Maingate Lakeside Resort?

[LibrarianBecky]

Anyone ever stay at Maingate Lakeside Resort? It is about 4 miles from magic Kingdom. Has decent tripadvisor reviews, and is only about $50 for a night. Sounds like a winner tome, but wondered if anyone had personal experience with this hotel.

Thanks!

 

[spiceycat]

it has several names - started off as a Sheraton in the 1971

and that is the problem - it would be to expensive to tear down - so it has changed owners.

think the place is still decent - just not as nice as it was in the 70's.

 

[delilah]

We used to stay there when it was a Best Western hotel, last time about 3-4 years ago. We would stay there the first night and last night to extend our stay at AKL with DVC points. It was a decent place to stay for that purpose--a cheap place to stay if you get there too late to make good use of the more expensive Disney resort. The last time we stayed was horrible. We had spent the evening at Magic Kingdom, stayed for extra magic hours. When we got to the resort, we were told we were being given the "last room". When I reserved the room, I requested non-smoking. The room smelled like somebody had just been smoking in it when we first arrived. My son and I have asthma, and smoke residue really sets us off. Like many other buildings, there was no way to ventilate the room to remove the odor. Since we only were staying for the night, and we were on the second floor (with no elevator), we stayed in the room. (This is significant, because there was no way that I was going to leave anything overnight in the car; the general area is a bit run down. When I returned home, I wrote to Best Western to complain, and received a refund of one half the cost for the one night stay. Unless the rooms have all been thoroughly deep cleaned, and the resort is totally non-smoking on premises, I will never stay there again.

 

[schmeve]

We stayed there in May for one night. NEVER again. Our first room had bugs! Lines of ants up the wall, bugs along the dresser, and it was dingy. We called the front desk and they sent a maintenance guy up. They moved us to another room and the shower was dirty with hair all along the walls and tub. I would not recommend it.

 

[missnic]

We stayed there in May after the 24 hour event. It wasnt horrible, but it wasn't great either. The room was clean and bug free, and it had a new shower enclosure. We were there for literally like 5 hours, and just to sleep. (checkout wasnt until noon, which was a wonderful bonus!) The place is a bit run down, but if youre just looking for a cheapo place to sleep very close to Disney, it did the job.

 

[DOOM1001]

It's an old hotel that's still a decent place to stay on the cheap.I've stayed there 2-3 times for $30-$40 on Hotwire or Travelocity secret hotels.I had no real issues with the room,the A/C worked well and the rooms were pretty clean.No free breakfast and the name resort on the title of the hotel might lead you to expect more than what you'll find.Simply put it's an old hotel that's still worth staying at if all you want to pay is $30-$50.One plus is 192 in that area has added a good amount of restaurants and stores around the hotels general area.Another plus is that you're right by Sherberth road putting you in Disney property right by Animal Kingdom in 5 minutes or less.Look at Bing maps birds eye view and you'll see the hotel is literally right next to AK and AKL.

 

[delilah]

It's an old hotel that's still a decent place to stay on the cheap.I've stayed there 2-3 times for $30-$40 on Hotwire or Travelocity secret hotels.I had no real issues with the room,the A/C worked well and the rooms were pretty clean.No free breakfast and the name resort on the title of the hotel might lead you to expect more than what you'll find.Simply put it's an old hotel that's still worth staying at if all you want to pay is $30-$50.One plus is 192 in that area has added a good amount of restaurants and stores around the hotels general area.Another plus is that you're right by Sherberth road putting you in Disney property right by Animal Kingdom in 5 minutes or less.Look at Bing maps birds eye view and you'll see the hotel is literally right next to AK and AKL.

This is exactly why we used to stay there the night we arrived and the night before we left. We would just sleep there, and then check in early at AKL. Likewise, the night before we would leave. Not worth spending the DVC points if you get to Orlando too late to go to a park or leave too early to make good use of the day. If I felt like the hotel had cleaned up its act a bit, I might do so again.

Where we probably went wrong the day we arrived late, and got the "last room", was that we probably should have checked in right after we checked out at AKL. Then, at least, we could have scoped out the room we were assigned. Instead, we went directly to Magic Kingdom, which was having extra magic hours that day. Partly our fault, I know, but it was still a really smelly, smoky room.

 

[Lewisc]

Over the years the property went from a Sheraton to a Four Points to a Best Western and now it's independent. I'm not sure if it was a La Quinta at one point.

I've read, not sure if it's a "real" fact or just an "internet" fact that the problem is asbestos which prevent the hotel from doing a real, gut to the beams, renovation. It seems like the option is to either rip it down and build a new hotel or keep it as nice as possible and discount the room rates accordingly.

I have no recent experience but the location is good. Trip Adviser reviews suggest the property is reasonably good.