The hotel itself was ok. It's a place to sleep and shower after spending all day out at the parks. Location was right outside entrance to Disney so it was also convenient. It’s also, surrounded by a lot of places to eat.

I just got back from a week long stay there and I have one major complaint. I left some souvenirs from Discovery Cove on a chair in the room. We spent the whole day out at Disney the next day and went to bed. The next morning I notice that my souvenirs were gone! I went to the front desk and reported it and talked to the housekeeping manager. She said she would get back to me after an investigation. After a couple days of checking back I got several messages. The first message was the manager saying that I had left the items next to the garbage can so it was my fault that the items were missing. They even admitted that this has happened in the past!! I left an angry note stating the exact location of my items and that I did not appreciate being accused of this. After that note their entire tone changed and the office manager called and left a message apologizing for the incident and that they would replace my items.

I just received the items in the mail today but one of the items was the wrong color. Wrong color is fine; at least they made the effort to replace the items. They also included a letter apologizing about the incident and concluded that the bag was thrown away on accident and they are now having their workers check with management before discarding bags that looked like gifts. I feel that this is a huge excuse. There were other things on the chair that looked a lot more like trash than the souvenirs still in the discovery cove bag. I still stand by my suspicion that my items were stolen. The incident definitely dampened the mood of my vacation.

I’m glad my items were replaced but I recommend spending a little more money and staying inside Disneyworld if that is why you are vacationing there. I will be doing this in the future out of convenience and piece of mind.

I loved this hotel!!! We stayed Memorial Day weekend and I loved every minute of it. Of course when visiting Disney you don’t stay in the hotel that often, pretty much just to sleep and shower. Yes the hotel is out dated but we loved how colorful the hotel was on the outside. Everything you need is right outside the hotel. There is a Subway and the best Chinese buffet next door. Burger King and McDonalds are across the street. It is in walking distance to downtown Disney, we did it one night and it was like a 15 min walk and it wasn’t bad at all.

The room and the bathroom were fine, I mean this isn’t a Hilton so you’re not going to have a whirlpool tub in the bathroom or any flat screen TVs on the wall every where. We didn’t hear any of the traffic on the street only just sirens and you can hear that from any hotel if they drive by.

The only problem we had was housekeeping. We were on the 3rd floor and they were always knocking at 8 in the morning, but it was a good wake up call. Also the shuttle service is a tiny bit inconvenient. Getting there was fine but the shuttles on the way back to the hotel from Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom were inconvenient. We didn’t run into these problems with the Epcot and MGM shuttle, they always had good times for these parks to get back to the hotel. There is only one shuttle back to the hotel for Animal kingdom which is at 6:20pm when the park closes at 8pm. For Magic Kingdom you have to plan the trip around the Monorail or Steam Boat to get back to the parking lot, since the Magic Kingdom parking lot is NOT in front of the park. Taking a taxi wasn’t expensive; it was basically 7 bucks to go from downtown to the hotel. But warning... most cab drivers have no idea where the hotel is so when taking a taxi I suggest you know the street it’s on. We over paid for a taxi like 2 times because they went in the opposite direction. I suggest you rent a car and park in downtown Disney for free and take the Disney shuttle buses. If not, the shuttles aren’t going to ruin your trip. They just don’t have any shuttles running in the afternoon for you to go back if you like to take a nap and go back for the night. But then again you could always take the Disney shuttle to downtown Disney and walk back.

The staff was extremely, extremely nice, the bell boy always had a huge smile on his face and always said hello to us when we saw him and the workers at au bon cafe always made our food perfect. They always told us to have a good time at what ever park we were going to and when leaving wished us a safe trip home. There was a lady at the ticket information desk that was doing the time share thing and got us free tickets to Disney Quest which was great. The whole time share thing wasn’t bad no one pressured us to buy anything, plus the place wasn’t to sore on the eyes.

They give you welcome cookies at check-in and they did try and charge us for the safe but honestly we didn’t even know we had a safe in the room, so they took it off the bill.

I read all the reviews on this site and most of them talked very highly of this hotel, so my expectations were very high. I was not disappointed at all after reading the reviews. The beds were extremely comfortable and hotel looked clean and smelled clean. Some of the ones where people had a poor experience at this hotel I did not experience while here. I mean the complaints about it being out dated is true but what do you expect for the price you’re paying? I never heard the traffic, there was no mold in our bathroom, the air conditioning sounded just like any other air conditioner I’ve ever heard, and the pool area was great and clean. We even liked the view of the whales out our window on the building next door to us.

Over all I thought was excellent!! I even liked it better than the All Star Resort in Disney, and in the future I will def. be coming back to this hotel. Its perfect for anyone on a tight Disney budget. Even if I wasn’t on a tight budget I think I would def. be coming back to this hotel. If I could give it 10 stars I would!

My boyfriend and I went to Orlando for Memorial Day weekend and stayed at the Orlando Vista for three nights. We got a great rate of $75/night through hotels.com so we figured why not. We read reviews on a couple of site and everything looked okay. I have to say that I was very impressed with this hotel, especially for the price we paid. Sure, the hotel is older and shows it's age a bit but the friendly staff, comfortable bed, and clean room more than make up for that. I really haven't been to a hotel (and I travel A LOT) recently where the staff were as friendly as they were here. Even the bartendars were great! (Look for Lucy... she's been with the hotel for 34 years!)

I was also very happy with the location. We took the shuttle every morning to Disney which was really convenient. There is an Au Bon Pain in the hotel (not as nice as the traditional Au Bon Pain's but good enough to get my oj and bagel each morning).

Also, if you aren't spending every minute at Disney there are a lot of restaurants within walking distance to the hotel and both a mall and outlet mall are a short drive away.

I would definitely stay here again if I were coming to Orlando for Disney and wanted to stay on the cheap (while having a nice experience!)

Is this hotel terrible? No!

That being said, there are plenty of other better options for the same price and location.

The good:

Good location, near the entrance to Disney, across the street from a shopping area that includes restaurants, a grocercy store and pretty much anything you would need.

Free breakfast. There is an Au Bon Pain in the lobby that you get a voucher for a drink and one breakfast item. This is a nice amenity.

Decent sized pool, it was clean and generally well maintained.

Free parking and a free shuttle to Diney. It is closest to the "Downtown Disney Area" To avoid paying for parking at Disney, you could park at Downtown Disney and take the Disney buses everywhere else.

The not so good:

The place is need of a major renovation. There is a slightly funny smell in the building. Hallways are banged-up and things are out-of-date. In our room the carpet was peeling away from the wall and there was significant amounts of mold in the bathroom.

Random fees: They randomly charge $1.50 a day for use of the in-room safe?

With there being so many choices in the Orlando area at the same price or less, I would recommend staying somewhere else.