Balmoral Resort Florida - Haines City, Florida

Jacina Sanchez

The staff was exceptional. Very kid friendly. The game room was fun. The alcohol drinks were on point. My only complaint was the food quantity and quality. Cuban tasted good, but it barely had any meat, and the one meat was very fatty. Fish was extremely salty from the inside, not the crust. Chicken tenders were good, no complaints. Their service was wonderful, so the 20% tip was deserved, but the food is not worth the price by a long shot. I hope they fix that. Other than the food, it was an incredible day with family and friends.

Alexandria R

Despite the bad reviews and being open to the public with gates not being used we went here on a family holiday was actually in august last year 2023 but felt I wanted to write a review , we absolutely loved our villa backing onto one Of the lakes, there was the odd broken bit and fridge ice machine didn’t work but they were not essentials and found on the whole the villa to be perfect these are well presented and didn’t let little things like pool light and ice machine or the odd cracked tile paint it in a bad light after all they are still homes not show rooms. The staff at the club hours were friendly and welcoming and kids loved the clubhouse pool also. Not being far from Disney was great and there was still local (short drive) to shops, Walmart and some nice restaurants . We plan on revisiting ?

Bethan G

We stayed in Balmoral Resort in 2018, loved it so decided to go back again this year at my 11 year old sons request. Was concerned about some of the reviews so checked the reality of the situation with Virgin Holidays, they reassured us that everything would be fine, here’s my honest review: ||Oh how it’s changed. |I last rated it a 5, this time it’s a 3, here’s why:||We stayed at 213 Aidans Landing: the house, though lovely, is next to a residential property who enjoy a loud argument or two… The house backs on to the local residential area so our evenings were often filled with revving car engines, music from the local bingo hall, strong smells of weed and crackling electricity lines. And Talking of weed, I had to weed the patio area when we arrived because it didn’t look like it had been tended to in weeks. The outside chair covers were covered in stains and marks from previous tenants which was ironic considering the “resort guide” tells you not to sit in the chairs if you have suncream on because they’ll mark… The safety deposit box didn’t work and just had a sign on it saying: sorry for the inconvenience. We carried all cash, credit cards and passports around with us for days - you might think this is excessive, but not when you read that 3 days in to our trip a random man was staring into our property kitchen window where my Dad & 11 year old son were having breakfast. How can this happen in a gated community ? ||That because it’s not gated. In 2018 it was and there was a Security guy allowing entry, now it’s open to the General Public, it should in NO WAY be sold as a gated community. Virgin say it’s gated between 10:30pm and 7am, it isn’t, I checked. ||There is no shade at the clubhouse pool, the only umbrellas are fixed in to tables. The cabanas can be rented at $75/session and the large shaded area is rented out for birthday parties (which there was 2 of and a gender reveal on the 2 hours we spent there one Saturday afternoon). ||Where the gym used to be quite well stocked, it now isn’t, and the clubhouse doesn’t open until 11am.||I’m not bothered by the train lines or the drive to the parks, we knew about that before arriving, I’m bothered by the way this place has, disappointingly, gone downhill yet is still charging the rates it did 6 years ago.

Catherine

We purchased a Resort Pass for the day for our family of 5. The 2 year old was free! The kids had a wonderful time at the splash park and in the pool. The facility was clean, the staff was friendly and the dj played some great songs. I would 10/10 recommend Balmoral Resort for a day of water fun in the sun!

Donald Debolt

Well, the brunch had an impressive menu. The cakes, macaroons, pastries, cheesecakes were all very good. Most other food which had to be prepared was mostly poorly done. The home fries were dry and somewhat burnt. The scrambled egg tray only had a few hard chucks left. I made a mistake trying them. They were cold and the stayle. The tray should have been refreshed long before but maybe that's all they had. There were lots of people still waiting to eat. The mashed potatoes were the best of the prepared foods. The carving station was a pitiful joke. The beef was overcooked to a point where you could barely cut it or chew it and required a drink of water to swallow it. Anyone who purchased and served that dried out chunk of beef to customers expecting a gourmet meal should be fired. It's obvious that they don't have a chief or anyone with average culinary skills to prepare cooked dishes. I was really looking forward to a great brunch. That didn't happen. They need to hire someone who knows SOMETHING about preparing and serving upscale food. If you are charging those prices, you must deliver a proper meal. The menu was good, the food was not. Be aware the next brunch will go up $10 plus all the add ons. I wouldn't be back if they discounted it $10.

Colleen O'Donnell

From out of state visiting local friends. Location seemed to me to be in the middle of nowhere. Pool was nice. Kid area looked fun and there were slides. It was very quiet we were one of only a few folks. We were there for a day pass. We paid for poolside service but never received it. We had to walk to the bar. Wasn't the staff's fault they seemed understaffed.

Jennifer Nanek

This is a review of the event center. Our group had a lunch with a distinguished speaker.

Nice room, good food and great space. The food was lasagna. Twas very good.

The sound system was sufficient as I could hear the speaker.

Space accommodates about 200 people

Matthew H

Used to be wonderful….now awful - MUST READ||We visited here in 2019 and had a fantastic experience, well looked after villa, maintained gardens, excellent service so we booked again for Aug 2024. |After reading some of the reviews and being assured by Virgin that things weren’t that bad, we arrived.||Well….On arrival we found another family in the villa that we had been allocated, as there’s no staff on reception any more this meant using the phone provided, which has a terrible line making it difficult to hear the person on the other end. We were told that Tropical had “forgotten” to send an updated email with our revised villa info on. When this came through the entry code for the villa was the same for the previous villa, so can only assume this is the same for all villa’s - surely this is a security risk?||Upon entering the villa everything was grubby, we found tops of beer bottles lying around, false nails, it seemed as though the place had a quick clean and that was it.||The service you receive from the phone in reception is poor at best, no physical person at the clubhouse can help as it appears they are employed by Balmoral specifically to run the clubhouse and the holiday villa’s are run by Tropical who do not have a person on site.||The whole resort is now more of a residential neighbourhood, not a vacation resort like it was back in 2019. Everything that was superb about this place 5 yrs ago, now just isn’t. Gates not operating for access to the resort, clubhouse charges extra’s for everything, arcade only has a few operating machines, cars racing around, weed smell everywhere & poorly maintained gardens throughout.||Save your money, look elsewhere….not worth the money. We will not be returning to Balmoral.