Sherrell Smith

Review of Orange Lake Resorts, Holiday I...

DO NOT VISIT OR BUY FROM THIS RESORT!!

DO NOT VISIT OR BUY FROM THIS RESORT!!

I would give this resort a small shaded tip of a star if I could! As soon as we arrived in our room, there was broken shards of glass in the floor. Needless to say, this is very dangerous considering we had small children with us that were ready to run and explore the room after being in a car for 7 hours. We woke up the next morning to find that our car was broken into and the contents of our center console were all over the front seats. We let the staff know and, of course, all they did was apologize (for both incidents) and did not try to remedy the situations. If you want clean towels, you have to pay for them or wash them yourself.
Their restaurants automatically charge you 18% gratuity on top of their already ridiculously priced food for parties of 6 or more. This would not be an issue for me if 1) the service was worth the gratuity and 2) if 4 of the members of our party of 6 weren t children! The staff at The Marketplace was very rude and made it seem like the guests were an annoyance.
The resort will advertise free activities (because they make you pay for EVERYTHING), but beware! Even things on the list that were supposed to be free were not free. For example, the lazy river. My kids were so excited to experience it, but were not given tubes unless we paid $5 each! WHY IS IT ON THE LIST AS FREE IF IT IS NOT FREE!? Place an asterisk next to it and disclose the tube fee.
Finally, they made us attend a timeshare sales presentation where the salespeople were aggressive and rude if you did not buy into what they were selling. They don t offer you any numbers or terms in black and white. They write them in marker. NO WAY!! I do not trust that! Give me the contract in black and white and let me read for myself. I am not getting stuck with a timeshare! They throw around words like equity, deed and ownership to make you think you are purchasing something meaningful and you re not!! DO YOUR RESEARCH ON TIMESHARES before you buy!
Consider this:
1)If you are already a homeowner, look at your deed and notice it has your name and an address. What would a timeshare deed say!?
2) Equity is the value of your home and it means that your home is worth more than what you owe. You can t refinance a timeshare and receive cash out if you wanted to.
3) ownership... what exactly do you own in a timeshare? Especially with blackout dates and competing with other families for specific dates.