Westgate Lakes Resort & Spa

The staff is very friendly. They actually deserve 5 stars. The room placement and the room itself are why I’m giving 2 stars. You have to walk to the toilet closet to find a garbage container in the entire room. The bathroom soaps are cheap and smelly. The bed is as hard as one you’d find for $ 50 bucks in a roadside motel. We set the room temperature at 87 degrees in an effort to have the heat kick on, to no avail. The joint villa placement is very weird. You can hear everything in the next room because it’s so close together, and smell whatever foul things they’re cooking in the microwave. The bed pillows were like airplane pillows — absolutely no substance. Sad to say this will be our first and last stay here

I’m surprised by the overwhelmingly negative reviews for this place.
Stayed here recently with my husband, teenage cousin and my daughter. We were situated in a suite with a separate bedroom. It was spacious enough to house all of us comfortably. The kitchen was satisfactory, and sized well enough to prepare dinners. The washer and dryer weren’t the newest, however weren’t terribly outdated.
The furniture was minimalist and adequate. Kids slept on the couches which gave them no trouble. TVs and tv service was terrible, but fortunately we weren’t around much for tv watching.
Bathroom was large enough for 3 girls to get ready in. Two sink vanity. Sufficient outlets and counter space for all those wonderful girly things. There was a stand up shower, a closed off toilet and oddly a bathtub/​Jacuzzi in the bedroom.
Bedroom was okay. Didn’t run into insect or cleanliness issues.
Balcony was large and had netting over it so you could sit out there without being dinner for mosquitoes.
Internet was splotchy at best.
I do need to address the valet/​parking manager at the main lobby who was atrociously rude, unfortunately costing this resort a star. I haven’t seen that kind of attitude from a manager in a very long time.
Overall, our experience was nowhere near as problematic as others have reported. In fact, we were fine for the few days of our stay, and even my husband’s three weeks.

To start with we ended up at this place due to a Ross Isdro who we spoke with at Universal Studios Florida. He told my friend and I that this was a hotel review and that we had to say that we were co-​habitating and had been together for 3 years. He told us at the end of the hotel review that we would receive $ 100 cash. We agreed and Isdro swiped my credit card but his computer does not work and he swiped it again. It worked the second time and I signed the receipt.
Isdro told us that the resort was 10 minutes away. That was a lie. We spent 30 minutes getting to the place. When we checked in the staff was very nice and friendly. We received a personal escort to our room and the gentleman carried our bags. Once in the room, we were shown where everything was and if we got hungry who to call. The room was a nice older updated room though a bit dusty. There was a dead spider in the jet bathtub. The sheets were clean and the bed was comfy. Before falling asleep we discovered that this was a timeshare scheme and that the breakfast walk through was a sales pitch.
The next morning we went to do the breakfast and the walk through. Isdro told us that since we stayed the night that we would only have to do a 60 minute presentation that would include breakfast. This was perfect for our time schedule; but it did not happened. Once we checked in for the breakfast, we were told it we would have to stay for 90 minutes. When we expressed our outrage at being lied to and our time table being messed up. We told them that we just wanted our money back then be on our way. We were offered $ 20.00 instead of the $ 100.00. This was upsetting to us however we were told that we could skip the breakfast to make the appointment move quicker. We agreed. We were introduced to a seller from Puerto Rico whom we told straight up that we were not interested in purchasing a time share because my family already had one and my friend had a condo in Tampa. He said he understood and that he wouldn’t up our time so much that our time table would be back on track. This was a lie.
We ended up sitting with this guy for over an hour talking about nonsense and that this place wasn’t for us. We agreed with him each time and told him when he was getting close to the hour mark. He then started giving us the tour… The tour took 30 minutes and then we sat down with this guy who continued to do the sales pitch despite us telling him repeatedly that we were not interested and him agreeing that this place wasn’t for us. He did the sales pitch in this very crowded and extremely loud room. After the first offer of $ 50k for a place and the refusal of such he brought a «manager» over who reduced the price down to $ 9k. He said on three different occasions that he was going to get an individual who would close the account. Each time he made some offer told him no again. The sharp decrease in the price just shows how seedy these people are. After the fourth time of getting an individual who does the closing he actually brought her back and she made repeated statements that made my friend and I feel uncomfortable. Finally an hour after we were told that all of this was to be done by we were given the money we spent back.
An okay room was not worth all the lies and stress that this place put us through. A couple of days after the stay, I noticed that Ross Isdro charged my credit card twice for the same amount. I immediately called the place and was told to speak with an Ann Marie. She was not available and I had to leave a voicemail. I did not receive a return call. I called back a little over a week later and this Ann Marie refused to speak with me. I had to speak with an underling of hers who was not authorized to fix this mess. After being placed on hold a handful of times she finally picked up the phone to just hang up on me. I had to start from square one. Eventually I ended up on the phone with her twenty minutes later and probably empty promises that she will get the extra charge refunded to my credit card.
I certainly will not be contacting this company for a timeshare ever due to how my friend and I were so poorly mistreated.

