Great For The Resort Newbie!
Written: Jun 18 '05 (Updated Jun 19 '05)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Close to everything Disney! Many activities. Great Pool.
Cons: Very uncomfortable furniture. Not great for in the in-room vacationer.
The Bottom Line: For the inexperienced traveler, or if this will be your first time at a resort, you will love Silver Lake Resorts. However, experienced resort travelers will not be overly impressed.
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| lkszjohns's Full Review: Silver lake resort |
A little about me:
I am a RCI weeks member (Fairfield owner), and can trade my Fairfield points for up to eight RCI resort weeks per year. In addition, I own a two bedroom unit at Westgate in Las Vegas, and a single family home timeshare at The Village at Izatys Resorts in Minnesota (one of the most luxurious resorts I have ever stayed at, but that is another review). I have been vacationing at timeshare resorts for over 10 years.
I visited Silver Lake Resort from June 10-17, 2005. Since I have done the “timeshare” thing so many times, I knew a lot already. First, as part of check-in for a great number of timeshare resorts you are asked to go to the check-in counter, then to a tour desk, where they try and get you to take a tour of the resort. If you would like to spend upwards of 90 minutes touring the property (and don’t mind trading the time), this is an easy way to receive gifts or discounts to area attractions (just don’t forget to say “no”). However, the Sizzler, or almost any of the other local restaurants, also has people who set up these tours. It might be to your advantage to check with them first, and then when the resort makes their offer you have something to compare it with. If you don’t want to go on a tour, leave your spouse in the car and ‘just happen’ to mention to the person at the tour desk that they aren’t with you this trip. They won’t even mention a tour (as spouses must be with for them to present).
My reservation was for a one bedroom, but the resort was booked for the week and I had been upgraded to a two bedroom. They did mention that the room didn’t have the Plasma TV, but that was just fine for me. The room was in the 9000 building and looked exactly as I expected from the pictures on their website. There was one minor problem: I had called prior to leaving my home (only 2 1/2 hours away) and was told that there would be a DVD player in the room, so I brought DVD movies with from Blockbuster, instead of paying $6.95 each for $18.95 for a week of rentals at the resort (which really is not that bad of a deal). Of course I mention this because when I arrived in my room there was no DVD player, but Debbie at the front desk had this taken care of soon after I called to request one.
This is beautiful and there are many activities and nearby area attractions. However, most of the furniture in the room is TRULY uncomfortable. The couch, living room chairs, and the chairs in both bedrooms were built for durability, but not for comfort. They will still be there in 10 years, as hard as they are now. It all looks good for people touring the resort, but try sitting on that couch for a week.
Each bedroom had one king sized bed, a TV, and two bedside tables in addition to the uncomfortable chair. Surprisingly, the dining room chairs were far more comfortable, and is where we sat most evenings and during TV viewing hours (we just moved them over into the living room). Most travelers use to staying in hotels will be happy with the full, nicely stocked kitchen with stove refrigerator, microwave, garbage disposal, dishwasher, toaster, coffee maker, ice maker, dishes, silverware, pots, and pans, bake ware and even drink pitcher. But, experienced resort travelers will be asking: “Where is the shampoo and conditioner?” or “Where are the steak knifes, and the pizza cutter?” or “No salt and pepper?” The room did have a package of regular and decaf coffee, dishwashing liquid, dishwasher tablets, extra garbage bags, a scouring pad, laundry detergent and extra tp and facial tissue, but this is what I would expect of most any timeshare resort.
Activities:
Movie theatre? I don’t think so. Movie room? Yes, it seats about 30 (regular stackable chair), with a 5:30pm movie for the kids and a 7:30pm movie for the adults. The movie schedule changes weekly and includes good movies selections that would be enjoyable for all. We arrived on a Friday and received a schedule for the week before as well as the week of our stay. There is a full schedule of other activities at the resort with many of them for free. However, most of the nicer activities have a small fee (may get into the double digits if includes a meal).
The free computer room is great!! It is available anytime with your room key. There are four computers; a couple will even let you download files. I brought my ebook reader and downloaded ebooks online and saved them to my bookshelf - it was wonderful. You can even print without a charge. I spent time in the computer room while my children played in the game room not many feet away. Talk about fun for the whole family! The arcade games were 2 credits each (each credit is 25 cents). I didn’t use the fitness center, but it had all the popular fitness equipment and a TV in the room, too. My children had great fun at the pool; there was a pretty big area that was all only three feet deep, which was good for my little one. We had chicken, fries and Shirley temples from the snack bar next to the pool, which the kids thought tasted great and I though had a decent price.
There is never any parking left in front of the 9000 building after about 3pm, but nothing is very far at the resort. On day four of our visit we left the room and got on the elevator. When it opened to the lobby there were several people warning us not to get off because there was a snake in the lobby. There was. It was black and about 3 1/2 feet long. We let the door shut, went up to the second floor and exited the side door. We didn’t mind parking on the side of the building that day. The snake had been removed by the time we returned from grabbing a meal.
Recommended:
Yes
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lkszjohns
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Reviews written: 1
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