CoCo Key Resort and Water Park Orlando — Hotel in Dr. Phillips

I wrote a private email in the hopes of getting this sorted, but they never responded. Here is my honest review.

Went for a milestone birthday weekend and had an atrocious experience. 
Food was awful. No cheese in the mozzarella sticks and it was served with ice cold sauce, pizza was bad and overpriced. Vending machine ate my money when I tried to use it and the convenience store is overpriced as well. The arcade is small and some of the games didn't work.

Shower pressure in our room was HORRIBLE and nonexistent. Towels were thin and rough. Bedsheets were clean, just not super comfortable. Went to breakfast (which is $25 a person for the hotel breakfast buffet…..) came back and the bed, our belongings, and the floor were SOAKED due to an upstairs clog. We rushed to management for help, and they changed our room upon request - but we really did not appreciate the manager making a joke about the “waterpark being a part of the room experience.” It was a milestone birthday weekend, I spent over $750 on the room for 4 1/2 days (which would have apparently cost MORE if we drove/needed parking!) and it was frustrating that everything about the hotel seemed so cheap. We had to specifically ask as a courtesy if they could take care of our soaked laundry. We were moved to another room with better shower pressure, but our bathroom light did not work and the shower water dripped all night. Our keys were deactivated at 11am despite paying for late checkout, resulting in yet another long walk and visit to the front desk for more help.

And now for probably, one of the most frustrating and distasteful things about this stay - the timeshare scam. We were stopped by an individual in the lobby, who asked if we’d be interested in touring one of their “family hotels.” She explained they are trying to drive business to the other hotel, and as an incentive were offering a cash gift in exchange for touring the hotel and listening to some information about it. Transportation was complimentary and we were told there would be refreshments for free. We agreed as this seemed harmless, we were charged a $50 hold on my card for the “reservation.” At 9am the next day, we were picked up by arranged transportation and the driver made a comment about “timesharing.” I immediately became suspicious, and sadly my suspicions were confirmed when we arrived to the Other Hotel. The staff there bluntly advised this was a timeshare sales meeting lasting over 90 minutes, there would be no tour of the hotel and there were only muffins in another random building. We would be sitting in a real “intense sales meeting,” and they began asking our personal information such as income, our marital status, etc. They advised the Coco Key is NOT affiliated with this other hotel, and to quote the gentleman we spoke with: “we have no idea why they send people here.”

We asked for a refund on our $50 deposit and left, annoyed that we had wasted our last Orlando morning getting coerced into some bizarre timeshare bait-and-switch scheme. We were not provided the cash gift as we did not stay for 90 minutes. Under no circumstances were we advised this would be a timeshare sales meeting, and as we are not from Florida, we weren’t aware that was the actual situation. I assume this is how they scam future guests who also do not know much about time sharing. I have traveled to many cities across the US and in Florida, many states, and many countries - NEVER have I experienced hotel staff trying to bait guests into some scammy timeshare situation. No one was at the desk when we returned to Coco Key so I could not address my concerns with staff directly. Clearly, the Coco Key staff receive some sort of compensation for referring unsuspecting guests to this meeting. They don’t even have Disney or airport shuttles. (There is ONE shuttle for Disney that departs ONLY at one time at approx. 9:30AM, and picks guests up at one time.) No one cared to ask how our stay was when we checked out. Never booking here again and I would recommend anyone look elsewhere...

Water Park was 10/10. They had a ton to do. My 14YO (very mature) daughter was a little bored. It may have been different if she had brought a friend. However, The food was great and the Service was top trie, as well. However, I was very Disappointed from the start. As we arrived, Our VIP status and packets were not ready. Julianna(I believe was her name) was VERY sweet and tried to accommodate us very Quickly. She got us into our room early which was amazing seeing as it was nap time for our two yo. We got to our room and headed to the park. One of the park lifeguards (Maning the slides) Made a very unprofessional comment to my daughter and I. I am sure she was hot and Gets sick of people doing silly things but this was an honest mistake, that I was handling with my daughter and she decided to not only comment but add another unprofessional comment. Later that day, I seen her again (I was in a different bathing suit) and she was very sweet. Therefore, I am not sure if she meant to say it under her breath and it came out or what. However, the second day we were there, Our room keys stopped working. Ok, no problem. IT things happen all the time. While my husband went to get food and get the keys fixed, we have a gentleman from cocokey resort come banging on the door, while there was a do not disturb sign on it. My 14YO went and opened it thinking it was her dad with his hands full of food. As my 14YO DAUGHTER opened the door, the man started speaking in Spanish and it scared her. she slammed the door, in which the man began banging on the door again, saying "ma'am, ma'am". As a mother, that did not make me feel safe. With a do not disturb sign on the door and a young girl answering the door and you still try to get in? That was a huge no for me. As we are still waiting for my husband to return with the food, Another resident and his son, put the key to the door, you hear it click and walked right into our room. Realizing it was not his room Immediately stepped back out and apologized.

