The Oaks at Waterman Village Retirement Community sits in Mount Dora, Florida, and has been Waterman Village's main retirement community since 1989. The campus covers all the levels of senior living, including independent living, assisted living, skilled nursing, post-hospital rehab, and memory care, and the whole community is 100% smoke-free with a real focus on resident safety-there's a staffed gatehouse at the entrance all day and night, along with a community emergency alert system and a 24-hour call system in every living area. Residents can choose to live in one of several types of homes like duplex villas, manor apartments, and special styles with names like Sabal, Key West, Sanibel, Glenwood, Brentwood II, and Wedgewood, with features like screened lanais and garages or carports. The buy-in fees for independent living start as low as $15,000, and residents have choices on refund options for their entrance fees, which a lot of folks find helps with planning.
The Oaks at Waterman Village gives seniors access to lots of activities, wellness and therapy programs, meal choices, and levels of care, all on the campus with tree-lined neighborhoods and walking paths that make for easy strolls or golf cart rides, and there's a golf cart and pedestrian bridge linking The Oaks to Lakeside at Waterman Village. Residents use a guest parking and overnight guest accommodation setup, a resident portal and work order system, and wireless internet in private rooms, along with amenities like a computer room, library, arts and crafts room, game room, theater, wellness spa, Medspa at Waterman Village with salon and massage services, and a swimming pool and hot tub. The dining services give everyone a restaurant-style experience with communal dining, all-day options, and accommodations for special diets like diabetic and allergy-friendly menus, plus room service when needed, and some residents receive monthly dining dollars. Housekeeping, laundry, on-site management, maintenance, and transportation to shopping and appointments keep life easy.
Care services look after a wide range of needs, with personal help for daily activities like bathing, dressing, handling medication, and more, and they have special programming and staff for early memory loss and more advanced memory needs at places like the Springwater Memory Support House. The Bridgewater Assisted Living building handles assisted living, and there's a Medicare 5-star rated skilled nursing center for more clinical needs, with physical, occupational, and speech therapy available right onsite through UF Health Clinic, which also operates a primary care clinic. Residents and the public can use home care and therapy as well, and there's even hospice, psychiatric, dentistry, and pharmacy right on campus, plus a full activities calendar for wellness, spiritual support, fitness (including Tai Chi, yoga, and stretching groups), and field trips, as well as gardening, golf, literary, music, arts, tabletop games, and movie nights in the theater.
Staff are trained with background and driving record checks, and provide help with things like medication reminders, companionship, and assistance for mobility or outings, and since the place is pet-friendly, residents often enjoy the gardens and walking areas with their animals. There's a community general store and coffee shop for light shopping or snacks, and the whole place is made to help with easy, maintenance-free living, both inside and outside the homes. The Waterman Village campus also offers help with long-term care insurance, caregiving guidance, and advanced care planning and is run by a local non-profit that's handled everything on-site, not by a distant company. The Oaks has a strong reputation with a 4.6 star rating from reviews and gives nearly every kind of lifestyle and care support you can think of, whether you want to stay independent, need a little help, or need round-the-clock skilled care.
