The Sheraton Vistana Resort Thread (key links on p.1)

First-time poster here...

We booked a 3-night stay at Vistana Villages through a promo we received (no presentation involved) for a few months from now, and the details indicate 2 adults and 2 children under 18. Originally we had childcare worked out for our youngest (infant-age), but it looks like we might not be able to swing that and she might have to come along with the rest of the family. That would give us three under 18, technically.

Does anyone know how strictly they enforce that particular policy? We don't need anything extra provided, as we have a travel crib. I just don't want any surprises if we end up having to bring her for her first Disney vacation!
 
First-time poster here...

We booked a 3-night stay at Vistana Villages through a promo we received (no presentation involved) for a few months from now, and the details indicate 2 adults and 2 children under 18. Originally we had childcare worked out for our youngest (infant-age), but it looks like we might not be able to swing that and she might have to come along with the rest of the family. That would give us three under 18, technically.

Does anyone know how strictly they enforce that particular policy? We don't need anything extra provided, as we have a travel crib. I just don't want any surprises if we end up having to bring her for her first Disney vacation!
Hi there, and welcome.

First off, be aware that there are two Vistanas in Orlando, Vistana Resort and Vistana Villages. They are sisters and managed similarly by Marriott, but most of this thread is specific to Vistana Resort. There is another thread specific to the Vistana Villages in this same area, but it is not as active as VV is a bit smaller and not quite as popular.

From what I understand they "can" be strict on occupancy limits, and all of the 1BR units are limited to 4 adults. They might allow it because it is all one family, but they also may not. I have seen groups of younger guests ejected over this one, but that is mostly because they made themselves conspicuous (noise).

The safest thing to do is to contact whoever you have booked through and see if you can pay a bit more to upgrade to 2BR unit (generally limit of 8 guests at VV). Generally there isn't a lot of difference between a 1BR and 2BR in cost, and 5 will be more comfortable with twice the space. Highly recommended with an infant as there is space to allow little ones to sleep while older ones are still active.
 


I have booked a two night stay at SVR through the Marriott website. I won't have to attend any TS presentations correct? Those are voluntary? This wasn't a deal I received - just booked through the website.
 
Absolutely no requirement to attend a presentation. Just be aware that they will try to get you to attend a "presentation" at registration by offering some sort of a financial or discount inducement. A polite "no" is all that is required. This is not a Vistana specific thing; all timeshare properties tend to look at guests as potential sales targets. Vistana is pretty low key, so it should be very easy to decline.

Just be careful to not leave an opening by being soft. If they hear anything remotely like a "maybe" they will be after you for the entire stay until you give them a firm "no". As a Canadian, I learned quickly that being polite and letting them down easy was NOT the way to proceed. Now I just let them know that I would rather go to the spa and get my chest hair waxed...
 
Excellent! Thanks so much...especially to be firm with my decline! We Canadians can be a bit too polite in trying to say "no" And since we are only there two days there is no time to spare! Lol

When booking through the Marriott site do the locations of the rooms stay in one area or is it open and varies depending which units are available? Are all the building walk ups? My mom will be with us and not sure how many stairs she can handle especially after being out all day.
 


The Villa can be in any section of the resort, so yes, there is a possibility of a walk up. Mobility issues is the perfect reason to contact the resort to request a ground floor assignment, or an elevator building. Read back just a few posts, Gina posted the current contact information for the arrivals coordinator.

Note, personally I would prefer the ground floor in one of the sections with low rise buildings as those sections tend to have parking right at the villa door, the larger buildings with elevators can be a walk to and from your car, especially if you are arriving back after most of the other guests are parked.
 
Does anyone know if there is a fee for a grocery delivery to be held at the resort? We don't arrive until around 10 pm, so I plan to have Instacart from Publix deliver before we arrive. I emailed Kayla to be sure they would hold them and keep things refrigerated and she said yes, up to 24 hours before arrival. But she didn't say if there was a fee for that, I thought I'd check here to see if anyone knows before contacting her again.
 