By far the worst place that I have ever stayed in my many years of travel! Some of the staff nice but they are all a bit on the slow side. We arrived at Westgate around 9:15pm. It took the girl at the front desk over a half hour just to get us checked in. We get to our room, dropped our stuff off and ran out to WalMart. When we got back we went to put our food away and there was a bug, which we believed to be a small roach, which ran extremely fast out of the sink, down the front of the cabinet and under the fridge. We then noticed that there were a ton of little ants covering the counter between the wall and the sink. Also, the light in the bathroom was out and so was the one over the couch. I called the front desk to have our room changed. We waited 45 minutes and nothing… I called again only to be told that the request didn’t make it past the front desk. It is now around 11:45pm. After waiting another 20 minutes we finally get our room switched. Let me throw in that our room (s) looked NOTHING like the pictures on the website! They were outdated and looked like the set of a ’80’s porn movie-​AWFUL! Our 2^nd room was filthy! I made yet another WalMart run and purchased Lysol wipes. The wipes were actually brown after wiping down the kitchenette cabinets, nightstands, vanity area and all of the light switches — GROSS!!! Unbeknownst to me, my boyfriend found a very large dead roach on the floor in front of the fridge. He didn’t tell me about this until we got home because he knew I would request yet another room and it was already 12:30am. Oh and the TV picture was snowy in both rooms. Not a clear picture to be had! One could look right into our room because the vertical blinds that «covered» our window & sliding glass door didn’t shut properly and had large gaps on the sides. I used the extra bed sheets as curtains to cover them. And they do not clean your room so don’t bother letting them in after you’ve checked in. They only replace towels (which were stained with god knows what!), toilet paper, tissues and paper towels. The cleaning crew starts bright and early also so don’t plan on sleeping past 8am because they talk, actually they yell, back and forth to each other through the echoing halls.
As far as the Smokehouse Grill goes… The service was TERRIBLE! We went for breakfast Saturday morning only to wait until we were halfway finished our meal for a waitress to even get our drinks. Oh, and she bought our check with our drinks. We went Saturday night for dinner and the same thing… SLOW service! We had to track our waiter down to get our check after having been finished our meal for over 30 minutes. My boyfriend got a ½ rack of ribs and was up the entire night with, sorry, diarrhea that lasted until mid-​morning Sunday. Later on in the week a friend of mine (who had come once my boyfriend had left) got the pork taco’s and one had a large bone in it. I went for the buffet breakfast alone on the following Saturday and after getting halfway through my meal I had to flag down the ONE server that I saw to ask him for a drink. I never saw him again. I waited patiently after I had finished my meal for a server to bring me my check but nothing. I ended up going to the hostess stand telling the host that I never had a server and I wanted to pay for my meal. He apologized and didn’t make me pay for my orange juice. So kind of him (can you hear the sarcasm?).
One more thing… My friend overheard a couple asking about renting a kayak or paddle boat and the staff member told them that they don’t recommend it because they aren’t sure exactly what is in the water; insinuating that there may be alligators. Lovely right?! So much for a «Spa Resort».
I wouldn’t recommend Westgate to anyone! I would give a rate of «0» stars of Unilocal allowed it.

I checked into the hotel on Sunday January 16^th, 2016 for a single night’s stay. My initial impression was great! The staff was friendly and helpful, the room had a nice view, and it was very relaxing.
The trouble didn’t start until I checked out the next morning. I noticed when I got home that I had bites covering the left side of my body. I checked with a couple of nurses that I know and they said that the bites looked like Bed Bugs. They advised me to sterilize all of my belongings immediately, and wash all of my clothes in hot water.
I called the hotel to notify them of the problem so that at the very least they could address the issue for future guests. The woman I spoke with seemed to be quite dismissive and asked me how I knew it was their hotel where I came in contact with the bugs. I told her which room I’d stayed in, and the circumstances of my visit and consequent events, and she told me only that she would notify maintenance of the issue before saying «Have a nice day». No apology, no sense of wrongdoing on their part. No further contact has been made in regards to this issue. I HIGHLY recommend STAYING AT A DIFFERENT HOTEL.

