As our main holiday for this year we decided to visit florida, we booked the flights in October as Virgin Atlantic were having a seat sales so our flights were costing us under £300 each which was a bargain, we decided that March would be an ideal time to travel as it would be a nice temperature and is not too busy so the flights were booked and then the next task was to find a hotel for a reasonable cost, being in the Travel Industry is normally a real advantage as you can get great rates, normally based on the fact that you will recommend and sell the hotel after your visit, but I was having no luck for the area that we had decided to stay in which was Lake Buena Vista. My boyfriend had been to Florida 4 times before so he knew which hotels would be ideal for us to visit, he managed to book the hotel using his Natwest Advantage Travel Account to get a discount the price I will disclose at the end of the review, so on we go…..
The hotel that was most suited to our needs was indeed the Comfort Inn, located on Palm Parkway in Lake Buena Vista, contained within 23 acres of land with 640 rooms we were sure that this would be a great place to stay with that may rooms they were bound to be organised and efficient, exactly what we needed as we were stuck to a strict schedule and the complimentary transfers that they provided would be an added advantage to staying there.
}}}Check-In{{{
Check-in time is 3pm and was ideal for us as we arrived in to Orlando Interantional at 2pm so by the time we arrived at the hotel our room would be ready for us. We arrived at the hotel at 3.45pm, as we pulled up I began taking in the hotel it had 4 buildings that were where all the guests stayed and the building in the middle where our driver had pulled up was Lobby and Restaurant we entered the two brown double doors to access the lobby which was to the right, there were two members of staff already dealing with guests so we waited in line for us to be called next. Directly next to the reception area is the Business Centre which we did not make use of but should this service be required all details were found in the hotel handbook located in your room. Once we were called forward check-in took just a matter of minutes, we were asked for out names and passports as identification whilst the staff member searched for us on the computerised database, once the member of staff had our details he provided us with two keycards for our stay and complimentary vouchers each for a buffet breakfast on two days and buffet evening meal each on one evening of our choice. We were then asked to provide our accommodation voucher provided to us from Virgin to confirm payment for the room and that the dates reserved and paid for were correct. We were advised of our room number which was 4317 located in the far building 4000 and the staff member provided us with a map of the hotel to show us where our room was located and what floor we needed for using the elevator. Finally we were provided with a voucher to take to the Guest Services Desk where we could collect our complimentary amenity pack, this also provided them with the chance to sell you theme park tickets if you did not already have them and to try and sell you any of the other events that they had.
{{{Guest Sevices}}}
As we had purchased our tickets over in the UK we did not really need to visit Guest Services for any tickets, but we did obtain a copy of the bus schedule from there and also picked up numerous discount leaflets for popular restaurants and activities in the local area. They also advised us of the Disney Arabian Nights Show that was on locally and the cost included an evening meal and we did both consider it and we were told that if we booked that evening on the day we checked in then we would both be entitled to a $18.00 discount per person, however when we returned to our room we realised that there would not be enough time for us to visit the show and there was no way that we could decide this on our first night.
{{{The Room}}}
{Getting to the Room} The Comfort Inn has 4 buildings containing the rooms and the lobby and restaurant building, we were located in the 4th building which is farthest away. The elevators are located at the ends of each individual buildings and also where the two buildings connect, we used the elevators that are where the two buildings connect as they are the closest and took the elevator to the 3rd floor, the room numbers are posted outside so it was easy to locate our room was located on the left hand side of the building overlooking the car park, something that I was really glad about as the highway across from the hotel was constantly busy and created quite a lot of noise in both the daytime and evening.
{Accessing your Room} We entered our room by inserting the card into the top of the handle until the light showed up green, we then pushed the handle down to enter the room.
All rooms can accommodate up to 4 guests. We were booked into a standard room which has two queen sized beds, there were also family suites available at the time of booking if required which contained a queen sized bed and on the other side of the divide two bunk beds for use by children aged 11 years and under.
