Sheraton Vistana Villages reviews
6752 TripAdvisor reviews
Need to know where to stay
C F on Mar 19, 2024
This isn't a bad resort. It has 3 very nice pools, free parking, and it's close to everything Orlando and the surrounding area has to offer. I am a vistana owner at this resort, and this is the second time I have stayed here. The first time was in the Key West section which was fairly new, very clean and quiet. This recent stay, we were in the St Augustine section. It wasn't terrible, but it was definitely older and in need of an upgrade compared to Key West. Furnishings are old and have evidence of many spills and wear and tear. The room was also not very clean when we checked in, and it was definately louder in this area. Although it was not as nice as our 1st stay, it didn't ruin our vacation and it was fine for what our needs were at this time. The pool in St. Augustine is geared towards kids. It has a large pirate ship and I believe water slides as well. We went to the other pools and let the kids have all the fun at this pool. The resort looks huge on a map, but it is very easy to walk from one pool to the another in only a couple of minutes. It seems that the key to a good stay here is doing your research before hand. Try to book the room type in the resort section (or "village") that is best for you. If you are booking through the vistana site, then it is clearly stated what village and room type it is that you are reserving. If you are booking through the hotel website, then I don't know if you have as much information available. The one concern that I have about where this resort is located, is that it is very difficult to make a left hand turn out of the resort and on to international drive. It is basically like trying to turn onto a 4 lane highway full of speeding cars. There are no traffic lights or stop signs at this resort's entrance/exit. The cars also back up in the left turn lane, because it can take a long time to find an opening to turn without getting into a car accident. My tip is that if you need to turn left, instead turn right and then make a U-turn at one of the designated areas, although that can be a bit dangerous as well. The resorts in the area really should push the city to install some traffic lights at this end of International drive. Some resorts have traffic lights and some, like this one, do not.
Highly Recommended, Clean, Friendly Resort (3 generations recommended, we travel often)
Bagwilltravel55 (Toronto, Canada) on Mar 14, 2024
Excellent experience during March Break Week, 2024. We have a 3-bedroom unit (2-bedroom, plus a connecting 1-bedroom unit). The units are very clean, full kitchen plus a kitchenette, barbecue grills located throughout the property, scheduled activities throughout the day and early eve, St Augustine pool is warm for the kids, and friendly helpful staff. The electrical outlets in the bathroom weren’t working when we arrived on late Saturday afternoon. Juan King from Engineering fixed them within 20 minutes. The dishwasher needed a part replaced and Joshua Torres from Engineering fixed it right away and then returned an hour later to ensure that it was working okay. Both Engineers were professional, and helpful. The unit has new pans and toaster, blender, lots of towels, and other equipment mentioned by others. We saw that they were putting new mattresses in some units. The property is well maintained. Various sports depending on ages of users, e.g., basketball, sand volleyball, shuffleboard, pool tables, ping pong, etc. Poolside nachos were good, as were the drinks. Need to bring own metal tongs and spatula if using barbecue. Basket style coffee maker, plenty of filters provided. Highly recommended, fun and friendly place to stay.
Would not recommend
E6034TKdonnar (Keyport, New Jersey) on Mar 12, 2024
I haven't been here in years as we have traded our timeshares for other locations. We wanted to go to Disney and this location is about 15 minutes away. We had two units a one bedroom and a two bedroom. Both rooms were not ready at 4pm check in. Their check in procedure is the worst property I've ever seen. They tell you the room isn't ready after you waited 45 minutes in line and then say they are going to text you when it is. They didn't. The line for check in was out the door. Manager makes an announcement he is coming out to give out keys and never returns. So we waited in line again, rooms not ready and waited more. I still can't believe how owners and guests were treated. We finally get into the rooms. Day 2 we had issues, the two bedroom had stains on the comforter, clogged shower drain, broken dishwasher and dryer wasn't working. I called the front desk at 9:30 pm and told a girl named Josie, said we are exhausted so can you send someone in the morning after 9 AM to fix the problems as we will be gone at that time. Josie never put the message into engineering for the next day. At 11:30 pm we heard someone in our unit and freaked out. A man had entered, opened the door because we didn't answer and entered our unit. Do not disturb was ignored. We were all woman and started screaming. Never got back to sleep that night and we lost a day of vacation. I called the front desk and was told Josie never properly entered the service call correctly. Apparently a do not disturb doesn't mean much here. We kept it on our unit and they entered again leaving a note to call management about our situation. So we did was kept on hold 20 minutes for them to find a manager. Spoke to Chad who had no follow through as I had to keep calling him back. They gave us $150 to spend in food and 40,000 points to spend in a hotel. Wow thanks Sheraton Vistana Villages, so generous after causing us so much anxiety. Shame on management. I would never recommend this place. Management is awful. Never have I ever experienced such disrespect at a Vistana property.
