Westgate Lakes Resort & Spa Universal Studios Area

As a business owner myself, I don’t like leaving bad reviews at all. However, I do think I would be doing an injustice to families who are considering coming here and spending their hard-earned money on a vacation they’ve been waiting all year for. Sometimes a family only gets one vacation every couple of years because times are tough, so I want to make sure I share my experience.

I’ll start with the positives. The check-in process was smooth, and the attendant was nice. The bellmen were also friendly and brought our bags to the room and shuttled us to our building. They also have a nice gym, which I used every day.

Now onto the negatives.

When we first checked in, we told the front desk that it was just me and my wife and asked if we could be placed in a quieter area. The first room we were given was actually very nice. It had wooden furniture, was clean, and felt spacious. However, it had a connecting door, and before we could even unpack, there was a child in the next room screaming extremely loudly. It was so loud that it sounded like he was in our room. I knew immediately that this would be an issue, so since we hadn’t touched anything yet, I called the front desk and asked to be relocated.

They did accommodate us, which is another positive, but the next room was not as nice. You could tell from the layout that it used to be one room that was split into two. It was smaller, the furniture was lower quality, and the AC vent was extremely loud (more on that later). This was room 2233B. There was also coffee in the room but no coffee maker, and oddly enough, there was an empty coffee box outside the room.

About three days into our stay, we got new neighbors who were smoking marijuana at night. To try and hide it, they were spraying a very strong citrus-scented chemical. That smell made its way through the vent system into our room. It was so potent that we could barely breathe, and at first we had no idea what was going on. We called the front desk the next day after losing a night of sleep. They told us to call again if it happened, which we did the following night. Security came and acknowledged the smell, but since it wasn’t technically smoke, the only solution offered was to move us again. We didn’t want to move, but we had no choice since we needed rest before traveling the next day.

This leads me to the type of clientele this resort tends to attract, likely due to the discounted rates compared to other resorts in the area. There were a lot of guests who were loud, used profanity freely, and showed little regard for others. Marijuana use seemed common throughout the property. While there were certainly normal, respectful guests as well, the disruptive behavior was frequent enough to noticeably impact the experience.

Now let’s talk about the Wi-Fi. There basically isn’t any. I contacted the front desk about poor reception, and they gave me a tech support number. I ended up opening three service tickets with their provider. Twice, I was told a service manager would call me back, and that never happened. If you need reliable Wi-Fi, you should strongly reconsider booking here. That alone would be enough for me to give this place a one-star rating.

The washing machine on our floor also didn’t work properly. At the end of the cycle, our clothes were still soaking wet. We had to wring them out by hand and then run the dryer for about three hours.

In addition to the constant marijuana smell, there was also a foul, sewer-like odor in certain areas of the property. I later saw that other guests mentioned this in their reviews as well.

The fuse for our refrigerator outlet also blew, which caused us to lose our leftovers. To their credit, maintenance was responsive and sent an electrician the next day, who determined it was a blown GFCI.

There is an adults-only pool, which was a bit of a walk from our room. We didn’t mind the walk, although there is a shuttle that runs about every 20 minutes. However, there is no enforcement of the “adults-only” policy. We saw children in that pool as well. There are also no lifeguards on the property, so keep that in mind if you have kids.

They have a café called Sid’s Bistro, but it is severely understaffed. If you want coffee, expect to wait at least an hour. I thought it might have just been busy on the first day, but it was like that every single day. I felt bad for the few employees working because they were clearly overwhelmed. The demand is there, but many people end up leaving the line because of the wait. It would honestly be faster to make coffee in your room (if you have a coffee maker, which we didn’t) or take an Uber to a nearby coffee shop. Also, after 12 PM, you can’t even order a bagel because they consider that breakfast only.

Next to Sid’s is the main lobby, which is constantly filled with salespeople trying to sell timeshares. If you’re into people-watching, it’s actually interesting to see the different sales styles, but it also adds to the overall atmosphere. Watching them pitch the property while there’s chaos happening around them is, at times, hard to take seriously.

I wish I had more positive things to say, but the reality is this: if you’re considering this place because the price looks attractive, think twice. You’re likely better off staying at a simple business hotel with a pool. This property is extremely crowded, and if what you’re looking for is rest and relaxation, this is not the place to find it.

