My parents have owned a timeshare at Orange Lake since the mid-80's and I have been there many times. My wife and I bought a week last year. Don't buy a timeshare directly from the resort. We bought our week (pre-owned) on eBay. Total cost for a week in August, including closing costs, was approximately $4,500. One of my coworkers bought a less desirable November week from the resort about six months before we bought ours. She paid over $10,000.

Check-in was a hassle. The woman who checked me in was pushy and wanted us to meet with their sales staff, to convert our week to points. We agreed to the one hour sales pitch and received $67 worth of miniature golf and food/drink coupons for saying no.

They have built a lot of new units in recent years and I noticed the cleaning staff is having problems keeping up. Our two bedroom unit was not as clean as past years and was missing quite a few kitchen items when we arrived. To their credit, someone brought the missing items within an hour of us phoning the front desk.

We ran into some rowdy college aged kids at the swimming pools. I hope this isn't a trend. In the past, Orange Lake was a family place.

We took our kids, age 4 and 5, to the new River Island water park (inside the resort). Admission is free but they hired attendants (we called them 'pool Nazis') to patrol the water park and make sure nobody uses store-bought inner tubes. If you want to use an inner tube, you are forced to rent one from the resort. The problem is, our children (ages 4 and 5) were unable to use the rented tubes - they slip right through. We left River Island water park disgusted and vowed to never use the water park again.

Even though we had some problems this year, Orange Lake is still a very nice resort with plenty of activities for all ages. It is very close to Disney and other attractions in the Orlando area. If you don't want to leave the resort, there is plenty to keep you entertained. There is an 80 acre lake where you can rent boats. There are four 18 hole miniature golf courses and several (regular) golf courses on the resort. They also have tennis, racquetball and basketball courts available. There are game rooms for the kids, exercise equipment and a small movie theater (free admission but old movies). There are two large swimming pools and a number of smaller pools, in addition to the River Island water park. The resort has various types of restaurants but we cooked most of our own meals. The resort has a small convenience store but for serious grocery shopping, there is a Publix grocery store just outside the resort and a Super Wal-Mart a few miles away.

The resort is truly awesome, the room was great, the pools were beautiful and everything was kept up and clean. The only thing that almost ruined our trip was when we got tricked into going to the timeshare presentation. Here's how they do it: We got a phone call at 8:30 am on our first full day there. The woman on the phone said she was making sure our room was okay with us and also that there was a breakfast at River Island that we were invited to. She said that if we came to the breakfast and listened to a presentation about the remodeling of the resort we would get $75 to put toward food or disney tickets. It sounded good to me, but I asked her, "Is this going to be a sales pitch?" No, no absolutely not, was her reply. SHe said it would last an hour, maybe 90 minutes tops. She said that they just wanted us to know what was going on with the resort so we could refer others to come visit. She also said that it would not be a tour. Well we got there and got put with this guy from Ohio who preceded to hard sell us for the next 2 1/2 hours. They take you away from where you park in a golf cart so you can't get away, take you on a tour, ask you rhetorical questions the whole time, and by the way there was NO BREAKFAST! I told him first thing the lies that the woman on the phone told me and he "acted" shocked. We learned later that this is what other people were told and is probably how it's done every time. We ended up ending the presentation, i was in tears and my husband was furious. We told him first thing that we were not going to buy a timeshare, that we didn't want a tour and that we were promised breakfast. What we got was over 2 hours wasted on our vacation, a couple of cookies, way more stress that necessary on vacation and a bad attitude toward the resort. Like I said, we resort was great, but this presentation almost made us not want to come back. We would never buy a timeshare from people who LIE to us to get us to the presentation. Believe me, it was not worth the $75 dollars.

The location was a short distance from all the major Florida theme parks. Our room was spacious and comfortable. The staff was helpful and friendly. The grounds and pool areas were very inviting. The only drawbacks were extremely long lines at check-in and check-out and very limited options for on-site dining.

