I had reserved the Courtyard several months ago at an e-mail special rate of $49 for Jan.1-6. I saw on these boards that ownership was changing, so when I got a letter from Marriott after Christmas to that effect I wasn't really surprised. This trip was just DD (age 21) and myself and though I haven't stayed off site since 1974, we wanted to be close to DTD. Here's what we thought:
The room: Room size was great! We liked the bathroom setup (one sink in the bathroom and one outside). The room was clean and housekeeping did a great job everyday. It is definitely time for some updating; carpet was a little worn, there had been a leak from above over the shower and the ceiling was a little"swollen" there, but I saw no signs of mildew. Our room was in the tower facing I-4, and the old sliding doors to the balcony did not sufficiently block the noise...but since I sleep with earplugs it wasn't a problem for us
The in-room safe is larger than at any Disney resort I've stayed at. Internet access is available at 9.95 for length of stay, but we didn't have a laptop with us. You can also access the internet thru a TV hookup, but we didn't do this either.
Transportation: We usually fly, but since this was cheapy trip we drove this time. I still parked and didn't get back in the car until time to go home. I liked the hotel transportation to the parks. Buses to the parks arrived at the hotel on the half hour, and were never more than a couple of minutes later than that. Buses leaving the parks left on the quarter hour, and only once ran late (after MK closing one night). I really like this scheduled service...we spent very little time waiting for buses because we knew when to expect them. Although the buses do stop at all 7 DTD hotels, with only one exception we were at the park within a half an hour. We took an 8:30am bus to MK, arrived at TTC, took the monorail and went thru the gates at 9:05. The only time it took longer was once when we took on 2 wheelchair-bound guests on one bus trip. We also visited Port Orleans (have to see Bob Jackson), AKL and Contemporary. We walked to DTD (about 10 minutes), and then hopped a Disney bus to the resort. Having used Disney transportation to resort hop; this was sooo much easier and faster!
All in all, I would definitely stay here again. We were looking for a nice, clean, convenient room and that is what we got. I was a little worried that a hotel in ownership transition would have some problems, but I didn't see any issues or problems.
The room: Room size was great! We liked the bathroom setup (one sink in the bathroom and one outside). The room was clean and housekeeping did a great job everyday. It is definitely time for some updating; carpet was a little worn, there had been a leak from above over the shower and the ceiling was a little"swollen" there, but I saw no signs of mildew. Our room was in the tower facing I-4, and the old sliding doors to the balcony did not sufficiently block the noise...but since I sleep with earplugs it wasn't a problem for us
The in-room safe is larger than at any Disney resort I've stayed at. Internet access is available at 9.95 for length of stay, but we didn't have a laptop with us. You can also access the internet thru a TV hookup, but we didn't do this either.Transportation: We usually fly, but since this was cheapy trip we drove this time. I still parked and didn't get back in the car until time to go home. I liked the hotel transportation to the parks. Buses to the parks arrived at the hotel on the half hour, and were never more than a couple of minutes later than that. Buses leaving the parks left on the quarter hour, and only once ran late (after MK closing one night). I really like this scheduled service...we spent very little time waiting for buses because we knew when to expect them. Although the buses do stop at all 7 DTD hotels, with only one exception we were at the park within a half an hour. We took an 8:30am bus to MK, arrived at TTC, took the monorail and went thru the gates at 9:05. The only time it took longer was once when we took on 2 wheelchair-bound guests on one bus trip. We also visited Port Orleans (have to see Bob Jackson), AKL and Contemporary. We walked to DTD (about 10 minutes), and then hopped a Disney bus to the resort. Having used Disney transportation to resort hop; this was sooo much easier and faster!
All in all, I would definitely stay here again. We were looking for a nice, clean, convenient room and that is what we got. I was a little worried that a hotel in ownership transition would have some problems, but I didn't see any issues or problems.
