Marriott's Grande Vista

We have returned from Grand Vista February 27, 2010. We have exchanged to Grand Vista for eight annual business conferences. The location is within minutes of the Orange County Convention Center.

For the first time in a quarter of a century we visited Epcot and Animal Kingdom. To be clear we are NOT theme park fans; however, Grand Vista is a very short drive to Disney. Drive south on International Drive (past Publix's) and junction 536 to Disney.

Is is truly disheartening to discover that certain families structure their vacation in a manner to make Disney the centerpiece of a family vacation. We have to wonder if these people have ever visited Mt. Denali, The Grand Tetons, Breckenridge skiing, Hawaiian volcanoes, Costa Rico rain forests, or any real adventure sites. There are actually books by "experts" who promote family visits to Disney twice a year. Our view is that it is somewhat unimaginative to plan a week of Disney lodgings, meals, and parks. The same economics would easily fund a European holiday.

January through March is the only time we would ever visit Florida, and given the tremendous oversupply of Orlando Timeshares, we are reluctant to own a timeshare near the "mouse." Why own in the Orlando area when instant trades are assured. We find the Florida Keys and beaches to be of much more interest.

The Grand Vista is an aging, but well maintained Marriott property. Marriott should comprehend that the upscale consumer requires Blu-ray and flat-screen HDTV for in-condo entertainment. The wifi is extremely slow.

Given the large size of the Grand Vista, Marriott is expert in check-in protocols. The pubic "beach" and pools offer sun, and a variety of moods from noise to solitude.

If one is on a business or convention trip, the Grand Vista's location near 500+ restaurants, shopping, Publix's, and the convention center is nearly ideal for conference attendance. The Marriott staff is well-trained. This property is appreciated by Marriott owners; non-timeshare owners are better advised to goto a hotel.

If one must goto Orlando, the Grand Vista is fine. We own three Marriott properties, and while we are content to visit the Grand Vista as a base for business conferences, we would never purchase in the Orlando area.

We stayed in a 2 bedroom two bathroom unit Dec 27, 2009 to Jan 3, 2010.We are owners at the Grande Vista and have stayed here before. Staff was helpful and changes to fitness center were well thought out and the place busy. Food and service in Nick's Place was better than before. They now seem to use concerige services to push timeshares but they were polite and left us alone when we declined. Unit was clean and service wonderful. Only sour note: the cheapest bottle of wine for sale in the store was in excess of $23.00.

Stayed at Marriott Grande Vista with grandkids in late May and early June and it was great. Unit was clean and beautifully furnished; lots of activities for the kids and they were treated wonderfully by the staff. We spent couple of days at DisneyWorld and one at SeaWorld, rest of the time at Grande Vista. Our grandkids had just as much fun at GV as they did at expensive theme parks. I wouldn't miss an opportunity to stay at this Marriott resort.

Just returned from a week at Disney with our granddaughter and family. For what I paid for the two bed room it wasn't worth it. Asked to be close to the pool but had to hike to get there, if you were not early ,no room. We didn't ask for a handicapped accessible room with lock out but that's what they gave us. Had to attend the ownership presentation or get charged extra. Was not given any thing for attending, big rip off. Will definitely will not return to the Marriott's locations.

We are marriott owners and own two of their timeshares. We were very dissappointed after exchanging into the Grande Vista for the week of December 27 - January 3. We stayed at this resort in 2004 and found it to be a 5 star and the units were well maintained. The grounds are well maintained but the unit building we stayed in was indeed need of updating. The lockoff in which my daughter and friend stayed in was loaded with small bugs and the vanity door was broken off. They were very quick in repairing the door and spraying for the bugs. The only thing is that the bugs returned after 2 days and I just went to the store and bought our own bug spray to keep it under control. Our unit in Building 87 was also in need of updating. We also had bugs in the kitchen area and we again called maintenance to spray. They promptly came and sprayed but I felt this was an inconvenience as we were constantly calling for them to respray. We also had a problem with the cleanliness of the room. It looked like they were rushing to get the units cleaned and missed what they thought was cleaned. Our bathroom toilet had not been cleaned from our previous tenants. I felt uncomfortable in this unit because I felt it needed a good cleaning. I called to have this unit cleaned every other day for $43.00 a day. I can assure you that I have stayed at many marriott's over the years and never ran into this problem. This timeshare should not be rated a 5 star until they refurbish all the units.