My wonderful parents are RCI timeshare members and used their points to book a stay for the entire family of 14. Our stay was from 6-12 to 6-21-09. They booked 2 full units. Each unit has an "A" side and a "B" side. The units were across the hall from each other. My parents stayed in the A side with 2 of my nieces and DH, DS, DD and I stayed in the B side. Across the hall, one brother, wife and two kids were in A and other brother and my niece stayed in B.
The A side is bigger than the B and includes a king size bed, full stove, whirlpool tub. The B side has a queen bed, smaller kitchen w/no stove, and a standard tub/shower. Both units have microwaves, a pull out couch, balconies (A's bigger), 2 TVs, and dining table. The B side had a hot plate w/2 burners and a electric fry pan to make up for the lack of stove. You can do a search to find photos from other threads -I found them to be still accurate. There is also a floor plan on the website for Vacation Village. We were lucky enough to be in a building where each of the A & B units had a small washer/dryer unit in them. I understand that this is not the case for all of the building groups.
We were in building 12 which is in the Magnolia grp with bldgs 10 & 11. The buildings in this group and most others we saw are set out in a triange of the 3 bldgs, with the pool in the middle. Parking was good except late at night when a decent spot was hard to find. One night DH had to park at a different set of bldgs. The pool was well maintained. They have pool towels you can sign out and return with each trip, but I highly recommend bringing your own if you are driving. Sometimes the attendant isn't right there and the towels are small and thin. The bath towels in the room for showering are similar, so bring some large bath sheets from home if 4 scrawny towels won't do you for the week.
They have natural gas grills you can use along each cluster of bldgs. Grill tools can be checked out from the pool attendant. We did this one night when my mom cooked pork tenderloins -yummmmmy! Did I mention I love my mom??? When we arrived we went to Sam's Club, which is only around 5 miles or so to the east on Irlo Bronson. Its on the north side of the road. This was a huge money saver for breakfast foods, water and snacks. We supplemented with a trip to Publix for some stuff we didn't need in bulk.
The location of this property is EXCELLENT! Easy and quick to get to all Disney properties and SeaWorld. Our travel times to the TTC, DHS, Epcot and AK parking lots were all about 10 minutes or less. My brother took his older kids to the Universal properties and it was a bit more of a drive. There are two close by publix stores, Sam's, Walmart, Walgreens, etc. There are tons of standard restaurant chains too.
I would stay here again and highly recommend it. This was our first off property stay and we were kind of nervous about it. For large families or families with older kids, Vacation Village really works well. For short stays or families with younger kids, I'd still recommend staying on Disney property. While Disney does a good job of managing parking lots, its still a bit of a pain compared to jumping on the monorail with a cranky little one in the middle of the day.
If you plan to stay here I suggest bringing the bath and pool towels as mentioned earlier AND a nice non-stick pan. The pans provided aren't non-stick and believe me, stuff will stick!!! I also suggest picking which side of the building you prefer: pool side or non-pool side. The pool is open until 11 pm and is LOUD ALL DAY LONG! If you have little ones in need of afternoon naps or are someone that goes to bed early to hit the parks in the A.M., I really suggest getting a non-poolside room. I cannot empasize enough how loud the pool crowd is and it goes on until 11 when everyone is booted.
I've included everything I could think of. Any questions??
The A side is bigger than the B and includes a king size bed, full stove, whirlpool tub. The B side has a queen bed, smaller kitchen w/no stove, and a standard tub/shower. Both units have microwaves, a pull out couch, balconies (A's bigger), 2 TVs, and dining table. The B side had a hot plate w/2 burners and a electric fry pan to make up for the lack of stove. You can do a search to find photos from other threads -I found them to be still accurate. There is also a floor plan on the website for Vacation Village. We were lucky enough to be in a building where each of the A & B units had a small washer/dryer unit in them. I understand that this is not the case for all of the building groups.
We were in building 12 which is in the Magnolia grp with bldgs 10 & 11. The buildings in this group and most others we saw are set out in a triange of the 3 bldgs, with the pool in the middle. Parking was good except late at night when a decent spot was hard to find. One night DH had to park at a different set of bldgs. The pool was well maintained. They have pool towels you can sign out and return with each trip, but I highly recommend bringing your own if you are driving. Sometimes the attendant isn't right there and the towels are small and thin. The bath towels in the room for showering are similar, so bring some large bath sheets from home if 4 scrawny towels won't do you for the week.
They have natural gas grills you can use along each cluster of bldgs. Grill tools can be checked out from the pool attendant. We did this one night when my mom cooked pork tenderloins -yummmmmy! Did I mention I love my mom??? When we arrived we went to Sam's Club, which is only around 5 miles or so to the east on Irlo Bronson. Its on the north side of the road. This was a huge money saver for breakfast foods, water and snacks. We supplemented with a trip to Publix for some stuff we didn't need in bulk.
The location of this property is EXCELLENT! Easy and quick to get to all Disney properties and SeaWorld. Our travel times to the TTC, DHS, Epcot and AK parking lots were all about 10 minutes or less. My brother took his older kids to the Universal properties and it was a bit more of a drive. There are two close by publix stores, Sam's, Walmart, Walgreens, etc. There are tons of standard restaurant chains too.
I would stay here again and highly recommend it. This was our first off property stay and we were kind of nervous about it. For large families or families with older kids, Vacation Village really works well. For short stays or families with younger kids, I'd still recommend staying on Disney property. While Disney does a good job of managing parking lots, its still a bit of a pain compared to jumping on the monorail with a cranky little one in the middle of the day.
If you plan to stay here I suggest bringing the bath and pool towels as mentioned earlier AND a nice non-stick pan. The pans provided aren't non-stick and believe me, stuff will stick!!! I also suggest picking which side of the building you prefer: pool side or non-pool side. The pool is open until 11 pm and is LOUD ALL DAY LONG! If you have little ones in need of afternoon naps or are someone that goes to bed early to hit the parks in the A.M., I really suggest getting a non-poolside room. I cannot empasize enough how loud the pool crowd is and it goes on until 11 when everyone is booted.
I've included everything I could think of. Any questions??
You will absolutely need a car to get from the resort to Disney if your relatives won't be there with their car.
I'm so excited and its nice to go back to the same resort now that we know where everything is.
We will see if this happens! lol What do we need to request to make sure we get a unit with one?
Not pretty...
