Magic Tree Resort Timeshare Release

This facility was re-faced from a motel-style old holiday inn facility.

We got a two bedroom which took us a good 2 mins to discover the 2nd bedroom which was actually a door through our master bathroom into the 2nd bathroom and then into the 2nd bedroom and living room area and kitchen.

The living room area was VERY cramped with a glass table pushed right up under the counter for the kitchen. The 4th chair for the table couldn’t even hold around the table. We had to keep it in the corner somewhere and then one of us had to stand in the kitchen eating at the counter if we wanted to be apart of the others sitting at the table.

As you know Florida could be very hot. There was A/C running, but it only blew cold in the living room and kitchen space, but very little in the 2nd bedroom, and hardly any a/c air in the master bedroom. Sleeping was unbearable because of this and we had to have the fan going on high, the A/C turned to to very cold in order to sleep ok. So the family member that was sleeping in the pull out sofa in the living room was freezing because the temp on the A/C had to be turned town very cold, while we had to turn the fan on high in the master bedroom.

The showerhead intensity could not be adjusted, so each time we took a shower, the water came out forcefully and it felt like fine needles to the body when showering.

The one thing we really enjoyed was the pool. Even though it was very small, we did appreciate that it had a depth of 8 feet at one side. We would have rated the pool horrible if it had the typical 5 or 6 feet maximum depth. The Jacuzzi was pretty ok.

Oh, and the location the “resort” is direct neighbors to WalMart. So if shopping at walmart super store is your thing, you’ll be happy you can walk to walmart. If it isn’t your thing, you’ll be annoyed to see the huge traffic to and from and IN the walmart 24/7 as ridiculously high, giving you the feel as if you are staying in a location associated with high traffic and combustion.

So if I were you, I would find somewhere else to stay if you wanted somewhere nice. If none of the things mentioned above bothers you, then Magic Tree “resort” is your place to be.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not made or upset at the staff (even though one or two of them were salty) neither am I upset at the company for providing a service to the community, I just wish I was aware of what we were walking into before we got there so we could have found an alternative.

Hope this honest review helps

We were offered a week in Orlando through our travel exchange and only had 2 or 3 choices of resorts.

Magic Tree had the dates available that we needed, so we booked with them. Reading the reviews here gave us confidence that it would be a good experience. Was also encouraged that several posters got rooms in the renovated section.

So that was the first thing I asked when checking in–could we get a room in renovated section? After some hesitation, we were told by the desk clerk that only owners were put in that section. Fair enough, but it certainly didn’t sound like those individuals that posted on here about the renovated section were owners. At first look you can tell that this place was originally an old 70’s motel.

It was turned into a resort by apparently combining rooms .

Don’t get me wrong everything is clean, but it is dated–down to the latch and chain on the doors. The unit is long, from the parking lot end which is the sleeping area, to the living room end near the pool. If you want the best wifi in the unit you must use it on the pool end.

I tried streaming on Netflix on my tablet while resting in bed and it plays for a few minutes then disconnects. Lastly in this day and age of HD tv you don’t expect snowy pictures on old tvs. That is exactly what we got.

Maybe nitpicky but with the absolute glut of resorts in the Orlando area we won’t be staying in this one again.

DO NOT USE YOUR TIMESHARE POINTS ON THIS LOVE SHACK!!!

I will start from the beginning. We arrived on a Thursday evening, there was a customer at the desk that was supposed to check out on Sunday, but she was leaving at that minute that was clue #1. My wife went to check us in, the front desk clerk says to her “you have the best room in the place! it overlooks the pool in the courtyard”.

The same front desk clerk said the same thing to the people that are vacationing with us as well. Well, in this particular hotel all the rooms face the pool.

This place is no more than a motel where they knocked out the attached room’s wall and added a kitchen and living area. What she did not say is the other side of your room overlooks an abandoned self-storage facility.

As we were going to the room, I said to my wife “this place reminds me of my military dorm I stayed in when I was stationed in Guam back in the early 90’s”. NEWS FLASH!!! Those dorms were torn down and replaced in the late 90’s/early 2000. When we walked into the room, I could picture Blanch, Rose, Dorothy and Sophia sitting their eating cheese cake. I say this because the furniture looks like they got it whole sale when The Golden Girls was canceled back in the 80’s. From the rot iron and glass dinette set and floral patterned chair to the marble topped wicker coffee table.

We immediately did the same thing the other customer had done and made other hotel arrangements for our vacation.

