Hotel Review: Holiday Inn Club Vacations at Orange Lake Resort, Orlando

Holiday Inn Club Vacations at Orange Lake Resort, Orlando at Halloween is ideal for family-friendly fun whether you’re headed to Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party or staying in. Spread over 1,450 acres and ideally located next to Walt Disney World Parks® and Animal Kingdom, families will enjoy a multitude of entertainment options at their doorstep. An 80-acre lake with watersports, 12-acre waterpark, seven swimming pools, four golf courses, mini-golf, a kid’s center and lots of Halloween-themed activities mean never running out of things to do at this ultra family-friendly resort.

What Works for Families at Holiday Inn Club Vacations at Orange Lake Resort, Orlando

• Spacious 1-3 bedroom villas with full kitchen, separate dining and living areas, furnished balcony or patio
• All rooms non-smoking

• 

  Free shuttle service around property

• Central location, close to theme parks and other major attractions
• Purchase tickets to all local attractions on-site with no extra fees
• Family-friendly resort offering multiple playgrounds, video arcades, a wading pool, water slides including the world’s largest inflatable water slide, lazy river, zero-entry pool and bumper boats
• Full schedule of kids and family activities offered at no extra charge, including the Gatorland Show (meet a real alligator), pool games, dive-in movies, crafts, nature walks, scavenger hunts, field games and more.
• Halloween activities: Halloween Bingo, pumpkin painting, face-painting, costume parade and contest, Graveyard Dig on the beach (for candy), family movie night and more
• Parent’s Night Out and Kid’s Camp each offered once a week (fee required)
• 10 on-property dining options including a weekly comedy and dinner show
• Live entertainment and interactive games at the nightly Sunset Celebration

What Doesn’t Work for Families at Holiday Inn Club Vacations at Orange Lake Resort, Orlando

• No daily housekeeping service as this is a vacation ownership property. However, our 2-bedroom villa did have a washer and dryer and there are laundry facilities near all units

Average Nightly Cost (Sept-Nov 2014)

• From $93 for a standard room with 2 double beds up to $148 for a 2-bedroom villa
• Includes WiFi, free local phone calls, unlimited use of three on-site fitness centers and on-property shuttle service

The Details

Our six-year-old, Reagan was thrilled with all the planned indoor and outdoor activities on Halloween and the staff was great about keeping all the kids entertained. The Graveyard Dig was the highlight of the day with the sun setting over Bay Lake as tiny, little super heroes, kitty cats and princesses combed the beach looking for buried treasure. Swampy (Orange Lake’s mascot) even made an appearance and took pictures with each of them.

Holiday Inn Club Vacations at Orange Lake Resort fit our budget for an Orlando vacation without going to the theme parks for Halloween night. We chose to trick-or-treat in the nearby Walt Disney Company developed community of Celebration following the Graveyard Dig. Normally, a less-than-15-minute drive from the resort, plan at least an hour on Halloween night to get into the neighborhood and find a parking spot on the street. For this reason and more, I would advise against Celebration for trick-or-treating. It is more of a teen hangout location on Halloween than one for trick-or-treating with small children. Most of the residents doors were dark and those that were handing out candy were far and few between making for a lot of walking.

We loved Holiday Inn Club Vacations at Orange Lake Resort’s proximity to so many Orlando attractions while feeling so secluded on such an enormous property. We spent one day at Universal Studios, but made sure to leave before nighttime and Halloween Horror Nights began. We visited Ripley’s Believe it Or Not Museum on another day when the pools were closed because of rain. Both attractions are just 30 minutes from the resort.

The Hotel

The property of Holiday Inn Club Vacations at Orange Lake Resort was immaculately maintained. It is green and lush, with gorgeous landscaping details throughout. We never had the chance to enjoy the pools, slides and lazy river as it rained the day we had planned to use them, but we visited them on our way out to see what we missed. Just like the rest of the property, they were spectacular with lots of attention to detail; even in the colorful signage.

The Rooms

Our Holiday Inn Club Vacations at Orange Lake Resort was on the 3^rd floor in the East Village. We were happy to have a large elevator to accommodate us, and all our bags. There was plenty of parking too, which meant not having to walk far.

Our villa was so much larger than I was expecting. It even had completely separate dining and living rooms and a master bathroom so big, it had a separate shower and Whirpool tub. The décor was fresh, and everything was clean and orderly. The full kitchen was well stocked with dishes, pots and pans, small appliances and everything else we could need. Our full-size refrigerator even had an icemaker. We never had need for it because our stay was short, but it was nice to have a washer and dryer in our unit as well.

We slept well on our King size bed, which had more luxurious bedding than I’ve experienced at other vacation ownership resorts. Our room was quiet and there were no disturbances heard throughout our stay.

Amenities

I wish we had had an opportunity to experience the resort’s major amenities: the pools and slides. As you can see, they are quite spectacular. Be prepared to pay for use of the water floats and tubes, or you can bring your own.

Dining

No need to go off property with 10 dining locations on-site. Options include a pizzeria, sports bar and grill, poolside bar and grill, a cafe and full-service restaurants. We enjoyed burgers and fries at Breeze’s Waters Edge Restaurant where many of the kid’s activities were held. Expect resort prices, which is why we prepared most of our meals in our own kitchen. One evening we treated ourselves to ice cream at the Marketplace, which also serves Starbucks and opens at 6:30 am.

My trip was sponsored by Holiday Inn Club Vacations, who provided a two-night stay. We paid for all other activities mentioned outside the resort.  This post is solely my opinion and based on my experience without outside influence.