No housekeeping, poor communication amongst staff, and incompetent management.
Bob R (Lancaster, Pennsylvania) on Mar 11, 2024
Our family of 4 stayed in a two bedroom suite for 8 nights -- checked in on a Saturday and checked out Sunday the following weekend. Our stay was centered around spending every day at the Disney parks; usually between 9am and about 9pm we were not in the room. The place was nice -- 4th floor with a view of one of the ponds. We were a short walk from the main pool, reception, and restaurant. I appreciated that we were not right in the middle of the resort where it would've been noisier. One small detail I really liked was that the resort did have a couple of EV charging stations -- free to use. We rented an EV for this trip and I didn't have to go anywhere else to recharge. There was one person really hogging one of the chargers, but whatever -- I managed to return our vehicle nearly fully charged without having to leave the resort. Where we ran into a problem at this resort was with housekeeping and guest services, as well as management. As part of the package we purchased, housekeeping services were to be provided every other day during our stay -- Monday, Wednesday, then Friday -- we had received no housekeeping at all until our very last night (Saturday) after returning from being out all day and having to complain to the front desk. That's 8 days without fresh linens, and a cleaning. To be clear, housekeeping showed up on Monday morning and I turned them away since we had only been there for about a day and a half. I only requested new batteries for the TV remote -- those didn't show up until late in the week after calling guest services and complaining. Wednesday, nobody showed up at all. Friday, somebody knocked early and I told them to come back in 20 minutes -- they never did. At this point we were basically out of fresh towels, had no more trash bags for the kitchen, and really needed a fresh set of linens. After returning to the resort late Friday night and finding that nobody had replenished the towels, changed the linens, or cleaned the room, I called the front desk. I got a lot of excuses about why housekeeping didn't show up and was told they'd at least have some fresh towels and trash bags for the kitchen sent out. 45 minutes later, maintenance guy shows up -- he asks if we were locked out of the room. No towels, no trash bags. At this point, I had to walk to the reception area. The guy I spoke with there was friendly, had the fresh towels, trash bags, and batteries sent to the room, and assured us that housekeeping would be there on Saturday. He informed us that if we wanted to speak with a manager, somebody would be in the following morning. Saturday morning, I go in and speak to the manager -- assistant director of something. I had to explain once again the problem we've had with housekeeping -- apparently the people I spoke with the previous night had left no record of it for her. She was very apologetic, credited us back a small amount, assured us housekeeping would be cleaning our place that day while we were out. Off to Disney Springs we go. Would you like to take a guess at the state of the room upon returning Saturday evening? That's right -- still as we left it that morning. No housekeeping. At this point, my wife and I were just beyond frustrated. We had planned to cook a meal in the room for our last night, but those hopes were dashed because I had to spend the next hour dealing with guest services, waiting around for the housekeeping manager, and having to express my disappointment to a guest services "leader" who tried very hard to not speak with me at all. Yes, I had to explain the entire situation for a third and fourth time Saturday night and then had to vacate the room while it was being cleaned. Finally, a clean room. I had to sacrifice a couple of hours, a pound of salmon, a bag of green beans, some brown rice, and then spend about $100 to eat at the resort restaurant by the pool. But hey, at least the room was clean for our very last night there after an 8 day stay. I was going to leave this at a 2/5 rating since the resort itself is fine, had no real issues with any of the amenities, other staff, or the room. However, having to write this review and sort of relive the frustration at the end our vacation, brought on by the surprisingly consistent incompetence of guest services, management, and housekeeping I'm just going with 1 out of 5. We should have just booked at a Disney resort, which is exactly what we'll do next year.
Terrible customer service given the run around for two months
Joe M on Mar 10, 2024
Room invested with roaches that were on our food, dirty dishes in the sink , in the kitchen cabinets After advising hotel been passed around to 3 different managers and no one ever responded to resolve the issues caused by the bugs which also were near our luggage