Last year we went to Florida for the first time not knowing what to expect at all, we know a lot of people who have been and the majority of them have stayed in villas and have hired cars. My boyfriend and I didn’t fancy the idea of driving so we opted to stay in a hotel with easy transport links to the famous theme parks and attractions. After all that was the only reason we were going not as such for a break but more for a good time and to see what all the fuss was about.
RESEARCHING AND BOOKING When you are booking to go to Florida you don’t realise how much time its going to take actually trawling the internet for accommodation, prices, things to see and do, the right area and of course reading the reviews on each and every option. As we were going to Vegas the week before we weren’t really too bothered on going for the luxurious option more somewhere to rest our head in between theme park visits, with this is mind I searched websites such as travel republic, alpha rooms, otbeach etc after reading about the different areas we opted for Buena Vista because it is described as being “next door to the magic” and “minutes away from the attractions” and nearly all the hotels offered free breakfasts and were offering free bus transfers a lot of them only offered transfers to some parks but The Comfort Inn offered transfers to all the parks which was really what swung it for us. The hotel costed out £315 for 10 nights, which included free breakfast, which we upgraded to deluxe continental because it stated that we would get a hot breakfast for this and my boyfriend, loves his food so I know I would have to do this or he would moan.
CHECKING IN Upon arrival at Orlando airport we took a taxi to Palm Parkway, which is where the Comfort Inn is, located it cost us around $50, which was what we had expected. The drive to the hotel was nice everywhere looked really green and the Palm Parkway although busy looked nice. As we turned into the Comfort Inn it all looked very nice as we pulled up past a lovely big water fountain and what looked like fake green grass went as far as the eye could see. We fast approached the reception area, which was the start of a bad stay. A lady who went through our details and gave us our room number greeted us at the check in desk and key. To the side of the desk was a sign upgrade to hot breakfast for $5.99 which was then pointed out to us and asked if we wanted to upgrade I politely said we had already paid for this that’s why its says deluxe and not just continental she at this point said no you haven’t grabbed my confirmation and took it out the back, she returned saying no you have definitely not paid for that we have phoned and checked so If you want the hot breakfast you need to pay extra. I was very unhappy about this because it had stated on the website “hot breakfast” otherwise how would I have even known about it I had even mentioned it to my boyfriend before the holiday. I was that upset with the way were treated I felt like going straight to another hotel and when I think back now I don’t know how I didn’t but I didn’t want to give travel republic or the Comfort Inn the satisfaction of having my money and not having to provide my accommodation. I also thought deep down that Travel republic would sort the situation out so as soon as I got myself sorted I did email travel republic who had since changed the format on there website and flatly disagreed with me which was highly annoying as I know what I booked! All I can say is that I cant fully blame the hotel for the mishap over breakfast but they could have been more helpful and shown some customer service skills over the matter. I can only say I wouldn’t book with travel republic again but that’s another review.
THE ROOM The hotel has 640
rooms which seems a lot but when your actually there you don’t come in to contact with many people until the morning when everyone is trying to cram into the small breakfast room and even then you don’t see that many people. The hotel rooms are in long blocks just like at Butlins there is a large car park outside all of the rooms and then you have 5 floors with long walk ways were all the front door are situated there is a lift and a staircase on either side of each building. The rooms are described as “semi-suites” which I find absolutely hilarious because once you open the front door to your room its like walking into a black hole. The room is in darkness because there is no natural daylight unless you open your curtain which is closed because the window looks out onto the walk way which everyone walks down to get to their room and peers in and as the bed is directly across from the window you don’t want people gawping in. There are two bedside cabinets with lamps on and a lamp in the corner of the room. Across from the double bed is a dressing table with TV and leaflet rack which is all very average then you look to your right and there is situated a large mirror and your bathroom sink! To the right again you have a small dark bathroom with bath with overhead shower and toilet. I have to say the room was clean but it stunk of damp I don’t know what was causing it but the smell lingered for the whole 10 days we stayed there. Just when we thought the smell had gone we went out came back and it was there again so we must have just been getting used to it. When we got home everything in our suitcases had to be thoroughly washed, as all our clothes smelt so badly of that room! Whilst experiencing the full affect of our “semi-suite” I was dreading getting in bed because I thought if the room can be this bad what are the beds going to be like but I was relieved to find that it was quite comfortable, spacious and appeared to have clean sheets. In my mind though I was hating sleeping there. On the plus side there were a couple of plus points like the hairdryer in the bathroom which was very handy, a decent sized TV with cable which had a few channels that had some American game shows on which we watched at night time whilst we had nothing better to do. My boyfriend was particularly pleased one night as the new Prison Break series stared and was ahead of the UK so we stayed in ordered a Chinese take away to our room and watched it (most probably the highlight to my boyfriends holiday.) a fridge where we kept our after sun and drinks cold, a microwave which we didn’t use, a coffee machine which we also didn’t bother with but most importantly a lockable safe which we took advantage of because you just had the feeling anyone could break in at any time however on one occasion we had cleaners in our room who left the front door wide open and were no where to be seen which was quite worrying but am glad to say nothing was stolen but it was a big worry. When we reported this to the reception they said we really sorry about that I’ll let the cleaning staff know! Hardly enough to satisfy our worries that it would never happen again. The décor of the rooms was old and tired the walls were dark and the bed sheets were flowered but not a problem the only problem was that the walls were paper-thin and every morning kids ran past the fronts of the rooms shouting it would wake us up. They also sell rooms at this hotel described as “family suites” but unfortunately even if you were to book one of these they are only described as having a portioning wall with extra beds not very “suite” if you ask me! HOTEL FACILITIES When you walk into the main reception area it is very small but you come across a lot of handy things opposite the check in desk you have a desk which is over run with leaflets and posters you can pick up a leaflet on absolutely anything and everything within America! You can book excursions or simply ask questions on where to go for local shopping they tell you everything and cannot be more helpful. Every morning you do see a lot of people booking trips and purchasing park tickets. We purchased everything we wanted to before we arrived in Florida but if we hadn’t I would have bought from here because when we asked the girl behind the counter where was best to do some shopping she advised on all the nearby retail outlets and advised what shops were where.
