Orlando/Disneyworld Thread (Part 3)

disney_cjd

ailuro2 wrote: »

Quick question - which is the best outlet mall to go to looking for caterpillar boots (not Timberland), DH has had his Cats since 2001, it's time we treated him to a new pair.;)

i dont know of any cat shops in the outlet malls. I would try Pime as its the biggest them Premium. You need a store like Rockport maybe.

Or go to the Florida mall and try Sears etc.

Cheers

mamamoi

Blahnik39 wrote: »

Mamamoi don't suppose I could have a copy too could I, we're going on 19th December, not quite got round to starting the planning, really don't know where to !!
thanks

no problem, PM me your email address & I'll send it out to you.

mamamoi

With less than 4 weeks to go before our first trip fo Florida & Disney we get a very nasty surprise.
The company we booked our 6 bedroom villa through: pro vacation rentals
http://www.proflrentals.com/ emailed my FIL (who made the booking) saying that due to a foreclosure on the villa assigned to us they were cancelling our booking and offering us a refund. Obviously at this late stage a refund is useless.... we need a villa. There are 10 of us meeting up there, us from UK and inlaws from different parts of Canada.

FIL kicked off and told them to sort it out and they have come back to us offering a 4 bed townhouse for 'almost nothing' (whatever that means). The townhouse in the link they have provided looks way too small for 7 adults & 3 kids. Especially after we were expecting a luxury villa with pool and loads of space etc. The townhouse has access to a communal pool, but not a private one.

We have contacted the 'central florida vacations management assoc' who are looking into this for us, but we haven't heard anything back yet and we are starting to panic.

The 4 bed townhouse will remain as our backup so then we at least have a place to stay, but it certainly won't be the holiday we were all hoping for in such cramped conditions. I am not looking forward to spending 3 1/2 weeks sharing a room with my husband & 2 daughters, especially as they are tiny rooms! We will also have to have someone stay on the pull out couch, which isn't ideal. We have tried getting quotes for 5-6 bed villas and as the inlaws are there for 5 weeks we are getting quotes in the region of $5000-6000usd. We paid $1700usd not incl pool heat etc for our original booking and I know that is a crazy price, but it was all confirmed and paid for and is what we have subsequently based our budgets on.

There have been a number of problems with pro vacation rentals along the way and I really do not recommend anyone to book with them. They have lied about sending out the contracts via registered mail to my FIL in Canada, as 3 weeks later he still has never recieved anything, they also took the balance of the money off his credit card 3 month earlier than agreed without notifying him.

Is there any advice or suggestions anyone can offer? Any other places we can go to complain other than the management assoc? Are the management assoc likely to be able to help us? Please help!!!!

mamamoi

ailuro2

Get back to them and tell them that 4 bedrooms isn't enough, that the mix of genders just doesn't allow you to share rooms.

We used https://www.villarenters.com, there are a few nice 5 beds available for your dates, but the cost is nearer to $4000 than your original price - use the search things to look for houses that sleep 12 - that should get rid of most of the 4 bedroom properties, and see what there is available on instant booking - that way you won't be waiting around.

http://www.villarenters.com/search_results.aspx?q=8736313d-3610-4032-b324-cc2b67d2ce33

Sadly, $1700 won't go very far towards getting a 5 bed villa for 3 1/2 weeks, but you should be able to find something reasonable - villarenters have late booking discounts on some of the properties. The reason we booked with them is because it's a third party company who takes the money, then passes it on to the owner.

jeanniebeanie_2

I would definitely take the refund.

There is absolutely no shortage of villas for rent in the Orlando area. Many new builds have been stopped because of the recession and there is a glut of rental property agencies willing to negotiate last minute discounts.

We have in the past, booked the first night in a hotel (because we usually land late evening) then just found a letting agency next morning (there are several on the US 27). They just gave us several sets of key lock box codes and directions and let us choose a villa that suits!

That said, as the previous poster stated, the price you were quoted was a little unrealistic and I suspect you will have to increase your budget somewhat -we usually manage to get a 4/5 bedroom for about $750 a week although I do appreciate you will be there peak season.

