Windsor Hills - We are here!

[malone13]

We are here and loving it! The resort is awesome. We are in building #7 4th floor parking lot view. We are so close to the pool! There is a back entrance - just walk to the back of the condo and follow the path to the gate enter your code walk a bit and there it is and boy is it nice.
I was told we would have to purchase a 10.00 card to enter the pool area well to our surprise they no longer do that. When you get your parking permit there is a code on it that you use to enter the pool or playground areas.
I was worried about the "new gate access" but we haven't had any issues. You just have to wait for the gate to close for the car in front of you and then you swipe your ticket and the gate opens. It does seem to be a bit of a pain when it's busy because there is always a guard there - you would think they could just check for permits but they don't.
We have been using Sherberth Rd. to get to the parks and it works great. We also found a short cut coming out of the condo - turn left onto Williams Sonoma and take it to 192 to turn left. It cuts out stopping at the light if you are turning left to get on to Sherberth .
The parks seem to be very busy. Not sure if it's busier than normal becuse we usually come in the fall. We were at Magic Kingdom Sunday for Mothers Day and it was packed! Same for Animal Kingdom yesterday. We left at 5:00 due to a bad storm.
Will give more info on the condo as I've had a few issues but nothing too bad.

 

[nyfinfan]

Sounds great! Thanks for sharing. We'll be at WH in August.

 

[cyndik1111]

The parks seem to be very busy. Not sure if it's busier than normal becuse we usually come in the fall. We were at Magic Kingdom Sunday for Mothers Day and it was packed! Same for Animal Kingdom yesterday. We left at 5:00 due to a bad storm.

Wow that is interesting. Both WDWeasy and Touringplans predicted around a 5 or 6 for those days.

 

[twooley2]

wow!! if its packed now I cant imagine how packed it will be in July. Glad you are having or have had a good time. Hopefully the issues you had were not enough to damper your trip.

 

[KinziePooh]

I'm glad to hear that you're enjoying Windsor Hills. My family is most likely going to be renting a condo there in December. If you have any pictures of the grounds, pool area or club house, I'd love to see them. Enjoy the rest of your trip!

 

[malone13]

the short cut is Morgan Williams - sorry When we took it today I slapped my forehead thinking what an idiot for posting the wrong street!
It rained again today but we still went to Epcot and MK and then back to Epcot. Turned out great for us as the parks weren't as busy because of the rain. We rode Snow White 3 times in a row!!!!

 

[rellinge]

Glad to hear you are enjoying Windsor Hills. We'll be there in August.

 

[daytondisney]

We are here and loving it!...Will give more info on the condo as I've had a few issues but nothing too bad.

Hi Malone - We were there in '09 and are planning a trip back for Jan '13. How is the overall level of maintenance of the grounds and common areas? I was researching a purchase near there and was surprised at how far property values had fallen, and how many foreclosure oppprtunities were available.

Are they keeping it up?

Thanks and have a great time.

 

[Anya22]

daytondisney:
We were there a couple weeks ago and everything I saw looked to be in excellent condition around the clubhouse and the grounds. I didn't notice anything that wasn't well kept.

 

[kittylady1972]

Great to read this! We are seriously considering a townhome rental there in a few weeks for our NON-Disney trip. We plan to do SeaWorld, Busch Gardens Tampa and Legoland instead.

Can you tell me if they have any activities on the grounds during the day or evening for kids? One of our favorite things about the Disney resorts has always been the endless entertainment and activities they have there, like at the pool and in the afternoons/evenings. Just wondering if WH has an "activity" schedule like that at all??

We rarely have to time to do the activities but it would be nice to have the option!

 

[lotus14]

Can you tell me how late the store at WH is open? Do they have enough groceries to have a simple breakfast (cereal, milk poptarts, etc)? We will be rolling in after 8pm and don't want to go to the grocery store but need breakfast before an early park morning. Thanks!

 

[malone13]

The grounds are in great shape! Very nice. There are no planned activities for kids. That would be great if they had them like the Disney resorts. I wonder if there is a suggestion box or manager to ask about this???? I will check or ask the condo owner. The "store" is open til 10pm not sure if they have breakfast food but they have some food in there. I can tell you a bottle of beer is 4.00 and an freezie pop is .30. There are alot of people here that don't go to Disney. I met a few families that are just here to relax or doing other parks. All in all I do prefer WH to staying on property at DW. We are just as close here as we are when we stay at AK.

 

[daytondisney]

The grounds are in great shape! Very nice. There are no planned activities for kids. That would be great if they had them like the Disney resorts. I wonder if there is a suggestion box or manager to ask about this???? I will check or ask the condo owner. The "store" is open til 10pm not sure if they have breakfast food but they have some food in there. I can tell you a bottle of beer is 4.00 and an freezie pop is .30. There are alot of people here that don't go to Disney. I met a few families that are just here to relax or doing other parks. All in all I do prefer WH to staying on property at DW. We are just as close here as we are when we stay at AK.

Thanks! Enjoy the rest of your trip.

 

[twinmommyks]

We will be staying there in a few weeks for the first time and are so excited. Glad to hear that you are enjoying it there.

 

[twooley2]

how much supplies or what supplies would you most recommend based on your stay?

 

[malone13]

Depending on how long you are staying. You will need toilet paper, paper towel, hand soap, dish soap all the basics for everyday life.
I forgot to bring beach towels but to my surprise Jennifer had a whole closet full of them!

 

[twooley2]

thanks for the info. Jennifer was so nice and sent us some more pics of the condo this weekend. I guess she was headed there for the weekend or this week.

 

[crusoe2]

how much supplies or what supplies would you most recommend based on your stay?

This will vary from one owner to another. I believe they are supposed to provide you with some starter supplies - a roll of paper towels in the kitchen, at least one roll of tp in each bathroom, maybe a few trash bags and some dish soap. We've stayed at WH a couple times now and - even renting thru the same group - there were some differences in regard to supplies that were provided. On another thread someone said this probably changes cause guests will leave behind things they don't want to haul home - laundry detergent and such. So you never know for sure what you may find already there. My advice would be to check in, take a look around and make a shopping list, and then pick up whatever you need when you go to buy groceries.

One other thing you might keep in mind - guests also sometimes take things when they leave or break items and don't report it to the owner. So sometimes units can be low on things like hangers, towels, dishes, and such. I've learned to check those out as well and - as long as it's inexpensive stuff - pick up anything we'll need to make our stay more comfortable. We have had one experience where we couldn't hang up nearly all our clothes, we had to wash towels and bathclothes several time to keep everyone supplied with clean ones, AND had to wash dishes more often than we'd anticipated. And there's only 4 of us. That ate up a lot of park time so lesson learned - just budget that into the trip, just in case.

 

[djm99]

Thanks for sharing. I'm looking forward to my July WH stay! Are you doing a trip report. I'd love to read it.

 

[malone13]

thanks for the info. Jennifer was so nice and sent us some more pics of the condo this weekend. I guess she was headed there for the weekend or this week.

Jenn is great! She saw that I posted on here and mentioned I had a few small "issues" she called right away to see if there was anything she could do! I have had a great experience with her from the very beginning. We will rent from her again in a heartbeat! I highly recommend Mickey's condo!

Yes! She said they would be there Friday thru Wednesday doing some maintenance.