Wyndham Palace Resort/Spa at Walt Disney World, Florida
Written: Feb 13 '03 (Updated Apr 04 '03)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: Location, kids program, convention rooms, spa.
Cons: Expensive if you are out all day.
The Bottom Line: I am recommending this for business travel but families may like it as well. It is expensive but you are paying for the location.
|
|
|
| jo.com's Full Review: Wyndham Palace Resort/Spa |
We just returned from 3 nights at the Wyndham Palace Resort & Spa. This is in Disney World. Wyndham Hotels are a chain with 5 in the Orlando area.
General Information:
~Wyndham Palace is located at 1900 Buena Vista Drive, Lake Buena Vista, Florida. The phone number is 407-827-3200 and the website is www.wyndhampalaceresort.com.
~The hotel is 17 miles from the airport and 1/4 mile from Downtown Disney. We walked back to the hotel from there and it was very easy.
About the Wyndham Palace Resort & Spa:
The Wyndham is a chain and if you stay at one of the other hotels nearby you are entitled to use the amenities at the Palace. The Palace has 2 separate facilities.
The Main Tower is very modern looking both inside and outside. It has 27 floors and 1,014 rooms. The smaller unit is where we stayed. It is called Recreation Island with 100 rooms. This building does not appear to be as well kept as the Main Tower. The whole facility is on 27 acres and appears to be much larger than it actually is. That is because many of the areas are used for conventions and take up much of the space. We were there for a convention and we were all housed in the Recreation Island facility.
This facility is just a minutes walk from the Main Tower. It is laid out very differently. Where the Main Tower looks like a hotel with hallways to the rooms and a closed floor plan in all but the lobby, Recreation Island is built with the whole middle open. There is a glass ceiling. The halls outside the rooms look down on one of the convention room areas. It is very pretty with beautiful landscaping indoors. If you stay at the Main Tower walk over to the elevator here which has a waterfall behind one elevator’s glass windows which also look out onto the meeting room. It is quite unusual.
The lobbies are very different. The Main Tower is modern with chandeliers and mirrors. On the other side of the mirror you will find areas to have meetings as well as a lounge/bar. Our lobby was “homey” with soft, comfortable sofas and chairs and a television. There is a covered bridge that takes you from the Main Tower to Recreation Island. You can also take the short cut through 2 of the 3 pools with a shorter bridge but it isn’t covered. These bridges go over man-made water and it is all very nicely done. Remember this is Disney World. Although this is a pretty hotel, it isn’t spectacular.
There are 11 handicapped accessible rooms.
Check in:
Since my husband was at a conference we got a little bit of special attention. After being picked up by Mears transportation (Available at a charge to all guests.) it took about 10 seconds to check in and a staff person was waiting to bring our things to our room. I didn’t see anyone waiting for any length of time and it looked like guests were treated nicely and quickly – whether they were at a convention or not.
The Room:
We were not impressed with our room. It was large enough but very plain. It also had stains on the rugs and I would hope that there are plans to fix up Recreation Island. We had 2 queen-sized beds with extra pillows in the closet. There was an iron and ironing board, a table with 3 chairs one of which was deemed ergonomically correct, a wardrobe that housed the television, free safe and mini-bar.
The room was clean. I had no problems with that at all. We had nice bathroom facilities with a large counter top sink in the bathroom as well as one outside the bathroom across from the dresser, which housed 3 draws. The free coffee and coffee maker sat on top of the dresser.
There was a hair dryer and the usual shampoos and conditioners, soaps and a sewing kit, which I hadn’t seen before.
Newspapers are delivered daily to each room.
We had a nice balcony with a table and two chairs, which opened behind the curtain. The only problem was the view! It was of the back of the hotel complete with a porta toilet! Needless to say we never stepped onto it. I am assuming it would have held us and that it was operational.
All rooms have computer data ports as well as high-speed internet connectivity. It only costs $10.99 for 24 hours...tempting but I refrained.
Customer Service:
We never needed customer service for anything but I did want to mention the great service we got. When I went to charge food and couldn’t remember our room number, I was not given a disgusted look. Rather the clerk in the store happily looked it up for me.
When our luggage was brought to the room, in spite of the fact our hosts already tipped him, the bellhop was very nice, told us a few things about the room and asked if we had any questions about the resort or the area.
I used the ironing board and iron and was shocked that housekeeping services folded up the ironing board and put the iron away. I just didn’t think they would. I didn’t leave it out for them to put it away I thought I might use it again.
Food, Lounges, Stores:
This is one area that I felt the hotel was lacking. Although there really are adequate restaurants, there was no place to get a real cappuccino. That may sound trite, but it was something I really missed. While on vacation, I really like to sit in a restaurant for breakfast, for example, with my treat and that wasn’t available here.
