Reviews on Raddisson Barcelo and Int drive

[welshlamb]

Has anyone ever stayed at the Radisson Barcelo. If so please can you give me a guick review as we can't see it advertised in any of the Florida brocheres. Also this will be our first time staying on international drive (always stayed in a villa) can anyone tell me what to expect and any recommendations.

 

[JohnnySharp2]

Funnily enough we used to stay on International Drive but now always stay in a villa.

To be honest, we much prefer the extra room and freedom of a private home, and whilst we never had any problems on I-drive personally I prefer somewhere a bit quieter.

Naturally you have the advantage of being able to walk to restaurants etc, something which you cannot do in a villa.
I just think some of the areas of I-drive such as the Mercado and Pointe Orlando are not quite as good as they used to be.

I am pretty sure my mate Rob (aka Cochise) stayed at the Barcelo , so maybe you could ask him what he thought of the hotel?

 

[Cochise]

Another great pic Johnny,

I have only got 5 mins so will do my best.

Raddisson Barcelo.

The company behind the Barcelo bought some rights to use the Raddisson name a few years back so is a whole different company from the main chain, this said dont let it put you off.

The hotel itself is average but you can pay some seriously good prices to stay here. We booked in 2005 and paid £560 for 20 nights!! The rooms are better than they say on tripadvisor, even the standard rooms in which we stayed were bright and quite spacious for the price. The pool was clean and the surrounding area reasonable, they also have a nice relaxing hot tub, there is a cocktail bar with a happy hour of $1 a beer for local brew- great if you are only on foot for the evening. They also have a small cafe bar area and restaurant but we never ate here, there is too much choice on the drive.

We found the hotel staff to be very nice and helpful and the management couldnt have better with a request for a special room cleaning due to my acute dust allergies, they even cleaned out the aircon and replaced the filter.

The location couldnt be better being just a 100 yds south of the Sand Lake, the Mercado is right across the road although i wasnt a real fan of this place it was ok to spend an hour here and there. It is right in the middle of all the delights that I Drive offers and has great access to the major roads via the Sand Lake.

On the whole i wouldnt hesitate on booking again and was even offered a seriously discounted rate by the management for the appreciation we showed for their help. If a base is all you need then look no further if you can get this for the right price.

Anything else please ask on here or PM me

 

[cazzie]

We stayed here last year and it was fine I would certainly stay there again. When we reported a problem with the loo we were offered another room or they could get someone to fix it (which we said was okay with us) and no sooner than we had got to the room the maintenance chap was straight behind us to fix it even though it was after 10:30 at night. It wasn't fancy but it was clean and the staff were great and it is in a great postition on the I Drive.

 

[scojos]

we stayed june 2004, v impressed. only critisim room service v expensive...
nice restaurants around, inc tony romas, the place for ribs
also, badly signed, so get a good map of the net if youre driving
ditto comment about cleanliness, ds6 is severe asthmatic, and they gave room an extra scrub too!!
tracy

 

[Little_Miss_Lozz]

We were there last June and again ditto with the above posts. Only bad thing was the Disney shuttle - because I am a worrier we got that a few days to Disney but $30 for the two of us was a bit much and they were late coming to get us twice - which after 9 hours in the park wasnt great!
The room service is great as well as the restraunt and breakfast (buffet or menu) was brilliant! We actually got engaged in the hotel and had room service to celebrate lol
The staff are fantastic aswell - my mum phoned while we were on the plane to upgrade us and the mangager who helped at check in kept checking every day to make sure we were ok
Would definetly go back and stay there

 

[Cochise]

The manager Andy Schiavone has moved on to another hotel. Not sure about Jan who was the duty manager who gave us the best welcome when we arrived very late and very tired. After sorting the extra cleaned room they contacted us on 3 occasions during the holiday to make sure everything was ok.

There is a renovation due on the standard block but is probably over winter according to the last e-mail i had from Andy.

I noticed the shuttle was quite an old bus but never bothered us as we had a car.

 

[welshlamb]

Thanks to everyone who replied. We've also hired a car so won't bother with the shuttle buses.The cost is the other reason why we've choosen this hotel 21 days for £520 (which i think is'nt bad). We're waiting to see, if nearer the time disney have any discounted rates and thinking of staying there for a few nights as a Christmas treat.Would anyone recommed upgrading to the tower block and is it better to upgrade here or will i get a better deal over there.

 

[wifey]

Read the reviews on www.tripadvisor.com before you decide about this hotel!!

 

[Cochise]

Read the reviews on www.tripadvisor.com before you decide about this hotel!!

Dont take too much notice of the reviews. The rooms arent bad at all and it is a known fact that people will not post reviews if they were reasonably happy with accommodation. Also read alot of hotels on trip advisor and it soon becomes apparent who moans and who is happy with the majority of the hotels.

 

[JohnnySharp2]

We looked at TripAdvisor when we were thinking of staying in Miami, but if you start reading all the reviews in depth you will just get more confused as there is always someone being negative about all the properties.

It's one of those websites that is really useful, but afterwards you sort of wish you hadn't looked.

 

[Little_Miss_Lozz]

we were upgraded to the main block and were glad as i didnt know until we got there that with the standard block anyone could get to your door as it was an outside block - never done this before and it never mentioned it any where so for peace of mind were glad we upgraded and the rooms were brilliant! the maids are great aswell did a birlliant job cleaning up our mess

 

[welshlamb]

I'm really grateful for the advice, but i won't read reviews off Tripadvisor. I did this last year when we booked last minute to Greece. I read every horrifc review about our hotel and went with a very heavy heart. Anyway to cut a long story short, the hotel was spotless so was the rooms. We had a fantastic holiday (although not quite Disney).I will definatly upgrade to the tower rooms, though.Again any advice on where to upgrade,here or over there. Would it be wiser to upgrade soon as i do't want to leave it until we get there only to be told there's no room in the tower block, especially with us being there over Christmas.

 

[wifey]

It looks great on their website and the menus seen good too, the photos really give a good insight into the type of guests they are aiming to attract Wonderful facilities too if you have time to take advantage of them after a day at the parks We prefer a hotel which provides transport to all the parks included in the price of the stay as charges soon add up if you need to pay extra to get about At least it's not a motel style hotel where everyone walks by on an outside coridoor