just returned from a 3-night stay here at the Sheraton Lake Buena Vista. My parents / siblings / grandkids were staying on Disney Property at the Disney Beach Club, and I was aiming for a reasonable Bonvoy property in Lake Buena Vista to be close to them. I had my own car.
I snagged a Cyber Monday rate for $105/ night at the Sheraton LBV and threw down 3 SNAs that were expiring. The upgrade cleared into the 1-bedroom Palm Suite, which had more space than we knew what to do with. I had called the hotel prior to booking and asked about parking fees and resort fees. The agent on the phone stated parking fees were waived for Titanium guests, but not the resort fees. The website also mentions the resort fee "includes Disney Shuttle," (vague) so I asked the phone agent to elaborate on this. The shuttle goes to various Disney parks / resorts, and its complimentary. I figured this would be worth the resort fee alone, since parking at the parks is expensive, and I could just leave my car at the hotel & take the shuttle instead.
Upon checking in at the front desk, the agent asked if I was parking a car and I replied yes, and she said "the parking fee is waved because of your status. I just need a credit card for the security deposit. Do you want to use the card on file?" She didn't mention anything about a resort fee. I decided to just play dumb, and not ask about it. At the end of the stay, I received the final statement and ... what do you know ... no resort fee was charged! What a pleasant surprise.
Now, what I didn't know RE: the Disney shuttle, is that they have a posted schedule at the front desk to a handful of parks, and the frequencies are NOT good. I think the EPCOT shuttle only ran once per day, going over there around 10am and coming back around 1030pm. I think the park opens at 9:00am so you're getting a late start to begin with. I asked her "so you're basically stuck there for 12 hours if you want to use the shuttle roundtrip?" and she said yes. I'm not sure how many people stay at a park for almost 12 hours. I was spent after half a day. The alternative is to take an Uber one way if the times don't match your desires. If you are looking to fully utilize this "perk" that comes with the resort fee I would encourage you to phone the hotel prior to booking and dig down to make sure its going to be convenient for you.
Brekkie was served daily in the ZEST restaurant from 7am until 11am. Since most of the parks open at 9am, the restaurant is super crowded between about 730-830am. I would advise going right at 7am when it opens, or else after 9am. There was a mention upthread about only the continental breakfast being gratis with your Elite perks, and that you had to upgrade for an additional price to get the full buffet. There was no mention of this; it appears the whole buffet is included. You got your breakfast voucher from the front desk and handed it to the server and that was it. Nothing to sign for. the spread was decent ... eggs, potatoes with peppers / onions, bacon, sausage, turkey sausage, pancakes and / or french toast / biscuits & gravy. plus the continental fare. There was also a chef with an omelet station on the first day, but I didn't see him again on Day Two. Day Three we departed early to drive home.
There is a Dunkin across the street for a quick coffee & plenty of other restaurants within walking distance, although the roads are intersections are very busy. I highly recommend El Patron if you like Mexican, in a little plaza next to the Fairfield Inn. <5 minutes walk.
Overall no real issues with the stay. Yes the hotel is dated, but this is mostly noticeable in the external building façade and in those awful spackled ceilings. Not a deal breaker. Elevators are S-L-O-W. Pool area was nice, jacuzzi was piping hot. open until 10pm. There was some noise from the pool area that you could hear in the room, but nighttime was quiet. The Palm Suite is adjacent to the elevators, and the floors are tiled. You can hear noise from that, but once you are away from the elevators, the hallways are carpeted and seemed quiet. Not sure how a room facing the road would be.