chekhovgirl
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jun 13, 2011
- Messages
- 742
Hi all,
On a recent solo trip to FL for a life celebration of a family member, I stayed one night at WGLBV. I researched it on the boards here before trying it out and wanted to give my impressions.
The trip: I flew into MCO on Friday morning and rented a car. I checked in after a very early flight just expecting to park my car there, but they had a room ready for me around 9:30 in the morning! That was a great bonus. It was great to rest a bit and use the pool after an early morning flight. After a day of resort hopping, I stayed overnight at the hotel on Friday, spent the day at MK on Saturday and then drove my car from MK to Tampa, so I did not make use of any shuttles. I self-parked after finding out where my room was, so the parking people were able to tell me which side of the hotel was most convenient to my room. Self-parking was super easy and I preferred knowing where my car was/being able to run out to it rather than pay $5 more for valet parking. My main reason for staying here was convenience to Disney Springs, early park entry, and affordability.
Pros:
- Very close to Disney Springs
- Easy and early check-in, friendly staff
- Nice pools, after I figured out how to get in! Only one of the many gates actually lets you through. Enjoyed the lake-front location. Big hot tub. Not crowded. Towels available at the pool.
- Hotel is easy to navigate
- Clean room
- Very comfortable bed, or I was really tired, or both!
- Early Disney park access was great! I got so much done in the first hour or so of the park being open.
Cons:
- I had read some reviews about the walls in the garden wings being really thin. I had no problem with this until a family arrived next door late at night/early in the morning (1:30-2 a.m.) with young children and they were all (parents and kids) VERY loud. I had an adjoining room and I roused when I heard their noise, but what made me really not be able to go to sleep was someone was repeatedly and rapidly pulling on the adjoining door like they were trying to get into my room. This is kind of terrifying to wake up to in the middle of the night when you are traveling by yourself. As it kept up, I was "that person" and I called the front desk and told them what was going on. I am assuming they contacted them, because they did stop pulling on the door and eventually quiet down, but this was worst case scenario for the ONE NIGHT you are staying somewhere. Because of this, I don't think I would stay in the garden rooms again.
- Hotel was adequate but certainly a little run down. The room had clearly been updated, but the outdoor areas of the garden wing felt the most "motel" like.
- The motel style room where you basically have to keep your shades down because people are walking in front of your one window.
I would recommend this hotel for:
- People who want early morning hours and won't be spending a ton of time at the hotel
- People looking for a good value over a resort experience
Side Notes:
- As said above, I didn't take advantage of the theme park shuttles, but they do have one.
I used a credit from my CC company that gave me $25 toward my first hotel booking, so I paid $107 for the room reservation and then a $38 resort fee at the hotel. I also paid $25/night to park, so all in all it was $170.68/night. If I could have gotten a decent Disney value hotel I probably would have done that instead (which would have also saved me the parking fee at MK), but this was a last-minute trip and none were available.
I hope that is helpful!
On a recent solo trip to FL for a life celebration of a family member, I stayed one night at WGLBV. I researched it on the boards here before trying it out and wanted to give my impressions.
The trip: I flew into MCO on Friday morning and rented a car. I checked in after a very early flight just expecting to park my car there, but they had a room ready for me around 9:30 in the morning! That was a great bonus. It was great to rest a bit and use the pool after an early morning flight. After a day of resort hopping, I stayed overnight at the hotel on Friday, spent the day at MK on Saturday and then drove my car from MK to Tampa, so I did not make use of any shuttles. I self-parked after finding out where my room was, so the parking people were able to tell me which side of the hotel was most convenient to my room. Self-parking was super easy and I preferred knowing where my car was/being able to run out to it rather than pay $5 more for valet parking. My main reason for staying here was convenience to Disney Springs, early park entry, and affordability.
Pros:
- Very close to Disney Springs
- Easy and early check-in, friendly staff
- Nice pools, after I figured out how to get in! Only one of the many gates actually lets you through. Enjoyed the lake-front location. Big hot tub. Not crowded. Towels available at the pool.
- Hotel is easy to navigate
- Clean room
- Very comfortable bed, or I was really tired, or both!
- Early Disney park access was great! I got so much done in the first hour or so of the park being open.
Cons:
- I had read some reviews about the walls in the garden wings being really thin. I had no problem with this until a family arrived next door late at night/early in the morning (1:30-2 a.m.) with young children and they were all (parents and kids) VERY loud. I had an adjoining room and I roused when I heard their noise, but what made me really not be able to go to sleep was someone was repeatedly and rapidly pulling on the adjoining door like they were trying to get into my room. This is kind of terrifying to wake up to in the middle of the night when you are traveling by yourself. As it kept up, I was "that person" and I called the front desk and told them what was going on. I am assuming they contacted them, because they did stop pulling on the door and eventually quiet down, but this was worst case scenario for the ONE NIGHT you are staying somewhere. Because of this, I don't think I would stay in the garden rooms again.
- Hotel was adequate but certainly a little run down. The room had clearly been updated, but the outdoor areas of the garden wing felt the most "motel" like.
- The motel style room where you basically have to keep your shades down because people are walking in front of your one window.
I would recommend this hotel for:
- People who want early morning hours and won't be spending a ton of time at the hotel
- People looking for a good value over a resort experience
Side Notes:
- As said above, I didn't take advantage of the theme park shuttles, but they do have one.
I used a credit from my CC company that gave me $25 toward my first hotel booking, so I paid $107 for the room reservation and then a $38 resort fee at the hotel. I also paid $25/night to park, so all in all it was $170.68/night. If I could have gotten a decent Disney value hotel I probably would have done that instead (which would have also saved me the parking fee at MK), but this was a last-minute trip and none were available.
I hope that is helpful!
