snickerboo
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 17, 2006
Okay, I've read good and bad reviews of the Sunspree, ranging from the very worst to great. I just stayed there this past week and I'll try to give a very honest review for those considering this hotel.
Let me start out by saying that my dh has Holiday Inn Priority Club Platinum status meaning we stay/he stays at Holiday Inns enough to know what the standard should be, we should also generally receive a little better treatment, customer service and a room upgrade or several complimentary things to make up for the lack of available room upgrade. Priority Club is like a frequent stay program and it takes a lot of styas to get Platinum (there's regular, Gold and Platinum)
The hotel itself:
Sunspree is located in Lake Buena Vista on SR 535 (a very busy street) near 1-4. It is very close to Disney and the Outlets. It is not walking distance but a short drive. Most Disney-area hotels are on very busy streets so no biggie. It is accross the street from Sheraton Vistana, Walgreens, Wendy's and Chick Fil-A and down the street from a mini-putt, Golden Corral, Landry's Seafood, Bahama Breeze and Lone Star.
The hotel is an older hotel that they have tried to renovate but still needs a lot of work. It's not impressive and it's not fancy. It's not the kind of place you should stay if you like a 'nice, new' kind of place.
We stayed in a kidsuite with bunks and a toddler bed on the top floor. The room itself was very clean and was spacious but again, it was old and in need of renovation. There was a lot of mildew in the bathroom and many of the metal fixtures were rusty. The kitchen area was decent with a clean and working microwave and fridge. The kidsuite had been overused and the stairs for the bunks were crooked and the wood splintered. The outlet behind the tv was completely unsafe anywhere near where kids are staying. The adults part of the room was fine but the tv barely worked (very poor reception). The bed was clean, large and comfortable. There were no problems with bugs or anything unsanitary.
Amenities:
The pool area is, again, a little basic, older, and in need of renovation. It is a large free-form pool with a fountain constantly spraying in it. There is a very small kiddie wading pool and two small hot tubs. They have basic games throughout the day at the pool for the kids (hoola hoop contest, diving for pennies, cannonball, etc). There is a walk-up bar at the pool for drink and snacks.
There is a convenience store that conveniently leaves the prices off everything. You don't know what it costs til you've already taken it to the counter and your kids have their hearts set on it. They have coffee (Seattles Best), Krispy Kremes, candy, chips, drinks and liquor (beer, wine, coolers). However, there's 7-11 right next door and the Walgreens accross the road has an attached liquor store-both are much cheaper.
We never ate in the restaurant and the kids restaurant was closed the entire time we were there. we went to Wendy's for much cheaper fast food, went through the drive through and ate it in our room.
The kids club is $5/hour. My dd never did it because it didn't seem like it was well-organized or fun. The staff were not at all enthusiastic. There is a theatre showing older kids movies pretty much all day (Incredibles, Toy Story, Lion King, Robots, SpongeBob....). The Dive-Inn movie was shown just once in our entire week's stay with no advance warning so we came back from Disney one evening to find it on and almost over. My dd was very dissappointed to have missed it. We had to ask for the kids check-in even though it is supposed to be a feature of the hotel. We never once saw the characters that are supposed to be roaming the hotel-not once.
There is a tuck shop with souvenirs-same stuff you'll find all over the area and at Walgreens.
The staff were........disinterested, even with us being Priority Platinum. We asked them to arrange an airport shuttle for my dh, they called a taxi. One day we came back from Disney at 3:30 and the maids still hadn't been. It took two phone calls (the second not so nice) to get them to send the maids to clean the room! Being Platinum, we are entitled to a complimentary room upgrade. We were told there were none available. When rooms are empty at Sunspree, they leave the curtains open. we could see several rooms available that were an upgrade (at least much bigger and more recently renovated) than ours. I had to beg (and I mean beg) to get a corkscrew and a glass for wine, even though the hotel has a full bar and restaurant and sells wine in the convenience store.
Soudning bad? Well, it's not terrible. We took a drive to the 192 area one day and saw several hotels in a similar price range that looked much worse. BUT there were also several hotels nearby better. Radisson Resort at Celebration is very nice and a similar price. Mariott Village at LBV is nearly new with Courtyard and Springhill Suites. La Quinta on 535, bear Wal-Mart is brand new and nice. There was also a nice, new Comfort Suites behind the Red Lobster just off the 192.
I would not stay here again. They drive the kids amenities as their selling point but the kids amenities are often not available or run by unenthusiastic 20-somethings. Don't stay here for the kids amentities. The kidsuites are great for the extra tv and bunk bed space but that's about all because they're small and run down. I would have rather stayed in a newer and nicer hotel for our family's vacation.
This hotel is not at all the quality I have come to expect from the Holiday Inn. When I landed in Buffalo, I stayed at the Holiday Inn Express Galleria. It was very clean, nice and completely renovated. The staff bent over backwards for me. That's what I expect from a Holiday Inn not what I got at Sunspree.