In spite of what looks like a huge area only houses a few shops. There was a souvenir type shop (I bought my girls Mickey Mouse earring in their birthstones – so what if they are 22 and 24!); a very nice clothing store; a jewelry store; a camera store and a snack shop which says they sell cappuccinos but they are from a machine and aren’t real. I found myself getting lunch from that store though and it was very good and reasonably priced ($6.95 for a huge turkey sandwich with extras) while my husband had lunch with his hosts. You’ll also find wonderful pastries here – the almond croissant was very tasty.
I had breakfast in the Watercress Café, which is attached to the snack shop. It is next to the waterway and is a nice spot to have breakfast. It wasn’t outrageously priced for a hotel such as this. My French Toast with a huge portion of fresh strawberries was $9.95 and excellent. My cousins drove over from Daytona to have breakfast with me and their omelets were delicious. The wait staff was so nice – he kept refilling our coffee and making sure everything was fine. (He didn’t even know I was part of a convention- well sort of part of it.) On Sundays from 8:00am – 10:00am Disney characters will join you for breakfast.
We did not eat at Arthur’s 27 which is considered fine dining and located on the top floor. Reservations are recommended. We did go to the Top of the Palace, which is a lounge. You can have cocktails as well as appetizers here and see the fireworks at Epcot from this lounge. You can also see them at this lounge from Pleasure Island at midnight. They offer live entertainment and are open 5:00pm – 1:00pm. We were there late and missed the entertainment.
Another lounge is the Laughing Kookaburra, which has entertainment and dancing. There is no cover charge and happy hour is from 7:00pm – 8:00pm. They are open 7:00pm – 12:00pm.
The pool area has the Castaway Grill-Pool Snack Bar but the hours vary and it was not open during the time we were there. The weather was only in the 60s or so.
Amenities, the pool, and spa:
Babysitting is available but there is also a Kid’s Klub, which offers activities, games, crafts and movies for children ages 4 – 12. There is an arcade, which we used, that has a nice assortment of games. Also available on the premises are 3 free, lighted tennis courts. The tennis courts as well as the pools are on Recreation Island, which is one reason to stay in this building. There is also a volleyball court. A reason to stay in the other is that it has all the indoor amenities.
There are two heated pools, which are open 24 hours a day. One of them is the largest pool I have seen. There is also a children’s pool and a whirlpool. There is a covered gazebo, which I sat under and read while having lunch with plenty of tables and chairs. The pools' lounge chairs have the thickest cushions on them I think I have ever seen! Towels are free and plentiful.
There is free self parking and if you choose valet parking it will cost you $10.00 a day. The parking lot is not covered.
There is a complimentary shuttle bus to the theme parks, which run at least twice every hour to each park so we didn’t have to wait more than 10 minutes to go to Epcot.
There is a free fitness room, which is nice. You get in with the key to your room. Clean towels are available if you forgot yours. The equipment was decent. It was one of the better fitness rooms I’ve used with treadmills, bikes, stairsteppers, machines for every body part and free weights. I was very pleased with it and spent 3 hours in it!
Although I didn’t use the spa it is fine to take a tour of it and it is incredible. It houses a beauty salon as well as too many beautiful rooms to count for the various spa services. You will pay a price for these spa services, of course. A teenager’s facial runs $85 for 50 minutes or you can treat yourself to “A Day at the Palace” for $388 or just get your hair cut starting from $45.00.
There is a nice option. For hotel guests you can pay $10.00 and have use of the spa’s sauna, private outdoor whirlpool and private lap pool. You’ll find lockers, showers, robes, towels and anything you need to dry your hair and apply makeup. If you are not a guest you can pay $20.00 to use the spa.
My final thoughts:
The Wyndham Palace is about $219.00 per night. There are specials, which you will find at the site. That is a lot of money for a hotel, which I imagine, you are staying at to go to the theme parks. Personally I wouldn’t stay here if I were paying for it. I do know, though, that others want to stay on the Disney property. If so, this is not a bad choice. It offers children’s programs and the wonderful spa and great fitness room. I would recommend staying in the Main Tower unless you want a smaller, more home-like environment by the pools.
According to my cousins this hotel is known for their conventions and if you are planning one this is a wonderful hotel in which to have it. The meeting room I have referred to on Recreation Island opens up to 3 separate meeting rooms. This hotel has 90,000 square feet of meeting space! We had appetizers in one room and then dinner in another meeting room one night and the rooms are very nice and perfect for conventions.
I am going to recommend this hotel and give it 4 stars because of the pools, the kids’ programs, the spa and fitness room and the location.
If you have any questions I'll be glad to try to answer it.
The links below are to many of my Orlando/WDW reviews:
IllumiNations at Epcot
Wyndham Resorts
Islands of Adventure
Going to Disney World? Orlando? Need a Place to Stay? Look No Further"
Sleuths Myster Dinner Theater
Fantasmic at MGM
Boston Lobster Feast in Orlando
Fantasia Gardens-a golfing fantasy
Honey I Shrunk the Audience at Epcot
and by my good friend Anthony:
Walt
Disney World
Recommended:
Yes
|
|
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.