IsleOfMan

If you're there for Disney and there's not a huge price difference, I'd go to the Hilton Bonnet Creek any day of the week. I've had nothing but excellent experience there (including one President's Suite upgrade). The only downside is the shuttle to Disney (shared with the W=A next door) takes awhile as you have to wait for the W=A guests to load after you've loaded. Parking is still pricey ($14-$17 for self, not sure about valet) but you wouldn't pay the resort fee on a points stay.

gooselee

A bit OT, and my Orlando geography is rusty, but if you're there for the parks and Universal is also on your list, you might also check out the Doubletree at the Entrance to Universal (IIRC it is actually named that).

I had excellent service there last year and got quite a nice UG as a HH Gold.

kmwjes

From Hilton Orlando on Facebook: "We have a secret to share! Take advantage of our 72-HOUR FLASH SALE beginning at midnight tonight. RATES FROM $89/Night for arrival on select dates through December 20, 2014. More details to come."

tvelinsk

Thanks so much! I already had a reservation for $94 for a weekend in October, but that dropped to $85 with the AAA rate. I am looking for a weekend away, sitting around the pool, and this is a much better rate that Bonnet Creek. I am hoping the pool area will be less crowded than Bonnet Creek, too.

Question to those who have stayed here about the self park. Is the parking setup the same as Bonnet Creek? You enter the garage, take a ticket, but then use your room key to exit the garage?

Thanks in advance!

gbearbuck

You might want to try the mvp rate... It knocks the base rate down to $71.20 per night (plus tax, resort charge, and parking).

I've stayed at this property a couple times and frankly don't recall the parking details (I know one time the electronic meter was broken, so they left the gate open)... Horrible that is what I remember about the parking garage

Segments

Was just there last week

Self Park: get ticket upon initial entry. Turn it in at registration and use room key to enter & exit. Machine won't always read the card swipe so attendant must assist. Annoying especially when there is a long line to exit.

Parking Fee: $16 per day (plus taxes)

Resort Fee: waived for Diamond

Lounge: staff was good at refilling set up. As mentioned previously, no bottled water or drinks but there is a soda gun with multiple options. Busy at breakfast especially with a convention ongoing. (multigrain croissant was excellent - other pastries looked great) Evening apps but no dessert. Cookies and nuts were offered mid afternoon.

ZBigFam

Hi there any recent trips here? Is the lounge decent? Am debating staying either here or the Hyatt regency (am Diamond with both). Could anyone recommend one above the other? We will be staying for a sporting event that my son is competing in so we a great fitness facility means a lot. A nice lounge/club would be appreciated too!

Has anyone had the ability to get comp breakfast at the restaurant instead of the lounge? Sounds like the lounge offerings are a bit skimpy here?

Thanks for your help!

Zelucifer

Seems odd to be the first post here in almost 4 years. Stayed here a couple of weeks ago, very nice property. Decent breakfast buffet, Upgraded us to a very nice 2 queen hospitality suite. Had some minor issues with parking, apparently there system is a little wonky when you have two room numbers attached to a single room card.

nacho

Is the resort fee still waived on award stays?

TIA!

writerguyfl

Yes. Third item down on this list from the Hilton website:


Source: https://hiltonhonors3.hilton.com/en/...its/index.html

nacho

Thanks a lot! I'm looking into staying there maybe early January to get the kids to use the lazy river, slide - would it be too cold in Orlando at that time? Anyone knows if the hotel is generous in giving Diamond upgrade?

TIA!

writerguyfl

That's a tough question because it depends upon the person. The average high temperature in January in Lake Buena Vista (aka Disney World) is about 71 F (22 C). The average low is about 47 F (8 C).

Statistics Source: https://weather.com/weather/monthly/...6675667ea7ca09

Most of us warm-blooded Floridians aren't going to be hanging out by the pool. But if you're from somewhere were sub-zero temperatures are common, our January weather might feel wonderfully warm. Most pool are heated, too. So it's really only chilly when you're wet and out of the water.