Does anyone know if there is a fee for a grocery delivery to be held at the resort? We don't arrive until around 10 pm, so I plan to have Instacart from Publix deliver before we arrive. I emailed Kayla to be sure they would hold them and keep things refrigerated and she said yes, up to 24 hours before arrival. But she didn't say if there was a fee for that, I thought I'd check here to see if anyone knows before contacting her again.
I don't know for certain, but I expect that the resort's package handling policy would apply to groceries:
vistana.com said:
As a courtesy, we will accept and store USPS letters and flat UPS, FedEx and DHL envelopes free of charge. Owners and guests will be informed that handling fees apply for receiving packages. Effective January 1, 2019, $10 for Owners and $12 for other guests per package up to 10 lbs. applies. For packages over 10 lbs., $1 per pound applies up to a max of $25. For additional information, please contact the resort directly.

This could add up quickly - hopefully they would only consider your grocery order to be one package even if in more than one box.

If you are only getting a few essentials, perhaps ordering a grocery prestock from the Marketplace would be a better option? Prices are higher than Publix by a good bit, but the convenience is great. https://owner.vistana.com/services/genstore_categories.jsp?propertyId=01&shoppingTypeId=1 Note that there are fees associated with the prestock service as well, so you would need to weigh it out carefully.
 
Anyone know how much an Uber is from Vistana to magic kingdom? Round trip? Trying to figure out our best transportation option (shuttle, Uber, or parking at Disney)
Any tips would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!!
 
Anyone know how much an Uber is from Vistana to magic kingdom? Round trip? Trying to figure out our best transportation option (shuttle, Uber, or parking at Disney)
Any tips would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!!
We've used both Uber and Lyft to go to Magic Kingdom (actually the Contemporary resort) and the prices were between $8 and $13 one way. It's important to note that ride share prices fluctuate during the day, based on busy times and that prices are different based on which type of car you request. That's also not including tips, which I like to give cash at the end of the ride. (you can tip through the app, but my understanding is the drivers like cash better) I use whichever app is offering a promo at the time, usually between 5% and 10% off rides for a short amount of time. My most expensive Uber ride home from the Halloween party at MK was $13, not including tip, and only because we requested a "nicer" car.... and I had a promo coupon to use so I figured.... what the heck.... and we sprung for a nicer car.

The price for parking is $25 for the day. If you leave for an afternoon break, you might find parking a cheaper option than using ride share 4 times (two trips up, two trips back)

For us, I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the convenience of NOT having to deal with the parking lot, ferry or monorail, and the crowds. Getting dropped at the Contemporary is easy, a quick walk over (with a small security area on the path) and not having to fight crowds at the end of the night. You don't want to get dropped at the TTC, unless you like riding the monorail or ferry. There is a whole Uber/Lyft thread on the transportation board if you have specific questions.

HTH!
 
I don't know for certain, but I expect that the resort's package handling policy would apply to groceries:


This could add up quickly - hopefully they would only consider your grocery order to be one package even if in more than one box.

If you are only getting a few essentials, perhaps ordering a grocery prestock from the Marketplace would be a better option? Prices are higher than Publix by a good bit, but the convenience is great. https://owner.vistana.com/services/genstore_categories.jsp?propertyId=01&shoppingTypeId=1 Note that there are fees associated with the prestock service as well, so you would need to weigh it out carefully.

I was very surprised that i could afford the store at the resort, they had almost everything
 
I don't know for certain, but I expect that the resort's package handling policy would apply to groceries:


This could add up quickly - hopefully they would only consider your grocery order to be one package even if in more than one box.

If you are only getting a few essentials, perhaps ordering a grocery prestock from the Marketplace would be a better option? Prices are higher than Publix by a good bit, but the convenience is great. https://owner.vistana.com/services/genstore_categories.jsp?propertyId=01&shoppingTypeId=1 Note that there are fees associated with the prestock service as well, so you would need to weigh it out carefully.

Thanks. I decided to message the resort via facebook and they said they wouldn't charge me for grocery delivery. Yay! I'm not getting a huge amount but Publix had more selection than the marketplace prestock.
 
Just a quick note re: Kayla Lee, the pre arrival coordinator....

