What a DUMP

I own a 3 bedroom unit in the East Village. My suggestion is to ask to stay in the North or East Village. There is some updating going on in the North Village area. The North Village has the Splash Lagoon pool area which the children enjoy. Some of the East Village units are situated so that you can see the fireworks going off at Disney. No every unti has this view though. These units in both the North and East areas are the closest to the new River Island area. River Island is a nice addition to this resort. We were able to enjoy this area last Nov. while staying at another resort(one of the perks of being an owner).

It is quite sad that Tim and his family had a bad experience. No one wants to start out a vacation that they have been waiting all year for in such a manner.

As an owner I would hope that Orange Lake will listen to Tim since he is the VOC (voice of the customer) and they are the face representing my ownership in their family. I have been an owner since 1998 and my family enjoys themselves everytime we go. If your family loves to play golf the choices are many. They even have a weekly unlimited pass to the mini golf that is for the entire family for about 30.00. They also started a new walking with a naturalist program in the early morning. They point out the plant and animal life in the area. Which there is abundant of at Orange Lake. I have seen the Crane's walking on the golf courses. I also saw birds that might have found their way over from the Animal Kingdom.

Enjoy your vacation but if you decide to buy don't buy on property. The salesmen will tell you anything for a sale. They are not entirely honest in their pitches. It is better to buy through a resale such as the ones posted on this site. You will get a better choice and a better deal. GESTARR

Hi I have owned unit 2484 for almost 20 years and surely it is one of the oldest unit.........They have always always been clean not to mentioned rentivated every 5 years I really love orange lake I cannot understand how you could have such a bad experience..................I am sorry for you you should haved complained....They have always responded to my complaints no matter how small they were ..... dionesusanw275

timh98 wrote:

I don't normally complain but I thought I should post a note here so others don't fall trap to this resort. Don't look at the pictures and assume you will be staying in the new section. Much of the resort is over 20 years old and more importantly, very poorly maintained. If you read some of the notes in the ratings you will see some of the same problems I had with the resort. Filthy bug infested condo's that were furnished with old appliances and furniture. The condo was so dirty I thought they forgot to clean it over the past SEVERAL rentals. The staff was rude and would not acknowledge my complaints until I threatened to post my pictures on the internet. How RCI rates this as a Gold Crown resort is beyond me. I was so mad I cancelled my 15 year membership with RCI. When I complained to them they said I should have not been so worried about the unit age and cleanliness as I was in Orlando and should not have been spending much time at the unit anyway! Hence, they acknowledged the problem but turned their heads. All I can say is for those rating this as a 5 star, either they stayed in the new section or where they live must be something less then I am accustomed to. Consequently I can't really say I stayed there as I left the resort before nightfall and stayed in a hotel for that week.

gingers20 wrote:

I own a 3 bedroom unit in the East Village. My suggestion is to ask to stay in the North or East Village. There is some updating going on in the North Village area. The North Village has the Splash Lagoon pool area which the children enjoy. Some of the East Village units are situated so that you can see the fireworks going off at Disney. No every unti has this view though. These units in both the North and East areas are the closest to the new River Island area. River Island is a nice addition to this resort. We were able to enjoy this area last Nov. while staying at another resort(one of the perks of being an owner).

It is quite sad that Tim and his family had a bad experience. No one wants to start out a vacation that they have been waiting all year for in such a manner.

As an owner I would hope that Orange Lake will listen to Tim since he is the VOC (voice of the customer) and they are the face representing my ownership in their family. I have been an owner since 1998 and my family enjoys themselves everytime we go. If your family loves to play golf the choices are many. They even have a weekly unlimited pass to the mini golf that is for the entire family for about 30.00. They also started a new walking with a naturalist program in the early morning. They point out the plant and animal life in the area. Which there is abundant of at Orange Lake. I have seen the Crane's walking on the golf courses. I also saw birds that might have found their way over from the Animal Kingdom.

Enjoy your vacation but if you decide to buy don't buy on property. The salesmen will tell you anything for a sale. They are not entirely honest in their pitches. It is better to buy through a resale such as the ones posted on this site. You will get a better choice and a better deal. GESTARR

timh98 wrote:

PS. Sound like a great place to vacation watching all the drywall, furniture and countertops. And yes you are right, it does sound like you work there!

