| We recently stayed at this hotel for my husband's work convention and brought the kids and my mom along, so we had two standard double rooms next to each other. They could not secure connecting rooms for us. The hotel is beautiful. The staff were always happy and helpful. Our rooms were cleaned daily. The cleaning staff were always smiling and friendly toward us and the children. One day, the lady who was making up our room stopped and spent time just smiling and talking with the baby. It was nice to see the staff interacting with guests, rather than just hustling around them. |  Standard Double Queen Room |
Family Friendly?
Being that the majority of my blog is about traveling with kids, and as a family, I would not call it an overly family friendly hotel. The only things for kids to do are swim and the arcade. There wasn't a playground or even any fun pool equipment (slide, sprayers, etc). I would have liked to see more for kids to do on property, seeing as though a lot of people bring their families along for conventions in Orlando. They provided a real crib and not just a pack n play, which was nice. Once my son got hurt, explained below, we didn't have the pool option any longer. So staying on the property was tough. Four year olds can only go so long before they need something to do! The good news is that it's a very quick trip to SeaLife Aquarium, Madame Tussaud, and the Orlando Eye. There is a Publix supermarket across the street from the hotel which is nice to pick up snacks or other needs.
Food
There are a lot of dining options onsite. We ate at the Osceola Buffet for breakfast one day, 18 Monroe Street Market for lunch twice, and Mi Casa for dinner once. The food was decent for hotel food. It was nice that a few of the restaurants were all on the same strip/hall. We were able to look at menus and decide between the Burger joint, Mexican, sushi, etc. other restaurants were scattered about the property. There is an ice cream shop downstairs near the market. Surprisingly I never got anything, I wish I had because I'm an ice cream lover!
- Mi Casa had GIANT margaritas and table-side guacamole mixing. This seemed to be the popular order of the night when we went. This Mexican restaurant was pretty good for hotel food. I wasn't expecting much but I enjoyed my meal. Service was good. Our waitress was attentive, refilled our drinks often, and even gave us a cup to go! We had the Churros and loved them. They were crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside. A little heavy on the sugar, but nothing we couldn't brush off. We enjoyed sitting "outside" in the hall watching people walk by from the convention center to the main part of the hotel.
- The coffee shop serves Starbucks and Tazo teas. We both had a coffee and it didn't taste like typical Starbucks, so I think the baristas were a little rusty. But for a standard tea or regular coffee it would do just fine.
- The burger restaurant, Tobias Burgers and Brew, was closed on the weekend, which I thought was rather strange for a hotel. I guess we should have tried it at the beginning of our trip, during the weekdays.
- Osceola Buffet was massive. We ate there for breakfast and there was plenty to choose from. Ranging from exotic to ordinary, the options could please any family or group. Cereals, breads, pastries, cheeses, spreads, typical things like eggs & bacon, as well as unique options that I hadn't seen before such as different styles of scrambled eggs.
- 18 Monroe Makret Street- This place has both hot, made to order items, as well as a small selection of grocery items. Cereals, dry goods, cookies, and lots of sweets. There was a cooler with salads, fruit, cheese platters, and such. The hot items are ordered at the hot bar and then you pick them up a few minutes later when cooked. My Wall Street sandwich (Turkey, Swiss Cheese, Red Pepper Mayonnaise, Lettuce, Tomato, Multigrain Artisan Bread) was pretty good. They don't skimp on the turkey, there was actually so much that I took some out and ate it after the sandwich! A few days later we ordered a large cheese pizza and it wasn't very good. They try to make it healthy but it was just dry and tasteless. I wish I had ordered something else. Don't expect anything to be cheap. It's onsite and the hotel is in the business to make money, so there is an upcharge for not getting in your car/taxi and heading across the street to the grocery store.
Size
Be aware that the hotel property is HUGE. There are multiple conventions going on at the same time here, but plenty of space so you don't really feel like you're always on top of each other. Some parts of the hotel were FREEZING (near the strip of restaurants) and others were humid and warm (by the elevators). It could just be the nature of where people congregated and architecture of the building? I'm not really sure, but it was strange to have such extremes. Just be prepared to walk a lot!
Parking & Driving
Self Parking was a pretty far walk and cost was $18 per day. Thankfully I was aiming to reach my step goal on my FitBit ;) so it didn't make a huge difference to me except in the rain. If it was rainy or exceptionally hot I would cut through the convention center to get to the main part of the hotel. A lot of people double parked along the curbs to be closer to the front even though there were plenty of open parking spots. I could forsee a lot of dings and dents as some of the corners are tight.
I know this isn't the hotel's fault, but it's something to be aware of. When exiting the hotel via car, you go out to a fairly busy street (Universal Blvd). I am surprised that there is not a traffic signal here. One day I sat there for 15 minutes (no exaggeration) and I could not make a left turn because the traffic was so heavy. This wasn't during rush hour, it was 10am. So on the following days I made a right turn and then a U-turn at the next signal. Just something to note.
I know this isn't the hotel's fault, but it's something to be aware of. When exiting the hotel via car, you go out to a fairly busy street (Universal Blvd). I am surprised that there is not a traffic signal here. One day I sat there for 15 minutes (no exaggeration) and I could not make a left turn because the traffic was so heavy. This wasn't during rush hour, it was 10am. So on the following days I made a right turn and then a U-turn at the next signal. Just something to note.
Oopsies!
We had a small mishap with my 4 year old at the beach/zero entry pool a few hours after we arrived. He accidentally fell backward and hit his head, splitting it open a little. The manager and head of security were nothing but exceptional when helping us with this matter. They sent security (trained in first aid) to check him out and determined we needed to go to the hospital. My son needed staples in the ER. The manager followed up with us and even surprised him with milk, cookies, and a stuffed bear that night to help him feel better about the experience.
We also left a bag, with all of our shoes, in our room and didn't realize until we got home that night. I called the hotel Monday morning and they offered to ship the bag to us. I called the following day and was told they had already shipped, it turned out they hadn't shipped them yet. We were leaving town again in a few days and needed all of our dress shoes! They ended up arriving Friday afternoon, but we were already gone on our next adventure.
We also left a bag, with all of our shoes, in our room and didn't realize until we got home that night. I called the hotel Monday morning and they offered to ship the bag to us. I called the following day and was told they had already shipped, it turned out they hadn't shipped them yet. We were leaving town again in a few days and needed all of our dress shoes! They ended up arriving Friday afternoon, but we were already gone on our next adventure.
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