At the back of the reception was a decent sized souvenirs shops which sold newspapers, sweets and all sorts of souvenirs at decent prices we purchased Mickey mouse and Minnie mouse dolls here for around $8 each which was good value and they looked no different to the ones for sale at Disney Land.
Opposite the breakfast room in reception was 3 phone boxes all with Internet access and one that had a printer attached to it. This may sound like such a simple amenity but was very useful as I used the phone everyday $1 for 15 minutes of internet time which I used to email my family how we were getting on which was really nice and cheaper than ringing all the time. I don’t know what we have done with this facility, as we didn’t come across any other phone boxes. Also on the last day we used the Internet to check in on our return flight and printed out our boarding cards, which was brilliant.
The hotel also has some leisure facilities including a games area for children to play arcade games at a cost and there is also a climbing frame and slide etc to keep them amused. The best part of the hotel has to be the two swimming pools they are a good size with free towels and sun beds not that you catch much sun as they are in very shady spots backing on to a main road behind the trees but you can get over this when you plug your ipod in. I know it doesn’t sound very positive but because everyone is at the Theme Parks all day you practically have the pool to yourself whenever you want it. Which I think it marvellous if you have children because they could have the run of things. We used the pool on a couple of occasions to cool down or we would come home for an afternoon just to have a nice swim. The pools are very clean and not too cold so you can have a really nice time.
BREAKFAST AND EATING OPTIONS Oh my goodness if you ever see a hotel offering a free breakfast don’t bother! It’s free for a reason and the main reason being its rubbish! On the first morning we strolled into the breakfast room got a table and tucked into the lumpy porridge, plain mini muffins, quarters of oranges and joined the queue to burn our toast in the toaster. Everyone is given a table as they enter and 1 napkin each. There is tea and coffee with watered down juice available if your thirsty. On the other side of the room is the hot breakfast that consists of the same thing us mere porpers have then some streaky beacon, scrambled eggs, skinny sausages and some more varieties of fruit. The free buffet breakfast side was constantly running out of supplies and the toasters were regularly out of order but on the deluxe side hardly anything needed replenishing as no one was paying the extra because it was simply not worth it if you were going to pay the $5.99 you may as well go out and eat something worth the money. The second day we went down to breakfast was another story we had woken up a little later and went to breakfast at 9am big mistake the room was full to the rafters and the queue to get into the breakfast room was to the front door of the reception which was mad in the end we had to give it a miss as we would have missed the bus to the Theme Park. Breakfast is served in the Boardwalk Buffet Restaurant from 5:30am until 10:30am. The restaurant also provides an evening meal for those who book into the hotel on a half board basis which is open 5:30pm till 9:00pm, which is an all you, can eat buffet which is changed daily. Whenever we walked past the restaurant was always empty mainly because after the breakfast service no one would want to eat an evening meal especially pay for it!
If you were desperate for a meal and couldn’t be bothered to venture out then you can use the Comfort Zone Bar and Grill which was open 5:30pm until 1am but served meals only until 11pm. The Comfort Zone is a bar area which seats around 50 people its got a big TV showing sports with a long bar you can up to which really gives that American feel but that’s all the whole décor and atmosphere made you feel as though you were sitting in an old persons living room. The prices were average but the selection of food on the menu was poor it was burgers, scampi, fish and chips etc very British and very boring.
