- Joined
- Oct 31, 2022
- Messages
- 1,906
- Reaction score
- 1,333
- Location
- Southern Tier NY
- Resorts Owned
-
HGVC Seaworld
Wyndham Smoky Mountains
Foxrun Lake Lure
Gatlinburg Town Square
Here's an abridged version of my review from TUG2.net. Video review will follow on my youtube in a few weeks hopefully.
This is a great resort that is relatively calm and has lots to do on site and lots of scheduled events with notifications so you know the events exist. The location is OK, kind of out of the way. You do need a rental car.
Pros - Units are nice - 2BR is pretty huge - each bedroom has its own wing off the center kitchen / living room area that contains the bathroom and then the bedroom. Each bedroom and the living room can access the deck via a sliding door. The deck is pretty big.
The place has a bunch of on site amenities and events. There also seem to be numerous pools and hot tubs, including one indoors.
I also have to give them props for the free golf cart shuttle and ability to request things via text. I wish Massanutten had free shuttles for much more of the year - they could learn from this place, and they need it more.
Cons: If you have mobility issues these are not good units. There's a half flight of stairs down and then either down or up depending on the level to get to the unit. Once you're in the unit there are no stairs, but there's no way to use a wheelchair or roll suitcases in and out - you're hauling them up and down the stairs. And again, "look designs" not necessity - I don't see why these units, at least one floor of them, couldn't have been like Regal Vistas at Massanutten with 0 stairs and the entrance / garage at ground level. It's just aesthetics I think.
The mens sauna and steam room and lockers seemed to be out of order for the entire stay. If they were working it looks nice.
The rooms have one temp controller that has 70 degrees as a minimum. Luckily it was cold outside so I could open the patio door and cool the bedroom down to sleep, but later in the year I would find that heat oppressive.
The patio furniture was kind of disgusting - covered in bird poop.
The parking was kind of limited. This is again simply a design issue IMHO - they have room for more parking, but instead they made it "pretty" and so there is barely enough parking.
The whole resort is in a golf course right off the freeway, so you see cars driving by all the time, luckily the noise wasn't horrible for me anyway.
The WiFi was horrible though - kept disconnecting us, early aughts DSL speeds - thank goodness I didn't need to zoom for work and only had one Teams video meeting this week - and I had to turn off video for it to work.
Conclusion: As an Interval Getaway this was a great deal. I mostly liked it way more than I didn't - at least for me and my need this trip. I would recommend it more for vacation than for remote work - only because of the horrible internet - everything else was actually pretty great for remote work.
TUG Rating: 9 - most amenities and great service, no sales attempt at check in. It could have been a 9.5 except for the parking, WiFi and maintenance issues with the Sauna and Steam Room. If you want to golf, stay at a quiet resort or drive over to Carlsbad or inland to some of the neat county parks and such this is a good stay. Internet also brings it down - don't expect to do a lot of streaming or gaming or anything not text based on the resort WiFi.
This is a great resort that is relatively calm and has lots to do on site and lots of scheduled events with notifications so you know the events exist. The location is OK, kind of out of the way. You do need a rental car.
Pros - Units are nice - 2BR is pretty huge - each bedroom has its own wing off the center kitchen / living room area that contains the bathroom and then the bedroom. Each bedroom and the living room can access the deck via a sliding door. The deck is pretty big.
The place has a bunch of on site amenities and events. There also seem to be numerous pools and hot tubs, including one indoors.
I also have to give them props for the free golf cart shuttle and ability to request things via text. I wish Massanutten had free shuttles for much more of the year - they could learn from this place, and they need it more.
Cons: If you have mobility issues these are not good units. There's a half flight of stairs down and then either down or up depending on the level to get to the unit. Once you're in the unit there are no stairs, but there's no way to use a wheelchair or roll suitcases in and out - you're hauling them up and down the stairs. And again, "look designs" not necessity - I don't see why these units, at least one floor of them, couldn't have been like Regal Vistas at Massanutten with 0 stairs and the entrance / garage at ground level. It's just aesthetics I think.
The mens sauna and steam room and lockers seemed to be out of order for the entire stay. If they were working it looks nice.
The rooms have one temp controller that has 70 degrees as a minimum. Luckily it was cold outside so I could open the patio door and cool the bedroom down to sleep, but later in the year I would find that heat oppressive.
The patio furniture was kind of disgusting - covered in bird poop.
The parking was kind of limited. This is again simply a design issue IMHO - they have room for more parking, but instead they made it "pretty" and so there is barely enough parking.
The whole resort is in a golf course right off the freeway, so you see cars driving by all the time, luckily the noise wasn't horrible for me anyway.
The WiFi was horrible though - kept disconnecting us, early aughts DSL speeds - thank goodness I didn't need to zoom for work and only had one Teams video meeting this week - and I had to turn off video for it to work.
Conclusion: As an Interval Getaway this was a great deal. I mostly liked it way more than I didn't - at least for me and my need this trip. I would recommend it more for vacation than for remote work - only because of the horrible internet - everything else was actually pretty great for remote work.
TUG Rating: 9 - most amenities and great service, no sales attempt at check in. It could have been a 9.5 except for the parking, WiFi and maintenance issues with the Sauna and Steam Room. If you want to golf, stay at a quiet resort or drive over to Carlsbad or inland to some of the neat county parks and such this is a good stay. Internet also brings it down - don't expect to do a lot of streaming or gaming or anything not text based on the resort WiFi.
