We stayed 8 days at the Calabria rental property in Kissimmee in early December. We were 5 adults and 3 kids. Here are what we liked and disliked about the rental.
Pros:
1. The location of the house was very good. Lots of restaurants, supermarkets, gift shops, gas stations were very close. Plus it was around 15 – 25 minutes away from all the Disney parks (closest – Animal Kingdom; farthest – Magic Kingdom).
2. The décor of the house was great. Very nicely done with great details throughout. Everything looked new and updated. The game room looked nice though we never used it. One thing that did not make sense is the lack of function in the curtains in the bedrooms. While they look nice for décor it offered no protection from the light outside.
3. Plenty of room for a large family or a group getting together. The combination of bed sizes was nice. We looked at a lot of places but found the room combinations in the house the best.
4. The security system was an added bonus. Made us feel secure when we slept during the night or went out. As another guest mentioned, the security went off even when you went outside in the pool area. We had three kids and thought this was an added bonus.
5. There was a good pack and play that we used for our baby.
6. Quite house with no backyard neighbors. This is a new area that is still under construction so it is very quite during the evening.
Cons:
1. All the beds in the house were horribly hard. It couldn’t even be considered extra firm, it was several degrees harder than that. It felt like sleeping on a slab of rock. It was so uncomfortable for one person in our party that she ended up sleeping on the sofa the entire time we were there.
2. The pool was very lukewarm. We had to pay $20 for each day of the stay and felt that we did not get the value for what we paid for. The first few days of our stay, we were out and about in the day and wanted to jump into the pool in the evenings. However the temperature of the pool was very lukewarm. The hot tub was actually a little cooler than the pool. Upon calling a number in the instructions booklet left by the owners, our call was not returned. We sent an email the next day asking for what action is being taken on the pool. The owner wrote back saying that the pool’s sensor says that it was 85 F in the pool. This was really nonsense since we can tell that it was not 85F by just dipping our toes in the pool. And even if it were true, how could 85F be acceptable for the hot tub? We were also told that during the last days of our stay, the temperature outside was around 65F and so the pool will not heat to 85F. Nowhere during our initial conversation and booking was this mentioned, nor was it in the instructions book in the house, which the owner says contains all the information. We asked for our heating charges to be refunded, but after several back and forth emails, we were refunded 2 days of heating charges out of the 8 days, the reasoning being that we only complained about it on the 6th day and so everything should’ve been great for the first five days. If you stay in this house, do NOT get the pool heated unless you plan on using it only during the day during warm weather. It is a waste of money and the owners are not upfront or responsive enough about any issues you might encounter.
3. We had to move the garbage cans from the garage outside on Monday and Thursday for trash pick-up or they would charge you $50. But conveniently, there is no garage opener. So you have to raise the garage door the old fashioned way. It seemed a bit unsafe to put the garage door up and down manually.
4. The first day we arrived, the house was really hot (around 80F) and some of the air flow vents in the second floor bed rooms were closed. So we had to try to open them up and run the AC all night before the house cooled down. There are no fans in the second floor bed rooms and the house is big and so it takes a lot of time to cool down. We also second the opinion written by another guest on the owner’s instructing us to keep the temperature at a ‘comfortable 78F’. 78F is not comfortable in the muggy Florida weather. Maybe the owners should try staying at the house and keep the temperature at 78F and see if it is comfortable. While you were able to lower the temperature to 72, we noticed that the temperature would revert to 78 automatically.
5. The dishes in the kitchen were dirty. Granted that the management said that they didn’t clean it but the guests are supposed to clean the same, but it is not acceptable level of service to tell guests that you have to rely on the cleanliness of guests before you on plates that you use to eat. The dishwasher was really crappy and didn’t clean the dishes properly the few times we ran it. So we had to hand wash several of the dishes.
6. The high chair in the house had screws coming out from the base. So it was with a bit of consternation that we put the baby in it. Might’ve helped if there were a handy screw driver in the house.
7. The child safety gate for the stairs was the very basic wooden model and very ineffective. Our 17 month old was able to easily move it. Since all but the master bedroom was upstairs, it would’ve been smart to have a pressure mounted walk thru gate or wall mounted baby gate on the top of the stairs. The gate just was not safe at all. We had to keep an eagle eye on the baby the entire trip which did not let us enjoy the upstairs as much as we would like.
This was our first stay in an independent vacation rental house and based on the experiences above, we will not be staying at this house again nor would recommend it to someone else.