Anyone stayed at Holiday Inn Orlando suites??

[beaglebiz]

Has anyone stayed at Holiday Inn Suites Orlando??? I remember seeing it (about a mile from the park), and they have two room suites that are very reasonable...
I am wondering, Were you happy with it?? I have three kids, is there enough room for a family of 5?? Do they have any type of shuttle service to the parks??
The price, the free hot breakfast for everyone everyday, the closeness to the park make this seem to be an appealing possible choice for our next trip I am planning....
Thanks!!

 

[momtofour]

If this is the Holiday Inn Family Suites Hotel, with free breakfast I am familiar with it. We stayed there for 7 nights two years ago. Although it was relatively new at that time, it was deteriorating quickly. Check in and check out took forever, and to buy any food at their A and W food court was a nightmare. They were SO slow I would feel like going and helping! (We probably ate there 3 or 4 times and it was like this every time!) The clincher for me was the paper thin walls. We were next to a family that SCREAMED at their kids all the time! It was so upsetting because the children were just babies and toddlers! I felt like calling the police! You couldn't pay me to go back there!

 

[MELSMICE]

If it is the Holiday Inn Family Suites, we have stayed there too. We had a positive experience though. My DD's enjoyed getting Pizza Hut for lunch and also loved the fact that they could get Dippin' Dots right at the pool. It was the last time we stayed off-site.

I am a definite "on-site chick" but if I had to stay off-site I think I would go back there again.

BTW - there are 2 different Holiday Inn Suites hotels. One is the Sunspree, which I have heard is in need of maintenance. The one I am referring to is newer (close to Wide World of Sports area)

 

[hhender102]

Yep, if you mean the Holiday Inn Family Suites, we stayed there the last week of Feb. It was great!! We had such a positive experience that I strongly considered it for our next trip this Feb., but we have never stayed onsite at WDW and are making the plunge.

The kids loved the room. We had the manattee theme with bunk beds. It was great because my girls had their own TV and my son could watch the one in the living room...not that there was much TV time It was very close to the parks...under 10 minutes from hotel to be parked and in line for tram. Free breakfast was very good...but they will be stopping that in Jan. Currently, the hotel is being redone into a Nick hotel. If you visit their website (www.hifamilysuites.com) you can see what they will be doing. The construction is expected to be finished next spring. The pool was great. Pretty good game room, and a ton of stuff for the kids -- free face painting, balloon animals (small charge), karoakee, etc. It really was great. Excellent service too. We had a cracked light fixture, and I called down to report it b/c I didn't want to get charged for it, and while we were at dinner, they came and replaced the whole lamp. We also got a call and letter from the manager for the inconvenience! Since there is an A&W and Pizza Hut onsite, we ate there pretty often for dinner, but we also tried the buffet for dinner and lunch and it was pretty good. The kids ate for free -- well, we technically, should have paid for my son (14yo), but they never charged us. They also gave me a yummy cake for my bday.

The in room frig is dorm size, but perfect for leftovers, as was the microwave. We will definitely stay here again in the future, just not this next trip. We also got a great rate when we were there in February...buy one night get one free...so with tax, for 7 nights in a two-bedroom was just under $800...hard to beat that!!

Have fun...check out their site and make sure you click on the Nick info on the main page to see pictures of what they hope it will look like after construction is complete. They are getting rid of the free breakfast and will be offering character breakfasts with Nick characters....and all the rooms will be themed after nick characters (but don't worry it's not overload it is predominately in the kids room and the "hall" that leads into that bedroom).

 

[barb45]

I haven't stayed there but I always check out tripadvisor.com You can go on there and bring up reviews on just about every hotel. Check it out. Also if you want to find money savings on hotels download the free software at travelaxe.com It runs through hundreds of hotel listing and travel websites and tells you the cheapest rates (for instance hotels.com might be the cheapest for one hotel and travelocity might be cheaper for the next hotel/it goes through them all) - it is very good.