We will break this into 2 parts…
Room — we had the updated room, nice 2 bedroom, tons of space, nice design.
The rule of 1 internet device per room for a room that can sleep 6 is ridiculous, it’s 2016. We kept kicking each other off the connection.
The sales pitch — we are owners but not this company/​resort. Because we try different places we know how it works. The first guy does his pitch and throws a price of $ 62,000! (We told him we paid $ 10k for ours). The next guy comes in and it magically drops to $ 12k!!!
After that if they would have said «free» we would have walked! A $ 50k price difference in minutes! We said no, they wanted us to «sign» our refusal… who does that?
Slime describes the sales staff.
If was doing room only again would stay no issues. Avoid all the sales pitches.

Only 4 stars because I didn’t try the amenities they have here. I love staying in villas and this is a nice one great view and lay out nice kitchen washer and dryer jacuzzi in room. It does feel like home. Rooms are clean comfy. Wifi does suck but I guess we should be spending quality time

This place boast its a five star resort, i paid good money for a week but dare not to sleep here… They have large vans shuttling in lots of … Hmm… Foreign looking workers in middle of night… Scary place!
Inside of rooms are so dated… Havent seen anything like this since early 80’s… I really would like my $$ back

Buyer beware! The good thing is that there is lots to do in Orlando, so you don’t have to spend much time on the property. The place overall is a bit rundown and dirty. And by dirty, I mean actual dirt and roaches. (We were assured by a woman in sales, that these were not the kind of roaches that will go home and infest your house… Does that make us feel better! NO).
They also have tons of staff that fly around the property in golf carts so watch out, because clearly they have the right of way-​not the guests or pedestrians!
I won’t even go into the aggressive sales people that are clearly your new BFF, until you say no, then they get up and walk away leaving you to ponder your bad choice until a new BFF comes and tries a different technique, when that doesn’t work, and your time has been wasted, you are finally and summarily dismissed.
I’m not opposed to the time share idea, but if you are in the market, just do your due diligence and read all the reviews and get a newer, properly maintained property!

I rate it a 0!!! DO NOT GO THERE!!! No tissue for
10 hours even after calling 3 times, going to talk to the manager, routined my whole vacation and my NYE!!! After complaining to the manager about the ant infested room, spiders, dirt and no tissue, still nothing was fixed! I can go on and on and on about this disgusting hotel.

This was a great place to stay. Check in staff was fantastic and very friendly.
We stayed for 2 days and wish it could of been longer. The room was huge. Beautifully updated room with kitchen. Was great. Giant sunken tub with jets and a speedster shower with both a regular shower head and a rain shower head from the ceiling. There are lots of included activities too, like mini golf, and paddle boats on the adjoining lake. When we checked in we even got a nice welcome box of cookies.
The wifi worked decent not super fast but not so slow we could t load our emails etc. It was clean, and quiet while we were there. Definitely staying there again sometime. Oh and we did not get hit up even once to do any timeshare thing.

I’m torn on this one. Our condo was incredible, really top notch, but the wi-​fi we were promised only worked for a couple of devices and was spotty at best. There was also some sort of gas leak on the property while we were there, severely limiting ones ability to enter and exit the resort. Finally, the shuttle that goes to the Disney parks actually only goes to Epcot, which is far from convenient if you’re going to Hollywood Studios or some of the other parks in Disney that are not right next to Epcot. They also tend to push the timeshare purchases pretty hard here, so be prepared for that. All in all though, I was happy with the condo we got for our stay and my family really enjoyed the vacation here.