While reading many negative reviews leading up to this trip I got worried. So now let me give my review. I'm a human not a bot. Lets address some prior listed concerns....cleanliness? Its a beautiful resort. The grounds are well kept and my room (Deluxe Villa 1 Bedroom) was perfectly clean. A little outdated yes, but irrelevant. Lots of space in the room. I mean LOTS. Location was 12-25 mins from Universal/Disney Seaworld PENDING TIME AND TRAFFIC. Parking, yes after 9/10pm it is BRUTAL. There just is not enough parking near the buildings your room is in. That is one of my only 2 complaints. The other being getting around the resort. Yes there are shuttles but hard to find and appears to not have a real set schedule. Mini mart is very expensive but there is a publix down the street. The sports bar Drafts has REALLY good food. Arcade is expensive and the free cards they give you are enough for ONE swipe of the cheapest game so don't get excited lol. Waterpark is a good value for the money. Small but clean. Get there early if you want a chair. Staff is friendly. I did have to call maintenance once as there were ants on the porch but its Florida so deal with it. Overall i enjoyed the resort and would return

Awful and dishonest customer service before we’re even checked in. Don’t come here expecting you’re actually going to get your room at check in time. Waiting indefinitely at this point after a 20 hour car drive.

Paid in advance for a 2-day Universal package, including Park-to-Park Hopper and Epic Universe tickets, and provided all required guest details upfront. We were told the tickets would be ready when payment was received, but on arrival we were made to wait until the next day.
Then a “90-minute” timeshare presentation dragged on for nearly 4 hours. When we finally got our tickets, they gave us base tickets instead of hopper tickets and said they didn’t have what we paid for. The only option offered was a refund.
We came to Orlando for the parks and were completely cheated out of our time and money. DO NOT TRUST THEM!!

Could not access room for the entire time we were there key cars were given, but didn’t work, had to wait until about 2:30 in the morning to actually have someone come to open the door for us, change the keys once again still did not work, manager was right there front of us, but was too busy trying to sell property instead of helping us, requested a refund which I normally never do and was denied completely, even though we technically had a pretty much sleep outside instead of the room

This west gate resort has potential. The biggest downfall was the lack of wifi in the room. Complained a few times and I still had to call a 1800 number with no resolution. The waterpark is small, a wave pool, two big water slides, a lazy river with not enough tubes and a section for the littles ones. It’s expensive and not worth the price. The game room was nice. The market place has a little of everything. The studio room was nice and spacious. It comes with a kitchenette, coffee maker, microwaves and supplies such as utensils, cups, plates, dish soap, paper towels etc. The hotel promotes being a loyalty member and having discounts on food and drinks but it never worked. Drinks at the pool averages $14. The location is great. 15-20 mins away from Disney. 10 mins away from Universals, Walmart is 5 mins away

Don’t Ever come here the worst ever nightmare especially if you do or attempt to do a Timeshare here run as fast as you can don’t buy

I had a terrible experience with Westgate Resorts and feel completely misled by their timeshare presentation and sales process. What was presented during the sales pitch was not what we ended up signing. The representatives made promises about flexibility, benefits, and costs that simply did not match the reality once the paperwork was finalized.

During the presentation I was very clear with them that I am a single mother of three and that I do not have extra money to spend. I explained that my finances are tight and that I needed to be careful about anything I agreed to. Instead of respecting that, the sales team continued pushing and reassuring me that the timeshare would be affordable and a great decision for my family.

The presentation was extremely high-pressure, and we were rushed through signing documents without being given the time to properly review or fully understand what we were agreeing to. After everything was finalized, it became clear that important details and costs were not properly disclosed. The reality of what I signed is completely different from what was verbally promised to me.

Now I’m left dealing with financial obligations that I would have never agreed to if everything had been explained honestly from the beginning. As a single parent trying to take care of my kids, this situation has caused a lot of unnecessary stress and frustration.

I strongly encourage anyone considering a timeshare with Westgate Resorts to be extremely cautious. Do not rely on what the sales representatives tell you verbally, and make sure you read every single document before signing anything. My experience left me feeling deceived and taken advantage of.

For the most part the stay was great. Room was nice overlooking a lake. At 9pm you could see Disney's fireworks. They have putt putt, fishing, and many more amenities. A lot of heated pools. We booked here because they have a water park. Only negative was when I booked it said nothing about the water park being closed.