As well as, when my husband was getting our keys fixed, no one ever asked for his ID. Had he found these keys laying around and tried to get them keyed for a different room that was not his, this was another red flag that nobody asked for his id again, I did not feel safe.

Then to top off the trip, we paid extra for food vouchers. When we checked in, we got two $40.00 vouchers. Nobody told us that they had to be used each day. I was thinking, that we could use them for a lunch and dinner and that day we would not have to leave. When I realized this and approached the front desk to ask if we could get it changed, they said no and brushed me off as if they were too busy to help their VIP? What's the point of paying extra for VIP perks if you are just going to brushed off.

The only complaints that I had about the water park was that the layout chairs were all very old and hard to seat in. They were broken and falling apart. So when you sat down, your butt sank and the back would hit you in the head. I felt so bad for the elderly people there. They were getting hit time and time again, trying to adjust the chair. I even tried to look for chairs that were not broken and there was VERY few. Lastly, You wait in line at the bottom of the slide FOREVER to get a tube. There was not enough tubes to say the least. As well as, the lifeguards at the bottom, would let people who came down the slide take that tube back up again. Instead of letting the person in line take it.

Honestly, I would go back for a day trip to the park but I am not sure we will ever be staying here again. It did have amazing ice cream, Starbucks and...

Wasn’t thrilled by our stay at Cocokey and for multiple reasons.

Main was we had booked thru Expedia and paid for our stay but had to pay resort fee upon arrival. Did you become a resort only after we booked? Why couldn’t you include that fee into the nightly price? It’s not like it’s changing daily? That felt kind of shady and underhanded when we arrived and were asked to pay resort fee. If it does change, may be indicate on your blurb about resort fee. We will be avoiding resorts that do this on Expedia for sure.

You have a water park but no way to hang your clothes out to dry, not even a pull out clothes line inside the tub? Just a towel bar and one single towel hook. We were 5 of us going to the pool and park and couldn’t find a way to dry out our clothes.

Rooms aren’t appointed with basic necessities- there’s a fridge and some storage drawers, towels, and a coffee maker. They were responsive in giving me extra conditioner and shampoo, 1 hour after I needed them.

The cleaning ladies don’t touch anything in the bed in case they are valuable so all round the bed and floor was cleaned but not the bed itself, and they were nice enough to respect the do not disturb/clean sign on the door and not come in.

We did use the fridge to store perishables and make sandwiches in the day for our park visit. Would have been nice to have a kitchenette. It wasn’t an option in any of their rooms, but luckily there’s enough options to eat close by. It would be good to save some with a large party by cooking something simple but beyond sandwiches or wraps you can’t make too complex stuff

The waterpark was fun, as fun as a waterpark in the 60s could be, but luckily one of the pools were heated. The three main slides were closed for ‘maintenance’ so we could only experience the parrot perch and the twisty little slide in the heated pool. We were in the hotel for 3 nights but the universal parks for 2 of those so only got to use the waterpark at cocokey for one night. We had booked this hotel specifically for the waterpark for our kids. Who still enjoyed whatever they offered, but letting you know what to expect.

There was a little store next to it where you could buy goggles floaties and the like. That was useful.

There’s breakfast available, adults + kid eat free for $20, waffles, eggs etc. was told it was decent by some family that went.

When I needed something and went to the front office, there’s a guy that’s getting you to buy vacation packages. I think he’s an employee and I asked him about shuttles or whatever and he asks me to come look at vacation rentals, so that was irritating

We were told there’s shuttles to the parks but never used them, cos of our timings and availability of Uber.

My parents did use the gym to do their yoga, no complaints.

We did have to work from home for one day and it wasn’t most comfortable for that. The lobby was too loud, there wasn’t a quiet room that we could use. 2 of us were crammed into the uncomfortable chairs and sofa to try and get some work done. Guess they don’t have too many people that do that.

And apart from that the lighting situation is just so low, never enough light. 3 sad lamps casting barely any light. None of them bright enough to see anything.

They had an ‘info’ desk on the parks at the lobby but I never saw anyone there 🤷‍♀️ not sure if they have anyone staffing it, or the lost and found..I had questions about the park and no one to ask it to.

I had also left behind a bag of clothes and food at the parking area in a hurry, could never get anyone at the hotel to find it.

Overall not pleased with my stay. It could...