londongal796

Since the thread is here and I've stayed at the property, may as well respond with my own experience

I stayed here as a 'Time Share Exchange' person so I did not stay earning points as a Holiday Inn customer, but coincidentally enough my husband and I looked at the property to book for a weeks stay prior to his father offering to let us use his time share points to go there. So in the end we got exactly what we wanted for a fraction of the cost!

We stayed in one of the 2-bedroom condo/villa's in the North Village and although we had a somewhat disastrous stay, at the same time it was a WONDERFUL stay.

The first day was the worst--we arrived 2 days earlier and stayed in another HI property til the time share was ready. Unfortunately I was terribly ill prior to leaving for the trip, and then my husband got sick shortly after we arrived. Our first two days were spent ill at the other HI property. We then transferred to the Orange Lake property and the check in seemed cheery though busy. They were passing around cold sodas and bags of fresh popcorn to children and adults alike. We passed on the popcorn as neither of us were feeling all that great still (my husband worse than me though). We got to the counter and the guy we were speaking to was super friendly, offering to tell us all sorts of things about the property. Then he asked if we'd attend the timeshare presentation. We said no. He harassed us asking again and again, offering us first $50 credit, then $50 cash, and THEN $100 cash (saying we had two different 'addresses' since my US drivers license has a different address than his UK one so we could each get $50). Still, we said no. He stopped talking to us, handed our keys over and bid us goodbye. We stood there frozen--we didn't even know where our villa was! He'd said he'd explain it all to us but we'd refused a stupid timeshare presentation so we'd been cut loose apparently. I demanded more information, was insulted for it, and given a very brusque response to all of my enquiries. Not a great start.

We arrived at the villa and it was GORGEOUS. To be fair, the decor is a bit garish but they were aiming for mediterranean and hit cheesy instead. We had a full kitchen (complete with FIESTA ware, my favorite dishware!), a huge sofa (which was a pull out sofa for 2 more if desired), the kitchen table could sit 10 easily, tv was a bit drab but worked. One bedroom had 2 queen-sized beds with a bathroom outside of the room with a stand-up shower and toilet/sink. The other bedroom had a king-sized bed with en-suite bathroom featuring a huge vanity sink, a larger stand-up shower, a tucked away toilet (in a side-room with a slider door) and a lovely gorgeous jacuzzi tub. Hurrah! As soon as I saw the jacuzzi tub I forgave all the troubles at check-in.

Unfortunately a large storm was due in that night and we sat in wonder watching the storm draw closer and closer from our view of the golf course (and massive WIFI tower, there was free WIFI broadcast throughout the whole property, amazing!). When the thunder and lightning got bad, so did the rain, and we could hear what sounded like a waterfall outside on our 'patio'. We peered outside and could see tons of water falling past the down spout and it looked like a river out there.

After the storm died down, we moved to get off the couch when my foot went SQUELCH. Uhoh. The water from the patio had leaked under the door and soaked the carpet in our living room area. It was just before 8pm and we both were not feeling great and were ready for bed. I called for help and was advised someone would be there shortly to fix things, not just to inspect (since I said we can't stay up all night as we'd been up since 5am and were very tired!).

Someone turned up at 9pm and said oh, we'll need to get the giant vacs and fans etc in. I'm going great, that should make for a peaceful slumber and take hours. He radioed to get these things and was abruptly told it would be hours before the equipment would be available for our villa. We were offered the option to change villas but since we'd already unpacked, even done a grocery shopping trip, we weren't keen to move. Foolishly we agreed to stay in the property while towels were gathered and put down to soak up as much of the water as possible.

What followed was 4 days of hassle trying to get the carpet dried then cleaned then freshened and a lovely lingering mold smell permeated the villa for the rest of our stay. Oh well.

The REST of the property was gorgeous. We had so much fun at the River Island pool area where there's a lazy river. Yes, it's a crime they charge so much to use an inner tube but my husband isn't a strong swimmer so he had loads of fun on his while I hitched rides whenever I could. While I was shopping for my wedding dress (pre-marriage) he was at the pool all day, getting enough sunburn to take him to hospital before we left the trip! WHOOPS!

We didn't explore much more of the facilities owing to other plans centering around Disney and my best friend who was there at the same time. We also were sick about 50% of the trip which was rotten luck.

However, overall we loved the property so much we've booked another 2 week stay next April/May. We're greatly looking forward to staying there again, this time in the East Village which should be almost identical to the North Village.

Thanks, sorry for the length but I'm terrible at being brief, I tend to only write books!

EDIT: I should add the following notes:
The facilities are fantastic, but the customer service is not always great. The check-in person was rubbish but the facilities people were very friendly with us (the people cleaning up etc). The contact over the phone was 'okay'--they were helpful whilst speaking to you but promised call-backs never came and no one did anything without being nudged.
We unplugged the phone as soon as we arrived to avoid being harassed some more regarding the timeshare presentation. We got lots of automated messages about the golf course--no idea why as neither of us are keen golfists. Ah well!
If you're going on holiday in Orlando, and not going there just to be pampered 24/7 with room service and massages etc, this is the place to go. The facilities were so nice and there were so many activities going on it seemed like a real winner. Other properties are so much more run down whereas these seemed fresh and recently renovated, though I believe the West Village is the oldest and due for refurbishment by now. The pool facilities alone far outreached any other potential hotel in the area--four different pool areas, each with a different theme. Compared to the other pool at the other HI property we stayed in, each of the four pool areas were 10x better than the other one!