Storey Lake - DecoNova Rental

pepperandchips

[melinda]
Joined
Mar 16, 2014
Stayed in a Storey Lake townhome in January rented through DecoNova vacations on Love Storey Lane - 5 BR/4 Bath. If you want to look it up on their site it is rental number LK 4812

The price was right ($169 or so per night) and my MiL really wanted the whole family together, so she booked it against my suggestion that we stay closer to WDW proper. All in all, it wasn't a bad drive to get to Storey Lake, though some members of our family got lost every day. It's a straight shot down Osceola to WDW if you have a toll pass.

The Unit itself was well-kept and well stocked. We thought the couch in the living room was a little uncomfortable but the beds were fine and each "family" from our party had their own bathroom (very important to me!). We had 7 adults and one child and it was plenty of room for us. We did not use the pool or resort amenities.

The computer system for the gatehouse was down when we all arrived, so they just let us in and told us to get parking passes the next day. I'm not sure of the point of the gatehouse as when we returned all they did was ask where we were staying and take down information from a driver's license - they didn't match it to a reservation or anything. One member of our party did have an issue finding the main entrance as another poster has noted in another thread - GPS was taking her to a gated entrance without a gatehouse that was closed for the night. She couldn't find her way in and got fairly upset.

I still prefer Bonnet Creek but would recommend this area if a house is best for your group!
 
Updating this review a bit as I have now stayed at Storey Lake again in September and December 2020. (During the COVID pandemic, for posterity - I'm hopeful someday this will all be a faint memory!)

My view on Storey Lake is now substantially better than when I posted the review from our January stay - I think I was a bit sour grapes that my family didn't want to stay onsite or at Bonnet Creek. Storey Lake is now my go-to for an offsite villa location if we want a whole house or need to bring our dogs. I can't overstate how convenient it is to zip straight down Osceola Parkway to the Disney Parks - and I was wrong in my previous post, you do not need to pay tolls on Osceola if you use the main entry and exit of the community (which is off of Osceola). There is also a back gate which exits to 192, which is convenient depending on where you're heading.

Directly across the street from Storey Lake (across Osceola) is a back entrance to a Publix shopping center. There are other stores there including a Five Below and there are some fast casual restaurants (sorry, Five Guys Burgers is all I can remember right now) and a Miller's Ale House. During COVID I have eaten curbside takeout from that Miller's more times than I care to admit. It's so nice having those choices at your doorstep. It's also super easy to get food delivered to Storey Lake.

Maybe most important to me is how safe the community feels - I was comfortable staying there solo this fall while my husband traveled elsewhere. The gates are often out of order (think they've worked correctly only during one of our stays), but there is a manned entrance (the main entrance off Osceola) so anyone coming into the community needs to interface with that person. We've never had the issue of the "pizza flyer scams" here like we've seen elsewhere.

We have only done the four and five bedroom townhomes, all of which have a private plunge pool, so we have not used the community amenities. They look nice. The private pools have been a nice option though I think I've only gotten in a pool once.

I've rented twice through Airbnb myself (one was a vacasa listing on Airbnb - you can go through them directly, but on Airbnb they agreed to waive the pet fee for me so I booked it there) and my MIL booked through DecoNova vacations. My other rental on Airbnb was through a rental agency called "Nord" - I will not rent from them in future as the furniture was extremely poor quality, some of it did not match the photos on the listing, the carpet had been shabbily patched, and the kitchen supplies were poor quality and missing necessary items. The Vacasa rental was my favorite but it looked like it had not been a rental long (and there were no prior reviews on Airbnb for that listing).

Please let me know if you have any specific questions I could help with. There are a lot of options in this community including larger freestanding homes and stacked (flat) condos, which we have not stayed in -- yet! I will certainly be back, I feel.
 

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