Looking at offsite resorts

[jenseib]

We are thinking of heading to Universal in just a few weeks. My husband said he wants it super cheap...but of course he picks March.
We have a really big Disney trip planned for November, so I am cool with going on a budget trip now.
I don't want to stay in a dump though. There are 3 that come up as very cheap when I look for quotes. They are econolodge, (which the pictures really don't do anything for me, but if it is clean and decent, thats OK, we just need a pool for DD and a place to crash each night), Quality Inn (the pictures look decent enough), and Internation Palms. The pictures here look amazing, the pool is awesome looking and rooms look great,BUT I have read on several sites of reviews that this place is falling apart and a dump. The roms are being refrubed, but it appears many aren't done yet. Many say the lobby is awful, yet the pictures show a very nice looking lobby...of course, pictures can lie if taken at the right angle.

Again, this has to be cheap, or we won't be going. The flight is much higher than we normally would pay as well, which means he wants everything else even cheaper. LOL. So I can't take suggestions for more expensive places, unless it is only a small step in price...(like maybe $50 for out stay ) We have it planned for 4 nights at this moment.

Does anyone have any first hand experience at any of these places?

 

[macraven]

i've heard of those places but can't remember the details to them.
have you check on the orlando hotel forum?

maybe you could go to the uo trip forum and do a search for those hotels.
something might come up.

are you wanting the hotel to be walking distance to the park?
do you plan to rent a car or use hotel shuttles to the park?

if you want to be near UO parks, doubletree is walking distance.
you could go to the park and come back to the hotel for pool time.

 

[jenseib]

I'll go look there and see too. I did a search on the 3 and not much came up here.
We will have a rental (flying into Sanford), so walking is not important. I already told my husband that we would have to pay for parking, as they don't run buses likeDisney does all day long and he was fine with that.
I looked for doubletree when making a quote, but it wasn't listed, so my guess is that it's sound out for our time period.

 

[jenseib]

I did some more looking, and it appears that the Quality Inn is the old Fairfield Inn and just was converted. I think we'll go with that one. We had looked at staying there a few years back. not glamourous, but still decent.

 

[damo]

My kids stayed at La Quinta on Major and said it was okay. Clean and the breakfast was good.

Did you consider booking through Hotwire? Sometimes you can get a 4 star for around $50/night.