Warning RE: Sheraton Vistana Resort & Internet / Cell Service

[AnnaKristoff2013]

My family just finished a stay at the Sheraton Vistana Resort. The resort itself is fantastic and I hesitate to write this thread because it really is a great value and great resort, but I want to give a warning to those who are planning on staying there. They are experiencing severe issues with their resort wifi. There’s even a warning on the resort tv indicating that they’re experiencing these issues and if you need wifi you should consider staying somewhere else. The reviews on tripadvisor indicate this has been going on at least for the past month or so. The problem is, it’s not just the wifi. When the wifi goes out (and it does frequently), the cell service drops as well. (You can see this on the tripadvisor reviews as well). You’ll still get reception on your phone and be able to make and receive phone calls, but you will not be able to use your cellular data network **at all**. My guess as to what’s happening is that when their wifi drops, everyone is trying to use their cell phone data connections at the same time in its place making that unusable as well. Between my wife and I we have Verizon & AT&T and neither worked when the wifi went out. Some of the tripadvisor reviews accuse them of using a cell phone jammer but that would knock out voice service as well, so I’m pretty sure that’s not what’s happening.

Needless to say, this is a severe problem if you are trying to do a Disney-focused trip. You will not be able to make Genie+ reservations. You will not be able to make or cancel dining reservations. You will not be able to Purchase ILL$, and you will not be able to purchase or modify park reservations. You won’t even be able to use Apple Maps or google maps/waze as your gps when you want to leave the resort and drive somewhere. The situation was so bad late one night I had to drive to a gas station several miles from the resort just to get far enough away to use my cell phone to cancel a dining reservation and modify an AP park reservation for the following day. Until they have those wifi issues fixed, if you are planning on staying at the Vistana **and** are doing a Disney-focused trip, you may want to stay somewhere else. Again, I absolutely love the Vistana and other than the Internet issues our stay was great, with great service, great accommodations, great location, and great grounds. I just wanted to put this warning out there.

 

[Narcoossee11]

This also happens on Disney property . Maybe Not to this extreme.
To many people, too weak if a system.

 

[bankr63]

Sounds like it may be getting worse. We were there mid-March and only lost service for about an hour one morning during the entire week. They did indicate on a phone message that it was a recurring problem that they were working on with the network provider. I did not notice an issue with my phone at the time, and indeed just hot spotted our other devices through my phone for the period it was out.

I do hope they get this fixed soon!

ETA: it does look like the problem has gotten worse. Looking at the TA reviews, nothing about it before about April 15 and then suddenly it's in every single review. I do hope that they get it fixed soon, as it is apparent from the reviews that it is seriously impacting on many people's vacation experiences. Funny, I remember a time when I went on holiday to get AWAY from computers and cell phones all day, but now I too would struggle with no service.

 

[Lilsia]

Sounds like Central Florida needs to up their wifi game. Maybe they need more towers.

 

[AnnaKristoff2013]

Sounds like it may be getting worse. We were there mid-March and only lost service for about an hour one morning during the entire week. They did indicate on a phone message that it was a recurring problem that they were working on with the network provider. I did not notice an issue with my phone at the time, and indeed just hot spotted our other devices through my phone for the period it was out.

I do hope they get this fixed soon!

ETA: it does look like the problem has gotten worse. Looking at the TA reviews, nothing about it before about April 15 and then suddenly it's in every single review. I do hope that they get it fixed soon, as it is apparent from the reviews that it is seriously impacting on many people's vacation experiences. Funny, I remember a time when I went on holiday to get AWAY from computers and cell phones all day, but now I too would struggle with no service.

Yeah, I really wouldn't have cared if it didn't also take cell service with it, as I'm not going on vacation to use the internet, but that killed it. You just can't do a Disney trip without any internet access. They need to get it figured out. Part of the problem might also be that they are a giant resort with completely unsecured network access. They should invest in a little bit of an upgrade and force people to log onto their network with their last name and room number. That might help a little. Or they could throttle it so that you can't stream videos, but can still use their service to access the disney apps, uber, lyft, etc. They need to do something.