We are owners here. We paid a lot of money to buy a 4-bedroom accommodation for 1 week every year, consisting of both grand bedroom units and traditional bedroom units. We do not need more than 1 bedroom, but ownership allows us to break this up into a 1-bedroom unit for 4 weeks, and the weeks do not have to be consecutive. When we first bought, we were allowed to deposit weeks from one calendar year into the next year, and we had been doing so. Although we can still do this, the rules have changed and there is a fee to use a week from one year in a different year. This per week fee is in addition to the maintenance fee and taxes that we have to pay every year. To avoid the extra fee in the future (assuming that the fee structure does not change again), we booked 5 weeks for this year of 2026, consisting of 4 weeks from 2025 and 1 week from 2026, and we will use our other 3 weeks of 2026 later this year. Making our stay worse, even though our ownership is in Building 60 which runs parallel to the lake, at check-in we were told that we could have only 1 week in that building because renovations would be starting. However, we observed MANY vehicles parked by Building 60 ALL 5 weeks while we were there. On a positive note, after staying in the "grand bedroom" unit the first 3 weeks, we were allowed to stay in it the remaining 2 weeks instead of moving into the smaller "traditional bedroom" unit. Regarding our stay, the grounds and landscaping are still well maintained and the equpment in the fitness center is still very good, except the bike I use for a cardio workout still does not register my heartrate. Basic maintenance indoors has not improved: a loose faucet handle, burned out light bulbs, the stacked dryer does a very poor job of drying (taking hours), a drape and rod not opening or closing smoothly. Staff was prompt about providing fresh bedding, towels and supplies as needed. Unlike the TV in the bedroom, the TV in the living area has an altered audio quality that is annoying, possibly due to being tightly encased in a wooden cabinet. There still is no accommdation for environmentally-conscious guests to participate in recycling. Fruit smoothies were available for purchase at the fitness center, but this was disappointingly recently moved to Sid's Bistro which closes mid-afternoon and the offerings were changed from fruit smoothies to only vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry smoothies. Although indoor smoking is not allowed anywhere, smokers should be placed in separate buildings so we non-smokers can enjoy our balcony/terrace without breathing smoke from tobacco or pot.

Their service is beyond horrible in so many ways. 1) After booking I kept getting daily messages and emails asking to confirm our reservation AFTER I already confirmed it. I emailed them about it and never received any response. 2) When we arrived there was a HUGE line at check-in, the kind I have never seen anywhere and I travel a lot (25-30 people ahead of us). 3) I placed the “Do not disturb” sign on the door, yet the first morning a cleaning lady walked into the room without even bothering to knock and scared us. Three days later another cleaning lady kept knocking repeatedly on the door despite the sign and only stopped after I called the front desk to complain. 4) Our last night there we got back at 1am very tired and discovered that our keys were not working. They promised to send a security person to unlock the door, which took over 30 mins and repeated calls to the front desk. If you want a peaceful vacation avoid this resort at all costs!!!

My family and I went to this hotel last week. We stayed at the lakes. At first arrival we were pretty happy. It’s close to Disney and universal. About 15 mins away from both. There are also shuttles going to universal NOT Disney. The shuttles also take 3 other hotels, so a 15 minute trip to and from universal turned into a 45 min trip each way. Definitely uber my advice to you if u don’t wanna sit on a bus for 45 mins…. Every thing in the hotel is extra theater money … water park extra … the mini golf extra …. the bowling extra… the paddle boats extra…. everything is NOT INCLUDED.
The women at the front desk asked us to do a timeshare presentation and we would get 125 towards the amenities we had time to kill so thought why not Lear about timeshares we absolutely knew nothing… They were so AGGRESSIVE! It was insane and made me and my family VERY UNCOMFORTABLE!!! At the end we thanked them for their presentation and went to leave, she told me we have 15 minutes to decide to buy the timeshare and when we declined we were called selfish for doing the presentation if we weren’t buying something and told we wasted everyone’s time. I apologized and went to leave and we were told we had to be signed out to receive the gift card for the amenities. She told me she REFUSED TO SIGN ME OUT OF WE DONT BUY A TIMESHARE!!!! I would never take 15 minutes to pay 35,000 for an every other year timeshare. The sales women also was insistent I liked flying…. Apparently I just need some Xanax….. NOT PROFESSIONAL!!!
There are not shuttles to places in the resort so you have to walk everywhere. My littles weren’t happy about this. Specially after a pool day and they had to walk back to the room in there bathing suits.
I tried to call for shuttles to the front desk I was told they would send the shuttles and they never came.
Unfortunately not many places to eat in the resort. The food at the one sit down restaurant was decent priced we went there for dinner a few times.
The pizza place wasn’t to good hard pizza that tasted like it was sitting for days.
All in all I’m not to sure how this hotel has 4 stars…
The hot water wasn’t working as well… mostly cold showers… the drain in the bathroom didn’t drain so we had to wash hands and brush teeth in the kitchenette…
The room has a nice tub in the room if u take a bath at night and don’t let the water run to long it will be hot…