{Room Facilities} As you enter the room the light switch is located immediately to your left on the door frame. There is a small armchair located on the left hand side along with a floor lamp, each room also contains an air conditioning unit with the fan only option, as well as the cool air conditioning and also hot air conditioning ideal for temperamental weather and easy to operate by turning the switch to your desired temperature control. To the right of the room are a double chest of drawers which provided plenty of storage space for us with two deep drawers in each we were able to empty our rather large suitcases, on top of the chest was another lamp and a large television with built in cable channels as well as an array of leaflets and menus for local take-out. Next to the chest was a desk with another lamp and a small drawer in the centre of the desk, this is where you will find your Hotel Handbook which has some handy information in, there is also a chair with the desk to sit at should you wish to use it. There was a refrigerator and a microwave in the room which was great for storing soft drinks as it was really cold. There was also an ice bucket on top of the refrigerator and plastic cups for refreshments.
Then you come to a small archway this is basically the ensuite area of your room as there is a large vanity area at the rear of the room which has a sink as well as face flannels and two hand towels located to the left there was also complimentary soap, moisturising body lotion and a shower gel. There was also a hairdryer located next to the towel rail and was a lot more powerful than the travel hairdryer that I had brought with me. There was a coffee machine located at the far end of the vanity area and coffee was provided complimentary along with disposable cups. This was also the area that stored the ironing board and iron and there was an open wardrobe opposite the bathroom door. There were a number of plastic hangers provided in the hotel and above was a shelf to store additional clothing items.
{The Bathroom} Next to the vanity area is a door which leads on to the toilet and the shower/bath. The shower was really powerful and an added feature was that the showerhead could be adjusted to the type of shower that you wanted Niagra was a really strong powerful shower and mist was a lighter more refreshing shower whereas the Spray was your tradional shower option. The bathroom was clean, the toilet was clean and the white bathroom suite looked well maintained the walls were tiled in a dark beige colour. There was a towel rail located above the toilet and this had 4 bath towels, 2 hand towels and 2 face cloths, so there was plenty of towels for 2 guests and you had the option to reuse by replacing them on the towel rail or if you wanted fresh towels just leave them on the bathroom floor and they would be replaced when your room was next serviced. There was a bath mat in the bath for use in the shower and a large shower curtain that curved away from the bath so it gave the impression that you had more room in the shower. The shower was operated by a large lever and to have a hotter shower you turned ant clockwise towards the red squares, the bigger the squares the more increase there was in the temperature. To have a cooler shower you just turned the lever clockwise again the bigger the squares the more impact it had on the temperature. To turn the shower off you just needed to turn the lever all the way to the right. At times the shower would not just automatically operate the tap would start to run the bath, in order to operate as a shower there was a button that you needed to pull up to have the water flow into the shower head, to run a bath you just pushed the button in and made sure that the plug was in, but the showers were much more refreshing as the bath was so low down. There was a lock in the bathroom which was operated by a button in the door handle, to lock the door you just needed to push the button into the handle and the door would be locked, to unlock the door you just turned the handle anti clockwise and the door would then open.
{The Safe} Above the refrigerator attached to the wall was the safe, this came with a key, however when we arrived into our room the key was missing and this would cost $25 dollars to replace, so we called down to reception so that they could get this replaced as soon as possible and so that we would not be charged. A member of staff arrived within 5 minutes to replace the lock on the safe and provide us with a key this took him no longer than 10 minutes to replace the lock. The safe is a complimentary service offered in all rooms free of charge, unless of course you lose the key and the lock has to be replaced.
{The Beds} As I mentioned before our room contained two queen sized beds and were made up of a single white sheet, a camel coloured blanket and a padded quilt cover that was a deep floral design. The bedding was both clean and comfortable and each day the maids made up the beds. In between the two beds was a bedside table with two fairly deep drawers in each drawer there was a yellow pages style directory ideal for getting in touch with a local business or restaurant. Stored above the unit on the wall were two bedside lights which were operated by a push switch, once would turn the lamp on the right hand side on, two clicks would turn the lamp on for the left and three clicks would turn both lamps on. On top of the unit was the telephone where local calls were free of charge which was great as we had a phone card to allow us to make international telephone calls rather than racking up a huge bill with the hotel. There was also a clock radio which was handy especially if you wanted to have an early start as most people do when visiting the parks. The room had great lighting infact you could say that there was too many lamps in the room, but as the evening drew he room got dark pretty quick as you had blackout curtains due to the low windows that run adjacent with the corridor.
