Review Courtyard Marriott Lake Buena Vista at vista center: reviews?

[ionz13]

My girlfriend and I will be staying here come early August and were wondering how the hotel is? We will not be renting a car and therefore plan to use the hotel's bus transportation to and from the theme parks. Are they pretty on time and do they run to each of the parks or only select ones each day?


We got a pretty decent deal from our local AAA, and wanted to save a bit of money this year. Also are there any fridges available to rent?



I've tried searching for current reviews, but the most recent one seems to be about six years ago.

 

[ionz13]

Anyone? I guess not.

 

[happymommy]

Did you try tripadvisor?

 

[dis-happy]

We've stayed here a few times. There should be a refrigerator in your room or one available they can bring in there (subject to availability of course, but we've always had one). It's an older hotel that's been refurbed and is certainly up to Marriott standards. There's a breakfast buffet option that's nice but you have to pay for it (or sometimes, rooms will come with a free breakfast coupon). Big outdoor pool. Haven't taken the shuttle, but in general it will drop off at one place and you use the Disney tranportation to get to the different parks. Usually there's on shuttle on the morning and one home at night and you make a reservation for it. You can call the front dest for more information. If you wanted to stay late at DTD you could always take a taxi back...the distance isn't terrible and shouldn't cost too terribly much. Have fun!

 

[ionz13]

Thanks guys. I will look into Tripadvisor.

 

[ionz13]

So after spending about a week down at Orlando at this hotel, here's what I have to say.

The hotel is decent. The common hallways look a tad worn out on the carpets, but the rooms are very nice. The staff is attentive to your needs; we had a problem with the tub not draining quickly. I just called the front desk and the next day it was fixed with a note apologizing for the inconvenience.

The transportation to and from the hotel and park is managed by a third party, (Bethany Limo Service) BLS. The bus schedule appears to be at the convenience of the drivers and not the guests. For example, there is a 7:40am bus pickup from our hotel to the MK and AK that stops at about 4-5 hotels. Generally we arrived at the MK at 8:20 then AK around 8:40. The next pickup from the hotel was at 9am to Epcot and HS, and the following was at 10am for MK and AK.

So the drivers do their rounds throughout the day with pickups and drop offs at two parks for each hour that it takes or so. The pickup schedule was a bit rougher. The MK bus had the most pickups, whereas the AK pickup had two times; but if the park opened till 7pm, you were required to take a shuttle to the MK and catch a BLS bus home.

In the end, the bus transportation managed by BLS is ok. You really have to plan your days out in order to catch the bus on time; or else they would leave without you. There was one day where the last pickup from Epcot was at 10:15pm and the bus was almost packed with standing room still available. The bus driver called for another driver to come and get the remaining people. We waited about 10 more minutes.

We had asked how much a taxi would cost to get to the MK, and it was about $25. Downtown disney was about 15-20.

Back to the hotel, there is a very nice workout room with a water cooler. Which I had used almost every morning and evening filling up our water bottle for the day.

Next time I plan to stay on the resort; mainly for the convenience of the transportation. We had to wake up almost everyday at 6:30am to get ready and catch the 7:40 bus to the parks in order to get there for rope drop.