i stayed at the hilton in dtd this past august. it was my first trip ever to disney world, and i was celebrating my birthday. being the virgo that i am, and wanting to make this trip at least a little special but i couldn't afford staying at a disney hotel, i poured over the reviews of different hotels from this site and others --good and bad. i checked out frommers. and the hilton was the choice.
i was more than happy with it. i think i was lucky in that my room was on the 8th floor and overlooked the pool, dtd, and had a view of the golfball of epcot.
what i liked about it: i loved that when we weren't in the parks we didn't have to take a bus to dtd. all we had to do was walk a small path by the pool and cross street in less than 3 minutes from leaving the room we were in dtd. it had the early magic hour, which we took advantage of. the buses were pretty good, not too crowded the majority of the time. the only time it was very crowded was when we were coming back from animal kingdom and stopped at one of the water parks. it ended up being standing bus only. the people of hilton were nice, and helpful -- helped me track down a package that disney never delivered. they did have a character breakfast they offered, we didnt go to this one, but it was nice to know that it was there. the buses picked us up at the hotel on time. the room was very clean and the maid even put my nephew's stuffed animals on the bed. i did like that the sink was outside of the bath/toliet area. good size closet. no tackey decor. and plenty of towels.
what i didn't like about it: we didn't find out about the path from the pool to the street across from dtd after walking around the hilton and on our way back from the day in dtd. they kept giving us coffee, and by the time we left, we had a pile of it because we never used it -- and they could see we didn't use it. the ridiculous price of drinks at the deli, i would rather take the walk to dtd to get something cheaper. paying for the gym. forgot to give us our mousesavers coupon for free meal for my nephew -- but that was okay we mostly ate out or at my uncle's. room service messed up my breakfast order.
would i stay there again? yes. i love being so close to dtd. being able to walk there anytime, and walk back was great especially when you want to get away from others in your party but don't want to do the trek to a park.
would i recommend it? yes. it doesn't have the disney magic that i hear about from disney resorts. but it's decent for the right price. i paid about $79 a night. i don't think i would stay there if it was more than $130 a night -- if that much.
I stayed at the Best Western LBV in Downtown Disney and wanted something a little nicer this time. The last time I stayed at the Hilton in DD was April 1989 and I'm sure things have changed since then. LOL!
The room also had a minifridge and coffee-maker, and I want to recall a small microwave--I could be thinking of someplace else though. There were two robes and an iron and board and a hairdryer as well.
