with fear and trepidation in our minds the dh and I packed the kids into the truck, waved goodbye to our lovely friends and the gorgeous Palm Beach ready to hit the Spongebob hotel ..... oh god!
I'd researched this place before going and heard the horror stories of huge noise, mayhem and chaos so I plugged the kids into the DVD in the car and had a peaceful and very easy drive up which took about 3 hours or so and we drove through the gates at 1pm.
Parked at reception and went in to register ....... about 40 people waiting and 2 clerks! great start , plus it was FREEZING in that place, the AC must have been set at 15 degrees! We get checked in and told our room is building 1 3rd floor, sponegbob suite (for which you pay extra just to have him painted on the wall!!) It is the farthest building from the entrance, a good 10 minute walk but the car park goes right there which was good. Nick staff are NOT Disney staff .... you notice it right away, you expect one thing and get just regular staff, we missed our Disney experience already!
One EXCELLENT thing this hotel does is theat your room key is your wrist band with a micro chip in it, you just hold it to the pad on the door - a great idea.
Heres our suite ..... (Fairmont Turnberry Isle it is not!LOL!)
kids room with bunk beds:
our room:
lounge:
I have to say I wasnt hugely impressed. The size was good , yes, and our room was nice but the kids room was very poor, just look at the furniture .... some old wooden desk, a plastic school chair, one mural and tacky bunkbeds. I really thought that as this is a kids hotel they'd have done better on the kids rooms.
but anyway, we were straight in and straight out to the pool .... this was SCARY!
The pool area was mad as hell and packed! Pretty much everyone was American, very few Brits seem to go here, infact we didnt see or hear a single one. The pool is surrounded by the four walls, 4 stories high, of the accommodation block so there is lots of shade if you want. There are nowhere near enough sunbeds or chairs for people and we grabed what we could and dragged it to where we could see the boys on the adventure playground. The lifeguards were horrible, again a very stark contract to any Disney employee we'd ever met, and they loved this water park, loads of slides and fun - although the water was FREEZING, kids were coming out shivering and goosepimply.
We managed 2 hours until they started the Pool Party for which some mad deranged member of staff yells through a mic at 10000 decibels for 3/4 of an hour with equally exciteable kids and parents doing the same ...... my kids just looked on in amazement with their fingers in their ears LOL!
the boys were having a great time, loving the resort and all the things to see but were far too cold by now so we decided to go up to the room, change and go down to the food court and maybe see if some characters would be about ....
I'd researched this place before going and heard the horror stories of huge noise, mayhem and chaos so I plugged the kids into the DVD in the car and had a peaceful and very easy drive up which took about 3 hours or so and we drove through the gates at 1pm.
Parked at reception and went in to register ....... about 40 people waiting and 2 clerks! great start , plus it was FREEZING in that place, the AC must have been set at 15 degrees! We get checked in and told our room is building 1 3rd floor, sponegbob suite (for which you pay extra just to have him painted on the wall!!) It is the farthest building from the entrance, a good 10 minute walk but the car park goes right there which was good. Nick staff are NOT Disney staff .... you notice it right away, you expect one thing and get just regular staff, we missed our Disney experience already!
One EXCELLENT thing this hotel does is theat your room key is your wrist band with a micro chip in it, you just hold it to the pad on the door - a great idea.
Heres our suite ..... (Fairmont Turnberry Isle it is not!LOL!)
kids room with bunk beds:
our room:
lounge:
I have to say I wasnt hugely impressed. The size was good , yes, and our room was nice but the kids room was very poor, just look at the furniture .... some old wooden desk, a plastic school chair, one mural and tacky bunkbeds. I really thought that as this is a kids hotel they'd have done better on the kids rooms.
but anyway, we were straight in and straight out to the pool .... this was SCARY!
The pool area was mad as hell and packed! Pretty much everyone was American, very few Brits seem to go here, infact we didnt see or hear a single one. The pool is surrounded by the four walls, 4 stories high, of the accommodation block so there is lots of shade if you want. There are nowhere near enough sunbeds or chairs for people and we grabed what we could and dragged it to where we could see the boys on the adventure playground. The lifeguards were horrible, again a very stark contract to any Disney employee we'd ever met, and they loved this water park, loads of slides and fun - although the water was FREEZING, kids were coming out shivering and goosepimply.
We managed 2 hours until they started the Pool Party for which some mad deranged member of staff yells through a mic at 10000 decibels for 3/4 of an hour with equally exciteable kids and parents doing the same ...... my kids just looked on in amazement with their fingers in their ears LOL!
the boys were having a great time, loving the resort and all the things to see but were far too cold by now so we decided to go up to the room, change and go down to the food court and maybe see if some characters would be about ....
That hotel would be my worst nightmare !
Good job you went and had a look at the other villa!!!!