{{{Opinion of the room}}} I was very pleased with the quality in the rooms, we were booked into a budget hotel so we knew what to expect and that was a clean, tidy and well maintained room and that was what we had, all of the contents of the room worked perfectly and were spotless, each day the rooms were hovered as they were serviced by the maids and towels replaced if requested. As stated I was glad that we were facing the car park as I had heard that rooms facing the highway could be constantly noisy due to the volume of traffic that use that road, however I think that would have been preferred to some of the nights we were awoken. On our very first night after a long flight and the time difference, we decided to have an early night as we were planning to have a very early start and visit Magic Kingdom and the bus picked up from the hotel at 7.45am, however the hotel guests had other ideas there was a great deal of noise from people walking along the corridors and also people in the room above us, you could not hear other guests televisions or talking in their rooms but you could hear when people were running about or stomping above and it was quite disturbing if you were asleep, however we put this down the fact that we had gone to bed early. For the first few nights of our stay this was certainly the case until we were halfway through our stay and we were woken up at 3.30am with a loud thud, the reason someone had passed out right in front of our door as they were soooo drunk, we were not impressed, however he was not the one making the noise his friends were they were shouting to one another about getting him into his room and trying to sober him up but they decided to do this outside our room, I was to tired to complain and just put up with the noise as we were sure that it would quieten down after 10 minutes, the noise finally stopped at about 4.15am after they had walked him down to his room, he had been sick over the balcony and they had put him into the room which sounded like next door but was actually two doors down, I felt like waking them up the following morning I tell you. However the rest of the stay was fine until 2 days before we were due to return home when at 10.30pm 4 coach loads of school children arrived to check-in, all we could hear were children running backwards and forwards along the corridors, banging and the noise of cases being dragged above and along our corridors, we had enough, Mark looked out of the window noticed the 4 coaches that had arrived and all the kids running around in the car park, there were also 2 other guests standing on the balcony looking over the car park as they had obviously been disturbed as well, Mark got straight on the phone to reception to advise them that we had been disturbed and were not happy with the noise we were advised that 200 school children were just checking in and there was an apology about the noise and that a member of staff would be in the block shortly, that member of staff never arrived and the noise continued well into the night. The rooms I could not complain about but the guests also staying I could certainly make some complaints about.
{{{Hotel Facilities}}} The hotel contained 2 pools one was located to the rear of the 3rd building and the other was located in-between the 1st and 2nd building and is heated seasonally. The pool was open from 9am - 10pm however the hotel did not employ a lifeguard therefore; children were not permitted to be in the pool area unsupervised. There was plenty of seating around the pool including sun loungers, table and chairs with parasols dotted around the pool area for shade the pool could only be accessed by guest's key cards and worked in the same way as when you were accessing your own room.
