Balmoral Resort Florida - Resort hotel in Haines City - 124 Kenny Blvd, USA

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!

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.

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.

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

This is an awful awful place do not go….||The pictures on their website are not this place maybe it was some years ago but definitely not now! Also it is NOT a gated community there are gates present but they are not locked or even closed and the place is open to the public anyway so whats the point. ||When we arrived there was no fresh toilet roll just each bathroom had left over rolls so we had to go buy some pretty much straight away. The locks on two of the bathrooms were broken and within an hour of arriving our 5 year old got locked in the bathroom luckily we were able to calm her down and talk her through unlocking it from her side. This happened again later in the evening with another bathroom but by this time we’d found a tool to be able to open the doors from the outside (it did the trick and we assume this is what it was for) It is also in an area that we did not feel safe at all. On night one there was some sort of rave going on in a near by house until 2am and the smell of drugs was extremely strong. ||It is advertised as near to the parks. This is not the case it takes well over an hour to get to and from the parks which isn’t what you want to be doing daily. Maybe as someone that lives there you would get to know shortcuts that would reduce time but following a satnav or map this isn’t going to be the case. ||The beds were so so uncomfortable in every room which again isn’t something you want after a long day at the park. ||They advertise a safe which was present however it was locked so we contacted them and they advised they’d be calling back they didn’t! ||Overall this was an awful place and we managed to rent another much better property much nearer to the parks by day 3. It was actually gated with security on site, much cleaner, beds much more comfortable and in a much nicer area.

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.

We came here with a family group and rented a big house. Babies, grandmas and everything in between. July in Florida is very hot. Unfortunately, the AC upstairs didn’t work and it was over 90 degrees in the bedrooms. A bunch of family had to bail to a hotel. The management was rude and very slow to respond. We asked to be moved at 9PM before some of our group with ok ladies and babies had to go to the hotel, but they didn’t offer a house change until 11PM after our families were forced to leave. Their offer of compensation was limited to a one night credit for the house only, not the hundreds of dollars in resort fees and taxes. When we told them that this would not suffice, they said “take the offer or we can have you removed from the property”. Completely appalling. The next day, our neighbor reported that their AC wasn’t working. . The management is off the chain bad. The grounds are not well kept and. The pool and hot tub didn’t work as well. Never again!

Do not waste your time or money this is far from resort quality. Upon check in the key code didn't work. The garage floor had sticky stuff spilled in it. There were flies and wasps inside the house. We killed 2 wasps and 5 flies with in the 1st hour. The kitchen towels were dirty. BUT most importantly the AC DID NOT WORK!! It was 95 outside. We called after we found where the thermostat was. It was set at 72, but it was 81 inside, which kept increasing. We made 5 phone calls to get maintenance out. Finally, 4 hours later we were told that maintenance was here looking at the AC prior to our check in (because there is a problem with it) and it was fine(not) so no one would be out till tomorrow. They told us they could not move us to another unit. Oh, and we paid to have a pool heater, that doesn't work either.