Westgate Vacation Villas

WE visited our apartment last Christmas and New Year and were pleasantly surprised by the amount of work that has been carried out at the resort. Our apartment is in the older part and we are very grateful tht it is as we would not like t be in the new part at all. The outside of the apartments has been recently painted and the inside also. Many items have been unpgraded and we had no problems at all. Find the check in more dfficult now but net tme we will know where we are to go and it will not be so confusing.

We stayed at the westgate vacation villas from june 22-29. We stayed in a two bedroom unit in the older section of the resort. It appears the outside of the buildings had been painted recently, however the inside was older looking. We had several issues during our stay, but did not always report them to management. I believe one of the burners on the stove did not work, a cofee maker was supplied, but no pot, the cheap dvd player worked off an on and the television in the masterbedroom stopped working midway through the week.

Check-in was efficient, but immediatly after checkin you were sent to another desk to sign up for your sales presentation/tour/buying opportunity. I had not been on site an hour and already was getting the sales pitch. I did not sign up for a tour as I own elsewhere. We were escorted to our villas and a nice young man helped with the luggage.

There are plenty of pools on the property to chose from and I think most include kiddie pools for the under three set. I do not believe any of the pools were more than six feet deep. The pools did not appear to be cleaned on a daily basis and contained too much chlorine to cover for it.

There is in activity center where you can rent bikes, paddle boats and so forth. There are playgrounds on site near pools. The newer section contains a putt-putt course and the new main clubhouse contains a small theater.

Overall had an enjoyable time because of the proximity to all the major attractions.

I do not believe this resort has been ranked higher than three-stars by any reputable publication and the current ranking of three stars is deserved.

I am an owner at the Westgate Town Center but stayed at the Villas in April 2008, as there was not a unit available at the TC. We stayed in a 2 bedroom with a loft unit. It had great space but the people sleeping in the loft were awakened every morning because there was not a shade on the skylights so that made sleeping past 6am difficult. It was a nice touch to be escorted to our unit and given boxes of cookies. However that did not make up for all of the lacking in cleanliness and courtesy. The unit was DIRTY upon check in. My socks were black from walking across the tile for 5 minutes and there was hair all over the bathroom; none of it ours! When we called for houskeeping to come the next morning to clean the unit, I was met with sarcastic remarks by non- english speaking people. She was not even moving the chairs aroud the table to mop, where spills were obviously left from the last people. We informed the front desk about our lack of satisfaction and we were told that the manager would call, he never did. In addition we found spare blankets that had fresh blood stains on them! I brought them right to the front desk during check-in. They offered us dinner certificates to the Westgate Grill (don't go there, its a glorified diner with mediocre food). It was not until I got home and spoke with 3 reps and finally a manager of Westgate's owner relations that I was given my week back to use again. This resort does not deserve its 5 star designation. Stay at the town center. It is 5 star and even though they share the resort grounds and amenites it is a whole different world over there.

We bought in 2002 on our first trip to Florida. The resort is very nice and sure beats a hotel! I would not recommend buying directly from Westgate. I think we paid too much for one week every other year.