Hilton Grand Vacations Club Parc Soleil Orlando — Hotel in Dr. Phillips

My partner and i have a 4 day 3 night stay at the Hilton Lake Buena Vista location, it was our only choice after being told we could stay at any Hilton hotel when we originally were talked into the deal. We called the day before our stay to switch our presentation time from 1pm to 8:45am today, telling us the confirmation would be sent to our online account. Trusting the process, we were excited to attend early this morning and went forward with purchasing tickets to Disney for Sunday as well as having the rest of the day today to relax at the pool. When we got there this morning, we were told that our time was for 8:45am Sunday. We told the young woman at the check in that this was switched by phone yesterday. When we called the number she gave us, the woman said there was a note that we had switched our time to today at 8:45 however it was booked so they switched it back to Sunday at 8:45am. How is that possible when our original time was 1pm? No call, no email? How on earth were we supposed to know this? We specifically switched because we wanted to actually enjoy our vacation stay here and not have to attend anything in between. This is the first vacation we’ve had in years, something we truly needed after my significant other was recovered just enough to enjoy something after a life threatening accident that put us through the worst time of our life. Not that that truly matters with you all, however it does to us. NOW, the woman on the phone put our reservation to noon today, without any explanation or letting us know. This put us in a spot where we lost a day at the pool, and cutting our morning off from going to Disney tomorrow early morning specifically because we made sure we were attending this morning, after no solution and an extremely rude customer service woman, we had no choice but to decide to keep tomorrow’s reservations and cut our day short at Disney. When we told her that we would just stick to the original time tomorrow, she then told us that spot was NO LONGER AVAILABLE. We never agreed on moving anything besides what we had originally moved to, which was Saturday morning at 8:45. They claim if we do not go that we will be paying full price for our stay, however we have had 0 control over what they’ve done. Now we have spent our entire morning waiting around for a phone call from a manager that hasn’t called. And now we’re expected to wait around until 12, and stay two more hours with the same people who have been nothing but awful to us.weve lost almost an entire day of relaxation. Instead we are flooded with stress and no where to turn. The part that gets me, is while we were on the phone trying to clear up the situation, another couple walked up and had the same exact conversation. They switched their presentation time to 8:45 and were told that they weren’t on the list, that the time was 12:15. The woman attending was firm and said they cannot do that. The young woman at the front desk then picked up the phone, asked if they had room for 2 and they were sent right up to the 5th floor!! This is 100% discrimination and i never use that term. What difference was there between us and them? Well, i won’t say that on here but you know exactly what I’m saying. This is a nightmare and now everything we had planned is falling through the cracks. We have no where to turn as the people we’ve talked to have been nothing but rude with no respect, as well as picking and choosing who was allowed in and what times we were going without any communication of the matter what so ever. I’ve been such a huge Hilton supporter forever and this has shocked me beyond belief. May as well just stayed home and worked instead of taking these days off because that would’ve been more relaxing and regimented than this ‘vacation’ we booked to just be pushed around with days and times then threatened with us paying full price for their mistakes. I am just so incredibly angry and frustrated. Especially humiliated for being treated like trash and letting people with the same issue into the presentation right in...

We visited for a four night stay in a two bedroom in mid-May. The “we” are two couples in their 50’s. I, being the review writer, have traveled extensively with more than 1400 nights at hotels and resorts.

Our check in was flawless. I talked with Storm at the front desk. He was relatively new at his position, but his friendliness, and attention to detail made him a joy to deal with.

This is when the review turns into a Greek Tragedy!

There are two large buildings on the property, the 100 building and the 200 building. Each building has approximately 12-13 stories with a parking garage making up the lower floors. There are hundreds of rooms in each building.

There was ample, well lighted, parking in the garage, even though the spaces are rather small and support beams are everywhere. Many spaces require you to have passengers exit the vehicle before you park the car. Not a big deal, but I wouldn’t take my Ferrari there, if I owned one. Once we found a space, the fun began….finding a luggage cart. Because our room was equipped with a full kitchen, we brought food and supplies. No carts on any of the garage floors (1-3). I called the desk, and they told me it’s “hit or miss”, and to check other floors. So we bounced around in elevators for the next 45 minutes attempting to find a cart, to NO avail. When I called back to the desk, a little more angry, they send a bell person, who arrived 15 minutes later, because others were encountering the same issue. Now I can go purchase a commercial (hotel style) luggage cart for $600 each. My guess is that Hilton pays less than that, maybe $500. So if they really cared about your experience, don’t you think a $10,000 purchase (for 20 carts) would be a good investment?