If you fancy a snack or want to eat in your room there is an onsite shop called Lite Bite, which stocked everything from sandwiches to pastries and baby food. I purchased am mini packet of mini charms to bring home for my sister which probably cost the same amount of money a full sized pack would have cost. We purchased things like Pringles, bottles of pop and chocolate the prices weren’t cheap but they weren’t over the top expensive considering you were buying from a hotel lobby.
TRANSPORT LINKS The transport is amazing this really made staying at this hotel bearable when you check in you get given a bus timetable with every theme park on and at least 3 times minimum the bus would take go in the morning it ran from around 7:30am till the parks closed at different parts of the day. We always caught a bus around 9am so we could grab a bite to eat first as the food in the parks was always such a much ness you didn’t fancy burgers for breakfast, lunch and tea! We would then try to catch a bus home at around 5pm because we were normally tired by then and the buses aren’t at regular times so you could be waiting for an hour or two till the next bus if you missed it and taxis aren’t cheap. The drivers are all so delightful some made more effort than others they would let you know where to catch the bus, where to go for the entrances and give you any hints or tips especially on the taxis they would tell you how much they should cost if you miss a bus and how much they would try to charge you. They work really hard and appreciate tips we used to save a dollar for the morning and a dollar for the evening driver which was what most people did you go the odd meanies who didn’t bother and some who just gave to the evening drivers but that just didn’t seem fair. My only story about the buses which we learnt from is that you should pay very close attention to your stand number, exact time of pick up and the people who are at your hotel because on the first day we stood at the stand we were supposed to be at but were 20 minutes early and I the bus driver said “come on get on you nearly missed us don’t you remember me from this morning?” I didn’t have a clue who he was but my boyfriend and me got on and prayed for the best. After we had been travelling for around 20 minutes the bus pulled up at a hotel some got off and then it pulled up at the next hotel when the bus driver shouted “hey this is your stop hahaha don’t you even know what your hotel looks like!” we knew it wasn’t our hotel but by now we didn’t have a clue where we were so we just got off and started walking in the direction we guessed our hotel was in. Needless to say we didn’t get there it began to rain and we stopped off at a supermarket and they called us a taxi which took us to our hotel costing us $20 it was so embarrassing but from then on it never happened again we made sure we were at the stand and didn’t get on a bus until the exact time of departure because the buses don’t come early!
Apart from the buses if you wanted to venture to the shopping centres or somewhere you could get a reputable taxi from outside the hotel, which were there all the time coming and going which was nice and helpful.
SURROUNDING AREA The Buena Vista area is very big with lots of large hotels dotted around with quite a lot of land around them so there is little space for much more. To go anywhere of any excitement you had to travel. Within the vicinity was a Pizza hut which was not worth visititing as you have to wait ages for a table and when you get served your food is cols and they don’t even bother to change it for you they just say oh just don’t pay for it! There is a nice Chinese restaurant next door which was always empty but served up nice food for the same sort of prices you find in the UK. Across the road there is a small shopping area with a couple more shops, a car hire place, a holiday shop, an electrical shop and newsagents which was very good ran by two young lads most of the time who were friendly and helpful. Next door to this was a gorgeous Italian restaurant which was where we ate most nights as it was amazing value for money and the food was wonderful you got a free salad or soup to start, free wine with regular top ups and your main meal for $30 which at the time was around £17 which we thought was outstanding value for money. If you are feeling energetic you can walk to the end of the road where you can find Denny’s, McDonalds and a couple of other restaurants we would regular walk up there on a morning to get mc Donald’s pancakes it would take us around 30 minutes to get to McDonalds and about an hour to get back because we were so full up and bloated!
OVERALL CONCLUSION I have to say the hotel was certainly not a 3* hotel by any stretch of the imagination. The breakfast ok free but not really of any means filling. The customer service and attitude of the staff was disgusting and all the guests were treated like herds of sheep being crammed into the smallest room ever. The rooms were disgusting and looked just like a motel out of the films to say it was like Butlins is a compliment. The location of the hotel was ok there were a few things nearby but as for entertainment in the evening this was non existent unless you took a taxi elsewhere or stayed at Disney land until 10pm. Admittedly most nights we were quite tired and happy to have an evening meal and go to bed with a bit of telly but it would have been nice just to go to a bar that had more than 2 people in for a drink. We will definitely return to Florida but next time we will be paying a lot more money and staying in Disney land itself or a higher rated hotel probably on International Drive. Despite everything we had a great time in Florida as every holiday is what you make it and the free shuttle buses were brilliant you could not have wished for a better service. If you are on a really tight budget then by all means consider this hotel if you can put up with a smelly damp room that is clean but if you are fussy about things like this don’t touch this place with a barge pole.
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I'm off to Florida with my mum in September - we have decided it will either be the Holiday Inn or Quality Inn Plaza but, I was hoping your review might have been a positve to give me another option - I think though I'll stick with one of the two we've already looked at! lol x
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