I don't think there is any reason to be rude.

I have just returned from Orange Lake where we have vacationed 4 times in the past 8 years. We own a week there in one of the older units.

Our unit was clean and comfortable although a little tired as it hasn't been updated yet and the entire resort is now smoke free.

Clearly you had a bad experience and I am not doubting anything you say but I do believe your experience is an anomoly. We have stayed in 2 other units beside our own, one a town house in the North Village and another villa in the West Village, neither of them in the brand new East Village and we have always found them to be perfectly clean. I have never found a bug in any of the units - not even a fly! Trust me, I travel on business (road warrior) and I do not put up with dirty accommodations.

We have always found the resort to be wonderful but I do agree that the administration is something short of adequate. We were put off when we arrived to check in for the first time at the resort because it was sheer bedlam. This past week it took more than half an hour for us to check in even though there was no-one in front of us when we joined the line. The process is way too slow and the people are way too inefficient. However, you only check in once and the experience of Orange Lake is well worth that inconvenience.

Who votes to change the name of this forum? Tim gave it a negitive title which has stuck. It saddens me every time I see that. If you read the entire several pages, you will find that his experience is not the norm. Most all the others are quite positive. Having seen many RCI units in Kissimmee, this is the best in my opiniion.

I will be going to OLCC next month and this will be our 4th year in a row. I have stayed in most of the villages and prefer the older 1 story units in West Village that are closer to the main clubhouse. The accommodations have always been very nice and very spacious. Can't wait to see them when renovated. The personnel have always been accomodating even to the point of relocating us when we met new friends there for the 2nd yer and they moved us to be closer to them. Don't know how many other places would do that. I do have to comment on the lack of appropriate security at the resort. We did experience an incident where my cell phone was stolen and security did not want to get involved and nab the guys so I had to take care myself which I did. I confronted the guys who had my phone and swiped it back right out of their hands. This did cause a bigger problem later in the day and now security did have to become involved as well as the police. I believe this was an isolated incident and we continue to go back because my kid's enjoy it so much and now we meet up with other families that we've met there and go back the same time each year.

sheilaa40 wrote:

susanw275 wrote:

sheilaa40 wrote:

susanw275 wrote:

timh98 wrote:

I don't normally complain but I thought I should post a note here so others don't fall trap to this resort. Don't look at the pictures and assume you will be staying in the new section. Much of the resort is over 20 years old and more importantly, very poorly maintained. If you read some of the notes in the ratings you will see some of the same problems I had with the resort. Filthy bug infested condo's that were furnished with old appliances and furniture. The condo was so dirty I thought they forgot to clean it over the past SEVERAL rentals. The staff was rude and would not acknowledge my complaints until I threatened to post my pictures on the internet. How RCI rates this as a Gold Crown resort is beyond me. I was so mad I cancelled my 15 year membership with RCI. When I complained to them they said I should have not been so worried about the unit age and cleanliness as I was in Orlando and should not have been spending much time at the unit anyway! Hence, they acknowledged the problem but turned their heads. All I can say is for those rating this as a 5 star, either they stayed in the new section or where they live must be something less then I am accustomed to. Consequently I can't really say I stayed there as I left the resort before nightfall and stayed in a hotel for that week.

Whoa, Tim. You must have had a bad experience cuz you're mad! We got into a smoking unit the first time and it was evening, couldn't see the beautifully maintained grounds and amenities; we went to the desk and politely complained. We were moved to a beautiful unit which we have been going to for five years since. In fact we now own a week at OLCC so we can go back. We get three units for our family and I can tell you, you have missed a real treat at Orange Lake if you have kids or grandkids. We spend many weeks there each year. It is a great place, the staff if accommodating and fast to serve and maintain. We have nothing but rave reviews from family and friends. As we are in the hospitality business ourselves, I KNOW it is difficult to meet everyone's expectations. OLCC is redoing the units you disliked but most are very nice and 5 star as advertised. Too bad you didn't stick around.

Did you get to actually see these 20 year old units and their new facelifts? I am anxious for our trip in October and I hope we aren't disappointed.