The location is great and the resort is big, the gym is actually a decent size for a hotel and lots of equipment.
However the rooms are very dated and dirty. Our 1 room villa had 0 natural light in the sitting area, broken plug sockets and missing equipment. It was also right next to the elevator plant room so very very noisy all of the time due to that.
The pools, mini golf and other amenities were all closed while we were there due to the cold weather but still charged the hefty resort fee.

This was a great trip. We flew in early and got to the resort at about 9 am we were just going to drop our bags off and to the parks but they had a room already ready. That was great. The room had a Great Lake view from the patio and all the rooms. There was a small store on site that had almost all we needed. The location was great and centrally located and not far from anything. I had a great time and stay here. The room was clean and comfortable. The only thing bad I could say was that the TV in the room were not smart TV so I could not stream the Games. But overall I would stay here again.

No time share presentation / old outdated room offered. Our room was not clean…it was tiled throughout but we had to wear our shoes the whole time or our feet / socks were filthy. There was a suitable bathroom; however, there were no other mirrors in the room. The televisions were also outdated. Hallways were not vacuumed and elevators dirty as well. The grounds were well maintained and the pickle ball courts great. When I asked about laundry facilities, I was told there was an option on two of the floors in my building. On floor #4, the washer didn’t spin the clothes! Maintenance!

We stayed at this resort for two nights, attracted by the low price and excellent location, which were definite positives. We booked a one‑bedroom villa based on the photos, expecting a spacious room with a large bath, but unfortunately it was much smaller than anticipated and only had a shower. The bed was also extremely soft and quite uncomfortable.

There were a few issues that affected our stay. At times there was a strong smell of weed around the building, and building 80 had an unpleasant damp or “wet dog” smell when entering. Our room was interconnected, although we weren’t using the adjoining room, and we were woken on both nights between 1–3am by loud shouting from a female voice, either from the corridor or the room next door. When we raised this at checkout, the response was simply an apology, with no further explanation or resolution.

On the plus side, the resort does have security, a bar, and a small marketplace, which is convenient. With some investment and better management of noise and upkeep, it could be a good place to stay, but at the moment it feels a bit run down and on the trashy side.

Great resort. Beautiful lakes with beautiful birds. Helpful staff, nice pools with hottubs and kiddie pools. Mini golf, pedal boats, fishing, water park

We stayed at Westgate Lakes Resort & Spa for New Year’s Eve, and the photos truly did not do it justice. The moment we walked in, jaws literally dropped—our unit was huge! I hadn’t realized that a four-bedroom is actually three separate units, which ended up being absolutely perfect for our family of seven adults. It gave everyone privacy while still offering a spacious common area where we could all gather and relax together.

Our unit was on the 5th floor overlooking the lake, and the view was stunning. Sitting on the balcony in the morning, listening to the birds while sipping coffee, was so peaceful and relaxing. The fireworks on New Year’s Eve were spectacular—and we had a front-row seat to the show right from that same balcony. It was truly magical.

The unit itself was impeccably clean, with very comfortable mattresses. The kitchen was well equipped and perfect for preparing meals, and having a washer and dryer in the unit was incredibly convenient. After long days at the parks, the in-unit hot tub was a much-appreciated luxury. We also noticed that security was consistently present and attentive, which added to our overall comfort and peace of mind.

Although we didn’t have time to take advantage of the many on-site activities, there was always something happening and plenty of options available. This resort struck the perfect balance between relaxation, convenience, and excitement.

We couldn’t have asked for a better place to stay for such a special family gathering—and we would absolutely return.

Loved everything about this Resort, the rooms were great and the living area was also very spacious and nice. The service if we needed anything additional was prompt and even the garbage removal was so efficient (we would leave outside the door and it would be removed within minutes). The bathrooms were really spacious as well and because we got a lake view even the view was perfect a nice morning coffee.

The cart services bell men Brian, ChaZZ, Gabe location was great, could do some updates needed , would like more entertainment, shuttle was go have to reserve, pizza shop e