My husband and I stayed there for 10 nights in early December. We loved it! Yes, it is a boutique hotel. Very charming and the furnishings fit in with the entire style of Celebration, 40's style southern lifestyle.
Service was excellent. We liked that no one was snooty, even though it is a very nice hotel. We had just been walking around Celebration and wandered over to the hotel fairly late one evening in shorts and t-shirts. We must have looked like we were curious, so the concierge opened the door and said "c'mon in, do you want to look around?" Not at all stuffy.
We wandered around the lovely lobby and bar area, walked outside to see the pool. When we got ready to leave, we told the concierge that we might like to stay if they had availability (we were at a Hampton Inn but weren't too happy with it, wanted something more upscale). He gave us the name of the reservations manager and told us to ring in the morning, and that he would be the best one to know if any discounts were available.
We called the next day and got a great mousesavers.com rate of $149 per night. That was supposed to be for a townview room but we managed to get a lakeview room for that price with a view over the lake and across to the town center (fountains, cinema, restaurant). We had chairs on the small balcony so could sit outside and enjoy the view.
We had a four-poster kingsize bed. They also have rooms with two queen beds. There is an honor bar that you cannot use for your own things. Rooms are not huge, but charming and functional. Toiletries in the bath are Yardley English lavender. They have turndown service with chocolates left on the pillow. Rooms have a coffee maker and coffee is replenished daily, and you get a newspaper each morning.
Starbucks coffee is available from the lobby bar along with muffins, scones, etc. which is what we usually did for breakfast. They do serve full breakfast in the restaurant which we didn't try. Oh, and they also charge a $5-$10 'resort' fee (the higher amount includes high-speed internet).
On Thursday, Friday and Saturday night there is a piano player in the lobby bar that was very nice and relaxing. There is a small outdoor pool and jacuzzi that was never busy.
Very few, if any, children staying at the hotel. Mostly business people and adults which suited us fine since we don't have kids. Everyone was really nice and treated us well, even though we were obviously vacationing (not in business or fancy clothes at all).
We love Celebration and enjoyed being right in the town center, close to the restaurants, cinema, lake, etc.
We will stay there again. It was perfect for us because while we enjoyed visiting the parks, we loved coming 'home' again to a small, quiet hotel.
Susan