Holy Moly there are high pressure rude sales people at this place. We went for some free/​discounted tickets in exchange for a 90 minute presentation.
Well 90 minutes is actually 180 minutes — 3 hours in reality. 3 hours of a pushy saleswoman, then an even worse «manager» explaining why «owning» a week of vacation is worth $ 40,000 dollars. Add in the maintenance fee and you bought yourself a $ 200/​month loan payment for the next 20 years. Are they friggin crazy? I guess somebody has to pay for the managers Rolex and gaudy diamond rings. Bad deal period.
Eventually, I had to close my eyes during the 2^nd manager presentation so he would stop pressuring and insulting me for being so dumb for only wanting to spend a $ 100/​night for a great hotel room instead of buying a $ 200/​month payment plan with them. I told him I would open my eyes when he would stop with his nonsense, which worked!
After the first two sales people, they leave you off with yet another sales person that tries to sell you 6 nights at their resort for $ 795, but only if you act today. Mind you the 6 nights can’t be used during holidays or other times when you would normally go on vacation. PASS!
The third sales person directed us to the elevator and that was it! We had to ask a few people downstairs where to get our tickets as nobody was helping us anymore. There were a half dozen of us timeshare abandoned people walking around looking for their tickets.
After getting your tickets — they give you an extra bonus, but only after you would consider spending another 90 minutes on another day to review their private website package that gives you the $ 795 6 night package anytime you want for only $ 499. They won’t tell you how much website membership costs though. What a joke!!! Do they think people are this stupid?
They then left us 2 miles from our car and we had to wait 15 minutes for a shuttle — good thing it wasn’t raining. It was a good time to exchange our experience with the other people for a good laugh. The driver was laughing with us, because he hears the same thing every day and feels for us. Only the people that buy in, get an immediate ride back and don’t have to wait outside for a shuttle. Most expensive ride of their life!
We saved some money on tickets, but was it worth it? I would rather donate plasma than do this again.
Avoid at all costs. If you are looking to get a time share go elsewhere or buy one from somebody that is practically giving it away because it is just a maintenance payment for them.
Almost forgot — the free lunch they provided were dollar store hot dogs and stale corn chips in a bowl that my kids wouldn’t even eat. Yuck!
During the tour, we didn’t see one smiling owner on the property so I would say this is the unhappiest place in Orlando next to the happiest place in Orlando.

I’m giving this company a ZERO, this is a fancy pretty elegant time share to swoop you up and give you the perks right?
No — this is a company that is shady, manipulative and a lie. My parents vacationed back in August were offered a hotel stay and accommodation with this resort– they scheduled to come here for Christmas time. Yayaya awesome wonderful exciting right? It’s two weeks to Christmas — guess who calls? WESTGATE «we are Calling to confirm your stay with us» yes we say we are excited we say”.WAIT: I stop and pause realizing all I have is a confirmation number maybe I should double check since my parents made the reservations with this company in August.
We call and guess what? The call to confirm not even 4 hours prior– was «a mistake» the reservation that my parents paid for four or five months prior– wasn’t accepted. BUT you can take our credit card information to charge us right? And on top of that when I ask what would have happened if we would have showed up on Christmas Day for the hotel stay we had an understanding and confirmation to enter, they would have turned us around with no where to stay and no refund to receive. It blows my mind how a company will lie about their policy and what they offer — to steal it from you, deny you the truth until they get caught and are trapped against a wall. I’m only happy I called right after the company called me to verify a few extra questions I had for our stay– only to find out that they were going to slam the door in our face when we arrived.
This company is a sham, the saying «looks can be deceiving» definitely suits this. The representative refused to give me a supervisor or manager– saying they don’t have one. As well as saying that the corporate office has a fax number only and could not give me an address that wasn’t the resorts. Be aware — don’t get caught up with the excitement of planning a vacation with a business who makes employers lie to make a sale.

My friends and I had picked this place because it was pretty centralized between the two parks we would like to go to (Epcot and Universal). We had called before hand and they said they had complimentary shuttles for the parks.
We had booked this hotel with flight as part of a package on Expedia. Pretty well priced. For the 3 of us from Las Vegas, total was about $ 1k. 2 night stay at this resort + flights averaging 300 a person. Heck of a deal at about $ 50 a night. We had the mentality, eh just to sleep. Shouldn’t be too bad. To be honest, i didnt think the resort was so large by the pictures on expedia. Upon arrival, i was surprised.
It is a huge resort, similar to what i’ve had in Cancun. Multiple buildings, wide-​spread. «Shuttle» available to pick you up at your building to bring back to lobby (except cancun were golf carts and u can call them directly to you, and easily available at lobby too). At westgate, its a shuttle bus that circles around the property, so timing may not be in your favor, sometimes.
At first, during booking, im pretty sure we had called to ask if airport shuttle was available. Upon arrival to MCO Orlando Airport, apparently they do not, but will arrange one through Caesar’s Transportations that costs like $ 60. We ended up taking a taxi to the hotel from MCO. Costed a little over $ 50. Shuttles to Epcot and Universal is complimentary, which previous reservation at concierge/​VIP services, at specific scheduled times.
Upon arrival to hotel, because we had a red-​eye flight, we arrived early in the morning. We had feared that we’d have to give our baggage to be held by the bell desk, if they didnt let us check in, but fortunately, they had a few clean and ready rooms.
We had booked a 1 bedroom studio for the 3 of us. Huge room with king size bed, and pull out bed sofa, with microwave and small fridge. Restroom was quite large as well with a jacuzzi type bath tub and walk in shower. Also a balcony with mosquite netted «windows»
Wifi is included but limited to 1 device at a time. And super slow. Surfing and checking email only.
Resort had multiple pools throughout the vacinity and volleyball courts, among other things
Highly recommended resort to stay at or highly consider when looking for a place to stay. As i said previously, taxi costed about $ 50. A trip back to the airport by Über costed barely over $ 20. Keep that in mind ! If only über picked up at the airport :(

