I was constantly reading this thread prior to our visit to the WA a couple of weeks ago. I thought I would help to contribute to the thread by posting our experience and some photos. We got a great rate through Expedia for a Deluxe King room with breakfasts each day. My husband called the hotel a few days prior to check in to confirm our reservation. At that time they offered us a great upgrade to a fireworks view room because of our Hilton Honors Status. Upon arrival at the hotel we were greeted quickly by valet and took our own carryons into the hotel to check in. We were asked if we needed assistance with our luggage, but we declined because they were small carryons.
Our room was on the 14th floor (out of 15) and had a great large picture window of the pools and Epcot. We looked forward to seeing the fireworks in the evenings! The room was gorgeous, the bed extremely comfortable. My husband LOVED LOVED LOVED the huge (42 inch?) HD flat screen television with so many HD channels!!
There was a blu ray player too, and he expressed disappointment that he didn't have a blu ray disc to use with the player!
Turn down service was nicely done our first night for just one guest (I guess they thought only my husband was staying in the room). They put one robe out on the bed, a pair of men's slippers and the TV remote lying nicely on the bed beside the chocolates! The second night they figured out there was a female guest in the room, and I found a lady's pair of slippers out and there were two robes nicely laid out on the bed! We didn't receive turn down the third night because we were already in our room (they didn't come until 9:22!). We were hoping for our chocolates anyways, but they never even knocked on the door. How they knew we were in the room without knocking, I don't know. They left a card on our door saying they were by at 9:22 to turn down but did not want to disturb us. On our second day, we were gone all day so I didn't know what time housekeeping came by to make the room. However our third day we returned to the room at 2:30 and the room was still not done!! I was quite disappointed. We went down to the pool and returned at 4:30 and it was still NOT done. Finally at 4:45, there was a knock on the door and there were 2 people standing there wanting to make the room up. Quite late in my opinion. That was also the same day where we did not receive turn down until 9:22. I like that they do not use the typical large carts full of supplies and towels that block the hallways here. They pull these little black carts that they bring right into the rooms when they are cleaning.
The pools are nice and tranquil. No loud fountains, lazy rivers, slides. We enjoyed a lovely dip in the pool and hot tub at night after a day of shopping and park visiting. The pool does close at 10pm, but if you still want to swim, you can go to the Hilton for that. They close at midnight. We spent an afternoon out here too one day. It was very pleasant. A pool attendant helped us set up our chairs (a towel for the chair, and then a towel for drying off). Plenty of bar attendants around too. We were offered frozen grapes on a skewar once too...nice touch! We had nice shade from the umbrella.
We only ate at Oscar's every morning for breakfast because we had that as part of our package. We were given $25 pp vouchures to use for breakfast. We ordered a la carte for the first two mornings. They automatically put 18%tip on the bill. There is a buffet on weekends ($25 pp). We opted for this on our departure morning. It was very nice. More food than I could eat! Presentation was nice.
The workout room was amazing too. Great machines, and plenty of each. They put a bottle of water and a small towel on each machine ready for the next guest. Small TVs on all the machines too! It was completely empty the evening we were there, but looked pretty busy on the Saturday afternoon.
I thought valet service was great. However, pricey. The cost of valet daily was more than the daily car rental!!! Add on tipping every time we dropped off/picked up. But I have to admit, it was very handy! We always called down when we wanted our car and by the time we went down our car was waiting for us. Drop off was fast too. I always had someone open my door (when getting in), but they weren't as quick to do so on drop off! But we were always greeted with "welcome back" when we did return, or "enjoy your day" when we left.
My husband was so tempted by the beautiful golf course. We walked over to the club house to inquire about rates. The gentleman we talked to would not tell DH how much it would cost to play a round, citing that timing of day/month dictates the cost of a round. However he did say that renting a set of Taylor Made clubs with 2 sleeves of Taylor Made balls was $70. Hopefully DH will have an opportunity to play next time we visit!
There are two computers in the lobby area that guests are free to use. We made use of one to check in online and print out our boarding passes. Very convenient. I personally think they should offer free wifi in the rooms though!
In summary, my DH and I LOVED this hotel. We came here for an adult getaway. But all weekend we kept thinking how much our girls would probably love it here. We hope to bring them here next summer to spend a few days prior to our
Disney cruise! We will probably never stay on site again!
Pictures in the next post!
, two a/c thermostats, a subzero winecooler. It was a little overkill. I was all about getting them to bring up a coffee maker until I discovered the coffee/tea service, which by the way was only available until 10 am.