 

[bankr63]

Yeah, I really wouldn't have cared if it didn't also take cell service with it, as I'm not going on vacation to use the internet, but that killed it. You just can't do a Disney trip without any internet access. They need to get it figured out. Part of the problem might also be that they are a giant resort with completely unsecured network access. They should invest in a little bit of an upgrade and force people to log onto their network with their last name and room number. That might help a little. Or they could throttle it so that you can't stream videos, but can still use their service to access the disney apps, uber, lyft, etc. They need to do something.

I don't think that adding the kind of login layer that hotels use is going to do much - it is no more secure as the networks are still open. The resort went from a broadband wi-fi system (antennas mounted outside the buildings) to what appears to be a mesh system of routers inside the units. The actual service appears to be MUCH better (faster) now with the change (when it's working), and interestingly, the new phone system now runs across this as well (IP Phones). Because it is a gated community, you can pretty much expect that anyone within the gates will have access to the network anyway (know their own name and room number), and with access points now inside the units, it is unlikely that you would get service outside the walls of the resort anymore - I doubt there is any problem with signal poachers.

Throttling service wouldn't please a lot of people either. They aren't there just for Disney; as an owner (who pays for the system every year) I want to be able to run what I want to run. The improvements seem to allow me to do this. If I need to join a Teams/Zoom/Meets video call for work I don't want to be throttled so that other guests can get their Genie on.

A couple of things that I do find interesting; when we were there and the system went down, the phones were still working at least internally (I didn't try to call outside the resort). Makes me think that the problem is actually with the service provider who provides the access. Considering that wireless internet seems to go down at the same time, and that the wireless provider services use the same networks after their towers for data, it may well be that the problem is actually outside of the resort with the major carrier in the area.

This all just a bit of educated guessing, I doubt Marriott would ever reveal the details of what the underlying issue is. We owners might revolt!

 

[AnnaKristoff2013]

Yeah, I mean obviously them fixing the issue would be the best option here. However I am not exaggerating when I say you will have absolutely no connectivity whatsoever on either your cell phone or on wifi. I read the TA reviews before going and thought “no big deal, it’s exaggerated.” It really wasn’t. You will not be able to do anything online whatsoever on your phone or on wifi when it goes down. It’s not a signal issue either, I had full bars and “LTE” indicated on my phone and could make calls with no problem. It was the data network becoming completely unresponsive.

Edit: rereading your post I guess I would be interested if people staying at the nearby resorts are having the same issues. I didn’t have to drive too far to be able to use the internet. It was a gas station approximately 2 miles away (the one on the way to Publix)

 

[Mrs~Incredible]

Any updates on this?

 

[MississippiMom]

To the OP -
I really appreciate the warning on this, because we NEED connectivity. We have three college daughters and two of them will need to log in to their summer classes. We picked one of the Palms, instead.

 

[AnnaKristoff2013]

Any updates on this?

I follow destination timeshare on youtube and he just did a video on this. It looks like it's still a huge problem and they are now sending pre-arrival emails warning people that they should basically book somewhere else if they want wifi. I can't imagine why they can't get this fixed... This is clearly going to effect bookings, and if I were an owner I would be absolutely furious:

 

[AnnaKristoff2013]

To the OP -
I really appreciate the warning on this, because we NEED connectivity. We have three college daughters and two of them will need to log in to their summer classes. We picked one of the Palms, instead.

Yeah, I'm really upset about this because I have additional trips here planned in June and over Christmas and I think I'm going to have to cancel them both. You just can't do a Disney trip with no wifi or cell service.

 

[AnnaKristoff2013]

To the OP -
I really appreciate the warning on this, because we NEED connectivity. We have three college daughters and two of them will need to log in to their summer classes. We picked one of the Palms, instead.

