Orange Lake Vacation June 25, 2008

We checked into Orange Lake Resort and Country Club on June 15th. The first week of the stay was fine and we were enjoying our stay very much, so much so that we had decided to purchase a unit during our sales tour on June 18th.

On June 23rd at approximately 11:30pm the troubles began. We had a long day at the Disney parks and were very tired but there was a loud commotion going on outside. My daughters came running frightened into my room scared out of their wits saying that there was a man outside their window with a knife chasing after someone. I picked up the phone and pressed 0 to get the operator. There was no answer after 10-15 rings. I then pressed the Fire and Emergency button on the phone. Again, it rang 10-15 times with no answer!!! The commotion had died down at this time so I put on my robe and went outside. I saw some people standing outside down at the end of the road but no one near our unit. So I went back inside thinking it was all over.

A few minutes later I heard a woman screaming loudly. The children again came running into our rooms scared saying the man with the knife was outside their window. I picked up the phone and tried the Operator. Again, no answer! I then again hit the Fire and Emergency button on the phone and again no answer. This is the fourth time I tried to contact internal security with no response so I called 911 and spoke with a police dispatcher. I told them what was going on and they dispatched a sheriff’s unit. By this time I was in the kitchen and looking out the window and I saw the large man with the butcher knife chasing someone around and heard the women screaming at him for him to stop and him shouting “let’s go!” a bunch of times. The whole time I was on the phone with the 911 dispatcher.

In a few minutes the police arrived and I saw them put the man in handcuffs. We tried to settle the kids down and call it a night. My 9 year old daughter was (and still is) extremely upset over the situation and was crying and asking if we could leave and go home in the morning. I was obviously upset and left a voicemail at about 1am for our QA Rep Candice Barrera to call me and that I wanted out of my contract.

The next morning I called for Candice and found out she was out of the office on her day’s office so I left a message for her supervisor, Carla Araujo. At first the receptionist didn’t even seem interested in taking a message and said I would have to wait until Candice returned, I said that this was not acceptable and started telling her the story of what happened. She agreed that this needed to be addressed that day and said she would have Carla call me back as soon as possible. (Unfortunately I did not get her name; this all took place on June 24th.) I called a couple of more times and was assured that I would get a call back that day. Needless to say, that call back never happened.

On June 25th at about 9:30am I went to the Sales Office onsite and asked to speak to Carla. I was told that she was not in yet and that I could wait for her or wait for Candice who was scheduled to come in at 11am. I chose to wait and speak to Carla.

I waited outside for a while and then went back in and asked the same person if I could speak to Carla. He remembered me of course and said he would ask her to come out and speak with me and then asked me my name. He went back and an few minutes later he came out and said that she was in a meeting and that I should wait to speak to Candice at 11am. I told him that this was not acceptable and that now wanted to speak to Carla’s boss and that I was not leaving so he might as well go get someone right now. He left and a few minutes later Carla came out.

Carla did not appear to be interested in hearing my story and in fact seemed argumentative about it. She told me that the reason no one was answering the phone is that all the security people were all outside trying to deal the situation when I know for a fact that there was no one outside except the guy with the knife! I tried to explain that I was the person who called 911 and basically she was argumentative and made me feel as if she was calling me a liar and that I was just trying to break the contract. This obviously infuriated me even more and she said that all I had to do was to put in writing that I wanted out of the contract. I asked for a piece of paper and began writing my request.

The situation could have and should have been handled completely differently and perhaps my ownership here could have been salvaged but the lack of responsiveness and the argumentative nature of my dealings with Carla made sure I was not going to go forward with the contract. If perhaps she had returned any of my numerous calls and tried to assure me that this was a fluke I might have stayed but her refusal to even return an upset customers call added with her attitude and refusal to even speak with me at first when I was in the office was just too much.

This is not my first experience at a time-share and I understand that sometimes these types of things happen but the fact that no one was available to answer the phone; even the emergency number combined with the unresponsive nature of management forces me to execute my option to cancel this contract.

I want to make sure that as far as the records go the reason for cancellation is noted by the time-share governing organizations in Florida is for Security Concerns and Managements Unresponsiveness and NOT some other made up reason such as financial hardships on my part. I will be following up with the Florida State / County / City government, whomever is responsible for tracking these issues, to ensure that this happens.

I also will be contacting RCI and making sure they are aware of the way we were treated as well as posting this review to their website so that other RCI customers can be aware of the security lapses here at Orange Lake. I will also be looking for as many travel related customer review websites and offering this feedback to them as well.

We had previously stayed at bonnett creek so our standards were high. After looking at the website we were very excited. What we got was so far from what was shown on the website we were not sure we were at the right place. It looked like a subpar aparment complex. Prices to do anything on site were ridiculous and not worth it. We were useed to planning our week to have days set aside to stay at our rental because there was so much to do. Not this time we ended our vacation a day early to get out of the dirty overcrowded place. I will never stay here again. When your children are ready to leave orlando early there is an issue!!!

We've owned a week at the west Village for over ten years and have stayed there more than five times. We have also exchanged our vacation week to St Martin, St Thomas, Ft Lauderdale and Spain.

The property is in excellent conditions and they keep adding amenities and features every year. Tennis courts, golf (4 or 5 golf courses), lazy river pool, champioship putt-putt golf, restaurants, movie theater, jet skis, kayaks, etc. You dont have to leave the property to enjoy your vacation.

I highly recommend this resort. We have enjoyed owning it for the last ten years.

