Encore Resort Vacation Homes & Waterpark

210 Clawson Way needs a lot of work. The house itself is nice, but there were too many small problems. Roaches kept showing up, and I killed about seven or eight. They sprayed one room, but when I asked them to treat the whole house, I was told they couldn’t. The toilet leaked every time it was flushed. Maintenance said they’d have to wait until we left to fix it, so we put towels down to avoid slipping. The upstairs tub also drained so slowly that it felt like showering in a pool. Cable was out in some rooms, and the game room air conditioning didn’t work. Someone looked at it, said they weren’t sure what was wrong, and left, so the kids could barely use the room. The PS4 cord was broken too. When I asked for a replacement, they told me I could buy one myself. Some pots and pans were falling apart. One broke in my husband’s hand while he was cooking, though luckily he wasn’t burned. They brought replacements, but one of those fell apart as well.

We’ve stayed with this place for five years, and my family used to really enjoy it. This time, though, 7643 Wilmington Loop was a huge disappointment. The refrigerators didn’t work, so the groceries we bought spoiled, and we weren’t reimbursed. The TVs were out, so we couldn’t watch anything together, and none of the games worked during our five-day stay. The pool was low, and we had to fill it ourselves. They gave us two rollaway beds, but that didn’t work for my husband and several others who were 6'5" or taller. There were lots of little kids’ beds, even though we had more adults than children. I spoke with Brian in management, but he said he couldn’t accommodate us at that time. That was especially frustrating on a holiday weekend when everywhere else was booked. None of the issues were handled promptly. After this experience, and as Brian put it, we won’t be returning.

We were a large extended family in a nine-bedroom home, and the pool caused a string of problems. Its water level was low, so maintenance left a hose running overnight and forgot about it. By morning it was overflowing. The filtration system also needed fixing, and one night the pool was apparently turned up remotely to 102 degrees. Nobody wanted to swim for the next 24 hours while it cooled. The skimmer pole had no net, and although we reported it right away, we never got a replacement. Our upstairs bedroom was stuffy, with little airflow from the AC and no ceiling fan, so we were roasting each night. The mattress was much harder than we like, and neither of us slept well all week. In the kitchen, there was no drink pitcher or pizza cutter, and the racks in one of the two dishwashers looked rusty and grimy. One fridge was missing the glass shelf above the bottom drawer, which wasted space, and the other had a broken ice machine. A smoke detector was chirping when we arrived. It took hours for service to replace the battery, and the person came without a ladder, then precariously propped a bundled ladder against the door frame to reach it. We ate at Finns a couple of times. During one meal, the staff left our empty appetizer platters on the table and it got crowded when the entrees arrived. Breakfast was the same every day: Dole fruit cups, three cereals, apples, orange juice, coffee, scrambled eggs, either sausage patties or links, and flaky pastries. We were tired of it by day three.

After four days and three nights, I really didn’t want to leave. I travel a lot and have stayed at all sorts of hotels, resorts, and Airbnbs, and this is easily one of my ten favorite places in Florida. It was peaceful and fun, easy to get to, and worked for all ages, with plenty of privacy and things for adults to do. The jacuzzi wasn’t really hot, and the Wi-Fi could’ve been better. I know it’s Florida heat, but being able to heat it would’ve made a nighttime soak even nicer. I’ll definitely come back.