I just returned from a four day Florida Bandmasters Association convention over in Orlando - actually Altamonte Springs, which is just a few minutes north of downtown Orlando. This review is not about Hilton in general, but about my experience with the Orlando/Altamonte Springs Hilton, which is located eight miles northeast of Downtown Orlando in the suburban area of Altamonte Springs (exit 48 off of I-4). This hotel is about 20 miles from Orlando International Airport.

I’ve been to many conventions of this sort, and this hotel was sufficient for this purpose in terms of meeting rooms, ballroom space (3 of them), etc. Some of the meeting rooms are unusually small, but they did serve our purposes.

If you are looking for a hotel in the theme park area, this Hilton is within 45 minutes of the Disney World theme parks and even closer to Sea World, Universal Studios and other famous Orlando attractions. If Disney is your main destination, however, I would recommend that you NOT stay here due to the unbelievably horrible I-4 traffic, especially during rush hour. It IS close (I think within a mile) to the Altamonte Mall and movies, which to me at least, is pretty important.

The guest rooms all feature coffee makers, iron and ironing board, cable television, AM/FM radio, two phones and phone lines with speakerphone, data ports and voice mail capability. They say that high speed Internet access has recently been added to select rooms, but MY room was not one of these “select” rooms.

The Hotel also features a unique bi-level Club Level lounge and guest rooms, which offers concierge services, keyed elevator access, direct dialed phone lines, complimentary deluxe continental breakfast, evening hors d'oeuvres with an Honor Bar, as well as freshly baked cookies and milk each evening. This was not a part of my experience, but it does exist there if you are inclined to pay a lot more.

I did spend a great deal of time after convention hours with some of my colleagues in the Lobby Bar. The service was really quite good and the staff was friendly. My only complaint was that the size of the bar was not quite sufficient for the size of our convention.

The Grill at Lofton's features breakfast, lunch and dinner daily. I had their breakfast buffet every day that I was there and was quite happy with it. Other amenities include free parking, fitness room, outdoor heated pool and spa. Tennis, golf and a full service health club are minutes away.

Okay, this next part is a little gross, so get ready.....

My room was nice and clean, but I did have one experience that creeped me out a little. After the second night I went down to the convention and did my thing for a few hours. When I came back to the room I went into my bathroom I noticed a BIG piece of CORN in my sink! EWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!! I can’t even begin to imagine how that got there and the less I think about it the better. Also, my brand new bar of Clinique facial soap was MOVED from the place I left it and had hair all over it that didn’t look like my own (and besides, I don’t get HAIR on my face soap!). Again, EWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!

Aside from the above experience I think that this hotel is worthy of another convention, but I wouldn’t choose to stay there if it was just my family and I going on vacation to see Mickey Mouse.

Here’s the address:

350 South North Lake Blvd., Altamonte Springs, FL 32701-5297
Tel: 1-407-830-1985 Fax: 1-407-830-9378 

Note: the $69 was a convention rate. I imagine it costs more for the average traveler.

Recommended: No