We stayed here for 11 nights for our ‘once in a lifetime’ holiday - us, our daughter and her husband and their 4 children, aged 5 to 11 years. From the first minute we knew we had made the right choice with the villa; it was perfect.
It is very well equipped, there was nothing we needed for our holiday that wasn’t provided. It was clean, spacious, decorated in a fresh and relaxing style and felt truly like a home from home. The beds were comfortable and there were masses of beautifully clean and fluffy towels.
There were bicycles, pushchairs, wheelchair, barbecue, pool toys, washer, dryer, dishwasher, ceiling fans, air conditioning, plenty of coat hangers, gorgeous toiletries, super-equipped kitchen and tons of space. If it could be picked up and put down in England we would buy it!
There were welcoming messages and treats from the owners and the pool was ready to dive into. The children spent so much time in the pool it’s a wonder they didn't shrink!
Emerald Island is a very neat and tidy complex with beautifully kept grounds of flower borders, palm trees and lakes with fountains. Staff at the centre were helpful and friendly. We didn’t use the clubhouse area as much as anticipated but that was only because the villa had everything we wanted. It felt very safe, we had some concerns before we went about alligators, bears etc. But we didn’t encounter any wildlife except a couple of armadillo who came to the back fence in the evenings which we thought was charming.
We planned the holiday to be Florida rather than Disney but we did visit some of the parks which we enjoyed in varying degrees. It was an easy drive from the villa to just about everything and we felt that when we arrived back at Emerald Island that we were home. It was just far enough away from the parks to make it seem a day out, but not so far that the children didn’t enjoy the travelling.
The rodeo (Silver Spurs) was in everyone’s top 3 - highly recommended, followed by Discovery Cove, Aquatica and Animal Kingdom. The Magic Kingdom came way down the list!
Locally, there was every kind of food available and we developed a taste for Taco Bell, tried American MacDonalds to see if it was the same! We has a great meal at Red Lobster, cooked our own meals sometimes and barbecued a few times. Golden Corral was a great ‘eat all you can’ place for breakfast -
The owners, Joe and Denise, couldn’t have been more helpful and we all want to thank them for giving us all such a fabulous holiday,