We travelled with my parents to Gatlinburg Tennessee. They are in their 70s, and have health issues. We traded our timeshare into Mountain Loft, and theirs into Westgate. They hated Westgate, and we thought it was okay.

Westgate is a very high-occupancy resort. My first impression was that the company who built it was trying to make a lot of money by cramming the maximum number of condos onto a piece of land that was much too small to accomodate them all. I would call it Westgreed Resort, instead.

The parking is a nightmare. I cannot begin to tell you what a headache the parking was for my elderly, very stressed parents!!!!! Both of my parents cannot walk very well, and every night, my Dad could not find a parking place ANYWHERE NEAR his condo. Being deaf, he also does not use a cell phone to ask for help. So, he would drop off my Mom at the door, then back up the entire length of the street (down hill!), park at the bottom of the huge hill and walk the entire way up it to his condo room. I was worried about him each and every day, fearing he would fall and kill himself. I dreaded the phone ringing for fear it would be a helicoptor survivol flight.

Of course the condo people said there were handicapped spaces he would use, but we did not see any close, or they were always full. The lots were completely filled and many of the spaces were taken by resort marketing vehicles (vans), many of whom took up TWO spaces when they only needed one!!!!! They have a bazillion golf carts running around the property, and said they would happily drive him anywhere he needed to go. Unfortunately, using the phone to call them required being able to hear, so he couldn't do that.

We stayed at Mountain Loft which was great, and had easy parking. I wish my parents would have traded with us, but they were too stubborn. My kids stayed with them sometimes, and they were able to use the indoor water park, which they loved.

The tiny efficiency condo they received in exchange for their one week, two bedroom unit at a Marriott in Florida made my Dad really mad, too. It was basically just a dark hotel room with a kitchenette. There was a granite vanity in the bathroom, and the wood was lovely, but who cares??????

My parents stayed on the street level and said they were kept up at night by kids running around above them (my Dad couldn't hear it, but he felt the floor pounding).

I would not recommend Westgate unless you KNOW you are going to be in a large unit, and if you are going to be there off-season. Also, I would only recommend it to families with kids who don't mind noise. Any stay there during peak season is not worth the nightmare parking, in my opinion. Having seen both, I would recommend Mountain Loft over this complex ANYTIME, to ANYONE. My Dad made me promise I would let Interval know how angry he was about this trade.

This place is so beautiful. There's a hot tub right in your room. The bathroom and shower are super clean and roomy. The fireplace is wonderful. The staff was very friendly and accomodating. That water park is fantastic; a definite deal maker as far as hotel extras. We have a reservation on May 2, 2008 for the 3rd year in a row.

Well I see what people are saying about the noise, but it really isn't that bad. The Floors are tile exept for the bedroom where we stayed, that made the people above us sound a bit loud, allot more so if it had been carpet. But the place was really nice, people were really nice and it was very clean. The size of the one bedroom was not even comparable to a hotel room. It was more like an apartment. Washer and dryer, full kitchen. Don't know about the studio, but the one bedroom was well worth it. The place was buzzing with people. Guess they were trying to sell units, so you had people running around on golf carts showing the property. Didn't bother me though, no one tried to sell me anything. I would deffinatly stay there again if I go back. My guess is though the price is going to go up.

Wost vacation EVER. This place is a RIP-OFF. We just returned (early) from this so called 5-star resort. I called TWICE last fall BEFORE BOOKING HERE and was told by staff that the water park was free with our stay, and I was delighted to hear this. But when we checked in --they tried to scam us $18.95 EACH (about $80 per day) to use the place! (When I objected, they gave me a free1-day pass to the water park.) They booked us into a unit next to screaming kids and a construction site. It was $49.95 + to use the internet for the week! I refused to be robbed. (Heck wi-fi is FREE at Denny's and McDonalds in town) There was construction going on ABOUT 500 feet away from our unit until I begged them to stop at 1:30 AM. I had to call TWICE before something was done about it . The second time I called I was told-"well, they are almost done, they will be done soon." I told them I paid good money to stay there and was not getting any sleep and that response was not acceptable--and it was inexcusable to expect people to just put up with this. They were unloading rock and gravel-it sounded like a truck was being dropped down the side of the mountain! They had circular saws whining, pounding and nailing, backhoes and heavy equipment running, smelly diesel generators-what a nightmare. So much for a quiet stay in the mountains! It started up again each day at 7AM. When we turned on the gas fireplace because it was chilly it emitted so much gas we had to turn it off and open the doors to air the place out. The burner on the stove would not turn off. Their philosophy seems to be we don't care and you are here to be scammed-"PT Barnum style". We asked to speak with a manager and were told "he's on vacation", and so I asked for the Assist. Mgr. and was told: "she's out sick". And when I asked for whoever was in charge-they had me speak with a nice security guard, who promised to upgrade us to a cabin(a six-plex?) and would call us later after 7pm. I never heard from him, so I called and left a message. The next day I called the cell phone # on his card he gave us, and found out he was home sick in bed! The phone message he left for us was never received because the phone message system did not work! That night there was a fire which spread over 200 ACRES on the mountain directly across the street from the resort. I could see the flames getting bigger, brighter and closer. We watched dozens of fire rescue staff race up the roads. I called the desk and asked what the plan was if it shifted down the mountain towards us- and the girl said she "did not know-I guess you could come to the desk". (The wind thankfully did not shift our way-as I had no vehicle at the time to escape with.) After 4 nights of hell-We got moved to another unit, and I tried to rest up. Some kid from the unit below us took up throwing rocks at the side of the cabin until my husband asked him to stop. That night was fairly quiet, until 6am when the guests next door moved out and the circus of dishes, hairdryers, and yelling kids started up again. The staff yell and vacuumed and cleaned noisily. (Who cares if you are trying to sleep in for ONCE and its only 7am. THE STAFF are not on vacation! ) Later that day, some new guests moved in to the unit next door. They were bumping and pounding the walls intermittently (bed too close to the wall? bouncing a ball off the wall?) and dragging fruniture around. The kids in the unit above us were stomping around and dragging furniture until after midnight. The shower in the new unit seemed to have a big shortage of anything but ice water. The mixing valve was screwed up and you had to run the water and try to find the ONE SPOT that would emit hot water. I figured both groups would settle in for the night, but that never happened. I called the desk at 12:30 AM about the wall pounding, and the security guard came out and spoke with them. They claimed they were not hitting the walls. The guard left. They were quiet for a bit and began the games again. They kept it up so I called the desk again at 1:15 am. The guard was sent again. The bumping and pounding went on all night. I did not bother to call again. What good would it do? The place has NO SOUND INSULATION that we can tell between units- and you can hear every dish clatter, voice, sweeper, etc. We left two days early. Hold onto your wallet and your common sense. RUN FAR AWAY while you still can. DO NOT GET SUCKED IN to a stay here! When I checked out I asked to speak with a manager, or ever how to contact them- and they would not give me a straight answer or any names. Common sense would be not to book guests in to the middle of a construction site! We want a refund! I wish we had seen Trip Advisor first before ever going here-as I learned that others had similar complaints. I booked through Interval , who said the management should have assisted us. WHAT MANAGEMENT?