Loved our stay at the Omni. The hotel lobby is stunning and the landscaping around the grounds is very well done. Our room was a good size, with nice linens and towels, spacious bathroom with marble tiles and overlooked the resort area (rather than the parking lot). The room also had a small work desk with wired and wireless internet, if you bring your laptop. There are three pool choices - a lazy river, a formal pool and ‘family’ pool with decent-sized slide. There is also a splash pad nearby for smaller children and two hot tub areas. The lazy river in particular was a great way to spend time. Around the formal pool, there are cabanas with loungers and TVs to rest during the day without going to your room (extra $$ of course). On the Saturday, there was a DJ at the family pool who also ran some games for the kids. Weekends were pretty crowded and it was hard to get somewhere to sit but the pools themselves are so big they didn’t feel crowded.
There are lots of things to do other than swimming – fitness centre, tennis courts, basketball court, beach volleyball and of course golf. All were in excellent condition.
Don’t be put off by the location. Yes, it is away from the 192/I-Drive hotel strip but it is very convenient for WDW – it’s just off I-4, a short drive south of WDW. It is an easy drive to the park and traffic was never a problem. It’s a bit further drive to Universal Studios but not unmanageably far. There is a coach shuttle from hotel to the WDW parks which we used several times. Some evening departure times from the park are inconvenient if you want to see fireworks so you may want to take the car for those days you want to stay late.
Our package included a breakfast buffet which was served in David’s on the main floor, overlooking the lazy river which made for a great location. The fare was pretty basic: it usually included scrambled eggs, sausage and waffles, a selection of cold cereals, doughnuts and bread for toast. The first few days there was a nice fruit salad but later on during our stay it was substituted for an uninteresting fruit cocktail.
There are several on-site dining choices but I can’t comment on them. Off-site, the area is still being developed so the options for dining locally are limited – there are a McDonalds, a pizza place, Subway and Chili’s in the retail area near the hotel. There is also a Publix for grocery items and some ready-made meal items (think subs, salads and roast chicken) and a Walgreen’s for drug store stuff. For other restaurant choices, one option is to take the short drive north to 192 where there are many restaurants.
A couple of niggles. At check-in we got two card keys - one never worked and one night in the middle of our stay the other one stopped working after getting home late (required a trip down to the front desk). Also the AC in the public areas is set to absolutely freezing – fortunately you can control the temperature in the room to warm it up a bit.
When comparing prices, don’t forget that there is a $15 (plus tax) resort fee which is paid at the hotel.
















