Staying offsite/house rental?

We stayed in Windsor Hills a year ago (rented through homeaway), but I’ll admit we weren’t totally happy with it. I’m not saying it was bad, but just probably one of our least favorite places we’ve stayed. The drive was particularly bad. It usually took us about 20 minutes to get to Disney property, despite being so close, because the only real way to get there has you hitting a traffic bottleneck.

Having said that, we managed to get a really great deal, so the issues we had we overlooked.

But this does lead me to a follow up to my previous post. Most of these rentals are privately owned, and often managed by a management company on behalf of the owner. So in the very same community, the quality of the rental could be vastly different. I think our experience with Windsor Hills is a good example of that, because there are other condos in the same community that are maintained much better.

Oh, yes. This is true. Make sure you ask if you aren’t sure. And check about pool heat. MOST rentals will have a separate charge for pool heat…which becomes necessary at certain times of the year. The house rental we have for next May is providing (at no additional cost) heat for the hot tub only. But if we want the pool heated, we have to pay for it separately.

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Thank you for sharing this! Windsor Hills sounds as though it is not the jewel it was? I last stayed there in 2007 and have not been back. They’ve expanded their water park and the properties still command a high price point.

When we were there, they were in the process of expanding the water park, so it was actually closed for our visit. I don’t know if we would have used it or not, either way. We did use some of the recreation facility, like playing pool and video games.

For us, the problem was more the overall run-down feeling it had. And it might have been isolated to our unit. When we arrived, it had a very strong smell of bug spray, and in one of the bedrooms, when my son turned on the ceiling fan, dust bunnies and dead bugs fell onto the bed. In addition, we did find a small (living) spider in his room. (We eventually noticed that one of the windows had been left cracked open, either to vent the fumes of the bug spray, or just accidentally.)

Also, despite the unit having been advertised as ideal for young children (they had a stroller and Pack and Play available), they had the wires for the TV and cable just dangling from the walls.

We also noticed about 3 or 4 feral cats around the property. They weren’t a bother, but just added to the feeling.

Of course, this makes it sound worse than it was. Once we re-vacuumed the bedroom my son was in and re-washed the blankets, the rest of the time was fine. But it just was something we’ve never had to do at any prior rental property.

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Hi Ryan, so we’re coming from that direction, but even further from Winter Haven (but hey, you get loaned a free villa, what can you do…).

How did you find the traffic, and any specific tips for driving, or for the area in general?

Traffic was actually rather relaxing compared to some of the properties we’ve stayed at closer to Disney (Windsor Hills, Orange Lake, Floridays Resort, etc.). So, the 30 minute drive from Haines City was actually much nicer than the 20 minute drive from Windsor Hills in that regard. It was also nice, because we had an Aldi (our preferred grocery story) about a mile or so down the road.

From the looks of it, Winter Haven will be a little further, but I expect traffic will likely be similar. Just follow Google and you should be good to go!

Oh. And since you are from the UK, here is my biggest tip: Stay on the RIGHT side of the road. :wink:

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You’re scaring me. We’ve rented in Windsor Hills for this upcoming trip. We’ve stayed in Sunset Ridge, by hwy 27 before that. We decided to try closer, as we were tired of the hwy 4 traffic back to the 27 at rush hour. Have we made a mistake?

Don’t be scared. It was fine. Just busy traffic that backs up at the intersection of Old Lake Wilson Road turning onto 192. Some days it took 5 or 6 minutes at that light.

We aren’t sorry we stayed there. I’d just prefer other options in the future.

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Oh yeah. I bet most people staying in that area are going to WDW. That makes sense. Did you find any particular time of day was better or worse?

Just wanted to say I hope your wife is doing well in her recovery. Here’s hoping you can take that trip in the not too distant future.

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Well, we left in time to get the parks for opening. It was busy then. Coming back, it wasn’t such a big deal. It was always turning onto 192

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It’s usually just two of us and sometimes our daughter. We’ve stayed at Grande Villas several times via VRBO.com but also Priceline, surprisingly, which was cheaper and also let you stay a single night rather than the standard 2 night min on VRBO. We’ve stayed in the one and 2 bdrm suites. They both come with sofa sleepers. They we’re both great.

I suggest you also look at condo style villas in off-site resorts near WDW. You pay by the day and you usually get daily housekeeping.

I’ve cut and pasted info at the place my family stayed at last year from another post below.