Summer Bay Houses this week

Here at Summer Bay Orlando this week, staying in one of the houses on an RCI exchange.

Will post trip report later but positive experience all around. Our second stay at the houses (we rented one last year--this year it's an RCI 1-in-4 stay).

We're in house 326, which is one of the two new houses built in 2014 adjacent to the original houses.

As I type this I am sitting in the "Buccaneer Bay" action area (zip line, rock climbing, etc.), which was new last year and sits where the sinkhole was a few years ago.

New since June this year is the new Activities Building, which is quite nice and adds significantly to the offerings--indoor cinema, small arcade, pool table, activity/classroom and a second workout room.
also the "601" building is open and part of the "Reserves at Summer Bay". So far I have resisted the attempts for me to do any tours.

new signs toward the back of the resort indicating "Summer Isles Resort at Summer Bay"...I think "Summer Isles Condo" is the name of the 500-series buildings. not sure if this is a portent of anything to come or just a new sign. maybe some owners can shed some light on that.

house 326 was built in 2014 next door to original house 301 and new house 327 which puts it at the north end of the row of houses on the Lakefront (west) side of the street close to the fishing pier and the 501/502 buildings (I.e. Furthest from the main clubhouse), a nice quiet location. Those who have stayed in the houses know how private the layout is generally.

house 326 is laid out for wheelchair use- which means 3 significant differences that I can see. (1) Modified bathroom in the Back master bedroom--smaller closet and larger toilet room. (2) modified doorbell setup, (3) lower height kitchen with lower counters and lower appliances. not a big deal for non-wheelchair users but the dishwasher is a little smaller

House 326 has a pool with hot tub, and the hot tub and pool DO maintain different temperatures, at least when the hot tub bubbles are on (timer switch on the wall). If you have not turned the hot tub on for a while the hot tub temperature eventually matches that of the pool but when you turn it on it heats up within minutes ( while the pool stays the same temp). Perhaps it's the same piping system as the other houses but with better control circuitry . We stayed next door in House 301 last year and it had no hot tub so I have only others' reviews to compare the hot tub performance. We enjoy it very much and have no complaints other than that we have to leave tomorrow.

Thank you! Lots of great info. I have an upcoming reservation for a House. I thought about changing date but unfortunately RCI blocks me from seeing specific dates due to the 1 in 4 rule. Do you know if you will be able to stay in the Summer Bay Reserves or does the 1 in 4 block you from staying in other parts too? Any experiences using the resort's bus transportation to parks?

The 1-in-4 block only applies to the specific RCI resort number. Summer bay Orlando is made up of four unique RCI numbers --- The Houses are a separate RCI number from the Reserves or regular summer bay condos for example. so you could in theory stay in a house one year and a reserve house the next year. Getting an available exchange is another story of course.

Note that "the reserves" now include the five reserve houses (321-325) but also the 601 building. I didn't tour it but I understand they have 1br, 2br, 3br, and even a 4br condo in the mix. Especially noteworthy that there are 3BR condo-style units in the reserves which are NOT houses ( I.e they don't have their own pool or garage).

We didn't use the resort shuttle so I can't provide much info there. As I recall their schedule they only have 1 trip to Universal which leaves at 7:05 am from the resort.

Greetings:
I am a former owner at Summer Bay and am meeting family there next month. I am elated to see the new amenities. Even though you are in the pool houses, do you know which buildings have been recently renovated? Since our exchange via RCI is for Summer Bay and not The Reserve, we want to request the newest 2 bedroom units. I'm guessing that might be the 500 buildings? We stayed in the new houses when they opened in 2014, which was wonderful. By the looks of the property map, there have been some great additions.

Privacy issue

How is the privacy in the new Houses?

It looks to me like the 500 buildings (Isles) look right over the screened-in pool.

How does it feel from the pool/patio area?

Re: Privacy Issue

I was in house 326, which has the same degree of privacy that almost all of the other houses have. Namely that the back of the screened area is exposed only to the grassy area and lake behind it, and that the side of the screened area is exposed only to the small grassy strip between it and the solid wall of the adjacent house. Landscaping of a hedge along the screen wall also helps provide privacy screen although there are definitely spots where an individual bush in the hedge has died and there is a gap. We saw an occasional person wandering along the grass in the back but it was never an issue.

327, which is the last house in the set, is quite close to the 501 building and so I imagine it seems less private, but the angles of the houses are different so I think it's merely the walkway to the dock that has a view (look on an aerial photo to see what I mean). We walked past that way a few times (the fastest route to the Big Kahuna pool area from our house) and we could see into their pool area a little bit, perhaps a bit more than any of the other houses.


