I Drive Hotels

[Cochise]

I am booked as below in the HOJO Plaza inn and suites, i am a little bit unsure on whether i should upgrade the hotel at the moment, in the Tradewinds brochure (who i booked with) There are the following hotels which remain pretty much within our budget.

Anybody experience of these ?

Wyndham Orlando Resort
Clarion Universal
Crowne Plaza Universal
Sheraton World Resort
Homewood Suites by Hilton
Enclaves Suites

I use web reviews but they can easliy be tarnished by picky people. I fancy being further up the drive than i am now but we have a suite secured at the hojo and i would like something like that.

If anyone is in the know with travel companies, do they entertain requests for other hotels that may not be in a particular brochure but in another with the same parent comapny ?

 

[rhysd2]

i've stayed at both the wyndham orlando and the crowne plaza universal. my personal favourite has to be the crowne plaza universal. absolutly spectaculer. great quality hotel with an amazing pool great staff good taxi service and in a great location.

the wyndham was good too but the quality of the rooms wasnt as good and the walls were somewhat thin. so if you got stuck next to noisy people you were out of luck. however the wyndham has lovely landscaped grounds. so its down to personal preference though with the crowne plaza generally being cheaper in brochures i'd go for it as personally i think the quality is better than the wyndham despite it being cheaper.

both of them are on the same cross roads of i-drive though the crowne plaza is about 200m on from the wyndham, which really isnt that far. you have a gas station grocery store, mc donalds burger king popeyes and hardys all on that cross roads too. your a 7 buck taxi from universal. 15 odd bucks to the florida mall a short walk to the meccado(which has really gone down hill) and a reasonable walk to wet n wild.

also a variety of steak houses fish places etc are a short walk as well as a tgi's and tgi's sports bar(sports bar has mega cheap beer)

 

[tazz23]

ive stayed in both the hojo inn and suites (hawaiian court) and also the crowne plaza universal.

i liked them both but heres a quick summary:

the hojo is only basic- nothing amazing but the rooms were very clean and staff very cheerful and friendly and id definately stay there again.
However, the crowne plaza is more impressive and the rooms were bigger and the view (if you get one of the top floors, we were on the 12th floor) is stunning. The hotel is only a few years old so everything is new.

feel free to pm me if you need any more information

have a great holiday!

 

[vernon]

I've stayed at a few HOJO's, on I-Drive I stayed at Hawaiian Court. I would agree it was a very reasonable clean hotel for the money. The facilities are a little basic, but for the cost that's not suprising. The suites, from what I could see ( I didn't stay in one, so it's just what you see from the door or windows), were not up to the standard of Buenna Vista suites, Enclave, Holiday Inn kids suites or Embassey suites where I have stayed, but the Wyndham suite I stayed in wasn't either LOL (again that was before the refurb so they may have improved).

I've stayed at the Wyndham resort (corner of I-Drive and Sandlake road) a number of times and I'd agree with rhysd that, at times in the past, the condition of the rooms, while adiquate, could have been a little better (and the walls are thin). However I know they have renovated a lot of the rooms since I made those observations so that opinion may not be fair now. The Wyndham does have beautiful gardens, good pool/leisure facilities and a number of bar/restaurant options within the hotels grounds.

If you were planing to spend much time at the hotel pool I would certainly consider how much the upgrade was. The HOJO pool (at Hawaiian court) was in the centre of the hotel and as such much of the lounging area was in the shade for some/all of the day. This may be a benefiit if you're prone to sunburn, however if you are sun worshippers you may prefer the much more open/exposed set up of the Wyndham.

 

[SplashMtn]

I was considering the Enclave Suites for my last trip (2003) but found almost all poor reviews online. When the bus was dropping off there on the way to our hotel (Radisson Barcelo) it looked very worn and shabby.

 

[kevin harrison]

The Clarion Universal is OK, the pool is in a bad spot though and gets shaded very early in the afternoon.

 

[LJP]

Another vote for Crowne Plaza. Have stayed there twice now and love it. Impressive looking building, friendly staff, clean rooms and the comfiest beds in the whole world!! We were upgraded during our stay last year to the executive level - fab! Bed even bigger and comfier with sound proofed walls!!
Enjoy.

 

[Cochise]

We have had a damn good chat about this and have decided to stick with what we have for this time, we just wanted to get it booked at the time and start saving, after all if we did that we would HAVE to get the money. In 2006 (our next trip) we will have the cash up front and have the buying power to get deals and book seperate. I like the look of the crowne plaza and it is definitely noted for next time if we stay on I drive again.

Thanks for your time posting replies