There is a restaurant located in the hotel and is found next to the hotel lobby overlooking the swimming pool found behind he 3rd building. The Boardwalk Restaurant offers complimentary continental breakfast to all guests in the morning however you still have to wait in a queue to receive your table you then have the choice if fruit salad, half a banana, porridge, mini muffins, mini donuts, cereals and toast as well as fruit juice and tea or coffee but beware this is where the table staff will try to persuade you to upgrade to the buffet breakfast for $5.95 we did this on two occasions to use our voucher and they are great if you like a big breakfast to start your day. The buffet breakfast contains scrambled eggs, streaky bacon, beans, sausage, croquette potatoes and pancakes. There was also fresh fruit and porridge to choose from and a waffle maker to have waffles. The restaurant I extremely busy in the mornings and the staff are not that quick at clearing the tables and escorting guests to a table, infact it would probably be a lot more organised if people were allowed to enter the room as they liked as some people like ourselves decided that we were just going to go into the room, make some toast and eat it in the queue for the bus, therefore we would not require a table and a lot of people actually wanted to do this and were not making use of the tables that they were offered. The hotel did appear to have a lot of large groups staying at the hotel but the Boardwalk Buffet Restaurant could not handle the demand with the number of guests and there appeared to be a lot of complaints about this. On the day before we were due to check out we received a letter under the door from the hotel advising us that the continental breakfast was being temporarily relocated for the Friday, Saturday and Sunday to service their guests more efficiently, we quickly realised this was due to the 4 coaches that had checked in the night before! Guests wanting to have the Continental Breakfast now had to collect from behind the 3rd building poolside, we decided to avoid this unorganised chaos that we knew it would be and eat breakfast elsewhere. Breakfast was served from 6.30am -10.30am Monday to Saturday and until 11.30am on the Sunday. The busiest times advised were 8.45am until 9.30am. We decided to use our vouchers for the evening meal one night at the hotel and there was a big difference compare to the mornings, the restaurant was almost empty, it opened at 5.30pm and we arrived just after 6pm and there were two other guests in the restaurant eating. The buffet menu changed daily and we had the option of Chicken Soup, Salad or Mini Taco Bar to start, then there was Barbecue Chicken, Fries, Mashed Potato, Rice, Gammon Ham and Pineapple, Filled Pasta Shells and Vegetables. For dessert there was a large number of puddings including pies and cheesecake and they were quite tasty and there was also an ice cream machine and the waffle maker to make your own dessert. We were quite impressed with the buffet meal n the evening even though it was free it would be quite good if you were on a budget as it was $10.95 per person and if you had children under 11 they could eat free so it was a good way of saving money to spend on other things.
{{{Mini Mart}}} The Lite Bite Mini Market stocked all of your basics which includes crisps, pop, sweets, cereals, bread and frozen and chilled products that could be micro waved or cooked in the mini market, and you could also purchase hot drinks there as well with the drinks machine that was located inside. Handy for any small items you may have forgotten, they also had a small selection of products from the UK such as Digestives, PG Tips and Cadbury's Chocolate!!!!!
{{{Comfort Zone Bar and Grill}}} We did not visit this bar as it was fairly small and was only open 5.30pm-11pm but served snacks that could be eaten in or taken out, the menu was contained within your room, there was seating both inside and outside and all the major sports events were screened inside the Comfort Zone with free popcorn.
{{{Gift Shop}}} The gift shop located within the lobby sold a great range of products including keyrings, mugs, souvenirs, clothing, soft toys, fridge magnets , postcards and stamps but beware the stamps are contained in a machine and cost almost double the cost try to buy elsewhere. Postcards start from 65cents which isn't too bad if you want a Disney Postcard these can be bought from the gift shop but start from 85cents an international stamp is 75cents however they cost $1.25 in the gift shop for one stamp so it is a lot more.
{{{Other Facilities in the Hotel Lobby}}} A games room is located next to the gift shop opposite the Boardwalk Buffet and has a range of video arcade games, just outside is an internet base where you can pay to check you emails and various websites, however for better value I recommend paying $9.95 this will provide you with all day access in your own hotel room using your tv and the wireless keyboard, ideal if you will use it and want to surf the net for a few hours.
An ATM (Automatic Teller Machine) is located in the hotel lobby next to reception and opposite guest services it accepts Visa, American Express, Maestro as well as Diners and MasterCard.
The Comfort Inn offers Baggage Airline which allow you to check in for your flight from the hotel the following airlines that operate the route are Delta, American Airlines, Continental and Song Airlines, ths is open from 6am - 2pm and allows you to obtain your boarding pass and the hotel gets your bags to the airport for you.
The Business Centre is located next to check-in and any incoming faxes are free of charge but outgoing faxes cost $3.00 for up to 10 pages within the United States and $10.00 for up to 10 pages to be sent internationally.
