycat]

here is the information from the site

http://www.starwoodvo.com/resorts/guests.jsp?resortID=5&view=

 

[zaxmom]

I never stayed at the Vistana Resort, but the Villages was beautiful. We just wish they had a water slide at the pool. The kids loved the dancing fountains, though. I have never seen a rental decorated so nicely, at least to my tastes.

 

[jeff968]

I thought the slide pool at the Vistana resort was pretty lame. They don't make that big a difference to me but if you really want a slide pool resort I would recommend the Radisson resort parkway (a hotel) or the animal kingdom lodge. Both had nice slides.