My family of five plus two friends (one of our adult friends, one of our teenage daughters) spent 6 nights at the Royal Palms from May 30-June 5.

Like a lot of you, I had some concerns about the property given many of the older reviews. I almost changed our reservation to the Cypress Harbour, a newer Marriott resort near Sea World.

Since we spent all our time at WDW, let me say I'm glad I didn't. They told us all of the rooms had been renovated, and we saw no evidence this wasn't true. New bedding, paint, kitchen countertops, cabinets and appliances, beds, TVs, you get the picture. Aside from the fact we were assigned a room (4254) with a walk in handicapped shower instead of a shower/whirlpool tub, I couldn't have been more pleased. I would give more details, but the next review does this nicely.

Again, I was glad I didn't move the reservation because of the location. You are on the grounds of the Marriott World Center resort (wonderfully landscaped grounds, too, with a golf course and lakes and tons 'o tropical foliage). The monolithic Marriott highrise is surrounded by three Marriott Vacation Club Properties (Royal Palms and the 3 BR, 2 BA Imperial Palms are together, while the older 2 BR, 2 BA Sabal Palms is behind the main hotel) and adjacent to I-4. You go out the entrance of the Marriott World Center, make a right and you're on Epcot Center Drive, which takes you into the heart of WDW and swiftly to wherever you need to go. I always prefer to be on WDW property (we stayed at the Wildnerness Lodge in Dec. 2005, just wonderful), but as they say it was indeed the next best thing to being there.

There is no shuttle service from the MWC to WDW, so you must have your own car or take a cab. It can't be more than 15 minutes from the Royal Palms parking lot to the Magic Kingdom or Animal Kingdom parking lots, your farthest points on the Disney compass. And if you're heading up to Universal or Sea World the on-ramp to I-4 north is right there, too.

A tip on transport on the MWC property: You can use the enormous pool/slide at the main Marriott, but you have to wait for a shuttle van (too far a walk). If you take your car, you have to pay to park at the high-rise Marriott. Parking is free at Royal Palms.

One more word on our stay, especially if you are Marriott Rewards member. Through the end of the year, Marriott is offering Rewards members three nights at their Vacation Club resorts (of which Royal Palms is one) for the price of two nights. So I made two consecutive three-night reservations for $372 each. That's less than $800 for six nights at a 2 BR, 2 BA full kitchen property with its own washer/dryer.

If you bookend your reservations like this, make sure they know when you check in so they don't try to get you to do something silly like change rooms mid-stay. I did have to go to the front desk and pay after 3 nights, then there was a bit of a screw up with our bill at the end, but if you find yourself getting at all frustrated just remember what a great deal you're getting.

The Royal Palms has its own large free form pool (nothing as large as the Rhode Island-sized pool at the main Marriott, but big). There are activities each day on property for the kids, golf and tennis lessons, etc. I must say we didn't have time to take advantage of these, but it was nice to know they were there.

The ultimate test for most people is: would you recommend this property and would you stay there again. The answer to both questions is yes.

Ok, so we arrived at 5pm on check in day (Sunday) GPS had a little trouble finding the correct street, because of the remodel. If it tells you a street that has a closed up old gate, keep going and turn right onto World Drive, it's right there.

Gorgeous property, beautiful lobby/pool - even the pool bathroom was really nice! We had to hit that right away before even checking in - my daughter couldn't wait!

Now we did book this place on exchange w/our timeshare, so we did not go to the timeshare presentation they wanted us to have, but the offer was good. They said $100 disney money. Anyway...

The resort had elevators and luggage carts to take your stuff upstairs, which was GREAT! The resort was absolutely beautiful. I couldn't tell you a THING wrong with the place.

The kitchen had a frige, toaster, oven/stove, microhood, all that stuff. Had pots/pans/bowls, utensils, large spoons and stuff/TONS of storage space. Now our toaster did burn the crap out of everything we put in it but we called and within an hour they brought us a brand new one.

The kitchen counter had 3 stools and the dining table had 5 chairs. The living room had a couch and 3 chairs. The patio was screened and private.

The master bedroom had a sliding glass door like the one in the living room, and both rooms exited to the same patio. The master bed was not "Marriott soft" but the bedding was of Marriott Quality. Two sinks in the bathroom with a HUGE mirror. Jacuzzi tub was great but NOT round as photographed in earlier units. There was a big closet with a safe in it, a shower/toilet area within a separate door.

The second bedroom contained a queen or full size bed and a daybed, a bit small - but it worked. There were tvs in both bedrooms and of course the living room.

Also, your unit does come with a full size washer and dryer. The descriptions I saw said "on property" - but I found that we had our own.

That's really all there is to say except the staff was really great, no real complaints, and I have uploaded some photos but I've got many more to put up. I probably took 30-40 pics.

All in all, it was a great place to stay and I would DEFINITELY stay here again, and recommend it highly!

We stayed at this property using Marriott Reward points with two children ages 1 and 3. We chose it based on the location to Disney and the kitchen a and 2 bedrooms and 2 baths.

As other reviewers have said, the villa looks great at first glance. Granite countertops, a nice sink, newer microwave and oven/stove really have a wow factor when you walk through the door. The beds look nice. After that, our floors were pretty dingy and we too had mold in our master shower area. Really not acceptable. Most of the unit was clean on arrival, however, the housekeeping went downhill every day. Most I could tell they did was take out trash, replace towels and run the dishwasher with the coffee maker in it. I do not agree with some reviews that the kitchen was fully stocked. There wasn't even a pizza cutter or a measuring cups in our unit. Lots of glasses, cups, plates, utensils, etc.

Our check in was great (around Noon on a Wednesday) and we had a pack and play delivered immediately upon check in. I asked for a high chair that was also immediately delivered. Very nice when you have a one year old with you. We also had a nice golf course view.

We did not use the pool or any other amenities so I can't comment. All in all our stay was fine, but I would not return.

We stayed four nights at the Marriott Royal Palms in Orlando. The resort is on the property of the Marriott Convention Center and has full use of all of their facilities including the large outdoor pool and an indoor pool as well.The location is perfect for families driving to Disney World. It is on rt. 536 which is very close to Downtown Disney and will bring you right to all the parks without even getting on the major rt. 4. The resort itself is very clean. The pool is nice and we found it to be warmer than the large pool at the convention center. The two hot tubs were nice and hot and clean as well. I was a little worried that our room wouldn't be ready for hours when we went to check in around 3:30,because the gentleman checking in before me had a list of requests for his room. He wanted a first floor room as far away from the pool as possible. The woman at the desk politely told him his room would be ready around 5:30. When I checked in I didn't request anything specific and was immediately given a very nice room on the second floor. Maybe a total of 10 steps up, not a problem at all. The pool area is quiet , most of the kids want to go to the big pool because it has a water slide. The units have all been recently renovated with granite countertops. It looks nice but on closer inspection the cabinets are really cheap laminate and no flat screen TVs. Not sure if I would be willing to pay top dollar to stay here but I was happy to attend Marriott's 90 minute timeshare tour to stay here 4 nights for $199.