I booked a stay at the Residence Inn at FC for 3/20-3/22. Our first time staying at FC!
Has anyone stayed at the Residence Inn lately?
Yes. It was fine, but I have to add I LOVE the Residence Inn over by Universal. I thought this one, being newer, would be just as good, but the US one is better. The Universal area RI just has a number of room details that are just perfect.
This one the beds were comfortable, and the layout was fine. We actually did two short stays. The first stay we had a wheelchair accessible room. Those are what they are. The room decor is just so-so, IMO.
One thing we really like at Flamingo Crossing Plaza is the ability to do a pick-up order at Target. If you place it the day before, it was ready right when they open, so super quick. The Target is small, and the prices are a little higher than other Targets, but it is very new and clean. They have a large selection of soft drink/juice options that WDW doesn't carry. Getting to WDW takes a few minutes, but there is little traffic - for now.
One reason the parking fee is silly is because there is a ton of parking lot space adjacent to the hotel. We were not charged for parking luckily, but one night we got back late and the hotel's parking lot was full, so we had no choice but to park 'offsite.'
ANOTHER important thing to know is that the door between the lobby and the pool locks. If you do not have a room key you will get TRAPPED out there. You can't enter the pool or back into the building, and there's no exit, or at least that was the case a few weeks ago.
Breakfast was so-so. Prior to the pandemic we really enjoyed the breakfast at the other Marriott properties in that area: the Springhill and the Towne Place suites. Our favorite in that area though was the Homewood Suites, and that stay was more recent. The pool there has a water slide.
We are also looking forward to Lime when it opens. We previously ate at one in another location and really enjoyed it. Otherwise, we didn't really try the dining in the plaza. Well except we ordered from nearby Miller's Ale House. We have gotten food 3 times from Millers: twice from the 192/Kissimmee one, and once (accidentally) from the one that is near Disney Springs on Vineland Road. The Vineland Rd one was good. The 192 one messed up our order both times, and the food was not as good. The most recent visit, they forgot one of our meals. They refunded it, but we didn't feel like driving back. Instead, we shared what we had and did a drive through order from the Flamingo Crossing Wendy's. It was standard Wendy's food.