The accommodations were very spacious and inviting.

My parents have owned a timeshare at Orange Lake since the mid-80s and I have been there many times. My wife and I bought a week last year. Don't buy a timeshare from the resort. We bought our week (pre-owned) on eBay. Total cost for a week in...

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Perfect Location and Customer Service is a ++++ will stayed again I recommend it.

We stayed at Orange Lake Country Club from Saturday July 21 to Sunday July 29.

We enjoyed our stay very much, even though it rained for most of the time.

We have been time share owners at Orange Lake CC since 1994 and this was our 4th stay here. We have exchanged our unit the other years and have been to many other places. Such as Hawaii, California and Tennessee.

Check in was okay a little slow, but not bad. We stayed in building 5700 (West Village) in a 2bd/2bth unit that had a sleeping capacity for 8. No real

complaints about the building or other people staying at the same building. The buidling was right next to the West Village's main building and the lake was behind it.

We visited the Splash Lagoon pool complex and the River Island pool complex. We rented a Cabana for one of the days at River Island and it was really enjoyable.

They go for about $100 for the full day and you get a TV with cable channels and DVD connections, ceiling fan, small refrigerator stocked with soft drinks and bottled water, as well as a tray of cookies and soda crackers and fruits. The Cabana comes with a round table with four chairs, two lounge chairs, four large beach towels.

Plus, you get two floats for the Lazy River as well as two tickets for the Hippo giant slide, located behind River Island. It is great because it is your own private area.

As expected during the Summer months Orange Lake was very crowded. We were concerned with the large number of children, younger than teens, who were running around the arcades and pools without any adult supervision.

We had dinner one night at the River Island Grill. The food was very good, but a bit on the expensive side. Plan to spend $20 to $30 dollars for several of their main course dishes.

We had lunch a couple of times at the fast food place at River Island and the

chicken fingers meal was much better than their burgers. We did not try any other foods.

We skipped the annoying time share sales people, but their new gimmick is trying to convince fixed week owners to switch to their internal points system at a cost of over $2,000. Are you kidding me? Why would anyone want to do that?

We spent the rest of our time going to Sea World (second day was free) and

shopphing to the outlet malls. Great deals at the Lake buena Vista Outlets. We tried going to Blizzard beach but got there aroung 11:00 at the park was already full to capacity.

Check out was smooth, it only took a few minutes.

We plan to come back next year since our children (9 and 7 years old) really

enjoyed themselves. Hopefully we will make it to Blizzard Beach (as soon as

they open) and the new Seaworld waterpark (Aquatica) which will open Spring 2008.

I loved the fact it has alot to offer on property, grocery store, 2 places to eat, pools and lots, games, game room, theater... I not like there little tours, so when we go we have our cell phones and never ever answer the condo phone so we do not get bugged. I have staed here the past 3 yrs. and if I ever have a problem it is handled very quickly.

The place is absolutely beautiful! They were too much into trying to sell it to people. That was not very interesting and took away the beauty of the place.

The room was amazing. The kitchen had all of the appliances anyone could need during a weeks stay.

It is a great place for a vacation. All the amenities were great and the unit was perfect. We were only disappointed in one of our dinners. It was just acceptable. It was a Barbeque put on by the resort. It was way overpriced for the quality and the quantity of the food offered.

There was so much to do, you just could not decide on what to do, when to do it, or what you could not fit into your days.

At the time I stayed at the resort, I had a horrible experience. The room looked clean, but honestly, to say I would have never thought that there would be bedbugs in the room.

And when I reported it to the management office, this one particular person who was in charge was very rude and didn't know how to handle the situation at all. All she did was make things worse. When I called, I waited for about 15 minutes and called them again and she had the nerve to say that it has only been 15 minutes and that the place is big.

When there are bed bugs crawling around the room and she had the nerve to say that. I was very upset with her. But if you're staying here, I would double check the beds before you sleep on them and flip the mattress in and out just to check