Disney Wanted to Buy Orange Lake Resort to Add to DVC?

My family and I recently concluded a weeks vacation at Disney World and stayed at Orange Lake Resort in Kissimmee as my parents have a time share there. My parents attended a meeting to try and get them to upgrade and they were told that they have been approached at least once, maybe more times by Disney to buy the Orange Lake Resort to add it to the DVC. The resort straddles the Wetern Expressway and their main entrance is off 192. Their newest addition litterally butts up against Animal Kingdom.

Any truth to this little bit of info?

We own at Orange Lake and stay their every feb. I have not heard that one. It is a beautiful beautiful resort. HUGE too. River Island is extensive, but I do not really buy that. It is indeed touching Animal Kingdom property, but the salesman have a tendency of telling fallacies. Although it is not a DVC you actually have the power now to TRADE into a DVC. It is a pretty cool option. Since Orange Lake has a lot of trading power ,depending on which week, you can trade for a week at AKL now. I am not sure the truth to that Disney tried to make it a DVC though. Orange Lake was also created by the owner of Holiday INN and the originator of the large hotel chain. There is also talks of Orange Lake having a private entrance to disney. But what I do know is Orange Lake tried to get power inside the WDW resorts for years and finally succeeded recently. I think that might of been what they were implying.

get it away from DAK :O

Can you see DAK from the resort?

You can see AKL from one area. But theres alotta trees, but one prtty decent view of AKL. Except you can see AKL from that whole tacky street of 192 too. I can also see wishes from our room every night. I play my own soundtrack =P lol DAK is like legit a short run through the woods, but no view of it at all. If you are at the top of everset and look backwards you can see Coronado and Orange Lake.

Did this information come from someone in the sales department?

_Scar said:

Can you see DAK from the resort?

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From the penthouses on the newer building you can see Everest.

jeffk410 said:

We own at Orange Lake and stay their every feb. I have not heard that one. It is a beautiful beautiful resort. HUGE too. River Island is extensive, but I do not really buy that. It is indeed touching Animal Kingdom property, but the salesman have a tendency of telling fallacies.

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WHen my mom mentioned it, the first thing I thought was "Monorail Driver".

jeffk410 said:

Orange Lake was also created by the owner of Holiday INN and the originator of the large hotel chain.

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The owner also founded holiday Inn? I didnt know that. I know they were recently bought by Holiday Inn.

jeffk410 said:

There is also talks of Orange Lake having a private entrance to disney.

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The western Expressway and Western Way practically is a private entrance.

jeffk410 said:

But what I do know is Orange Lake tried to get power inside the WDW resorts for years and finally succeeded recently. I think that might of been what they were implying.

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What do you mean by "tried to get power inside the WDW resorts"?

athomeboy_2000 said:

what do you mean by "tried to get power inside the wdw resorts"?

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nuclear power!

couple things. Actually surprsingly it was not just bought by holiday inn. The whole time it has been owned by holiday inn but never advertised that way. But in 07 Holiday Inn announced a huge announcement that they were going to try to make all their resorts more upscale and with that came Orange Lake began to show. If you go to orange lakes website their is a huge section about the founder of Holiday Inn also being the founder of Orange Lake. Ya I forgot you can see Everest from the penthouses in river Island.
Although that pretty much is a private entrance. Towards the back corner of Orange Lakes gated area they attempted to do a private entrance then. And what I mean by trading power inside walt disney world is that Orange Lake wanted to create a deal with Disney that you could trade a week at orange lake for a week within a Disney DVC. They tried for YEARS and it most recently happended last year.
More on the resort- Orange Lake is pretty much divided into 3 seperate resorts all worth different points. River island the newest and the most unbelievable has the most trading power. We currently own there and are able to swap a week there for a week at Animal Kingdom Lodge. On a daily basis we get calls from RCI (Orange Lakes timeshare parter) asking if we will sell our points for Orange Lake. If you are thinking about buying a timeshare trust me OL is very powerful right now. I love the place. It is different than staying on property, but river island is amazing. I also make sure i stay in Disney atleast one other time a year.


P.S. By any chance did you stay in River Island?

Heres a quote from the OL website. That talks about the Wilsons owning holiday inn and Orange Lake.

Orange Lake Resorts was built on a rich history—that of its colorful founder, the late Kemmons Wilson, who earlier founded and built the worldwide Holiday Inn® lodging chain. His legacy of values—trustworthiness, dependability and customer focus—provided the foundation for our resort. Today we still remain privately owned by the Wilson family, which plays an active role in continuing their father’s legacy here. Because of that, we’re always close to our roots, always mindful of what made us successful in the first place.