-Sheila

Sheila: I am down here at Orange Lake right now and can see all the work going on. All new drywall, furniture, granite counter tops, very nice. I have been watching them do it since our last stay in Nov. for two weeks. We are here a month, now, and I wouldn't change it. We have looked at all the other RCI units around Kissimmee and these are far and away the best unless you want a high rise getto with pools in the middle and no sun after noon. We got one of those for our son's family last week and though the unit was lovely, and people were enjoying, there is nothing to do but pool and a few planned activities. At OLCC there are two mini golf games, 5 great golf courses, 7 pool areas, open space galore, natural habitats, (it backs up to Animal Kingdom) magnificent landscaping, grocery store, mail, computer cafe, movies, planned activities for all ages, the new River Island moving pool, a great new restaurant, several other mediocre ones, and very nice personel. Sounds like I work here? I don't. But we have been here at least 10 times from a two week- four week stays and I can not be positive enough. You will not be disappointed. I was apprehensive from just looking at the web until some of our own patrons in our hospitality business told us they had stayed there and loved it. I don't think Tim gave it a chance and then his angry words got printed over and over. Too bad. We have had a few impossible to please guests in our 34 years in this business and there is not much you can do if the displeasure is within. Hope this gives you some encouragement. Regards, Susan

Susan Thank you for you most hopeful report. We have never used any of our RCI weeks (this is a first for us) and so we were nervous when we read some of the reports. I am of the mindset that if it is dirty I certainly know how to clean if given the supplies and I know for my family of four that space is such a huge deal to us and the space will be most appreciated! The units sound very well laid out.

This is going to be a R&R vacation mixed with some Orlando theme parks. Orange lake sounds like a park all of its own! We are pulling the kids out of school to do this and we just want it to be a great family trip for all of us. Thanks for alleviating 9 months of worry for me ( I am the vacation planner!) so I will feel free to exhale now and wait patiently for October.

Your report was well written an most appreciated by myself and my husband.

Thanks so much! -Sheila

I asked a few weeks ago,"What do we have to do to change the name of this forum?" Then it came up as Orange Lake Country Club Reviews for a while. Today it is back to What a DUMP. Believe me, it is NOT a dump and it is pitiful that those words keep coming up on this site. Please do what you can to change that. It just happens that the person who wrote that was the first to contribute to the site and it has stuck. Redweek, please for those of us who love OLRCC, delete that title.

susanw275 wrote:

I asked a few weeks ago,"What do we have to do to change the name of this forum?" Then it came up as Orange Lake Country Club Reviews for a while. Today it is back to What a DUMP. Believe me, it is NOT a dump and it is pitiful that those words keep coming up on this site. Please do what you can to change that. It just happens that the person who wrote that was the first to contribute to the site and it has stuck. Redweek, please for those of us who love OLRCC, delete that title.

Hi Susan,

I've changed the title of this discussion but the person who originally started the discussion has the ability to change the title back to the original title or whatever they would like it to be. I can keep changing it as often as necessary.

Thank you, Marty

I started this discussion to warn people so they would not to have the terrible time my faqmily and I had. I don't appreciate anyone coming in and changing the title of something I authored. Just let it go. With all your strong desire and drive to disrepect me, it is obvious you are employed at this resort. I suggest if you think it is so wonderful, start a discussion with that title. Then all the employees and climb on and say what a nice place it is.

I have owned at OLCC since 1985. We presently own 3 weeks.We return to OLCC at least once a year,because we love it. I have never been to any other resort in the RcI system that can even hold a candle to it, Anytme I have had a concern or complaint about something in the villas or on the property, someone has addressed it .and rectified it. I also feel that OLCC is getting a bad rap from timh98. Maybe you are a disgruted former employee or a former salesman who didn.t measure up. There seems to be a great deal of confusion about joining Global Access. You do not loose your deeded weeks when you join Global Access,If you want to use the week that you own,you inform them trhat you intend to use your week for that year. We joined Global access because it gave us the opportunity to travel to OLCC at any time of the year,and also because OLCC is expanding to include other resorts in other parts of the country.I am looking forward to visiting the new resorts in Panama City, in Las Vegas and in Vermont.

OK, Tim, I'll leave the title but close this discussion. Hopefully, others will start a new discussion with a different title that represents their experience at this resort.