It was worth a try but guess I will be the first to review them on here then

I hope they are as good as they seem - so long as the villa is tidy (when we get there), the aircon works and the pool is clean thats the main thing.

The Thomson "Bronze", Virgin Holidays "Standard", Travel City Direct "Classic" etc. are all going to be fairly similar in the fact that this will be their lead priced cheapest villa option. I think you will find that these are typically functional but may in the old sub-division estates and are generally the older house and perhaps with more dated decor.

The "Silver" / "Gold" / "Superiors" all follow the same pattern in the more you pay the better statndard you will receive. The higher category villas vill often be newer, have much better furnishings and decor and more mod cons (more/newer TV's, music centres etc)

Personally we normally go for a Superior, Superior plus or Deluxe. Often the Superior/Silver/Gold is only £10 per night more. It all comes down to personal choice but I do think the old addage of "what you pay for is what you get" rings true.

When I was looking at where to book, the difference between say the Bronze and Silver Villas didnt actually seem significant. Looking at the reviews on the Thomson website of people who have stayed in them, the reviews on the Bronze seemed more favourable than those on Silver because there was at least one review on Silver stating the villa they had was dated, but most on Bronze were very impressed. Also location seemed to be listed as less travel time to places like disney than the others.

I am not overly worried anyway because there is always an element of pot luck, we could get one of the better Bronze Villas which might be as good if not better than one of the worst Silver Villas. The facilities on both Bronze and Silver seem the same from what is listed.

Will just have to wait and see what we get - we may not be spending that much time in the Villa anyway

Very valid. Good luck and have FUN.

Well, to answer my own question - we seemed to have dropped on and been very lucky. We got what we were expecting as a minimum and much more. It was only the 3 of us (2 adults and a child) on the holiday, but we were allocated a 4 bedroom, 3 bathroom villa in Clermont - complete with a very big pool and spa, as well as a games room in the Garage complete with Pool Table and Air Hockey. The area was lovely and quiet (makes a change from where we live in the UK) and not too far from the parks. Shops were very close wtih a Win Dixie and Walmart just a few minutes drive away too.

Reading other peoples reviews on the Thomsons website I think we have been quite lucky because it seems a bit of pot luck for what you will get in terms of over and above what is specified - but we certainly were not disappointed with the Villa.

I think Bronze Villa is really good! You ll not regret it...

We didn't regret choosing Bronze as opposed to Silver or Gold - as I said we may have been lucky in what we got but the villa was great, a better than we expected.

If I were to book again with Thomson I wouldnt expect it to be as good because I think we were just lucky with what we were allocated - reading reviews on their own site some people were happy, some had a few criticisms about their particular villa. It's unlikely I would use a TUI company again anyway because there were serious issues when we booked (mis sold tickets, paid for upgrade on car hire but they allocated a downgrade to the free car!), resulting in months of evidence and letter writing (which they blatantly didnt even read) until I got ABTA involved who agreed with me and forced Thomson to rectify things with a suggestion I had made to sort things out in the offset. I believe its not just me who has had serious issues with Thomson customer service so its not an isolated incident. Pity really because the holiday was great, and the Thomson cabin crew although most seemed a bit arsey, I have had stroppier on flights.

Think next time we go we will book everything separately and might even save some money.