Orange Lake River Island - what can you tell me?

[Afabena]

My family is staying at Holiday Inn’s Orange Lake resort in Nov. We are booked in the River Island section and I’m having a hard time finding reviews for that area. Can anyone who has stayed give any tips or suggestions? The property looks huge. How are the pools? Restaurants on site? We are staying for a week and planning to visit the parks with a resort day or two as well. We are 2 grandparents, 2 adults in young 40s, and 2 kids who are 8. We will be flying, and looking into renting a car or possibly ubering/lift if my kids can go without their booster in FL. Not sure how much we will venture outside of the disney and OL resort bubble.

This same group did Disney together 2 years ago, and we were a mix of staying together and breaking up into smaller groups. We stayed at the Contemporary though so that made getting to the parks easy, and gave us freedoms when splitting up.

Any thoughts on OL?

 

[Lisa P.]

We stayed there on an RCI exchange several years ago. Yes, the property is huge and there are paved sidewalks throughout (wonderful for walking/biking with or w/o kids) as well as an internal resort shuttle. The resort is nicely landscaped and loaded with fun things to do, terrific for a multi-generational trip.

The pools were excellent, clean, with plenty of seating. River Island was our favorite and the 8 year olds will love it! Our DIL enjoyed the sandy area hammocks too. There are numerous activity/recreation buildings and enough to keep a family busy for the whole week if you wanted. So you'll surely have fun resort days.

The onsite restaurants were resort-pricey for what we thought was very basic bar-type food. It'll do the job, for convenience's sake on a resort day. I'd highly recommend a rental car so you can take advantage of the gazillion restaurants in the region and just have flexibility when moving 6 people around. Here are the car seat laws: FLHSMV - Florida Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles. It looks like rear seat, regular seat-belts are acceptable for your 8-year-olds, as long as parents are okay with that.

Rental cars are ridiculously expensive right now, nationwide. So reserve one with an easy cancellation policy ASAP and occasionally check again for lower prices to rebook. You could still split up and use Uber/Lyft occasionally to meet back up. It's about a 15-20 minute drive to the Disney parks. Have a great time!

 

[smeagol]

Afabena

River Island is nice. You have to check in first at the West Village. They have full kitchens in the condo's, so you can cook. There is a Publix supermarket right outside the property. Do a Google search of 8505 W Irlo Bronson Memorial Highway, switch to maps, and you will see.
We will also be there in November, our first trip in a long time (Covid).

I hope this helps.

Smeagol

 

[silverace]

orange lake is great. you will no tbe disappointed. The main attraction of river island is the easy access to water - all the rooms are alike at orange lake

 

[teawar]

I believe River Island has the newest rooms, but I could be wrong. IMO, you will have an easier time at the resort if you have a rental car. The resort is huge and you can different the pools/sections. There are several grocery stores and restaurants just outside of either gate entrance. Have fun!

 

[heather70]

My family just came back from WDW 6/23-7/3 with split stay 3 nights at Dolphin and then 7 nights at Orange Lake River Island. We rented a 2 bedroom unit pool view from Redweek for $1627 with fees. The room was perfect. Everything was new, modern and very clean. The view from the enclosed patio was beautiful. The amenities at River Island are great including restaurants and activities (when they are actually open). It was unfortunate that the whole River Island pool complex gets completely evacuated when there is even a threat of lightning 10 miles away. And there can't be any lightning activity within 10 miles for at least a half hour. That means that it was sunny and beautiful but announcements came to to leave the area including rented cabanas and patio/bar seating. All the bars closed and the Exchange also. You might never see lightning or rain. We were lucky that our room was in the 81000 building but others weren't as fortunate as they took the bus over from other villages. This happened constantly and for hours at a time. I understand safety but it was a little crazy. The hours posted for all of the amenities stipulate "weather permitting" so you never know. We did not rent a car but used rideshare to the parks. The cost was about $20 each way with tip. Aside from the closings we loved the resort room accommodations. I am happy to answer any questions. Hope that helps.

 

[teawar]

I think Disney pools run the same way in terms of closing for weather. It is frustrating, but they have a safety protocol for a reason. I’m glad you had a great stay other than the weather.