garyt1957 - Kemmons Wilson created this concept resort while still with Holiday Inn which he founded. He retired from HI and was bought out of the hotels and he was 'in residence' at Orange Lake on each of our visits. The first time we checked in and first thing we noticed when we got to our rooms in the hotel was the standard hotel/motel rooms 'rearranged' and connected front to back and modified. In other words, it reminded us of two Holiday Inn rooms reconfigured to give each unit a 'suite' feel similar to Embassy Suites. It worked great for the guys on these trips staying on their 'Stay and Play Golf' packages.
In looking at the current pictures of the resort online, there have been a lot of changes made over the years. The Lake appears to have been reclaimed for their 'lazy river' park but it was used for standard water recreation back in the day including para-sailing and boat rentals. The sandy beach on the Lake was popular with the college kids in for Spring Break.
Mr. Wilson was a down-to-earth, personable, unassuming gent that mingled with the guests during happy hour. You would think he had lost his fortune as opposed to the billion dollars in Holiday Inn stock he owned by his actions and demeanor. He was just a great guy to chat within a laid back setting.
We played at least 27 holes every day on the then 3 9 hole courses. Each one was unique and one 9 was "Florida Traditional" built on top of a swamp and had holes lined by orange groves LOL. The proshop was very accommodating in granting our tee time preferences and they generally were not busy except weekend mornings. We were there during the month of March each time and the last two there were hard freezes at night. The headlines in the paper bemoaned the demise of the orange crops and the future of orange groves in that area. I wonder if that is where the reclaimed land came into play and used for the new golf courses that make up the resort today?
I hope you get over to play at least one of the courses and report on the atmosphere.