Orange Lake ResortRental Guest Reviews

good service clean room

clean room and excellent customer service and great lazy river

First time guests would repeat in a heartbeat.

A local friend is an owner and recommended this resort to us when I inquired where best to stay for best Florida experience. I loved that the property is a gated community with 24/7 security. I felt safe on property. The grounds are gorgeous. The staff seem to care about their role and were all generous and friendly. The rooms are wonderful and made our short stay feel like home. The price point was excellent for what amenities you got. Resort services was very quick to respond to our needs. We did not attend the time share program, as another guest said the 90 minute presentation took them more than 2 hours and so I did not investigate ownership options, since they did not offer any presentations before 8 a.m. I can't wait until we save up enough to come again. Well organized stay, VERY close to Disney, and helpful staff made this dream vacation a reality for us.

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

This is the frist time that I stayed at any of the Holiday Inn Club Resorts and the fact it was a Holiday Inn, I was expecting the worse. I have stayed at a few Holiday Inn hotels over the past years and usually it is a hit or miss with regards to the conditions of the hotel and rooms. However, I was suprisingly pleased with this1450-acre resort as the grounds were well maintained and the swimming pools and golf courses were very nice. I will give the management of this property top kudos for staying on top to keep this resort looking nice. Now that is "The Good." "The Bad" was the condition of the condos. I actually had two 2-bdrm condos in the same 5-story building. While the condos were clean (except for the windows), the furniture and appliances were cheap. The dinning table was a piece of loose glass laying on top of a cheap piece of wood that probably cost about $50. The couch, coffe table, TV tables, dressers were all old and cheap. While they had flat sceen tvs in both bedrooms and living rooms, they were all small sizes. Ok for the bdrms but the one in the living room should be larger than 22 inches. The beds were comfortable. The conditions of the furniture seem to be standard for this building, maybe for most of the resort, since they were the same for both 2 bdrm condos we stayed in. The screen porch was very nice but it would be good if we had the ability to turn off the inside light as we had no control of this and the light shined into one of the bdrms. "The Ugly" was the time share presentation. As you check in the front desk of the resort you are forced to meet with a time share person. They are two representatives waiting for you after you get your keys to the condos and they somewhat force you to walk with them to meet with a time share representative to offer you some "goodies" if you set up a time for a time share presentation. They tell you it will only last 90 minutes and they charge you $30 on your bill in case you skip the presentation. Our presentation took 3 hours even though I told them I was not interested since one of the condos I was staying in was a time share given to us our Aunt and Uncle. The first representative spent about 2 1/4 hours with us trying to convince us of the benefits. While there may be some for those who want a time share, my wife and I told her several times we were not interested in purchasing any at this time. Next came her manager who was pleasant at the begining but became very short with us when we said no. Next came the 3rd representiave who had the ticket for the "goodies" and who also tried to sell us a time share as well as the ability to rent at Holiday Inn resorts instead of purchasing a time share. When we asked him whether there were any front-end costs to renting and when he said yes, we said no thank you. He became very rude and basically threw the ticket across the table to us. Our take away from this is it is not worth waisting 3 hours of your time to get the use of the put-put golf courses, which were not very good, and an inner tube for the lazy river that has no current. The listed value for the use of these two items plus the ability to use this "hippo" slide was $57 for the week. We received three of these passes and ended up only using one of them. Notwithstanding the hassel we went through to get the passes and then only using one of them, the lazy river and other pools in the resort were very nice. One more note about the time share presentation. They take you to see a 2 bdrom condo in the newest building. As one would expect, this unit was very nice with very nice furniture and other furnishings. However, this is just one unit in one building. My guess would be that nearly all of the units in this resort are more like the two we stayed in. Would I stay here again. Yes, if the price was right.

Comfy and friendly

We were very happy with our experience there, it was out third time staying. I am however unhappy that I had to call to get the supplies, such as toilet paper, that were suppose to be in our room when we arrived. Also, we were promised a check in of noon and the room was not ready until 4:15 which is 15 minutes later then check in. other then that we loved everything!!!!!

Won't stay here again

I usually stay at full service Holiday Inns, or even Express locations. While in the area on business and pleasure combined, my wife and I stayed here. So many disappointments during the visit. Upgraded to include breakfast each day, but it's not onsite you have to drive a mile or so away to get there and the hours didn't match my schedule so I ended up wasting the tickets and eating somewhere else anyway. The alarm clock in the room didn't work, there was no coffee for the coffee maker, no service for the room, and the rooms were very loud. People on vacationing or golfing may find the resort acceptable, but I was actually glad to leave.

Overall Unit Info

A couple notes: with the exception of a few cockroaches inside the unit it was okay and lack of toilet paper...1 roll for each of 3 bathrooms for 8 people.."buy your own at the market store"...and an oven that took 45 minutes to PREHEAT ...the rest was just fine. We are getting used to washing our own linens even tho at our main timeshare unit in Cabo they take care of everything daily. We had a 3 bedroom unit...plenty of space for everyone. Great driving proximity to Disney Theme Parks--under 10 minutes. Although, No shuttle service "Mears will transport for $20 per day per person".

Nice ambiance

Not able to use all the amenities as we only stayed for 1 night. It was an ok stay, no recognition of IHG rewards. Nothing special. Check in was ok. Room was clean but there was one bug crawling in the sink of the master bedroom. Request for a late check out was declined.

Great Vacation

We loved the Florida trip; we took the car train from Lorton Virginia to Sanford, Florida and drove the rest of the way to the resort. We really couldn't believe the place when we got there. It was like a story book world. We couldn't believe all the Hotel style living quarters and all the separate units in the resort. We were at the Lazy River Part of the resort. Her and I couldn't believe the quarters when we went in. Living room, kitchen-dining room combined. Large King sized bed. If we didn't want to eat out; we could make our own meals in the kitchen. Everything you needed was supplied with the quarters. While we were there, we watched them set up the climbing wall from our balcony. While here we went to Walt Disney World, Universal Studios, Gator Land. It is so beautiful there. The landscaping and flowers, shrubs, golf courses are so well kept you couldn't believe it. Then when we took the tour everything was explained to us very politely and very detailed manor that anyone could understand. We were so impressed with the resort and the way it was presented to us that we didn't think twice about investing in a membership. When we can't use it no more our familys will get use out of it. Besides we get to go almost anywhere on vacation where you have hotels or resorts. We couldn't of done this before and now we can.

Dirty Stinky Room

Room smelled so bad at check in wife went and bought a room deodorizer. I would have normally walked out and complained but wife is not that way and never wants to complain. Remote was missing. Appliances and Furniture are outdated. Maybe 1980's? The resort is going through a remodel but I would have stayed somewhere else until the remodel is complete. Employees were very nice. Timeshare sell is hard.

Family Celebration

We thoroughly enjoyed our week at Orange Lake Resort. The resort came highly recommended and we were very pleased. The property is beautifully landscaped and our three-bedroom, three-bath unit was spacious and nicely decorated. It accommodated our family very well. Having a supermarket nearby was very convenient. We will probably return for a more leisurely stay when we can enjoy more of the amenities. This trip was more about the Theme Parks -- the easy commute to both Disney and Universal was great. We cannot say enough good things about our week at Orange Lake Resort!