Orange Lake From Over Yonder

[JLB Please excuse me, I'm a Dick. Not a moron just a Dick Find all posts View Profile Close JLB]

http://www.tugbbs.com/forums/showthread.php?t=22879

[riverdees05 Platinum Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close riverdees05]

We own at Orange Lake, it was our first purchase and from the developer. I think that we compare all our others to it for a base line. We have used our unit twice, exchanged back into it once, and will do it again in October and have traded about 4 times. We get fair trades with it. I would say of the 10 timeshares we own, that it is in the upper 30 percent. Maybe as owners we were lucky in our one trade to get in the East Village, where we own - same building and same floor. It is hard for some owners to be as objective and rate units the same for owned and exchanged into - probably why they list if you are an ower or not.

[JLB Please excuse me, I'm a Dick. Not a moron just a Dick Find all posts View Profile Close JLB]

The snootiness continues~~~Post #6.

http://www.tugbbs.com/forums/showthread.php?t=23724

BTW, I'd be happy to discuss the new Mud Island Pig Slop area at The Slimy Slough BarBQ, Hot Tub and Bud Light Resort, but only with other owners. We don't want any outside riff-raff to be polutin our thinkin.

[BocaBum99 Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close BocaBum99]

The snootiness continues~~~Post #6.

http://www.tugbbs.com/forums/showthread.php?t=23724

BTW, I'd be happy to discuss the new Mud Island Pig Slop area at The Slimy Slough BarBQ, Hot Tub and Bud Light Resort, but only with other owners. We don't want any outside riff-raff to be polutin our thinkin.

I was surprised at that response. We were having a reasonable dialog and then that post.

I wonder what is so secret about opinions on a survey?

[tonyg Goomba & Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close tonyg]

They don't want anyone else to know about the water thing.

[JLB Please excuse me, I'm a Dick. Not a moron just a Dick Find all posts View Profile Close JLB]

I'm not surprised at all. Vickie is very snooty about OL, to the point of having to defend it at all costs. Whenever she sees three intitials it sets her off.

She's probably still upset that I voted on the smoking ban survey, more than once.

There's no sense talking to the Mods and admins about it because they do not seem to see it. But I have gotten more than a few emails about her, from folks saying they are glad to see me there providing some balance.

It gets so deep sometimes that I feel like I need to put on some hip boots.

I have concluded that it is not OL per se, that evokes this type of mother-hen-ness, but it is just that certain individuals are that way, to the exclusion of anyone who dares to think differently than them. There are a couple who have defended Westgate, although they don't as much as they used to. perhaps the preponderance of evidence got to them.

Actually the way she responds just encourages folks to respond against her, which causes her to respond again, etc. Some here know that cycle.

Some think I have been cruel toward OL, but all I have ever done is reported what others have said while we were there. Folks have been much more brutal on Tripadvisor. Complete strangers I have met at other resorts who just bring OL up out of the blue have been much more critical than I have been.

The following is the first time I have ever said it, but for some reason on the thread about walking from RI to Splash Lagoon, I got this really unsafe feeling about it, actually about OL. There is really not that much security there, just an occasional white truck driving around. Orlando is not the safest place in the world to have kids, unfortunately.

There's really nothing a resort the size of OL can do to screen the thousands of people who come into it every week. I have never heard that safety and security is an issue there, but at the smaller resorts it is easier to manage. At the resorts we stay at in SW FL someone who is not supposed to be there would stand out.

It's like the morning I went around to all the swimming pools, kneeling down and placing something in the water (pool thermometer). It was the January after 9/11 and things were supposed to be on high alert. No one even gave me a second look.

Well, anyway, it's just a feeling I had reading that thread. I would certainly never let any of our youngins out of our sight at a place that big.

I was surprised at that response. We were having a reasonable dialog and then that post.

I wonder what is so secret about opinions on a survey?

[BocaBum99 Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close BocaBum99]

I guess you feel that way about OLCC because you live in the midwest where people are more civilized toward each other.

Since I live in Boca and I once worked in Miami, I find Orlando quite safe, relatively speaking.

