What can you tell me about Hilton on WDW

[anditoo72]

My friends are looking into getting a junior suite at Hilton in WDW near Downtown Disney (the one that offers the extra magic hours). They are looking at a Jan 16-21 stay. Any information or comments you can give me about this hotel would be most helpful, and please don't be afraid to be brutally honest. They are trying to decide this hotel on one of the Disney moderates to deluxe hotels. Thanks

 

[ute_fan]

If you can wait about 10 days, I'll be glad to give you an update. I'll be staying there for a conference from 9/18 through 9/23. Not a junior suite, unfortunately, but will be glad to pass on information about the hotel in general.

 

[2x_dis_dad]

I stayed there this past January. It is a nice hotel. They have a character breakfast buffet on sunday mornings I believe. I didn't go to that. Otherwise the breakfast is very good there. They have mickey waffles. They also participate in EMH. I went to EPCOT for EMH one night. DTD is right across the street. It was a nice place to stay.

 

[Tinkerbell10403]

I stayed there about 8 years ago and I loved it! It was beautiful then and I'm sure even more now!!

 

[CarolA]

I have stayed there several times and wouldn't hesitate to recommend it.

It is however a business hotel so there is not much "Disney Magic" If your friends are the the type who will be disappointed by not getting Mickey soap this might not be a good choice.

 

[freediverdude]

I have stayed there several times and do like it. Like somebody else said, not as much Disney theming as the Disney resorts, but it really is a 4 star hotel for a moderate price. You'll get some of the amenities of the deluxes, like a nice workout room, 24 hour food/sundry shop, interior corridors, right across the street from Downtown Disney (so no bus trip to get to that destination), and every room I've had has been meticulously clean. So if you want some of these amenities but don't really want to pay the big bucks for the Disney deluxes, I would recommend this.

 

[anditoo72]

Thank you all for your replies so far, I didn't even think of the disney magic that is associated with staying onsite so I will have to point out that to them. Ute_Fan I would love an update when you get back, thanks.

 

[ducklite]

I stayed there for a couple nights a year ago.

I would stay ther eover a WDW value or moderate, but not a deluxe.

The room was very nice, seemed newly renovated, but it seemed so far from everything compared to a MK or Epcot deluxe. Also, their bus doesn't run as frequently as WDW buses do. The one night we "just" missed the bus leaving Epcot, and it would be a full half hour until the next one came. We decided to spend the $$ for a cab.

Anne

 

[triplejoy]

Our family stayed there for a week in August...stayed in a Junior Suite and connector on Concierge floor. We really loved the hotel. It is quite nice.

We have stayed on-site and off-site. To me, this hotel rates on the level of a Disney Deluxe in terms of amenities and quality of product. The price is comparable to a Disney moderate. As another poster noted, there is not a lot of Disney theming, although their gift shop is very similar to the gift shops in the Disney properties. The transporation the Hilton offers is not as convenient as the Disney hotels.

We like to have our car at the parks, so transportation is not an issue for us. We also like really nice hotels - so we prefer the Hilton over a Disney moderate. The Junior Suites are oversized rooms with either a King bed or two double beds with a sitting area and sofa that folds out into a double bed. The bath amenities and bedding package are quite nice and very comfortable.

We would stay at the Hilton again in a minute, but our kids are teenagers so the theming issue is not that important. Hope your friends have fun!

Rick

 

[ute_fan]

Back from my stay at the Hilton WDW. The hotel itself was fine -- I felt that the room was overpriced (our seminar pricing was $155 per night), but I might consider staying there if we could get a cheaper rate with a AAA discount. The rooms weren't huge, but they were perfectly adequate for 2 people. If you had 4 adults, I'd think you might feel a little bit cramped. My room was just a standard one -- there was a sink in the toilet/shower area, along with another one outside the bathroom, which was nice. The 2 beds were only doubles, but they were very comfortable. There was an iron/iron board located in the closet, and a hair-dryer in the bathroom.

My only real complain was in the pricing. Not only did I think the room itself was expensive, but there was an additional charge for internet, an additional charge for the fitness room, and additional charge if you wanted to be able to access the mini-bar (none of which I took advantage of). For the price of the room, it seems like those amenities should have been included. Also, we found the food prices in the restaurants to be quite high. We ate one night at the sports bar -- a hamburger, order of potato skins, a couple of margaritas, and a coke -- the bill was over $35. Breakfast in the Covington Mill restaurant was over $10 for an entree. Luckily, we had a car and didn't need to eat at the hotel, but their food costs were worse than the prices at WDW.

