Greetings from Florida! If like me your first view of the Sunshine State was the inside of Orlando International Airport, you cannot have failed to be impressed by the design and decor of its buildings. As you step off the monorail into the main concourse you are greeted not only with the Disney, Universal and SeaWorld stores but also by high atrium ceilings, fountains, pleasant paved seating areas, the full grown palm trees. What you may not have appreciated is that you are also surrounded on three sides by the outside face of a very modern and very sophisticated hotel.

Another feature of the Hyatt hotel chain is the Regency Club facility – one or two floors set aside for Gold Passport holders with a restricted lounge facility, providing complementary continental breakfast and evening refreshments.

The hotel is an integral part of the main concourse building of the Airport (adjacent to the landside monorail halt to Concourse B). Terraces of balconies from the bedroom windows look out over the public areas of the airport on one side, and over the runways to the other. It has in total 446 rooms over six floors of which 253 are designated King bedrooms. Three quarters of the hotel is designated non smoking accommodation.

The hotel has extensive conference and exhibition facilities (31 meeting rooms, 2 ballrooms and a 160-seat theatre). These meeting rooms are named after international airports (Kai-Tak etc). During our stay we noted a large contingent of delegates discussing spinal surgery and another group of clergy and bible students. As could be expected there is an in-house airline ticket counter and a Car Rental (Dollar Rent-a-Car) desk. Also on this level is “Lobby South” a huge open plan seating area with a high vaulted ceiling and a balcony which overlooks the concourse. It provides quiet seating for an occasional drink or snack with large comfortable sofas. The general impression is one of chrome and glass. There are also many Chinese ceramics, more palms and potted plants. To one side is a raised and slightly segregated area overseen by a large projection television which is usually tuned in to ESPN (Sports).

Also on this level is the indoor gymnasium and fitness centre (with a full range of treadmills, static cycles, step and rowing machines) – use is complementary during your stay. There is an outside rooftop pool and sun deck.

CHECK IN

Prior to check out, an interim account is placed under your door. Check out is also very straight forward and can be done electronically through the interactive television system.

We were placed on the sixth floor (Room 6101). This was designated a non smoking king bed room. Inside the door is a corridor from which opens a reception area. To the left is a full length work top, wash hand basin and vanity mirror. Sited here is the coffee maker. Straight ahead is the storage cupboard with a suitcase stand and plenty of hanging space. Also provided is trouser press, iron and ironing board.

The bedroom itself was large by usual hotel standards (28 feet by 14 feet). The general décor was pale green with straw coloured carpeting. Three limited edition painting depicting Floribbean scenes were hung on walls of the room and the corridor. The room opened up through double glazed, soundproofed slider doors onto a small balcony which had outside seating and which provided us with view of the runways. As promised soundproofing was complete and the window drapes were dense enough to kill any light penetration.

Other furniture consisted if a standard 20” colour television housed in its armoir with the usual cable channels. Unusually one of these channels was tuned to the arrivals monitor of the airport concourse. There was a deep pile easy chair with a footstool. In the other corner was a desk with another two chairs. Guests were welcomed with a jar of boiled sweets and a series of Orlando books with maps and tourist vouchers. The hotel provided a complementary newspaper (Orlando Sentinel) each morning and there was an extensive room service menu.

McCoys Bar and Grill

We were seated courteously and efficiently and offered our menus. The bar boasts a range of home and imported bottled and draft beers (including Sam Adams Boston Lager on tap and their own McCoy’s Amber Ale brewed under licence by a brewery in Louisiana. The menu is a delight among bar food menus and features a wood-fired pizza oven. We chose a mixed platter as a starter (Chicken tenders, Deep Fried Buffalo shrimp and Chicken Pot Stickers – all with a variety of spicy dips). This was followed by a “catch of the day” (grilled grouper) and a Cobb salad. With beers and tip this came to $62.

Breakfast is served in the Hemisphere. One end is laid out buffet-style with the usual suspects of hot (bacon, mushroom, “breakfast” potato and sausage) and cold (ham, salmon) dishes. There was fresh fruit including huge chunks of beautiful pineapple. Eggs cooked any of twelve different ways are available from the waiter. There are also a number of special items by special order – the most notable for our children on previous visits has been Belgian Waffles with syrup and strawberries. The continental breakfast was $7.95; the hearty breakfast (including all hot dishes) $12.95.

The newly refurbished Florida Mall is 10 minutes by car and the brand new Millenium Mall (opened 2002) 20 minutes away. The latter has a number of very high class stores which are worth a browse including Niemann Marcus, Macys, Bloomingdales. The world (in)famous International Drive and Sea World are15 minutes away. It takes all of 20 minutes to drive to Walt DisneyWorld.

We booked our stay on the internet at the Hyatt website (www.Hyatt.com). A Gold Passport membership gives access to a number of special deals at selected hotels at various times and we happened across such an offer for the dates we wanted. The King sized room was priced at $160 per night and required prepayment at the time of booking. A confirmation of booking was sent by email and followed up by post. This was cancellable up to 48hours before arrival.

CONCLUSIONS

I was particularly disappointed with the service and staff reactions at the Hemisphere Restaurant at dinner time and would not recommend this aspect. The niggles that could be levelled about our room (the water pressure in the shower was poor, there was no mini-bar and the television remote needed new batteries) were minor annoyances. If you avoid the restaurant and forgive the latter this hotel is an excellent choice to break your journey particularly if you have just completed an arduous transatlantic flight and start your acquaintance with the Sunshine State,