Let me start out by saying that my dh has Holiday Inn Priority Club Platinum status meaning we stay/he stays at Holiday Inns enough to know what the standard should be, we should also generally receive a little better treatment, customer service and a room upgrade or several complimentary things to make up for the lack of available room upgrade. Priority Club is like a frequent stay program and it takes a lot of styas to get Platinum (there's regular, Gold and Platinum)
The hotel itself:
Sunspree is located in Lake Buena Vista on SR 535 (a very busy street) near 1-4. It is very close to Disney and the Outlets. It is not walking distance but a short drive. Most Disney-area hotels are on very busy streets so no biggie. It is accross the street from Sheraton Vistana, Walgreens, Wendy's and Chick Fil-A and down the street from a mini-putt, Golden Corral, Landry's Seafood, Bahama Breeze and Lone Star.
The hotel is an older hotel that they have tried to renovate but still needs a lot of work. It's not impressive and it's not fancy. It's not the kind of place you should stay if you like a 'nice, new' kind of place.
We stayed in a kidsuite with bunks and a toddler bed on the top floor. The room itself was very clean and was spacious but again, it was old and in need of renovation. There was a lot of mildew in the bathroom and many of the metal fixtures were rusty. The kitchen area was decent with a clean and working microwave and fridge. The kidsuite had been overused and the stairs for the bunks were crooked and the wood splintered. The outlet behind the tv was completely unsafe anywhere near where kids are staying. The adults part of the room was fine but the tv barely worked (very poor reception). The bed was clean, large and comfortable. There were no problems with bugs or anything unsanitary.
Amenities:
The pool area is, again, a little basic, older, and in need of renovation. It is a large free-form pool with a fountain constantly spraying in it. There is a very small kiddie wading pool and two small hot tubs. They have basic games throughout the day at the pool for the kids (hoola hoop contest, diving for pennies, cannonball, etc). There is a walk-up bar at the pool for drink and snacks.
There is a convenience store that conveniently leaves the prices off everything. You don't know what it costs til you've already taken it to the counter and your kids have their hearts set on it. They have coffee (Seattles Best), Krispy Kremes, candy, chips, drinks and liquor (beer, wine, coolers). However, there's 7-11 right next door and the Walgreens accross the road has an attached liquor store-both are much cheaper.
We never ate in the restaurant and the kids restaurant was closed the entire time we were there. we went to Wendy's for much cheaper fast food, went through the drive through and ate it in our room.
The kids club is $5/hour. My dd never did it because it didn't seem like it was well-organized or fun. The staff were not at all enthusiastic. There is a theatre showing older kids movies pretty much all day (Incredibles, Toy Story, Lion King, Robots, SpongeBob....). The Dive-Inn movie was shown just once in our entire week's stay with no advance warning so we came back from Disney one evening to find it on and almost over. My dd was very dissappointed to have missed it. We had to ask for the kids check-in even though it is supposed to be a feature of the hotel. We never once saw the characters that are supposed to be roaming the hotel-not once.
There is a tuck shop with souvenirs-same stuff you'll find all over the area and at Walgreens.
The staff were........disinterested, even with us being Priority Platinum. We asked them to arrange an airport shuttle for my dh, they called a taxi. One day we came back from Disney at 3:30 and the maids still hadn't been. It took two phone calls (the second not so nice) to get them to send the maids to clean the room! Being Platinum, we are entitled to a complimentary room upgrade. We were told there were none available. When rooms are empty at Sunspree, they leave the curtains open. we could see several rooms available that were an upgrade (at least much bigger and more recently renovated) than ours. I had to beg (and I mean beg) to get a corkscrew and a glass for wine, even though the hotel has a full bar and restaurant and sells wine in the convenience store.
Soudning bad? Well, it's not terrible. We took a drive to the 192 area one day and saw several hotels in a similar price range that looked much worse. BUT there were also several hotels nearby better. Radisson Resort at Celebration is very nice and a similar price. Mariott Village at LBV is nearly new with Courtyard and Springhill Suites. La Quinta on 535, bear Wal-Mart is brand new and nice. There was also a nice, new Comfort Suites behind the Red Lobster just off the 192.
I would not stay here again. They drive the kids amenities as their selling point but the kids amenities are often not available or run by unenthusiastic 20-somethings. Don't stay here for the kids amentities. The kidsuites are great for the extra tv and bunk bed space but that's about all because they're small and run down. I would have rather stayed in a newer and nicer hotel for our family's vacation.
This hotel is not at all the quality I have come to expect from the Holiday Inn. When I landed in Buffalo, I stayed at the Holiday Inn Express Galleria. It was very clean, nice and completely renovated. The staff bent over backwards for me. That's what I expect from a Holiday Inn not what I got at Sunspree.