I reserved a one bedroom through Interval for my daughter for this coming week and I put in a room request a few weeks ago after I booked it. On Monday I emailed Kayla with a confirmation of our requests and never heard anything back, which was very unusual. We had Kayla help us with a room issue for our 2019 October trip and she was very prompt with her replies. I called the Sheraton directly today and confirmed our request and asked about Kayla, since I had not heard back and I was told by the woman I spoke with that they were unsure of if Kayla is going to continue as the pre arrival coordinator and "things are very different since there's no Diamond Lane anymore, which ended a month ago". She wasn't sure what that meant and said Kayla is still employed there, but she didn't know about her position. Since we are booking for May soon, she said the best bet was for us to call the front desk with any room requests.

So.....I'm not sure if there is actually something going on with the pre arrival coordinator position, or if perhaps the front desk woman was unsure about her information, but either way Kayla was not able to help us this time and didn't even reply to my email.

Here's the phone number again for the front desk if anyone needs it:
407-239-3100
 
Thanks for the information @mckennarose. Things have been up in the air a lot since Marriott took over the Sheraton/Vistana businesses. Alot of what the owners seemed to think was good is being stripped away, and I really think that Marriott is doing their best to degrade the Sheraton brand. I used to travel a lot for business and generally preferred Sheraton's homey but classy feel. Marriott was too stuffy for me and I always picked Sheraton over Marriott. So not that the wolf is in charge of the henhouse, it seems that is an effort to seriously degrade the chickens. If that is true, it is really sad as they could treat them as two superior brands with different atmosphere and target markets; there is room at the top for both.

I recently removed Diamond Lane, but added the arrivals coordinator to the links on page one. Guess it's already time to dump the coordinator too.
 
I recently removed Diamond Lane, but added the arrivals coordinator to the links on page one. Guess it's already time to dump the coordinator too.
I'll be booking in the next two weeks for May and I'll try to get more info. once I book and call the resort.

We've booked 5 out of the past 6 times through Interval (once through skyauction) and have only contacted the pre arrival coordinator three times. The first was Jennifer Bravo in 2018 who was a really nice woman and we actually met her, but she suddenly disappeared from that position. And the second was Kayla for our past October trip who we did correspond through email and she was very helpful. This third time we never got a reply back from her. My point is that every other time, and sometimes in conjunction with contacting the pre arrival coordinator, we were able to call the front desk directly with room requests and they been very helpful in accommodating us.

As an owner, I'm sure the changes are frustrating. As someone who doesn't own at the Sheraton we've been able to get what we wanted through calling the regular front desk, so that's still an option for people to make requests. I want to make sure others who are booking for the first time understand that you don't have to go through the pre arrival coordinator and you can still have a great trip. The staff really do go above to accommodate their guests.
 
I will email Kayla this week to see if I can get a better idea of whether or not she anticipates changes to her position in the short term. We chatted several times by email for our most recent trip (we just returned last night from another AWESOME week) and she was very helpful and super responsive. We will be back again in April so I'm sure she will let me know if we should email her with our pre-arrival requests or follow some other protocol. (We have become quite good friends over the last few months! She even has other staff members say hello to us for her when we have opportunity to chat with various other people on her team lol).

The Diamond Lane sign WAS still up when we checked in in the 24th, but no one was using the line.
 
I will email Kayla this week to see if I can get a better idea of whether or not she anticipates changes to her position in the short term. We chatted several times by email for our most recent trip (we just returned last night from another AWESOME week) and she was very helpful and super responsive. We will be back again in April so I'm sure she will let me know if we should email her with our pre-arrival requests or follow some other protocol. (We have become quite good friends over the last few months! She even has other staff members say hello to us for her when we have opportunity to chat with various other people on her team lol).

The Diamond Lane sign WAS still up when we checked in in the 24th, but no one was using the line.

I heard from her just a couple weeks ago when I made some room requests. She said she got us all set in a room that met our requests. We just checked in last night and it's perfect. We are in a top floor unit in Cascades. We got in late last night, I can't wait to see more of the resort today.
 
I heard from her just a couple weeks ago when I made some room requests. She said she got us all set in a room that met our requests. We just checked in last night and it's perfect. We are in a top floor unit in Cascades. We got in late last night, I can't wait to see more of the resort today.

I hope you are having a FABULOUS stay! :goodvibes
 

GET A DISNEY VACATION QUOTE

Dreams Unlimited Travel is committed to providing you with the very best vacation planning experience possible. Our Vacation Planners are experts and will share their honest advice to help you have a magical vacation.

Let us help you with your next Disney Vacation!





Top