Marriott's Grande Vista

After much research, and the myriad of choices for Orlando, I decided on the Marriott Grande Vista. We stayed in a 2 bedroom with my spouse and three children, ages 8, 5, and 3. Check-in was was very efficient. The male at the counter was very cordial and pleasant.

We stayed in building 97, with a view of one of the four pools at the resort, and the golf course. True to what I was told at check-in, the unit was recently refurbished, and smelled new when we walked in. It was average in size compared to other 2 bedrooms I've stayed in, with a washer and dryer and free w My children stayed in the guest room master bed and seemed very comfortable there, with there own DVD player and LG flat screen TV in the room. As I've experienced with other Marriott timeshares, the mattress seemed rather soft to me. But with the help of lots of pillows, I was able to get comfortable.

This resort is very large and spread out, with multiple 3-4 story buildings on the property. We used the small but very pretty and clean pool right behind our room a couple times. It was not very crowded and had a nice hot tub next to it. It had a small area for toddlers with sprinklers that shot out of the ground. We also went to the main pool one day. The kids enjoyed the multiple water cannons, as they got to shoot their parents with water over and over! The main pool had a baby pool, two hot tubs, and a chldren's area with lots of water jets and water cannons for them to play with. The thing it lacked, which would have been the icing on the cake, would have been some water slides for the kids.

The resort has a very nice workout room located next to the front desk. I've stayed in multiple timeshares, but this was definitely one of the better workout rooms, with the amount of space and the new equipment, both machines and free weights.

There is plenty for the kids to do, with the large play structure for kids 52" and smaller (strictly enforced and socks must be worn), a roomful of video games, an outside ping pong table, fuze ball table, and billiards. Take-out Pizza Hut is also offered on the premises. DVD's can be rented for something close to $6.75 a night, which was too expensive, I thought.

My biggest gripe with the Marriott Grande Vista was the cell phone service. I have Verizon cell phone service, and never, ever have issues making calls. Plus, I updated my cell phone when I landed to find the closest cell phone towers here. However, I could not get cell phone service in my room. I had to step outside, and still had a weak connection. It was really annoying.

To summarize, I believe this Marriott is a solid choice. It's very clean and the grounds are well taken care of. Everything was in very good condition. I would definitely recommend this place to a friend. However, with the amount of competition for timeshares in Orlando, I will check out some other timeshares as well before returning. The two let downs were the cell phone service and the lack of water slides for the kids.

We just returned from a week stay at this resort. We had the 3 bedroom lockoff accomodations. We had a great time, and found everything satisfactory. I thought the beds were very comfortable. Used for a family of four but could have easily accomodated six. I wouldn't recommend 12.

We stayed here over 4th of July weekend. What a terrible accommodation. The rooms were super small, everything is so far apart. We left after 2 days and don't plan on returning.

The Grande Vista was great! My wife, children (15 & 17) and I just got back from a week's stay. The accomodations were very comfortable for four and six would probably have been OK also. The unit was very clean and had everyting necessary for our stay. The front desk and concierge were also very helpful. I didn't play golf, but the course looked terrific. I was a little concerned about the size of the place and that it might seem crowded around the main pools. There were a lot of people, but we always found chairs without a problem. We spent several days at Universal, which was an easy <10 minute commute right down I4. Disney was about the same distance in the opposite direction. If you are going to Sea World, it is less than two miles away. There are two Publix grocery stores a mile away. We will put this on our list of places to return to.

Just returned from a week stay here. We really enjoyed how close it was to Disneyworld, took just under 15 minutes to get to all the parks. Didn't have much time to really enjoy the resort pools and spa but it was very pretty and nice large traditional Marriott villas. It was very convenient to have a full kitchen as eatting at Disney can add up. With being so close we could come back eat something and recharge and go back. FYI we were there in Sept and the parks didn't stay open too late, but there is downtown disney and tons to do. Hope you enjoy your stay.