We just returned from a weekend at the Sheraton Four Points on International Drive near Universal Studios. It's conveniently located to the parks, the Interstate and shopping. If you leave the front entrance, go left to the first street (Kirkman Road) you will find restaurants, a Publix and a Walmart within a 5 minute drive. Leave the entrance and go right (Universal Drive) and you run right into the parking lot for Universal/IOA (this would also be the way to go if you wanted to walk, it's about a mile to the parks). You are on International Drive and close to the outlet malls (left) and Wet and Wild (right). Seaworld is 5 minutes away and WDW is 10.
The hotel has 21 floors, we stayed on the 11th floor. The room had 2 queen-sized beds:
A TV and a writing desk, plus a lounge chair. Bottled water was on the house and there was free Internet, both wired and WiFi:
The bathroom was a good size, with plenty of room to spread your toiletries around the sink area. The had complimentary shampoo, conditioner and body lotion, plus a hair dryer, an in-room safe and an ironing board:
A bathtub with shower head that had 6 or 7 different settings. We never ran out of hot water:
Here is the view from our room. You can see Islands of Adventure on the left (those 2 parallel towers sticking up is Dr. Doom's Freefall, just to the right of that is The Incredible Hulk). The coaster on the right (the circle to the right center of the picture) is the new Rip Ride Rockit which will open late 2009/early 2010 (they were doing test runs, it shouldn't be much longer.)
The pool wasn't any good for swimming laps but it does have a deep end, 7 feet, which is something you don't see too much of any more thanks to lawsuits. They also have a separate kiddie pool and a bar so you don't get thirsty:
There is another bar down near the lobby plus a concierge who will also try to get you to tour the Sheraton Vistana resort. We did that but i wouldn't recommend it unless you have an extra day because you won't be able to get into the parks by opening time.
Three elevators serve the building. You need to use your passkey to get the elevator to open, good security feature. You also need your passkey to get into the building after midnight. We saw security people many times during our stay, they keep a good watch over the place.
One thing we didn't like was the fact that they don't have ice machines on every floor. We didn't need a fridge ($10 extra if you want one in your room) but we do use a lot of ice and going down 3 floors wasn't very convenient. Not only that, the ice machines are in the hallway so if you happen to have a room opposite you get to hear people filling ice buckets at all hours of the day. I'd ask to be moved if I got one of those rooms. I would also ask for a room on a floor with an ice machine next time.
I believe they have complimentary shuttles to the various parks but since we drive down I don't know much about them or how reliable they are.
All in all we'd recommend it to anyone, especially for the price we paid ($21/night through Priceline). if you have any more questions feel free to ask.
