Marriott’s Lakeshore Reserve Timeshare

My visit at this property focused on some confusion I had with my room rate. Recently, there have been system issues with the SPG merger and I had difficulty booking a certain rate that this resort had published and available on its website. As a result, my rate was incorrect at check-in.

What’s disappointing to me is that their front desk manager and property team decided to “stick to their guns” and not assist me with this rate issue. Their first excuse was “we don’t adjust rates here” as if they were powerless to do something. Later the reasoning from the manager was “I don’t see the rate.” Finally, I was given a hard “no”.

Overall, I found the team here casual, unmotivated and not really interested in trying to solve my problem. My advice to the team here is to take your guests word for it and work to solve problems. Don’t be stubborn and push back just because.

Lastly, do more to seek an available room at check-in. The staff there stand at the desk all day at check-in time saying I have to wait for a room because their computer says nothing is available. Why not call housekeeping and check so all those guests waiting don’t have to be inconvenienced? It’s all about service — and it’s lacking here. Make the effort and try harder.

We have been Marriott timeshare owners for 12 years, in both Europe and Thailand. We come to Florida about once every 18 months and have stayed at Grande Vista, Cypress Harbour, Harbour Lakes, Sabal Palms and now Lakeshore. We had very high expectations and on many levels, these were met. The resort is beautifully landscaped and the pool is nice. For us we would have liked some deeper areas for lengths etc. and we found there were too many inflatables being ‘driven’ by some slightly manic kids at times. We also thought that having the pool close at 11pm is too late, and with our unit right next to the pool, we were treated to screaming kids as our own were trying to get to sleep. The units are well appointed with some good equipment, the grills were great and always available when we wished. But, the main issues we had were:

1. Be sure when you speak with owner services, especially in Europe that they recognise that this property has the most configurations of units in the whole portfolio. Their ignorance meant that our 4 consecutive reservations (waitlisted days here, there and everywhere) were split across 3 different types of unit, and the property had expected us to move between them throughout our 2 week stay!!! Thankfully this came to light before we arrived, and I was able to sort it out with a very helpful front desk team member, but we ended up in a lock-off which we did not want – and had not requested (we wanted a dedicated unit), but it was that or move throughout our stay!

2. The air conditioning. Grrr! In the smaller, lock off studio section of our two-bed unit the air was turbo assisted and had the room freezing in minutes, BUT the one in the main unit could not cope with the unit size, and every single night of our stay we struggled to sleep. The living area was fine, but the bedroom was just lacklustre and was far too warm for us, and with big heavy duvets, we tossed and turned for 14 nights. I reported this twice, and twice they came, fiddled about, but no improvement. It fascinates me as an owner in Thailand, that they can have their units icy cold in minutes, with outstanding air con, but here it seemed to be beyond the property’s capabilities.

3. The internet. One word – PATCHY! I have not been around an MVCI pool for many many years where I can’t get a decent wifi signal. Apparently, they don’t have routers around the pool here. For those of us that are not US citizens, we can’t pay the huge roaming costs and therefore can’t use our technology whilst relaxing by the pool. Again, lightning fast poolside wifi in Thailand, and not here. How does that work!!? In addition, the wifi in the rooms again dropped out constantly – again reported, again no resolution. I just don’t think it’s good enough.

4. The telephones. Neither of the telephones in our unit works. The handset on one didn’t work, they fixed it, and now it works 50% of the time – the phone in the bedroom does not work at all – the other person can’t hear me at all!

For us, the property lacked real atmosphere… We actually prefer the older resorts, and when we return late next year we’ll be returning to Cypress Gardens, a property, in our opinion, comfortable in its own skin.

We stayed at Lakeshore Reserve booking through Marriott for cash, not through the timeshare system.

First the pros: The unit itself was lovely. A three-bedroom villa. New, landscaping is lovely. The pool was nice. The marketplace was handy. The main hotel was an easy walk from the villa, which was very nice to have for dinner. The entire property is very nice.

Now the cons:

1. The resort is not in a great section of Orlando. It’s not bad, but you should be careful about driving in certain directions. It’s also not particularly convenient in terms of driving to the parks.

2. Traffic noise. You can hear John Young Parkway noise on the property. The unit itself was very quiet, but I didn’t enjoy the traffic noise outside. Detracted from that vacation feel.

3. Marketplace: Didn’t have a lot stocked. The cheese sticks had white crud on them. Just seemed half-empty and kind of depressing, even though space itself was nice.

4. Villa location: We were in the farther townhouse building from the main hotel. I would have preferred a villa closer to the pool and the main hotel.

5. Housekeeping:

I agree with the other complaints on here about the 10 am checkout, it is ridiculous.

We also didn’t get housekeeping service one day at all by the time we returned from the parks at 4 pm. When I called to inquire, the front desk was rude, and said, “We had a lot of units checking out today.” This is not my problem and this is something that should never, ever be said to a customer. She offered to send someone over but by that time, I had already started washing the towels, etc. Again, when you are paying cash, and daily housekeeping is part of that fee, it is absolutely 100% unacceptable to come back to a villa that has not been serviced by 4 p.m. This was probably the deal breaker for me that would stop me from coming back again.

Summary:
Had some good points, mainly that the villa itself was nice. But I would not return to this property. Based on the cash price through Marriott, they did not deliver a resort experience equivalent to the prices they are charging. The housekeeping issues were the last straw.

We have been to Lakeshore Reserve two years ago and we jumped at the chance of staying there again.

Having booked a suite with one month in advance, and as a silver elite member we always request high floor rooms, we arrived to find there was only one room, ground floor, bedroom without a single WINDOW, and a porch looking to the bushes! No use asking for any other room, more expensive or not!

So, booking this hotel means no booking at all.

Grounds are magnificent, though.