We stayed at the Carousel in Jan./08 and it was perfectly fine. Our room was very clean, housekeeping was excellent, and we thought that the breakfast was more than adequate. You absolutely cannot beat the short walk across the street to the parks. Enjoy!
Were you there in late Jan?
Although I would not stay there again, many other people disagree with me. If you're looking at reviews on tripadvisor, well, stop looking there. For some reason, the reviews there are generally FAR more negative than anywhere else, and it feels suspicious to me sometimes.
Anyway, I stayed one night, solo, at Carousel in late Jan '08. I don't know about housekeeping b/c I didn't experience their work (other than the room seemed fine when I got there). I was gone most of the day.
I got in late, after running around DL and DCA like a madwoman, and needed a hot shower for my muscles. Well, it turned out that the shower curtain mysteriously leaked through (I had it "sealed" with water, you know what I mean, against the side of the tub wall, it was long enough, there were no gaps) and flooded the bathroom and the sink area outside the bathroom (bathroom door was closed, as I always do even when alone, so it went under the door). AUGH.
When I opened the bathroom door, despite having had the fan on, the steam from the bathroom set off the smoke detector.
Did I mention this was around midnight?
Now we get into the customer service part.
I am short and coudln't really reach the smoke detector button even while standing on the bed. The alarm kept going off and on and off and on.
I called down to the front desk to let them know there was NOT a fire, it was the steam, and I had a flood.
They said "oh yeah, we wondered what the alarm was about. After what happened today in Vegas." Turns out that was the day of the Monte Carlo hotel fire in Vegas. So even though they were already concerned about hotel fires, they just *wondered* what the alarm at midnight was all about.
At that point the alarm turned off again so they didn't send anyone up.
I got myself a bit more together, and to get the steam out of the room I had to open the room door. At midnight, on a solo trip. NOT what I would generally do!
The alarm continued to go on and off, sigh. I used all the towels to mop up the flood.
Either I called them back or they called me (this is all in my first solo trip report, but I'm going by memory here) and they wanted to make sure what was setting off the alarm. Like I was smoking up a storm or something. Well, that would have been better accomplished by actually coming up to the room, now wouldn't it? But they never did.
And when I checked out, they didn't care, and didn't listen to my complaint that they didn't come up to help me turn off the alarm (which is what I asked for in my first call).
The breakfast was awful. The fruit was sad, the coffee cups tiny. And it started too late to really sit down and eat AND get over to the gates for park opening, so I grabbed a tiny cup and a banana or something and probably some yucko mini donut and ran.
Others, who don't have the same alarm and flood experience as I did, would have been more rested, wouldn't have been annoyed at the employees, and perhaps would have grabbed two cups of coffee, LOL.
It's why I give my FULL experience. This is what happened on MY stay, this is why I feel the way I do. It's probably a very rare experience.
Oh, and they were very kind about keeping my bags after I checked out but before I left...they kept them until around 5 when I came back to get my shuttle. So that was nice.
I didn't know they are doing construction. What's interesting is that they are a sister motel to the Anabella, and the rooms are incredibly similar in layout. Why is it interesting? Because I LOVED the Anabella, LOL.
And there are people who disagree with me on that one, too!
