Marriott Orlando World Center: Where Spiderman meets Mickey Mouse
Written: Aug 01 '05
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Great location, awesome service , fireworks view, pool.
Cons: Japanese steakhouse , expensive food/drink
The Bottom Line: Great visit. Almost perfect vacation spot except for that Japanese steakhouse experience. very kid-friendly.
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| jcare's Full Review: Marriott Orlando World Center Resort |
The story so far: Family Vacation! Prior to spending a relaxing five days on a Gulf Coast beach we decide to exhaust ourselves with three days in Orlando communing with Mickey and Spiderman at Disney World and Universal Studios. Burning up year’s worth of Marriott Points has never been more fun.
The Location
The Marriott World Center Resort and Convention Center is actually located well outside Orlando to the South, at the intersection of I-4 and Rt536 (World Center Dr/Epcot Center Dr). The hotel is about 15 miles (45 USD) away from Orlando airport and about 20 minutes (25 USD in a minivan) from the Amtrak station.
There’s nothing close to the Marriott you can walk to, so if you don’t have your own transportation expect to use a cab to get everywhere except for the theme parks. The hotel offers transport to the parks – as long as you give 24 hours notice. The trip to Universal is free, although Disney is about $10. If you have your own car you are less than 5 minutes from Disney and about 15 from Universal – so its really in a great location to cover both attractions. Be warned there is a $7/day parking charge at the hotel ($17 if you valet).
When you first walk into the lobby you’re struck by the spaciousness of the building – there are seats , sofas and tables located all around the ground floor so you can just sit down and relax for a few minutes admiring the whole atrium scene.
The Hotel Rooms
The Hotel bills itself as a resort, golf club and spa – it’s rated 4 AAA Diamonds and 3 Mobil Travel Stars. The guest rooms are located on 28 floors, mostly accessible through some clear glass elevators which give a stupendous view of the surrounding up above the 10th floor.. There are 1883 rooms and 110 suites – and as long as you are above the 3rd or 4th floor with a Northern-facing view you should have a view of the Epcot fireworks from your balcony at 9pm every night.
The rooms were relatively spacious – an in addition to a king bed we had a table, two chairs, a work desk and a couch. That still left us enough room to store all our stuff and comfortably move around. There was the usual in-room entertainment of multiple TV/Cable Channels, videos and pay-on-demand/view movies. We kept the mini-bar locked the entire time, although did make use of the in-room tea and coffee. Our teenagers were in another room with two double beds and had exactly the same amenities. All-in-all a pretty standard Marriott resort room.
The hotels notes than check-in time is 4pm, and although we had one room available for check-in by mid-morning, the other wasn’t ready until closer to 5pm, and that was only after relentlessly hounding the front desk.
Even though you are supposed to be on vacation, if you need to check in with email etc. broadband internet access is available for $9.95 plus tax; which also gives you unlimited long distance calling within the US.
There is also wireless access in some of the public areas around the lobby and in most of the meeting rooms.
Service
Service was exceptional, with one small exception in a restaurant we’ll deal with later. It honestly felt like the staff had been through the “Disney Experience” training. They answered every question we had, and then a few more we should have asked. If you asked for directions around the hotel – they walked you there instead of talked you there.
Facilities
There is a big, big curved pool, surrounded by hot-tubs, with a pool bar in the central pavilion. A cute waterslide at one end is enough to keep smaller kids entertained for a while, although I saw plenty of larger kids (aged 14 to 84) using the slide too. During the summer there is a tendency for a thunderstorm to breeze through the area between 3 and 6pm and you’ll find the staff will close the pool at the first sign of lightning or persistent thunder.
There is a video game room, table-tennis tables and a good sized gym. Since you are surrounded by highways it’s a little tricky to find somewhere to run, although the concierge did provide some guidelines. There are also a few tennis courts if you are so inclined. The hotel offers the standard “we watch your kids” day and half-day adventure program to relieve Mom & Dad of that worry if you need a break from Disney for a day.
Restaurants
The Marriott offers a variety of restaurants, ranging from the fast food Mangrove Emporium Food Court to the upscale Mikado Japanese Steakhouse. There are also options such as the Champions Sports Bar and Ristorante Tuscany. A Starbucks (with Krispy Kreme doughnuts) rounds out the culinary offerings. The Mangrove, in additions to hamburgers, hotdogs and chicken fingers also offers some decent wraps and salads so its not a bad place to feed the kids breakfast and lunch. The sports bar is a classic sports bar in terms of menus, big screen TVs and pool tables. The biggest disappointment was the Japanese steak house. Service was poor (forgetting drinks, asking 2-3 times for items), and the “performance” from the chef was abysmal. Our local steakhouse chefs put them to shame. In addition the chef totally messed up the steak selections of several guests at our table and barely said a word to us. Then on top of that there is a pre-programmed 19% service charge to add insult to injury. I’d say the sushi had more life than the staff so stay away!!
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
jcare
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 - Top 500 |
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Location: Southeast Pennsylvania
Reviews written: 269
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About Me:
Bullets can hurt people. Both in guns and PowerPoint.
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