Clarion Universal versus Clarion Maingate

[disneymom2one]

Hi ...

We have Choice points and plan on coming down before our big BCV/AKL trip. Since we have Choice, we can stay at a Clarion for a couple of nights. Anyone have experience with either hotel? We do tend to be slightly picky but have stayed at Clarions in other cities before and found them fine. Any comments/suggestions. I'll check TripAdvisor too but I'm just looking for comments here too.

Thanks ...

MB

 

[spiceycat]

one is in Kissimmee, the other is across the Wet n'wild on International boulevard.

So are you going to be doing US/IOA or WDW.

WDW - do the maingate one
US/IOA - do the universal one

 

[floridagirrl2]

DH and I stayed at Clarion Maingate twice last year, for Priceline bids of $26/night and $31/night. Clarion Maingate was an older hotel and a bit threadbare/worn, but very clean. Staff were pleasant and the hotel felt safe and was in a decent area.

 

[SB in KY]

My daughters HS orchestra stayed at the Universal Clarion last spring and although it is no prize I would give it a slight edge over the Maingate. Both were older properties with Universal "showing its age" while I would classify the maingate property closer to threadbare. Neither would be what I would consider usual Clarion quality (although that is my main complaint with Clarion in general....the quality varies WIDELY). I would put both of these properties as more typical of low end Comfort Inns or Sleep Inns.

Both were clean and the staff seemed friendly enough...just old, worn properties with minimal amenities.

The advantage to Maingate if you are planning on being at WDW is location, you can take the back road out of the parking lot and the road comes out right by AKL...you don't have to fight the 192 traffic. The Universal Clarion is a good 20 minutes away and could be more if traffic is bad. I would just go with the site that is closest to the parks you plan to visit. If you will be doing Universal, by all means stay over there, ditto with WDW.

 

[BevS97]

We stayed at Clarion Universal in 2001 - our first room was a smoking room and really quite run down, I complained because it stank of smoke and we were moved to a newly refurbished room on a different floor - It was like being in a different hotel - the new room was beautiful, very spacious (much bigger than a Disney moderate for example) had free coffee and mugs to drink it out of (whereas the moderate had styrofoam cups to drink out of and we had to pay for coffee). There is a restaurant downstairs and a deli, we didn't eat in the restaurant but the deli was nice.
the location is right behind Wet n Wild, and we had a nice view over the lake at the back of wet n wild. We spent a week there followed by a week at Caribbean Beach, so while we were there we did Universal and Seaworld, it is a superb location for Universal but a bit far if you are going to Disney every day.
We were quite shocked at the difference between this hotel and Disney's CBR - while CBR is beautiful and has lots of other things going, if you just compare the rooms then the Clarion had a much nicer room.

Bev