Please note that it has been a long time since I stayed and Orange Lake and things may have changed since I stayed there and I only stayed there once. And that one stay is perhaps skewing my view of Orange Lake. I've stayed at the Sheraton Vistana four different times and will be staying there my fifth time in March. I thought I'd go ahead and comment anyway, given that people so far who have posted haven't been to both resorts and I have.
There are many different sections at Orange Lake and some with a lot more wow amenities close by than others. We were there on an RCI trade for a two bedroom unit. When I stayed there we were in a fairly quiet section that had it's own pool/hot tub, but was quite far from other amenities and things which required us to take the resort shuttle or drive to enjoy many amenities. And first they put us in a section on a golf course not even close to a pool or anything else and we don't play golf (unit was kind of dated there too), and we asked if we could get something closer to a pool, so this was a second try on placement. And we were happier in the second one, as at least there was a close by pool for our kids which we had a lot of fun at. It was a perfectly acceptable pool and hot tub, but not a wow pool. Since it was a quieter section without a lot of other stuff nearby, we saw the same people at the pool every day. And that was kind of fun, as we made some friends. Also, the unit while perfectly acceptable and spacious was a little dated (could have used a little sprucing up). This is many years back, though. We were impressed by some of the amenities in other sections of Orange Lake, but because of the drive didn't use those amenities all that much (e.g. kids loved the River Island area -- waterpark type features, but we only went over there one day and mostly stuck to our close by pool after a busy theme park day). We played tennis three times, but had to drive over. We weren't really walking distance to much. We did take the shuttle all over and stop at every section of the resort one day to see everything. I think I would probably have been giving a more glowing report if we had been put in a different section. I haven't stayed there again, but probably wouldn't hesitate to stay again, especially if I knew I would be in a section with more amenities such as River Island and had kids that I knew would love the features there.
The Sheraton Vistana is a large resort too but felt much smaller than Orange Lake. It's much easier to walk from one section to another, and we rarely use our car to go to a different section of the resort. The units when we have stayed have been updated, and something I really love is that with all the little man made lakes and fountains your patio or balcony typically faces water (cute little view) vs. parking lot. We tend to sit out on the balconies a lot so we probably care about this and appreciate this more than most people. It's not a waterpark type features place, but does have great pools and hot tubs which is all we need. And did you get it that we like to play tennis. A fun feature of the Vistana is that they have 10 or so tennis courts, in great shape (They really keep these up), lighted, and some are even clay (not the red clay), but still clay which I love and is always a treat for me. We tend to end up playing tennis a lot there, even on days when we go to the parks. The Vistana (you can probably tell as I'm doing a fifth stay) is one of my favorites in the Orlando area. I feel very safe booking there, as I think the various sections are very consistent in what they offer and that it's easy enough to go to a different section if you like that area's pool better etc.
I really don't think you'd go too wrong at either place. We like to switch it around a lot in Orlando. You might think I stay at the Vistana all the time as I'm going for the fifth time, but that's not the case at all. My trip in March is like my 30th trip to Orlando, so we stay all over the place.
Not meaning to oversell the Vistana, but just an FYI - these forums have a fairly active sub forum thread about all things Vistana. Here is a link:
https://www.disboards.com/threads/t...y-links-on-p-1.3148502/page-128#post-63749100