We too have used www.villarenters.com without problem, and have had www.villas2000.com and www.vr360floridavillas.co.uk recommended to us, but haven't used them ourselves.

These days we tend to rent privately from people we have come to know, but I checked and their villas are not available for your dates sadly.

Try not to get too stressed, you WILL find somewhere wonderful- straight off the plane if necessary, if a little more expensive.


Good Luck!

vivatifosi

ailuro2 wrote: »

Quick question - which is the best outlet mall to go to looking for caterpillar boots (not Timberland), DH has had his Cats since 2001, it's time we treated him to a new pair.;)

Funny you should ask that, I'm at Tampa (at airport on way home, free wireless internet)... But on Monday I got my Dad a pair of Cat boots. Not easy to find, but the best deals I found are at the Hush Puppies shop at the outlet mall at the bottom end of I Drive (Premium?) The ones that look like Timberlands, similar style but different colours (Sand, brown, black etc) are $69 per pair. They do about 20-30 different styles, they were just the ones I was after.

Hope that helps.

Viva

ailuro2

It certainly does help, thanks.:D

MY hubby's current cats are grey, he loves them, and he just doesn't look right in the traditional 'tan' colour ones. They have lasted really well, hopefully they're still as well made.

was it this one? It's the one that comes up when I googled Hush Puupies outlet orlando.

mamamoi

jeanniebeanie wrote: »

I would definitely take the refund.

We have in the past, booked the first night in a hotel (because we usually land late evening) then just found a letting agency next morning (there are several on the US 27). They just gave us several sets of key lock box codes and directions and let us choose a villa that suits!

That said, as the previous poster stated, the price you were quoted was a little unrealistic and I suspect you will have to increase your budget somewhat -we usually manage to get a 4/5 bedroom for about $750 a week although I do appreciate you will be there peak season.

Good Luck!

Thanks for the info, have already checked out a few of the links you suggested already, will check out the others.

The $1700 figure wasn't just quoted it was confirmed and paid for in full... I thought that it sounded way to good to be true, but my FIL did the booking from Canada. I feel like they have made a mistake with the quote and are now trying to get out of it to save losing money.

I certainly wont be comfortable waiting until we land to find somewhere... with 2 kids aged 4 & 1 1/2 it just isn't practical.

Thanks anyway

mamamoi

ailuro2 wrote: »

Get back to them and tell them that 4 bedrooms isn't enough, that the mix of genders just doesn't allow you to share rooms.

We used www.villarenters.com, there are a few nice 5 beds available for your dates, but the cost is nearer to $4000 than your original price - use the search things to look for houses that sleep 12 - that should get rid of most of the 4 bedroom properties, and see what there is available on instant booking - that way you won't be waiting around.

http://www.villarenters.com/search_results.aspx?q=8736313d-3610-4032-b324-cc2b67d2ce33

Sadly, $1700 won't go very far towards getting a 5 bed villa for 3 1/2 weeks, but you should be able to find something reasonable - villarenters have late booking discounts on some of the properties. The reason we booked with them is because it's a third party company who takes the money, then passes it on to the owner.

Thanks for the advice,

We have told them that a 4 bed townhouse isn't big enough and have said that we want them to either find an additional townhouse in the same area for the time that we are all there together or a 5/6 bed villa. They haven't got back to us yet, which is no surprise as they have been terrible at communicating throughout. The problem with 2 different properties is that a major part of this trip is to see the inlaws who we havent seen for 2 years, my youngest daughter has never even met them (aside from our weekly webcam visits!).

ailuro2

Mamamoi - if you could get two houses on the same resort, if it had a communal pool etc aswell, then that might well work out great for you - spending over three weeks under the same roof as people you don't see very often - maybe, just maybe it might be nice to have somewhere to retreat to, and have a bit of quiet time.

Look for the silver lining in this, try and find ways to make the most of it is what I'm trying to say.

I agree it does sound like they realised they should have asked for more money, but rental copanies don't tend to do that kind of thing very often - it's the lack of communication that would have put me off.

Good Luck - I hope you et something sorted out soon.