(Worth noting that the last house on the "pond" side of the street, which I think is #320, also has a privacy issue as the pool area (south-facing on the houses on this side of the street) is visible to the little playground area just off the clubhouse building.

We're heading to Summer Bay next week. I need to call them now to see which units have been updated. We're not booked into The Reserve, so maybe it's either the 500's or 400's. I prefer new. It would also be good to be near the new recreation center with the gym.

While we were in a house we had some friends staying at "regular" Summer Bay on an RCI exchange. They had a 2br and we put in a request that they get a unit in one of the 500 series so they would be close to us in our house. SB accommodated the request, placing them on the ground floor of the 501 building (and us in one of the nearest houses). Their unit was in great shape-not sure if it was newly renovated or not but it seemed in good repair (to be honest we all spent most of the time in the House, they pretty much used their unit to sleep.)


I would note one thing. If you search old tug messages you will see some reference that certain buildings only checked in on certain days ( most relevant to this discussion was my recollection that the 500 buildings checked in either on Friday or Sunday but not Saturday). If that was true at one time it was no longer so--they were given a suite in 501 checking in on a Saturday.

My advice would be to call and put in a request and be as specific as you can. I get the sense (and my experience in 2 visits to Summer Bay) is that they try to accommodate them as best they can. I also am inclined to believe if you ask for a specific location, speaking the lingo by referencing building numbers, etc) it actually makes their job easier.

Thanks for the update. Summer Bay has been very accommodating in the past. Hopefully, this is still true. We have two families staying next week.

I called Summer Bay yesterday and was advised that all of the buildings have been updated. I don't know how this could be true, but I requested the 501 building to be close to the new rec center. I'll see what happens next week.

Update:
I received a call from Summer Bay today regarding my upcoming stay this weekend. I was advised that building #501 has had complaints about the parking since it is closest to the new recreation center. We've now asked for #503 instead.

Can anyone guide me regarding which one of the "houses" to request? Want quiet most of all, I think!! Thanks!

Several years ago we stayed in #509 which was quiet and had the outdoor jacuzzi.

Our stay at Summer Bay was great last week, minus the repeated calls to my sister and I to attend the promotion. We had calls at least three days, even the day before we were to leave. The new recreation building was great, only minus our phone having no service at all. I'm sure they are working on this.

Can someone confirm that all 3 bedroom Houses at Summer Bay have their own pool? I've always assumed they are all pool villas. I know some have jacuzzis too but I really want a pool.

The Houses at Summer Bay Resort (#6884)


Weimaraner

Eight of the Houses at Summer Bay
have a pool with incorporated hottub/jacuzzis
They are units 309-312, 317-320

Twelve of the 20 Original houses (301-312) are lake front,
houses (313-320) are located on the opposite side of the
street and the rear of those houses face a pond.

Miss Marty said:

Weimaraner

Eight of the Houses at Summer Bay
have a pool with incorporated hottub/jacuzzis
They are units 309-312, 317-320

Twelve of the 20 Original houses (301-312) are lake front,
houses (313-320) are located on the opposite side of the
street and the rear of those houses face a pond.

Click to expand...

Thanks! I've been telling my 9yo that we have a pool so I guess I better call the resort and make a request.

I believe they all have pools. Only 8 of them have the outdoor jacuzzi in addition.

I think there might be some confusion here.

ALL of the Summer Bay Houses have individual pools. All 22 of them. Houses number 301-320 and 326-327.

SOME of the summer Bay houses also have hot tubs. I believe it is 8 of the original 20 houses, and the two newer houses (326 and 327) which do.

Some in the past have noted that the combined pool/hot tub design is inferior since (a) the temperature is the same in both pool and hot tub and (b) having the hot tub makes the pool smaller.

That may be the case for the combined units in the original houses but see my earlier post in this thread for why the newer combo unit in 326 does not suffer from these shortcomings.

The map of the resort, with the house numbers, can be downloaded from Exploria's website.

A concierge contacted me a week before our trip this month and I requested home with jacuzzi. We were assigned unit 317 and really enjoyed our stay. I did see pool maintance employee and asked him to turn the heat up a little. He mentioned it was set at 90. It was so refreshing to jump in a warm pool on a cooler November night. My 9 yo loved having our own pool and said this was her favorite place to stay in Orlando, which is high praise considering we've stayed at Lakeshore Reserve, Harbour Lakes, HGVC Seaworld, Disney AKL/SSR, and Bonnet Creek. Love that it's so close to Publix and fyi it's a good idea to exit the resort by that store because of traffic light. We were so busy going to Epcot, Seaworld, Universal, airboat ride, Wonderworks etc that we ran out of time to enjoy resort activities and the Buccaneer Adventure area which looked like a lot of fun.