Can I ask where you're going instead? I'm not familiar with Palms and I think I'm going to need a replacement resort until they get this fixed.

 

[Mrs~Incredible]

Can I ask…. I was there in Nov. Wi-Fi has never been awesome there, but we managed with data. Is it worse than that?

I wonder if this has anything to do with 5G?

 

[AnnaKristoff2013]

Can I ask…. I was there in Nov. Wi-Fi has never been awesome there, but we managed with data. Is it worse than that?

I wonder if this has anything to do with 5G?

I was there over Christmas and the wifi was great. Then I was there in April and it was night and day. This isn’t a case of the wifi being slow or disconnecting a lot. Believe me when I say that when it goes down absolutely nothing works at all. You will not be able to do anything online and you will not be able to use your cellular data network for anything either. It’s not that it’s slow. It just stops working.

 

[leiaorgana]

Is this just at the Vistana Resort? Hopefully not the Vistana Villages too :/

 

[AnnaKristoff2013]

Is this just at the Vistana Resort? Hopefully not the Vistana Villages too :/

No idea about Villages but the cell data dead zone extends outward from Vistana Resort at least a mile. I’d guess the tower servicing that entire area goes down when the wifi network goes down.

 

[MississippiMom]

Can I ask where you're going instead? I'm not familiar with Palms and I think I'm going to need a replacement resort until they get this fixed.

We selected the Marriott Vacation Club property - Imperial Palms. They were running an “Elite Exclusive” rate that was hard for us to pass up, since my husband has Marriott Gold Elite status. By complete coincidence, we stayed at the MVC Sabal Palms back in 2014, and now we will be headed to a sister property. They are by the Marriott Orlando World Center.

 

[Mrs~Incredible]

I was there over Christmas and the wifi was great. Then I was there in April and it was night and day. This isn’t a case of the wifi being slow or disconnecting a lot. Believe me when I say that when it goes down absolutely nothing works at all. You will not be able to do anything online and you will not be able to use your cellular data network for anything either. It’s not that it’s slow. It just stops working.

How awful. Thanks for the heads up.

Did you find somewhere nearby to go when you needed to check your phones?

 

[AnnaKristoff2013]

How awful. Thanks for the heads up.

Did you find somewhere nearby to go when you needed to check your phones?

There was a gas station about 2 miles away that I drove to in order to get a cell signal. I made a left on 535, and a right onto Vineland (which is how you go if you’re going to Publix or Target), and then it was about a mile up on Vineland on the right, a little less than 2 miles from the resort. That was the closest point I could get a signal as I pulled over a few times before that point to try.

Edit: I should add, you can’t actually make the left on 535, what I actually did was make a right out of the resort, then a u-turn, then a right on Vineland. That was one night. One morning I was going to publix anyway to pick up our groceries (our first morning there), so I made our lGenie+ selection from the publix parking lot. I was lucky that I kind of remembered how to get to Publix from our last stay there since I couldn’t use gps or map software from Vistana, again because there was no cell service or wifi.

 

[Mrs~Incredible]

There was a gas station about 2 miles away that I drove to in order to get a cell signal. I made a left on 535, and a right onto Vineland (which is how you go if you’re going to Publix or Target), and then it was about a mile up on Vineland on the right, a little less than 2 miles from the resort. That was the closest point I could get a signal as I pulled over a few times before that point to try.

Edit: I should add, you can’t actually make the left on 535, what I actually did was make a right out of the resort, then a u-turn, then a right on Vineland. That was one night. One morning I was going to publix anyway to pick up our groceries (our first morning there), so I made our lGenie+ selection from the publix parking lot. I was lucky that I kind of remembered how to get to Publix from our last stay there since I couldn’t use gps or map software from Vistana, again because there was no cell service or wifi.

That is craaaaazy. And completely unacceptable. Thank you for the info.