We purchased a stay here for two nights through an Expedia package (hotel stay + flight). All the photos looked nice and it was nice. It was bigger than I’ve ever been used to when I stay at a hotel during my vacations. Walking was a pain for me even though they had a bus shuttle but sometimes the waiting game just doesn’t work out. It can’t be helped much since it’s a big resort. That’s probably the only thing I can think of that was a major hindrance for me.
Aside from that, CHECK-​IN was a breeze. We got there pretty early since we had a red eye flight. They were able to check us into a room early so we got in some shuteye before heading to Epcot.
Wifi is provided however it is quite slow and you are only able to use one device at a time. No airport shuttle so please arrange for your own transportation.
The room was pretty decently sized. The bathroom was large and it had a nice big tub for us to soak our feet in after a long day at the parks. We’re a party of 3 so the large one bed and the pullout sofa was plenty of sleeping space for us. Thumbs up there!
They offer complimentary shuttles to and from Epcot and Universal Studios. Sign up beforehand via VIP Services so you can get the shuttle slip.

Amazing place to stay with a large family on vacation! Booked the 3 bdrm villa on a timeshare getaway and everyone was quite impressed with the room accommodations. It was basically a single story house with full kitchen, laundry and dryer, balcony, dining area and living room. For a family of 7 adults in a villa that sleeps 12 comfortably this was way more than enough. Pictures from the Interval World (timeshare exchange) site were true to its description.
The place was clean and updated. We had a back building away from the pool noise. It’s close to Universal, Disneyworld, Seaworld and International Drive. Resort traffic and parking was not bad, but we did stay the first week of November right after Halloween and before Thanksgiving. I think that makes a difference.
Don’t get me wrong though, we’re not rich. Retail for a week would have cost us $ 9000 off season. We paid a very small fraction of that being an outside timeshare owner. Did however do a timeshare presentation for their Westgate properties (for discount park tickets). I don’t trust any rep that says you can profit from a timeshare. That’s not generally how timeshares work and what they’re used for. You profit from experiences. I’ll sell you on that!
Our rep stated, «I make 200,000 a year. You’re not wasting my time if you say no… Buy here and you’re guaranteed 10 000 back a year.» Sleazy douche liar. That’s a straight up no to you right there. If it sounds too good then… yea, right. Nice place though. I’ll stay here and NOT buy thank you very much.

I was very disappointed with my stay here. The check in process was ok but that’s where it ends. DO NOT sign into their WiFi. They will charge you $ 40 per device. That’s crazy. The resort is a little old and needs a face lift. Our room was ok but had an old feel. Our was hard and not good for sleeping or other adult activities. The shower and whirlpool were good. The whirlpool doesn’t felt two people comfortably. The location is good for Universal Studios and several restaurants. I probably won’t be back but if the price is lower maybe.

My husband and I recently stayed here three nights in building 700 for a wedding. While the room was clean, the overall property is a ZOO of people at all hours of the day. Trying to navigate around the property in a vehicle is next to impossible with the endless amounts of foot traffic, golf carts, and shuttle buses.
Pros:
Private lanai
Cold air conditioning
Shuttle service around property (was great for wedding functions)
Cons:
WAY too many people on this property
Not enough parking
Extremely loud music coming from the pool all day (I found it hard to nap)
Very limited food options on property, pizza delivery was slow and food was bad
Wifi was weak
Soaking tub in the middle of our room was oddly placed and often in the way

My inlaws have a place here… and overall. fine but not a huge fan of this place… even when they upgrade the old ones with new appliances and counter tops, the place still feels pretty dingy. All the pools can be pretty gross or filled depending on the days…
People watching here is hilarious… a lot of good action.
I do love the overall location, close to things… and the little lake with paddle boating and putt putt, etc. on site is a great bonus.

Riesiges Mittelklasse Resort mit 7 Swimmingpools. Die Lage ist klasse, es liegt in der Mitte von allem aber zum Glück nicht direkt am International Drive.
Endlich mal ein Zimmer in dem man die Klimaanlage praktisch nicht hört! Ausserdem keine Primitiv-​Anlage sondern eine Temperatur Regelung. Jakuzzi im Bad, Kühlschrank, Mikrowelle, etc.
Hier kann man es aushalten. Ich würde dieses Resort jedem Hotel am International Drive vorziehen.