My husband's mom owns an RCI timeshare that she is exchanging for a week in Orlando, preferably someplace convenient to the Magic Kingdom. Are there any RCI owners out there with preferences and info. about where to stay near WDW? There will be four of us and I won't have a car, so someplace with a shuttle would be ideal. Also, a really good pool and kids' arcade would be helpful. In the past, I've only ever stayed in at Disney properties and in a couple ofseriously cheap places when I was a kid. Thanks for any help.

Are you set on not having a car? I'd seriously look at reconsidering that decision. Many (if not most) of the offsite locations that have shuttles are very limited in the times they operate. Some even only drop off at Epcot, so you have to take ANOTHER bus to get to any other park.

You might want to look through the trip reports for ones from offsite. There might be a few for timeshares. (Expand the length of time at the bottom to see even more threads)

Thanks. I'll check those reports. My husband's mom will have a car and she's picking me up at the TPA airport and then driving us to Orlando. But she probably won't want to go to the parks as often as I will.

Sounds similar to our situation, my inlaws somewhat regularly give us an RCI week to use.
We've heard great things about the Sheraton Vistana Resort. I've never stayed there, but a few years ago I researched doing an RCI trade for a WDW trip and this seemed like the best I could find. We ended up doing the trade for a beach place and staying onsite at WDW. Overall we've stayed at some really nice places through RCI, but the trade process can be a pain.
You likely already know this so just ignore if you do, but you can look up all the places at RCI.com and many have reviews and pictures, some their own websites. RCI has their own gold crown/silver something or other/bottom rung rating systerm too. We've used their search process with some luck. If you phone in and get someone who either you can't understand or doesn't seem on top of it, just hang up and try again!

Good luck finding a great place! Oh, and I second Drince's recommendation about a car.

We, too, have heard great things about Sheraton Vistana. We might try it next time. We stayed previously at Marriott Cypress Harbour. It was close to Sea World and only a 10 minute drive to Disney. We liked it there very much!

We are RCI owners!!!! And we are staying at a Time Share in Orlando in December...we are also renting a car.

My Brother and his family stayed at Orange Lake's East Village last year and LOVED it! They rented a car, but said the shuttles ran daily.

This year we are staying at our Parent's timeshare...it's a different company.

Maybe you can look up Orange Lake's East Village. It has 7 pools from what I recall and lots to do for kids.

Good luck!

Wow, that sounds awesome. I will definitely check it out. My son would love that. My husband suggested that I rent a car once I get to the resort. Any recommendations for reasonable car rental in the immediate vicinity?

My parent's time share is at Orange Lakes, and we were going to stay there until the free dining business came up! But, I looked at cars at Hotwire.com and they were seriously cheap. I have used Hotwire a lot for hotel rooms in other locales, and figure that would be great for a car. $13/day! Have fun!

Jennie

Here are a couple of suggestions: First, go out to Google maps and look at Lake Buena Vista, Fl, and specifically the area where Hotel Plaza Blvd ends at SR 535. There is an area just north of there on the east side of 535 that has several nice time shares like the Blue Tree Resort and Cypress Pointe Grande Villas Resort. We've stayed at both - both are clean and have nice pools, etc, But Cypress Pointe is a little nicer. There are several times shares located in that area between Palm Parkway and Lake street. What we really like about them is that there is usually a lot of availability, they are very close to WDW, and there are a number of grocery stores, drug stores, and restaurants in the area - all MUCH less expensive than eating on WDW grounds.

If you have access to Intervals International I'd suggest looking for Marriott time shares in the area. They are a little farther away than the ones above, but are extremely nice, well run units.

And the last thing is for anyone who likes to trade around and go to different places. I'd recommend you join TUG - Timeshare Users Group - at www.tug2.net. Membership will only set you back $10/year, but you have access to a wealth of information, including ratings and resort reviews by members who have stayed there. We've belonged for a number of years and use them every time we travel.

Wow, look at all this useful info. I guess it's no surprise that posters on a Disney board are the nicest, most helpful folks out there.:) Thanks!

Are you set on not having a car? I'd seriously look at reconsidering that decision. Many (if not most) of the offsite locations that have shuttles are very limited in the times they operate. Some even only drop off at Epcot, so you have to take ANOTHER bus to get to any other park.

You might want to look through the trip reports for ones from offsite. There might be a few for timeshares. (Expand the length of time at the bottom to see even more threads)

We leave on saturday and are staying at a Marriott, it is the Grande Vista, we figured we needed a car and got one directly from the rental car website (alamo) for $13 a day all in, it is a mid-size-when are you going? I will report back on what this Marriott was like, we got it through friends that are timeshare owners-paid $88 a night for a two bedroom villa with two baths. I believe from what I have read (and someone posted above) it is a bi further, close to Sea World, but they are supposed to be nice-our friends raved about it.

hmsharpe---

Thanks. Looking forward to your feedback.

We are back and stayed as I said at the Marriott Grande Vista-it was really great. We loved it. Had a two bedroom two bathroom with a kitchen, living room and dining room. also had two screened in patios. There are many pools and an indoor playpark. being a time share it had activities as well, we went to a campfire one night and sang songs and made smores. We hope to get to stay here again on another trip if we are able. However, if you don't have a car, it would be expensive getting to the parks and back. Budget $30-35 each way to disney, sea world is very very close though. There are other time share resorts closer, but I am not sure of shuttles, I know ours didn't offer one. We rented a car for only $13 a day all in, and it was a mid-size. Good luck planning!

My wife, kids and I stayed at Marriott Horizons timeshare last year and will be again this year. My wife's parents actually own the timeshare, and though my first inclination is to always stay on Disney property, I will say it is a nice place.

There was definately an arcade/game room which also had an ice cream bar for kids to order treats (I think you could purchase tokens ahead of time for games or treats, allowing your child to choose to 'purchase' whatever they'd like). There's two pirate themed water areas - one is a pool, one is more of a water park with a pirate ship and fort with water cannons and so on to blast back and forth. Also a very nice looking mini golf course on property, but we didn't get the chance to use it.

The theme of the place is very key west florida looking, though the main timeshare buildings are larger than the one they show on the website (that's the 'main' check in building - the residence buildings are 5 stories). The apartments are spacious, two bathrooms, two bedrooms, kitchen, dining, living, washer/dryer. In case you're interested the link to the page of the timeshare is below.

Oh, location - very close to Seaworld, about 10 minute (maybe 15-20) from Disney. We had rented a car so I have no idea if Horzons provided any bus shuttle service.

http://www.vacationclub.com/resorts/ho/default.jsp

Thanks hmsharpe and Ethansdad. I'm glad to hear the positive feedback about the Marriott timeshare. My MIL doesn't want to take anything that isn't up to her standards, but it sounds like both would meet or exceed them.