As promised, here is my review of this resort:
Radisson Worldgate Resort
We stayed overnight on Saturday, May 3 and we checked into our Priceline room at the Radisson Worldgate Resort. The location is great -- very close to Disney except you have to pull out onto 192 to go to Disney and there is no light at the intersection, so depending on traffic, you may have a long wait.
We checked into our room and my first thought was that I thought it was a really nice room. I can see how management would enter the room and at a quick glance, say everything is fine.
I was in #558 with a view toward the parking lot! I really thought I'd get a better view.
Here is the overview of the room:
Notice the wall to wall dresser/counter along the window. This was nice for storage.
TV was on top...Refrigerator was on bottom of the large unit. This was really nice to have a fridge in the room. Also the bottle of water was complimentary!
View facing the opposite direction
The shower was nice because it had one of those rods that curve outward to give you more room. However, the bottom of the shower had marks on it. At first I thought it was just dirty and then realized that it was markings on it (chips?).
The Asira toiletries were really nice, esp as they provided separate shampoo and conditioner and 2 different soap bars.
My problem with most showers is that there isn't enough light in them. Once you closed the shower curtain, it was quite dark in there.
So I'm thinking, this is really nice for a room -- nothing extraordinary but a good room. Then before we start to unpack, I explore the room further ... and became disappointed...
Rating Scale 1 (Unacceptable) to 5 (Excellent)
1. Broken Shelf Moulding Edge
It's hard to tell in the picture but the front piece of wood- moulding was not attached on the right-hand side. This made a sharp, splintery edge that my DD of course found first and starting playing with.
I found this
very unacceptable to have a piece of furniture not attached, esp when it was wood.
Rating: 1 - Unacceptable, Hazardous
2. Bubbled/Warped Wood
The nice wood shelf along the window was warped. There were numerous bubbles in the wood (not the crackled paint but if you look you'll see at least 11 bubbles in the wood (and there were more). Obviously people had put drinks on the wood and the wood was not properly laminated/sealed. IMHO, this is the fault of the hotel since this shelf is where the ice bucket, glasses and water bottle are -- of course people will put water on here!
Rating: 3 - Should be better maintained but not urgent.
3. Carpet Stains
Our room had three carpet stains on it...I'm sure none of them were from our previous tenants. Here are 2 of the pics...the largest one we found next to the other bed in the morning, but I didn't get a picture of it.
Rating: 3 - Should be better maintained but not urgent.
4. Torn Leather Chair
The desk chair was torn and there was also another stain on it.
Rating: 3 - Should be better maintained but not urgent.
5. Paint on Mirror in Bathroom
Minor point but just continues to add up to the lack of maintenance. Whoever painted the bathroom did not take care to ensure that the mirror did not get marked up. It was on the left, bottom of the mirror so did not interfere with viewing.
Rating: 3 - Should be better maintained but not urgent.
6. Shower head
The shower head sprayed water into the main bathroom area. While my DH was getting his shower, my DD walked in and her socks got wet. Also, the shower curtain kept blowing into your body while showering. I absolutely hate this!!! Nothing like having a rubbery shower curtain clinging to you while you shower.
Rating: 2 - Needs to be fixed or damage can occur.
7. Sleep Number Bed
First let me say that I love my Sleep Number Bed at home. We've had ours for almost 1.5 years and although it took me 3 weeks to truly find my comfort level, I totally miss it when I sleep elsewhere.
So the bed gets a Rating of 4.5. The only reason I cannot give it a "5" is because it was only a double bed. Being a tall person, I think any bed less than a queen bed is unacceptable. My DH and I can both fit on one, but neither of us sleep very comfortably. It's fine for one night but I really wanted a queen or better yet a King-size bed.
However, the foundation for the bed was horrible. If you sat on the bottom edge of the bed like we normally do while getting dressed or just sitting down, the other end of the bed lifted up. I was afraid I'd fall over. Then when you stood up, the bed slammed back down. They obviously need to have a longer foundation piece for the bed (think boxspring -- the piece that the mattress sits on top of...)
Rating: 2 - Needs to be fixed or damage can occur.
We did not have an opportunity to use the pools but they looked nice with lots of palm trees around them. However, the pools closed at 10pm I think so we couldn't use them.
Skipping ahead, we did eat brunch at the hotel, and except for the French Toast that literally went "ka-chunk" on my plate ("how long was that sitting there?!"), it was good. It had all the basics -- eggs, bacon, potatos, cereal, juices, fruit.
An unexpected surprise and not a pleasant one was the $7/day resort fee. When I asked about this charge, I was told it covered complimentary transportation to the parks (DIDN'T NEED, USE OR WANT), gym (DIDN'T NEED, USE OR WANT), and phone (DIDN'T NEED, USE OR WANT). It may have covered something else too, like the pool or safety deposit box which I also didn't need, use or want. So I guess that "complimentary" bottle of water was really $7

That's worse than Disney!
I plan to submit this report to Ms. Houston, my Carlson/Radisson contact, and am curious how they will respond. My overall rating for the Resort is a 3. It is fine for Priceline or a really good deal. They accepted our bid of $45 (but then you paid taxes and the $7 resort fee on top!)