omniscientmommy
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 12, 2018
We just got back from our trip and I wanted to do the review while the trip is fresh in my mind.
1st off we rented from Vacation Central Florida and paid with PayPal. I did receive a rental agreement and codes and information were provided. Also I paid the owners directly not the vacation rental company. We had a hiccup with the rental company charging my credit card but I got that cleared up right away. Also my deposit was fully refundable up until 60 day before minus applicable fees. That was very ambiguous but we went with it. The deposit was $250. Total had to be paid in full 30 days prior to the stay. Once the balance was paid we received door code, rental voucher, rules and policies, and directions.
We arrived 2 1/2 hrs later then planned due to delays. The directions were not applicable because they had road closures, thank you Google Maps. The tolls! I tried to use the PayTollo app. It is not very user friendly. I would suggest signing up for a pay by plate if possible with the SunPass people. The app only worked half the time and now I have to wait until Monday at 8am to call and clear up the unpaid tolls. Otherwise bring lots of quarters! I would say at least $5 to be on the safe side. If travelling more by car bring more!
Once we arrived, 1:30 am, the guard at the gate was friendly and we showed the voucher and ID and got inside. The complex was hard to navigate in the dark because you can't really see the building numbers, we were staying in a condo. Finally we managed to figure it out. The code worked fine and we set our stuff down and went to sleep.
The following day we made a trip to Walmart, literally down the road, for food and toiletries. There was only a few pumps of hand soap in 1 of the 2 bathrooms. A very small amount of dish soap, a decent amount of dishwasher tabs, and no laundry soap or dryer sheets at all. Also no body wash/soap or shampoo or conditioner - this I expected so it wasn't a big deal. Basically it was a bring your own everything but for like $75/night what can you expect.
The condo had plenty of space and the furniture was decent not great. The beds were horrible to sleep in. My husband and I slept like crap every night we were there, even with a good chunk of time spent at waterparks and parks. This was by no means updated in the last 10-15 years. The carpet was coming up from the threshold in 1 of the bedrooms and it had that dirt stain all around the outside edges. Also you can see where they have caulked over in areas around the tub, shower, and sinks in both bathrooms where they probably are starting to have mold issues.
Extra sheets/blakents/pillows and some other baby stuff was available to use. We didn't need it because our kids are older. We did use the kitchen pots/pans/dishes provided which was helpful. My husband wished they had a desk because he brought his laptop because he needed to do work. Buy bottled water for cooking and drinking. Water in Florida is terrible! We couldn't see any fireworks from our unit but could hear them.
Remember that sound in condos travel. We could hear kids running down the hallways or people above us moving around. Not a big deal but to some people it would bother them. Also the last night there we had food delivered to the room via UberEats, other then giving a little more detailed instructions and calling the guardhouse to let them know about the delivery people it was easy.
The pool/splash pad/water park area was nice and they kids enjoyed going there. Wish we had brought pool toys. There aren't any maps in the welcome pamphlet so we had to search online for the playground and other areas but didn't go to the playground or tennis courts at all. We did go into the game room and checked it out but really didn't spend time there. I checked out the market/grill area and found that it smelled like old fryer oil and decided to not eat anything from there. Also it was higher priced and with Walmart 2 min away it didn't make sense to buy anything from there. I did have to print out some paperwork and they charge 75 cents a page, overpriced but what do you expect. I knew it would be. You have to sign in to your email to print anything - created a temp email and then deleted it after I printed what I needed.
Check out - absolutely no instructions other then be out by 10am and take out your trash. We didn't know how clean we had to leave it or anything. So we left it in almost the same condition as we found it. I washed all the towels and stuff, made the beds, swept/vacuumed, and wiped everything down. There wasn't any cleaning agents so a sponge and dish soap is what we did. We met some people who just packed their car up and then hung out by the pool until they needed to leave.
The community itself is a 10 min drive to WDW and that's great. If you're going to be going to Universal or downtown Orlando more than Disney I would stay somewhere else. I will definitely stay in the community again but rent from someone else/different rental company.