{{{Complimentary Bus Shuttles}}} The bus shuttles are operated by a private company called Bethany Transportation which are owned and operated by Fleetwood Limousine Inc. This is one of the main reasons that we decided to stay at the Comfort Inn as neither of us fancied driving to the parks and paying for our own shuttles would be quite expensive for the two of us.
Bus shuttles operate to:-
• Animal Kingdom Bus Stop 32 Departing at 7.50am, 9.50am, 12.05pm and returning at 2.30pm and 6.15pm • Magic Kingdom Bus Stop 32 Departing at 7.50am, 9.50am, 12.05pm, 3.30pm, 4.40pm Returning at 2.15pm, 3.45pm, 5pm, 6.30pm, 8.40pm and for later closing times the bus collects and hour later. • Epcot Bus Stop 32 Departing at 8.50am, 11.05am, 1.35pm, 3.30pm, 4.40pm Returning at 4pm, 5.15pm, 8.25pm and 10.10pm. • MGM Bus Stop 32 Departing at 8.50am, 11.05am, 1.35pm Returning at 4.15pm, 8.10pm, 9.25pm, 11.10pm • Universal Bus Stop 63 Departing at 8am and 12.45pm and returning at 1pm and 8pm • Seaworld Departing at 8am and 12.45pm and returning at 1.15pm and 8.15pm
Disney Transportation also offer transfers between parks and to their hotels as well as Downtown Disney and the buses are pretty much every 5-10 minutes.
Although the bus service is complimetary and included in the cost of your hotel I did expect buses to run on time and turn up to collect you from the park on two occasions the bus returning from MGM made an unscheduled stop to Magic Kingdom before following on to Epcot as some guests were waiting for an alternative coach that was late, this then made our return to the hotel late and made the journey back last as long as an hour and a half, which meant you could not rely on getting back to your hotel at the specified time to make any further plans. In the morning the buses were often 5-10 minutes late to collect you and when you have already been standing waiting in a long line for 20minutes it is a bit of a pain. Why were we waiting in the line for so long? Because the buses share some of the routes they get over crowded and they won't request or provide a second service based on the number of guests at the hotel, they make you stand for a 15-20 minute journey and children are not allowed the privilege of their own seat they are asked to sit on their parents lap. As they say it is the small things that matter.
{{{Other Amenities}}} Ice, Beverages and vending machines are located on each floor in between the two connecting buildings. On our floor there were also laundry facilities which cost $1.75 for us of the washing machine and $1.00 for the washing powder, the dryer also cost $1.75 but you could do a great deal of washing.
{{{Check-out}}} Check-out at the hotel is 11am, however we had decided to use the Downtown Disney Check-in Service offered by Virgin Atlantic so we vacated the room at around 8.45am, there was a small queue when we arrived at reception with some guests checking-in and some checking-out but after 5 minutes we were able to check-out. We were asked if we enjoyed our stay and here we voiced a few of our complaints and had completed the guest feedback form, the lady that was dealing with our check-out advised us that there had been a lot of similar complaints so it was likely that if we returned these problems would not arise, we were also told that we had been placed in the block where all the large groups are located and that we should have been places in the 1st building which housed elderly guests and couples to keep them away from the noise of the groups, this did not go down to well at the end of a 15 night holiday. However the bill was quickly settled and we were provided with our invoice and a guest comments form and advised to pass our complaints onto management, the lady was very pleasant and sympathised with our valid complaints and apologised that we did not fully enjoy our stay.
I would recommend this hotel as a great place for those who will not be spending a lot of time there as the room itself was ideal for the amount of time that we spent there. However due to the poor service in the mornings at breakfast and the noise levels we would not consider to returning to this hotel, my boyfriend has visited this hotel on two occasions previous to this and he has noticed a great difference in the service provided and also agrees that he would not stay there again as he just found the stay at the hotel rather stressful.
Cost per person for stay was £265.00 this included Continental Breakfast, not bad for an ideal location in Florida.
More details
Quality of Food & Drink
Poor
Cleanliness
Average
Family Friendly
Average
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near Walt Disney World, the Comfort Inn Lake Buena Vista is ideally located just minutes away from area attractions including Walt Disney World, Universal Studios...
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