Tried to make this detailed, so excuse the length.
The positives far outweighed the negatives, but some issues at the hotel should be addressed by management;
In general;
Nice pool area, although all the kids complained of too much chlorine (better too much than not enough in my opinion though). Quite crowded, but the noise was not an issue for us as we were on the top floor and it was a fun “kids” atmosphere, rather than a rowdy crowd.
Decent small gym with all new equipment (no fee).
Computer/business center that charges by the minute for the computer use or by the page for printing. We used it only to book and print some boarding passes at the airline so it was worth while. Probably not worth the cost for anything else. The hotel advertises free wifi, but we didn't bring a computer with us, so can't comment on that
The room has been about 75% renovated with new furniture (very comfortable beds), carpeting, linens, paint, partially updated baths, etc. Our room looked very much like the hotel site photos which was a relief after seeing some of the other reviews here that stated they didn’t. The room had 3 separate a/c units which appeared new and worked great and it was nice to be able to adjust each to fit the peoples needs/wants in each room. The kitchen was not totally updated, but everything worked fine and was clean.
We stayed in a top floor suite with 2 bedrooms, 2 baths, living area and kitchenette with cabinets, sink, stove (no oven), microwave, dishwasher and nearly full sized fridge. It was stocked with all necessary utensils, dishes and pots & pans, coffee pot, toaster, blender, etc. (although we used paper and plastic most of the time out of preference). Both bedrooms had 2 queen beds and the living room had a pull out sleeper sofa (very comfortable and private for the 5 of us). The master had a private bathroom and the 'common bath' was adjacent to the living area and the kitchenette. Two rooms (master BR & LR) had a new LCD flat panel TV and the 2nd bedroom had an older standard TV. All worked well except the channels were very limited with the majority being news and/or local. They had Showtime which is no ones favorite and there is no other premium channel or "pay per view movies" as most hotels have these days as options. There was a VHS/DVD player in the living room, but the hotel doesn't offer movies for rent which seemed odd? So bring your own unless you want to go to the bother of joining a local video store (we didn't).
There are free sodas, beer and wine at the pool every day from 5pm to 7pm which was nice. We went on 3-4 occasions and the service was fast and friendly
The free breakfast buffet is nicer than most area hotels with muffins, bagels, pastries, breads, cereals, fruit, juice/coffee/tea, and hot waffles, sausage & scrambled eggs. Very crowded between 8:30-10, but nearly empty earlier when I usually went around 6:30am. There is also a free coffee/tea station in the lobby all day.
There is a small gift / snack shop in the lobby. Prices aren’t very good and the products aren’t very fresh. I pointed out several snack items to the clerk that the expiration date had expired on (several months ago in some instances). Would recommend you avoid this place and walk the few hundred feet to the 7-11 store in front of the hotel as we did for “snacks & drinks” if so desired. Better selection, cheaper and fresher.
Positives:
* Good location near I-4 and 192 about 15 minutes from Disney (when factoring in the traffic, etc). There is no left turn when exiting onto 192 though, so go through the Days Inn parking lot next door when exiting so that you can use the traffic light and avoid trying to make a u-turn on 192 when going towards Disney, etc.
* Good overall value for a family needing a suite rather than a “room”
* Updated and comfortable with good free breakfast buffet
* Good pool area and amenities for a family
* Many restaurants and stores in the immediate area. Several within walking distance
* Good parking unless you return late at night when you may have to use the overflow lot behind the hotel
* The web site is pretty accurate with the description, which isn’t always the case
* Free shuttle was on time and convenient for getting to Disney, did not use it for the return trip to the hotel as we had a car for pick-up at our leisure
* Lots of closet space and they even have shelves as well as hangers and rods
Negatives:
* Housekeeping was below par and much too late in the day. I believe they need to hire more housekeepers as many days things weren’t cleaned properly and/or items were not replenished ‘no clean towels one day’, no soaps and shampoos left another day (but they are cleaning ‘apartments’, rather than hotel rooms, so more time or help is probably needed). And they need to adjust their cleaning schedule. In our 10 day stay, our room was never cleaned before 3:30pm except for one day and on 3-4 occasions wasn’t done until 5pm. This is fine if your at the parks until late at night as you’ll never know the difference, but on the other days it’s quite annoying. In essence, we never had a clean room except at night which is unacceptable. We contacted housekeeping and the front desk to see if possibly they could even alternate days so our room wasn’t one of the last ones cleaned every day, but were basically shrugged off and told that the maids finished at 5pm. End of conversation. The maid (who only spoke Spanish, but so did one of us) informed us that
the “check out rooms” received priority and had to be done 1st and then they did the other guest rooms. I’ve never stayed at a hotel with such late cleaning times every day?
* As other posters have noted, the elevators are very slow, hot and need cleaning
* As already mentioned, better quality control is needed at the snack/gift shop as many items were found to be past their expiration dates. There is no excuse for that.
* Put a stop to all the people shoving fliers for bogus pizza restaurants under your door every evening (although there are signs stating same is prohibited, we saw the security guard on more than one occasion just watching the people do it, rather than telling them to stop)