1st off we rented from Vacation Central Florida and paid with PayPal. I did receive a rental agreement and codes and information were provided. Also I paid the owners directly not the vacation rental company. We had a hiccup with the rental company charging my credit card but I got that cleared up right away. Also my deposit was fully refundable up until 60 day before minus applicable fees. That was very ambiguous but we went with it. The deposit was $250. Total had to be paid in full 30 days prior to the stay. Once the balance was paid we received door code, rental voucher, rules and policies, and directions.
We arrived 2 1/2 hrs later then planned due to delays. The directions were not applicable because they had road closures, thank you Google Maps. The tolls! I tried to use the PayTollo app. It is not very user friendly. I would suggest signing up for a pay by plate if possible with the SunPass people. The app only worked half the time and now I have to wait until Monday at 8am to call and clear up the unpaid tolls. Otherwise bring lots of quarters! I would say at least $5 to be on the safe side. If travelling more by car bring more!
Once we arrived, 1:30 am, the guard at the gate was friendly and we showed the voucher and ID and got inside. The complex was hard to navigate in the dark because you can't really see the building numbers, we were staying in a condo. Finally we managed to figure it out. The code worked fine and we set our stuff down and went to sleep.
The following day we made a trip to Walmart, literally down the road, for food and toiletries. There was only a few pumps of hand soap in 1 of the 2 bathrooms. A very small amount of dish soap, a decent amount of dishwasher tabs, and no laundry soap or dryer sheets at all. Also no body wash/soap or shampoo or conditioner - this I expected so it wasn't a big deal. Basically it was a bring your own everything but for like $75/night what can you expect.
The condo had plenty of space and the furniture was decent not great. The beds were horrible to sleep in. My husband and I slept like crap every night we were there, even with a good chunk of time spent at waterparks and parks. This was by no means updated in the last 10-15 years. The carpet was coming up from the threshold in 1 of the bedrooms and it had that dirt stain all around the outside edges. Also you can see where they have caulked over in areas around the tub, shower, and sinks in both bathrooms where they probably are starting to have mold issues.
Extra sheets/blakents/pillows and some other baby stuff was available to use. We didn't need it because our kids are older. We did use the kitchen pots/pans/dishes provided which was helpful. My husband wished they had a desk because he brought his laptop because he needed to do work. Buy bottled water for cooking and drinking. Water in Florida is terrible! We couldn't see any fireworks from our unit but could hear them.
Remember that sound in condos travel. We could hear kids running down the hallways or people above us moving around. Not a big deal but to some people it would bother them. Also the last night there we had food delivered to the room via UberEats, other then giving a little more detailed instructions and calling the guardhouse to let them know about the delivery people it was easy.
The pool/splash pad/water park area was nice and they kids enjoyed going there. Wish we had brought pool toys. There aren't any maps in the welcome pamphlet so we had to search online for the playground and other areas but didn't go to the playground or tennis courts at all. We did go into the game room and checked it out but really didn't spend time there. I checked out the market/grill area and found that it smelled like old fryer oil and decided to not eat anything from there. Also it was higher priced and with Walmart 2 min away it didn't make sense to buy anything from there. I did have to print out some paperwork and they charge 75 cents a page, overpriced but what do you expect. I knew it would be. You have to sign in to your email to print anything - created a temp email and then deleted it after I printed what I needed.
Check out - absolutely no instructions other then be out by 10am and take out your trash. We didn't know how clean we had to leave it or anything. So we left it in almost the same condition as we found it. I washed all the towels and stuff, made the beds, swept/vacuumed, and wiped everything down. There wasn't any cleaning agents so a sponge and dish soap is what we did. We met some people who just packed their car up and then hung out by the pool until they needed to leave.
The community itself is a 10 min drive to WDW and that's great. If you're going to be going to Universal or downtown Orlando more than Disney I would stay somewhere else. I will definitely stay in the community again but rent from someone else/different rental company.
