Just came back from a 6 night stay at Orlando WorldGate Hotel formerly the Renassaince Worldgate. Overall, I was very satisfied with the hotel. We had a room with a King bed and the room was big & clean. Our room was on the second floor right next to the elevator....it was a bit noisy with people coming & going but we didn't mind at all. The refrigerator is medium sized...bigger than a refrig you might have in a dorm room, but the freezer section is small. You might be able to stick a bottle of water or two to freeze.
We arrived around 1pm and pre-registered as they didn't have a king bed room available. They locked our bags in the bellman closet and gave us tickets for them. We did not have a rental car and that would prove to be a big nussiance throughout our trip. We walked out to Highway 192 to look in souvenuir shops while we waited. Highway 192 is a busy street with numerous hotels, shops, and restaurants.
We called the hotel about an hour and a half later and they said our room was ready to check in. The bellman brought our bags and we settled into our room.
The shuttle to the disney park would only leave during the morning hours and come back during the evening hours. I believe the schedule went something like this:
Magic Kingdom leave 7:45am & 11:40 am
Epcot leave at 9:40am and 11:40 am
Sea World & Universal leave at 8:40am
**I think a shuttle left to Animal Kingdom around 8:30am but I am not sure.
Pickup MK at 7:15pm, 10:30pm, and sometimes 11:30 pm when parks stay open late.
Pickup Epcot 7:30pm and 9:45pm.
Pickup MGM 7:45pm
Pickup Seaworld and Universal 6:45pm
The shuttle to MK leaves you at the Transportation & Ticket Center where you take the monorail to Magic Kingdom or Epcot or you can hop on a disney bus to go to MGM studios, Animal Kingdom, water parks, or disney resorts.
When they drop you off at Epcot center, you are at Epcot but can take the monorail to Transportation & Ticket Center and then go to transfer to Magic Kingdom.
Orlando Worldgate has a handout of shuttle times that they give you so you know the times and where they will pick you up.
The thing they don't tell you is that after you are picked up at the hotel, they go to several other hotels and load the bus up with people. It is very time consuming and they people at the last hotels ended up standing. Since Orlando Worldgate is the first pickup we always had a seat. They same dela when they drop you off, they drop off at many hotels, sop make sure you tell the bus driver to drop you off at Orlando WorldGate.
The shuttles were sometimes frustrationg & I wish we had a car to go to the parks later or go to pleasure island. We took a cab a few times which cost us $14-15 from Ticket and Transportation Center to Orlando Worlgate.
Our hotel stay was nice. We ate in the hotel restaurant one time for lunch and the food was nothing special but good. We went to the restaurant bar a few times. They have a little food court type place where you can get pizza, sandwiches, and icecream. There is small arcade & a little convenience store.
We went to both pools while we stayed. There was a smaller ppol right bar our room, but it wasn't as big or deep and had no hot tub, so then we went to the main pool. Was very nice, heated, and towels provided.
The bathroom was very nice, big bath tub which does include a shower was well.
We booked through hotel kingdom for $49.50 a night and had no problems.
I would recommend this hotel & would definetly stay again but with a rental car. They do have an
Avis rental Car booth inside the hotel with about 10 Avis cars outside. We were both under 25 and didn't want to pay to pay the outrageous fees.
Jill
(LOVE THIS BOARD)
I'm going to mark Orlando Worldgate as 1 of my 5 choices - THANKS