Beautiful grounds and facilities, but the 2 1/2 hour tour was way toooo long. Not worth what we received for the tour. Would never purchase a timeshare with them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! After reading other reviews, very scared to stay!!!!!!!!!!!!! They take you quite a distance from where your car is parked so you can't get away, and if you do not purchase a timeshare, you are shown the back door and told to take the shuttle back, and that it should arrive in 20 min or so. And by the way there was NO BREAKFAST!

We bought in 1984, and have stayed at Orange Lake 15 times in 24 years. We had also used RCI exchange earlier on to visit other places. We love Orange Lake, and always look forward to returning to our dream vacation spot. There are so many outdoor activities and amenities available, that you really don't need to purchase tickets for the nearby theme parks. But of course the kids want to see Mickey and Minnie and the other parks. Old Town in nearby Kissimmee is a perennial favorite of ours. So is the Petting farm for our grandchild. We have invited guests over the years and everyone loves it. We own a Villa in the older West Village area, but they nicely remodel every five years as they have stated they would. I would love a more modern TV and Jacuzzi tub like the new units have inside. I would also love free internet/WiFi service. Try the jet skis, water skiing, poolside parties, river ride, water slide, fishing, Nature Walk!!, golf, fitness center, movie, game room, or any other amenity, and you'll know you picked the right place to buy. I have never been sorry I bought here, I have always received excellent service, and I kinda look forward to the challenge of saying "no" to the salesmen every year when I listen to their sales spiel (while I collect $$$ for doing so). I could always decline the offer of the annual "sales review" if I wanted. Someday I may let them talk me into buying an upgrade unit, but for now I couldn't be happier.

Fantastic place for family, with lots of pools (including a huge lazy river), activities for kids and close proximity to Disney. Great golf courses and too many top notch amenities on site for kids, mom, and dad, to mention. We are very experienced travellers, and therefore are in a position to compare this to many other resorts and destinations. Orange Lake fares very well, and we very much look forward to our two weeks in the East Village every year.

We have never experienced any problems with the staff, they've always been more than helpful with whatever issues (only small ones) we've had.

The resort has experienced some renovation/growing pains, particularly with the West Village clubhouse area, and from the sound of it, some units in the West Village (we've never stayed in the West Village). The clubhouse renovation was well publicized in advance by Orange Lake and is currently nearing completion.

They do push a little hard on the sales side - even to owners with their migration to a points system, but this can easily be avoided if you are not interested in the offers to attend the presentations (just say no!).

This is a great place to either visit or own a timeshare. Can't wait to go back!

We have had our timeshare with OL for a little over a year now. We have had no problems with anything. We even traded our week for a week in NH for our honeymoon. The transaction went very smoothley. I recomend OL to all of my friends and family. We look forward to our next trip down. Also, the location is perfect. Right behind Disney! There are resturants, arcades, bars, live music, lots of kids activities. It really is a great all around vacation spot for any age.

I bought one of their timeshare back in Nov 2003, had nothing but problem since then.

1. Like in 2005, my maintenance fee was send by my bank. Since Orange Lake requires all payment to be paid by a hard check the payment was lost in the mail. My bank called them about the check and Orange Lake said to put a STOP PAYMENT on it. Then resend another check to replace the oringial one. Which my bank did. When the second check came in Orange Lake applied the payment to another account. But in the mean time the STOP PAYMENT check finally showed up and they tried to cash it. Since 2005, Orange Lake charging for the STOP PAYMENT check as if it was a NSF check.

2. In 2006, I paid the maintenance fee and they applied the payment to another account again. But I saw that the check was cashed my wife and I traveled to Orlando to use our time and was turned away because they claimed we owe for 2005 and 2006 with late fees. But both payments were paid but they were charging for a STOP PAYMENT check. They wanted us to pay them double for 2005 which was already paid. Upon returning back to my home town we were notified they located the check but refuse to compensate us for our lost. They act like they did nothing wrong.

3. Our monthly mortgage payment is due on the 21st of each month but they get it around the 28 of each month. They charge late fee if the payment is not at the office by the 21st. But many times they would would checks for 2 weeks so they can charge late fees.

Overall, ORANGE LAKE has become NO MORE THEN A NIGHTMARE for me and my family as for payments of the mortgage and maintenance fees.

To this day they are claiming my wife and I owe over $2500 in maintenance fees even after we faxed and mailed them copies of the posted checks.

Orange Lake is a true nightmare for anybody who buys one of their Timeshares.

We are owners of several timeshares and exchanged into Orange Lake through RCI. We thought we'd get a condo like the one on the website, but were stuck in an old single-story unit with a rotten view, moldy smell, old furniture, and a VHS (not the promised DVD) that was from last century. We were offered the "tour" and two gifts for our two qualified buyers by the marketing dept in mid-week, but the tour salesperson -- Greg -- was beyond rude and refused to answer straightforward questions about the timeshare costs. Moreover, he insisted that we were stuck in an older unit because they reserve the good condos "only for OUR owners and you're just an exchange." Finally, the sales staff insisted only one gift could be given because the marketing dept had only forwarded one name! Talk about "bait and switch." I'm also sending detailed info to the FL Attorney General's office. Do NOT visit this resort!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was just sick when I realized what the timeshare I purchased five years ago had turned into.

I was directed down a long smelly hall to a single room with no openings for fresh air. The dirty ceiling had big cracks across it. If I were an inch taller my head would have scraped the bathroom ceiling. The shower control was strange and out of date

I could have stayed in a nicer hotel for what the yearly maintainance costs are on my $15,000 timeshare.

I was stupid and should have known better.