Saturday morning we packed up our things and moved to our new hotel. I’m writing this review from another resort where we are now staying in a two bedroom suite and I’m sitting on the screened in deck overlooking a golf course. Please do not get me wrong, I know some people’s standards, affordability and economic situations are VERY different.

However, in my opinion this place does not meet the standard of any Timeshare I’ve stayed in. If you are paying good money for Timeshare points/membership you would and should expect more than what Magic Tree “The Last” Resort offers. This place falls well short of hitting the mark for Timeshare properties in this area.

We stayed at this resort for this first time for using our timeshare for the first time and was at first impressed with staff, the pool (fabulous), and what we thought to be a clean room (despite the room being stuck in the 1980’s and the room smelling that of a retirement home.

Fast forward to the next day we found sugar ants to the left of the refrigerator and our son had peed the bed due to spillage of his night time pullup. Thinking the staff had placed the waterproof mattress we requested two days prior started stripping the bed and found a baby silverfish (we later found out was still alive). We called the front desk and asked to exchange rooms due to silverfish and sugar ants. Staff unfortunately had to asking operating Manager Steve for permission.

This is when we started contacting interval international and later the owners of Tricore Management, LLC to get transferred to another timeshare and lodge complaints to the owners and maybe even BBB. Steve had to be called by staff, would not even talk to us, and relayed, “if you have a problem you can check out because I do not care what you or interval international has to say. You will sleep there tonight in your room and we can talk in the morning if you still have complaints.” Needless to say we immediately called interval international and, to their credit, immediately checked us out and put us in a 5 star resort in Orlando.

To Magic Tree’s front desk staff and maintenance they did as much as they could with the powers they were given.

Needless to say, we vote Interval International remove Magic Tree from their list of properties if Steve and whomever he MAY of consulted with (if anybody) until Steve (and possible consultants) are replaced. We also vote the front desk and maintenance be the managers or have the power to exchange rooms.

Kudos again to interval international for stepping and doing what was right in this senseless matter that could have bee handled at much lower management levels.

First off, the owners of the Magic Tree Resort need to realize that simply having a few palm trees on your property does not make you a “resort.” Magic Tree is, at best, a motel, and I’ve stayed in much nicer motels than this one.

As soon as we walked into our unit after check-in, we were greeted with what amounted to patio furniture in the living room and plastic glasses on the kitchen counter (the kind they serve you soda in at pizzerias). The bed was not comfortable, and the shower magically changes water temperature at random, going anywhere from scalding to frigid and everywhere in between.

The walls are paper-thin, so that you can hear entire conversations word-for-word that are occurring either outside or in the adjacent unit. One potentially fun game to play would be to listen to two people jabbering outside your unit, and then saying to them, without even having to get out of bed, something along the lines of: “That’s really interesting. Fred really was a jerk for doing that,” or “I hope your syphillis gets better soon!”

Unfortunately, at 4am each night, the garbage truck comes by to empty out the bins, and you’re stuck lying there listening to the clanking of metal for a while until the truck leaves and you can finally make a real attempt to go back to sleep in your uncomfortable bed.

But don’t let terrible facilities discourage you from staying! There are all sorts of perks on site! The Magic Tree was nice enough to provide all units with a VCR (for younger readers, that acronym stands for “Videocassette recorder”), and their lobby area contains a library of VHS movies for you to check out. It was truly eye opening. Until Magic Tree, I didn’t know that Lord of the Rings on VHS even EXISTED. I’m kind of a vinyl guy myself, but someone must have checked out all the records already.

For New Years Eve, Magic Tree hosts a party, but it’s of the bring your own food/drink variety. We passed on the party. It was a tough choice between ringing in 2012 at Magic Tree or Epcot, and Epcot *just* edged out Magic Tree.

When checking out, you are REQUIRED to fill out a survey about how good/bad you’d rate your experience at Magic Tree. When I tried to decline the survey, I was told that it was mandatory. I have 2 points to make about this: (1) Forcing someone to fill out a survey is perhaps not the most effective method to earn a positive review; and (2) If your “resort” is this poor, why would you be this adamant about wanting to get reviewed? If it were me, I’d be getting guests to sign confidentiality agreements barring them from telling anyone what Magic Tree was really like.

Bottom Line: If you want a good experience, go to the Vistana Resort. That’s actually a resort, and a nice one at that. As for Magic Tree, it’s perfect for you if you (1) dislike sleeping, (2) love the excitement of not knowing what the water temperature will be from minute to minute, and (3) love eavesdropping on others