 

[anditoo72]

I appreciate the review. I will have to pass along your findings to my friends. They are still up in the air as to which hotel they want to choose, so this will help Thanks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Di-Dis]

Thank you so much for your Hilton reviews. Dh & I will be staying there 12/18 to 12/25/05 and I am very curious, if I made the right decision. We have always stayed @ a Disney resort (OKW, AKL/Conc, Poly/Conc & WL Villas) and of course love them all, but to save a little $$$ I reserved a Concierge Tower room at the Hilton for the same price (actually a little less for the HOLIDAY SEASON) than a moderate Disney resort. If any of you have more info I would love to hear about it. I would especially like to hear what the offerings are in The Tower Concierge Lounge. Do they have the wine and cordials in the evening as in the Disney Resort/Concierge Lounges??? Also, what types of breakfast items, snacks and beverages do they offer throughout the day?? Thank you all so much.

 

[Di-Dis]

Dear UTE FAN...I was very surprised to hear that you paid $155.00, seminar rate, per night at the WDW Hilton. I think the person that arranged the seminar rates for you did you a real injustice. Booking on-line as an individual, I got a rate of $109.00 during the peak HOLIDAY SEASON. I hope you had some extras thrown in with your group rate.

Back from my stay at the Hilton WDW. The hotel itself was fine -- I felt that the room was overpriced (our seminar pricing was $155 per night), but I might consider staying there if we could get a cheaper rate with a AAA discount. The rooms weren't huge, but they were perfectly adequate for 2 people. If you had 4 adults, I'd think you might feel a little bit cramped. My room was just a standard one -- there was a sink in the toilet/shower area, along with another one outside the bathroom, which was nice. The 2 beds were only doubles, but they were very comfortable. There was an iron/iron board located in the closet, and a hair-dryer in the bathroom.

My only real complain was in the pricing. Not only did I think the room itself was expensive, but there was an additional charge for internet, an additional charge for the fitness room, and additional charge if you wanted to be able to access the mini-bar (none of which I took advantage of). For the price of the room, it seems like those amenities should have been included. Also, we found the food prices in the restaurants to be quite high. We ate one night at the sports bar -- a hamburger, order of potato skins, a couple of margaritas, and a coke -- the bill was over $35. Breakfast in the Covington Mill restaurant was over $10 for an entree. Luckily, we had a car and didn't need to eat at the hotel, but their food costs were worse than the prices at WDW.

 

[CarolA]

I have found that seminar rates are normally a little higher then "internet rates" Of couse part of that is that in the case of seminar rates there is generally a more liberal cancellation policy then with interent rates.

I have never heard of a charge for accessing the mini bar (which I did at the Hilton) The charge is for taking anything out and that of course is normal. The Hilton will charge you if you remove thier stuff and replace it with yours.

The other Extra charges are all fairly normal for a hotel like this. Disney hotels charge for the internet and until recently charged for fitness room use. The Swan/Dolphin charge all of these and a parking fee.

 

[ute_fan]

I would have expected to pay for anything I took from the mini-bar, but what they indicated at check-in was that there was an additional charge if you wanted access to it. Now, admittedly, it was 1 AM, so maybe I misunderstood, but my co-worker had the same impression.

Unfortunately, the seminar rates do tend to be high. Luckily my employer was paying for it, and we did have continental breakfast & lunch each day, but that should have been covered in the seminar fees. We attended this same seminar in Las Vegas a couple of years ago. The conference was at the Riviera, and we were able to get much cheaper rates at the MGM -- go figure.

Since I don't use the internet access or fitness rooms anyway, the additional costs didn't affect me, but I don't know that I'd choose to stay there on my own. We moved for the weekend to Port Orleans Riverside. With a AAA discount, the cost was less than $110 per night, and I didn't think the rooms at the Hilton were much nicer than Riverside (maybe a touch bigger, but not much).

I also thought the meal costs at the Hilton were high. I was expecting high prices at WDW and the Disney Hotels, but the ones at the Hilton were actually worse. In comparison, I actually thought eating at the parks was fairly reasonable.

 

[goofy's friends]

We were there Sept. 18-24th also. We stayed in the Jr. Suite and were very pleased with the room. We have 3 kids and there was no separation wall, but they were so tired, they crashed. We had the pull-out couch. It worked out very well for the kids--but pull-outs are never comfortable for adults.
The mini-bar was not accessible unless you cut the fastener that kept it closed, so you could not use it unless you wanted to pay for it.
It was very clean and DTD being close was nice.
That ended up being how we got back there on most nights, because the wait for the bus was too long for our kids. We took a Disney bus to a resort (b/c there wasn't one straight to DTD from the parks) then to DTD and walked to the hotel. (not far). We waited 45 min. one night for the Hilton bus and then they couldn't fit us all on and we had to wait longer.
The ride to the parks was never bad though. It took about 30 min. to get to all of them. Not quite Disney service , but it was fine.
We never ate there and we didn't use the pool or shops.