Buena vista palace?

[ScotsMinnie]

We have booked to spend the first 5 nights of our stay at the Buena Vista Palace before spending 9 nights at the poly. It was rated as a Virgin signature hotel with 4 1/2 stars but we have been reading other reviews and they are not all so good. Has anyone stayed there before. What should we expect?

[stephm0188]

We just stayed there for a few nights for a work conference. It was awful. Our room was really dirty, and smelled like mold. It was noisy as well. I wouldn't ever stay there again.

[ScotsMinnie]

Thanks for replying. This really worries me as its not the only review we have seen that said the same about the mouldy smell. Not sure what to do. Could try to change my booking to another of the downtown disney hotels. Will look into it. Don't want to start the holiday off badly.

Anyone had a better experience?

[stephm0188]

Is there a reason you want a DTD hotel?

We stayed at the Swan last year because he had accrued enough Starwood points for a free stay. It's a smidge more expensive than Buena Vista Palace, but not by much. It also utilizes Disney's buses and boats, and you get EMHs. But more importantly, it was clean and quiet.

I believe the DTD Hilton is the only DTD hotel that offers EMHs, so I'd maybe look into that one if you really want to remain in that area.

[ScotsMinnie]

We have booked 5 nights at the Palace and then 9 at the Poly. These 5 nights are for shopping/Universal and we liked the idea of staying there for ease of access to the places we want to go and the proximity to DTD for night time.

We don't want to stay on International Drive and want to stay off property till we get to the Poly.

There are quite a few hotels round there so maybe a hotel change might be the answer.

[aquagreenpbc]

It has been about a year and a half since I've stayed at Buena Vista Palace. That said, I have stayed there 4 times, and it was great.

Of course a quick peek at Tripadvisor shows things might have changed.

It's so hard to say sometimes with hotels. I had an AWFUL experience at the Royal plaza, and would never go back. Of course others swear by it.

If you're concerned, maybe check out the Holiday Inn in downtown Disney. It's the newest hotel there and gets pretty good reviews on tripadvisor.

If you decide to stay at BVP, try the "$20 trick." Learned about it when planning a trip to Vegas (where it works!), and gave it a shot at the BVP (worked again!). We just slipped a $20 bill with our credit card and asked if there were any Epcot views available, and we got it! Maybe it will help score you a nicer room!

Good lucks and have an awesome trip!