[rapmarks Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close rapmarks]

Funny you should mention security at Orange Lake. Four years ago we made our second looking for a house trip to Florida. We booked 11 straight weeks in orlando, all of them bonus weeks. Then my mother got sick and I had to fly north and Ron would stay in Florida. My daughter was due to fly in to meet us while we were staying at Orange Lake. so we decided to take a ride over to Orange lake and talk to them about the possibility of my daughter checking in if my husband had to go north too.
We drove up to the gate and the guard just waved us in; he did not question us or anything.. We went and talked to them at the desk about the possibility of my daughter being there without us and the probability that she would not have a car. We asked for a convenient location. I did come back for this week and our location was as far from everything as could possibly be, so that shows the sensitivity toward requests.

but the point is that the guard just let us by. When I did post this on Tug a few years ago, I was accused of lying by a certain person. This was when I was a new member and didn't know that it was against the rules to say anything that could be construed as negative toward Orange Lake. In fact I didn't even know that I had made a negative remark. When someone complained about the language problem there, I remarked that my husband tried to go on the nature walk, that the guide couldn't speak English and was reading from a script, and that my husband ended up leading the walk . For this I was called a posh bottomed snob on Tug.

[BocaBum99 Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close BocaBum99]

What's important to me is getting lots of opinions and views of various timeshares and timesharing systems. I want to hear both the good and the bad. Because then, I can make my own assessment about what I should do.

Then, I like to go to the place, experience it myself and then try to capture what I experienced.

A certain amount of spin is okay as long as the other points of view are also present.

I find it more credible when a place has both good and bad reviews. After all, nobody's perfect. When the good, the bad and the ugly is presented, then the reader gets a more complete understanding of the place and it seems more real than flowered up.

[JLB Please excuse me, I'm a Dick. Not a moron just a Dick Find all posts View Profile Close JLB]

In my eight or nine years Over Yonder, I have found that folks want to hear the truth about a place, not some sugar-coated, polyanna version doled out by a prejudiced owner.

Have you noticed how she and a couple others always have a pat answer for dissatisified guests, such as, "Well, you can't please everyone," or, "if you don't like it there's plenty of other places to stay."

The "It's always a great day at OL," is wearing a little thin, too. Truthfully, it's not, not for everyone.

I just can't wait to dip my toesies in one of the pools and have a banana split. Really!?

In the walking thread, two visits ago we stayed in the first building in East Village, the one that would be closest to Splash Lagoon. No one walked from there to Splash Lagoon. No one. It's inaccurate to post that that is an easy walk when no one does.

[BocaBum99 Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close BocaBum99]

JBL,

Welcome to the pot stirrer club.

Kettle callers of the world.... unite!!!!!

You know, Katmandu does have a point. You do stir the pot when it comes to Vicki. Right?

[rapmarks Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close rapmarks]

Katmandu, I asked for one within walking distance to a pool. nothing else. It was a long walk to the trolley stop from where we were put, and i really don't think those trolleys are convenient, but that is your opinion apparently.

[tonyg Goomba & Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close tonyg]

If I recall correctly, it was one of those defenders of Orange Lake that went out of control and led TUG to do it's first ban of a member. There have been a few OL owners who got real nasty about anything said that was derrogatory. Well, I don't like Orange Lake and I'll never stay there. With so many crazy people owning there, security could really be an issue. Besides which, Sally says the Mayan Palace is the best place of all and that with no curry.

[BocaBum99 Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close BocaBum99]

If I recall correctly, it was one of those defenders of Orange Lake that went out of control and led TUG to do it's first ban of a member. There have been a few OL owners who got real nasty about anything said that was derrogatory. Well, I don't like Orange Lake and I'll never stay there. With so many crazy people owning there, security could really be an issue. Besides which, Sally says the Mayan Palace is the best place of all and that with no curry.

Does Sally own at OLCC, too? I thought she only owned at those really safe Mexican resorts. You know, where all drugs are legalized in that country and they kidnap Americans for ransom. LOL.

What's the big deal about criticizing a resort? Just because someone criticizes it doesn't mean it's bad.

I am an owner at OLCC and I don't mind when people say good things or bad things about it. I usually just want to understand why to see if that would be applicable to me. If not, I just blow it off.

[tonyg Goomba & Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close tonyg]

Well Boca, since you had to say so, I guess you bring bottled water or go out for barbeque. The way I look at it, if your resort is so good you almost never have to defend it.