Westgate Report

[live4christp1]

Just back from a wonderful week in Orlando and wanted to post our experience at Westgate for any of you who are curious. We got a great deal on a 2 bedroom with loft/sleeps 10, for a week on Redweek.com. We rented from an owner at $500 for the week. The owner made the ressies, etc. Check in was posted at 4:00, we arrived in Orlando just around 2:00 and went ahead and stopped by, got checked in but said to come back about 3:30 for our room, it wasn't ready yet. Went to grab lunch and came back, was told room still wasn't ready, waited there in the lobby about 10 minutes until they called our name and we were off to our room. The lady took us to our room, gave us a map, told us that as guests of an owner we had all the owner priveledges, etc. Told us about the maintenance meeting and scheduled us for Friday (we didn't go). The room was absolutely beautiful, lots of space, never heard the neighbors, it was great! We were in building VVA and the pool was just two buildings down.....this pool was great, seemed bigger than the main pool at the clubhouse. We went to the store and got food, took kids to the pool for a while, it was a little cool. On Saturday when we checked out I went to turn the keys in (didn't go to the maintenance meeting) guy at the desk took the keys and said your all done. No hassle about the time share at all, no one ever called and bothered us or anything. It was great and I would stay here again. Did want to mention that my mom and dad went up for the breakfast one morning, it was danish, coffee, and OJ. Dad went to the BBQ on Friday, it was hotdogs. All in all, this was a great place....some have mentioned about being pressured but bear in mind that if you do book through them with the agreement that you will go through their sales presentation, that is what their job is to do, sale their product, just like those pesky sales people in the department store who still follow you around after you have told them 3 times that you are just looking. This is a beautiful resort and the staff was friendly and helpful. Anything we needed arrived in a timely manner. Great location, only about 5 minutes from Disney. If anyone has any questions, I'll try to answer them.

 

[TNKBELL]

What is in the loft? I am thinking about staying here for an extra week in October.

 

[26555]

I'm always nervous about renting thru an owner. How did you go about ensuring everything was on the up and up? Thanks.

 

[gallaj0]

Which Westgate was it? I've stayed in Town Center and Villas, and loved both.

 

[live4christp1]

We were in Westgate Vacation Villas. The ten person loft is a two bedroom with a loft upstairs that is open to below, overlooks the kitchen, dining area. The masterbedroom has a king size bed, giant jacuzzi tub, and shower, with an entrance to the screened in patio. The second bedroom has two queen size beds and an adjoining bathroom with bath tub & shower. You have a kitchen with stove, microwave, toaster, dishwasher, fridge, washer, dryer. All your pans, dishes are there, coffee maker, blender. You have a table and four chairs and then a bar seating area with chairs. The living room has a sectional with a sofa sleeper. Upstairs you have two daybeds, twin size. My ds loved sleeping up here. He thought he was a king with a giant bath tub and an upstairs room. The loft also had it's own closet area, a chest of drawers with mirror, a TV with remote control, an end table with lamp. The patio is screened and had a table with 4 chairs and a lounge.

If you go to www.redweek.com you can find listings of owners who are renting out their week. It costs $10.00 to join and I'm not sure what it costs them to post. The web site has a listing of what to expect and how to ensure that you are dealing with someone who is on the up and up. Make sure they give you a confirmation number. I wouldn't give an owner my credit card information or anything. Your initial contact with the owner is through the redweek link and they then email you back. We sent the owner a money order, that way we had a printed receipt but we weren't giving up any confidential information. I would use this service again. Not very different than dealing with ebay.

 

[live4christp1]

Also, the villas are only two stories, so the most you may have to haul luggage is to the second floor.....if you pack like we do this can be a big issue!

 

[Kay7979]

Wow. That was a really great price. The owner's maintenance fees are way more than what you paid to stay there, so they lost money!