And of course, that's just the average temperature. The record highs in January are in the mid to uppers 80s. It wouldn't be crazy to have temperatures be in the uppers 70s.

nacho

Thanks! My kids were in a lazy river when it was 15 degree Celsius and my youngest one got purple lips from that (it's their first lazy river in their lives so they didn't care about the cold temperature). The closest we have been to the warm places in the US during that time of the year would be San Diego, Tucson and Phoenix. My kids were in a pool in Phoenix and I still had a light jacket on. No idea what's like in Orlando as the day night temperature is pretty much the same.

We live in Southern Sweden where the temperature at that time can vary from minus 15C to 8C - wet and muddy.

The whole point of picking Hilton Orlando is the pool (It's a cheap way for a water park experience), another hotel I'm considering would be the Gaylord Palm (I have 2x 1 night up to 40k cert from Marriott).

ab007

I last stayed here back in 2015 (also as Diamond on a 5 nights point stay), after such a good experience and great value as a points redemption we decided to return here last week on our first return to Orlando since, having just returned back to the UK I thought a brief review may be useful to some considering the property.

Changes since our last visit:

- Parking is now $24 per night
- The Exec Lounge is gone
- Points rate is a little higher (like most properties!!)

This time we payed 154,000 points for 5 nights, I'm fairly certain it was 120k back in 2015 but I still feel it was good value (especially being UK based with the current GBP/USD rates), a couple of our nights stretched over Labor day weekend which increased the points (or cash) rate. Our standard King room would have cost a little over £700 (including taxes and resort fees but not parking) working out about 0.46p per point, still good in my view.

Room/ Check in

Having booked a standard King I politely enquired at check in about a Junior suite which we were upgraded to on our last visit, I'm not sure what the upgrade policy is here now but no questions asked the friendly desk agent upgraded us to a high floor King suite overlooking the pool area with views of Sea World in the distance, pretty much exactly the same room as last time... great start!

There's plenty of information here about the property so all I will say is that in terms of the room and facilities we felt it was just as good a stay as we remembered last time, everything nice and smart and modern, staff very helpful, and the pool area well maintained and clean. The property was very quiet given the time of year (and Dorian), but interestingly it filled up with emergency response teams for a couple of nights who were ready to head in to the aftermath of Dorian and fix power lines etc, it was quite impressive watching lines of trucks etc arriving in convoy and parking in rows and rows opposite the hotel.

Lounge & Breakfast

I wasn't aware until our arrival that the exec lounge has gone. To be completely honest for us it's almost a positive because on vacation we only really use it for breakfast which has now switched the restaurant and is therefore now a much larger spread. Breakfast was very organised, each day we were given a coupon and a 'Gold & Diamond' leaflet which clearly explained everything included in the continental breakfast and also what would be included if you upgraded (for $9.99) to the full breakfast. Servers simply took the coupon, no messing around with a cheque or anything, a lot of hotels could learn something from this. For the record we never upgraded, there was more than enough included as standard.

Parking & Resort Fees

I'm not going to get into resort fees, fact is on a points stay here you don't pay it. Parking on the other hand was really my only gripe with the property, 5 nights has set us back just over £100 which seems ridiculous money really, an easy earner for them I guess. It would really add up when people are here for a week or two.

Conclusion

We were very happy with the stay and I would happily return on points. Parking is a big frustration for me, I don't really see that the location justifies it (but it certainly justifies needing a car!), and when you're already paying $35 resort fees it just seems a bit steep.

The larger question, would I stay here on cash... I'd certainly consider it. The rate on one of our nights was $93, add on parking and resort fees then it's $152 per night which isn't bad, the problem is if the rates are up more then an extra $59 /night in fees soon jacks it up considerably higher.

Obelize

We stayed here as a group of 4 over 2 nights for a trip to Universal. 3 in our group had the AMEX Aspire card and we were able to split the final payment onto all 3 cards to trigger the $250 resort credit. Continental breakfast was free because we were all diamond members, but there were additional items that required an extra $30 charge (not worth). We also were upgraded to a Suite. Overall, it was a solid stay but I would not pay face value to stay here again if it weren't for the resort credits that we had.