Our Vacation Hotel......

Let me tell you about Westgate Lakes and Resorts. DON'T stay there!! What a rip-off. They have many "resorts" around the country. Maybe some of them are run well, but I can tell you that the one in Orlando, Florida is not good (and they're are a couple of them). The one I'm referring to is at 10000 Turkey Lake Road.

I don't know about you, but when I think of a resort, I think that people are going to treat you like you're they're only customer in the hopes that you'll spread the word about how good they are and WANT to come back.

This particular place was HUGE. Buildings upon buildings. Many pools to choose from. I thought right from the time we stepped in the lobby that it was going to be great. The lady who welcomed us was very nice. The young lady at the desk who checked us in was very nice. That's where it ended.

Granted, it's a time share. Jamie and I didn't take the discount price b/c we didn't want to sit through the spiel so we paid the full price. Now, you'd think that somebody who paid full price might be treated good....NOT! Didn't really matter if you paid full price or discount price. If you took the spiel in the beginning of your vacation, you were considered "owners" or were VIPs. There was no way to tell if you weren't either unless you went to breakfast and had a VIP sticker on you. SO, all week long you were treated like a piece of doodoo. Wouldn't you think they would treat everybody good in the hopes that maybe, just maybe, I would like the place so much and decide while I was there to BUY a timeshare? Apparently, this thought has not crossed anyone's mind there.

Marchelle and Tyler, after 3 days (they were staying a week) called the front desk to see if someone might be coming to clean their room. The girl was very rude to Marchelle said "uh, this is a resort and if you want your room to have a partial cleaning, that will be $35". Can you believe that one??? Have you ever heard of a RESORT that charged you to have your bed made and clean towels put in your room? I've stayed at some mediocre places before and all came and made the bed and put clean towels in my room for FREE - every day!! Finally, they came with a garbage bag of towels and handed them through the door!

Jamie and I came back to our place one afternoon and the radio on the clock was playing. Neither of us had touched the clock/radio since being in the room. Nothing was missing, but the tip for the maid was still lying on the pillow on the unmade bed. We think somebody may just have been sitting in there while other people thought they were working. The next afternoon, we came back and the tip on the unmade bed was left again, but this time we had clean sheets and towels within those sheets just thrown on the bed. They did, however, pick up the dirty towels.

As in my previous blog entry, Cheryl called about the BBQ Pits which we were told were all taken out, however, in the welcome packet was an advertisement to come on Thursday's to the "xxx" pool for a cookout (this I didn't look at till after Tuesday). They advertise it on the web and in your welcome packet but they don't have this feature anymore. Apparently, somebody forgot to mention it to the Welcome Packet people.

Cheryl also had a problem with ants. The little red ants the south is famous for. You know the kind....they bite!! When she called to complain about the problem for the 2nd time - they hung up on her!

They also advertise bars at each pool - this was true. BUT, they also advertise they a "working bar"...WRONG! At our pool, the bar was never opened. Never. Not during the day and not during the night. Course the rules say you couldn't bring anything in there but then again, you couldn't purchase anything cold to drink. We ignored the rules. Guess what? Nobody bothered us. And, that was after 2 workers sat at the bar for 4 hours (yes, 4 hours) and chit-chatted. Oh and then there was the ice cream social. The 3 young ladies brought ice cream out to the pool where they served the guests. Oh, I'm sorry, I mean the new owners. If you weren't an owner or a potential owner (ya know, somebody who paid full price like me), you had to pay $4 for bowl of ice cream. It really bothered us when the worker drove up in his golf cart, got out, got a bowl of ice cream and then proceeded to talk to the young ladies for an hour. You should know too, that it was lightening around us this whole time. I mean we were seeing chain lighting. Not close and we weren't in the pool but everyone else was. After 2 hours of this, the worker who finished his ice cream decided to come over and tell us the pool was now closed. Although he didn't know it, we were leaving anyway. When we stepped out of the pool area, this very unfortunate other fellow stopped us to tell us they had just been given the OK and the pool was still open and we should go back and have fun. Did I tell you that Marchelle was with us when this most unfortunate man came to tell us this news? Poor guy. Marchelle laid into him!! And then she and Jamie walked away leaving nice Tyler and I standing there listening to this guy.

So, nobody in the family had their "spiel" till the end of the week and were all treated horribly. We paid full price and were treated horribly. My conclusion....don't stay at Westgate Lakes an Resorts - it's aHUGE RIPOFF. You get treated horribly no matter who you are.