Westgate Lakes Resort & Spa

I had the opportunity to book another extended stay at Westgate again this year. Like many establishments in the tourist industry, Westgate is no exception to the impact of COVID. Fortunately, they have not compromised on Customer Service and an outstanding team of employees. When I first checked in, more than half of the buildings were shut down and on any given day half of the pools are closed. It ended up being a bit of a guessing game as to which pool of the day would be open. Construction is almost completed on the water park which should be up and running by the end of the month. With that opening I am guessing the facility will attract more families. Not sure how that will impact the over 60 crowd once they start travelling again. Perhaps Westgate will want to consider in the future designating buildings for Snow Birds vs. those with children. The clientele is a little bit rough around the edges. Music would often be blasting from individual patios or cars. Occasionally there would be fights among families or guests poolside and security would have to be called. It was not unusual to see paramedics on site at least once a week and one night my building was actually surrounded by 7 police cars while an active investigation was underway. It was apparent that security was doing their best to monitor activity but it was a challenge. The Villas are quite nice and spacious. They do allow pets and hopefully in the future they will install pet waste stations on the grounds to encourage people to clean up after their pet. You had to be careful for "deposits" being left in the stair wells or on the grounds. With COVID there is no housekeeping service but they will deliver whatever is needed to your room within minutes and are very gracious about it. Additional COVID precautions were apparent in the Fitness Center. The team there did an OUTSTANDING job of monitoring the health of visitors, social distancing, wearing of masks, disinfecting of equipment, etc. I always felt confident that actions were being taken to insure the guest's safety. Westgate Lakes continues to be a great location near the theme parks and right off of the interstate. There is a Target and Walmart within 5 minutes as well as a Dollar Store and an Aldi opening soon. I would definitely consider returning and would be curious to see how the water park impacts the facility.

Where do I begin I checked in on Monday there were no towels in the room the air conditioning was not functioning the bed had hair from a female. The white comforter was stained I went to close the air conditioner vent because it was cold in the room after I got the ac to work and I found mold on the went this is very unacceptable I’m not happy with my stay I won’t be coming back here for a long time unless things change I take this trip alone to get away from the cold weather up north this is very unacceptable and not tolerated the mold in the room it’s very unacceptable even if I’m not an owner of a villa I still shouldn’t have to deal with these kind of things

We swapped our timeshare through Interval International and let our friends use it the week of Feb 19-26, 2021. I was a little surprised to receive a "how was your stay" email in what should have been the middle of their stay. When I texted our friends to see how their stay was going, this is what they told me: "I just got your email about the Westgate lake stay. The room was pretty bad. We didn’t want to bother you and we felt so bad you’ve been so generous but we had to leave. There were roaches in the room and wet cat urine in the carpet. We tried to talk to the manager but he said there was nothing he could do so we just left. Even the cleaning lady said that they had been very busy and didn’t have time to clean. There was also trash under the bed. We went to the manager but ultimately couldn’t take the cat urine odor for another day and the roaches were just hanging out in the living room in plain sight. He said there was nothing he could do so we left. The next day someone called us and said they could have sent an exterminator but that was just crazy." This is clearly unacceptable and embarrassing. I strongly recommend against staying at this hotel.

We traded our timeshare week for here and had a big 2 bedroom, 2 bath condo that sat directly on the lake which was wonderful views out of our bedroom window and the living room window. It looked like you were on a ship when you looked out. The walls were thin but luckily on the 5th floor there is not as much noise as would have been on the lower floors. The place needed updating. The shower had a few stains and the dishwasher was rusting. The tiles in the guest bath were loose. The resort did offer a "tour" which we knew not to take b/c of the high pressure sales you get on those. They had average pools- 7 I think. There were daily activities as well. We didn't visit the pools or activities b/c we just were there to go to parks and enjoy Orlando. They had one shop we went to one night which had groceries and souvenirs. Overall I would go back, but make sure you are on a high floor and the 1700 building sat on the lake. I didn't take note of the others that do. I think that would be a must for me in the future.

I visited WGR in Kissimmee, Florida for my son’s 8th bday. Wasn’t my first time and having been pressured the year before into buying a vacation packet, I figured it would be a great way to take our minds off the looming pandemic and have a little fun. As usual, the bedrooms were above average in cleanliness (besides the horrible staining on the newly renovated floor from carpet removal) and spacious, but that was about as far as the luxuries went. The resort itself is fading, and half the pools are shut down for renovations leading to over-crowding of what remained. After paying nearly 3k into 3 adjoining suites (again, the only high point) I had thought I’d successfully avoided the high pressures, pushy, horribly invasive timeshare presentation, but man was I wrong! I received a call on my second night there. To be clear, I did NOT sign up for a discount rate in exchange for sitting through a presentation. I tried to get out of it, but I was told they had money they needed to release to me, so I begrudgingly went. WRONG MOVE!!! I was forced to sit through an intense, misleading, downright falsified 2+ hour pitch, where the sales person created a false sense of urgency to buy, laced with lie after lie. Eventually, I was compelled to buy something, despite all my misgivings. Every time I refused an offer, it got longer and longer, always the sales person would state he would be ‘right back’, returning after 15-20 mins each time. It was the worst high pressure situation I have ever been in, and it got to the point my son was experiencing a medical emergency back in the room with my untrained sister(my son is vent dependent, full tracheotomy and I’m an RN. My sister has no medical background) and I was still not permitted to leave unless I signed something. Once they found out my salary, it was like being a wounded animal in a pack of hungry hyenas... The unethical methods used were appalling, sickening, and downright terrible! I wanted to pull out of my agreement that night (as was my right) and was actively denied access to the sales department for the remainder of my stay. By the time I got home, my legal time of cancellation had run out. Do not let this happen to you, this is absolutely a scam! The resort itself was barley worth the money, shoddy, and over crowded. But the sales tactics makes this place hell on earth!