The room is clean with updated decor and a reasonable supply of towels, detergents, dishes, glasses…

What the room and resort don’t have, is functional WIFI. This is the thing that blows my mind. The resort is 13 years old and there are reviews dating back years complaining about their non-functional WIFI. Has the Company or General Manager done anything about it? Assuming they can read, why don’t they care enough about their customers to fix/correct the issue? I used over $50 worth of my data during my four night stay, and I wasn’t even working.

There are two large pools, one with a slide that is opened during peak hours. The three issues I have with the pool area are… Guests need to pay the resort to “reserve” pool chairs. If you place towels down in the early morning, they will remove them, because you didn’t pay THEM for that service. I felt like I owned a restaurant in NYC and had to buy my table linens from the mob. There is NO poolside service. You want a drink….go get it. Whatever you want, get at the makeshift restaurant counter inside the building. The water temperature in the pools is approximately 80-82 degrees. Most “Resort” pools are 88 degrees, but then again, this is NOT a resort. This is two buildings with rooms and a pool area.

Of course, there’s no automatic maid service if there there for five days or less, so you’re on your own. They do quickly pick up trash bags outside your room.

Last, and this issue is at the top of my “Hotel Room Guest Issues”, is room temperature. Call me crazy, but I think if you rent a 700-900 square foot room for $400 a night, IT’S YOUR ROOM! They shouldn’t have the power to override your temperature selection with a temperature of their choice, to save them money. I like to sleep at 68-69 degrees every night, they move the temperature to 72-74, to ensure that I don’t sleep well. Thanks Hilton! Though, this issue is not only a Hilton issue.

So, in summary, my experience with staff was minimal, but very good. The property, though not a “resort” was clean and updated. The General Manager and whomever else makes decisions for the property stink! They REALLY don’t care about YOU, they just want YOUR...

UPDATE: This issue has been resolved & we were eventually fully refunded.— Original post: Do not let Hilton HGV talk you into attending one of their timeshare presentations (also referred to as a tour). These typically always come attached with some type of incentive such as theme park credit, free breakfast, upgraded room, Visa card, or some other type of credit. My husband and I have taken part in these for other chains over the years & HGV has been the worst by far. We received an offer in the mail and tthen ended up speaking with someone on the phone from Hilton, who offered us a resort stay for 4 days/3 nights at a choice between one of six of their properties in Orlando. We chose a location other than Parc Soleil however, we were advised that in order to receive our $75 theme park credit and/or $200 credit, we would naturally have to take a tour of the Parc Soleil resort and attend a 90 minute sales presentation about the HGV properties. It was also positioned to us that there would be a sit down breakfast prior to that presentation. Now let’s get to the actual day of the “tour”. We arrived, and upon checking in, were advised to take the elevator up to the 5th floor for our presentation and breakfast. This was completely laughable. Once we turned the corner, there was a wall with a large sign that said “SNACKS.” Just as I began to make my cup of coffee, a gentleman came out of nowhere and rounded up the entire group like a bunch of cattle and ushered us into a conference room, about 30 of us. Keep in mind, I had not made my coffee, nor was I given a chance to grab one of their cheap Otis Spunkmeyer muffins or granola bars (which is all they had). This was not a breakfast, whatsoever. Did not even get to sit down. Then you’re placed in a room with a real fast talker, who talks about how his family made the best life choice ever by purchasing a HGV Club membership, naturally leaving out the fine details. Now my husband & I are paired with a sales Rep. Well, despite from the moment sitting down we expressed that right now we are in no position to fully commit to purchasing anything, a 90 minute sales pitch turned into a 2 hour one. What part of “Not right now” do you not comprehend?? Ridiculous. This cost me to lose my prescheduled Disney lunch reservation because of this damn scheme. Finally, I told them we are done & they had gone well over the 90 minutes we committed to. They then told us to go to a checkout desk where we were then advised that there were no rewards or credits that would be given to us. Apparently nothing was even entered in the comments. We’ve spent hours on the phone trying to collect our “reward” and have since returned home. We were bounced back and forth between different phone numbers for HGV. My husband had also reached out to the hotel manager (Ralph) while on-site at the HVG property we were staying at who assured us he would look into it & get back to us…… Here we are on 6/24, over 3 weeks later still waiting for that call back. We followed up with them by email. I have never in my life attended a tour presentation and not been gifted for my time & sure as hell am not starting now. Every other vacation club chain will gift you, or compensate you for your time as promised, but apparently not HGV. //———** Just an FYI, Marriott Vacation Club offers longer stays of 4 days/5 nights (as opposed to HGV 3 days/4 nights) and you will have much larger suites to stay in with much better views. Not a standard hotel room. Marriott VC has upgraded us at least 4 times to a larger 1 bedroom villa with fountain views at multiple properties. We have gotten offers such as free breakfast, local restaurant vouchers, $200 Visa gift cards, and toys for attending their timeshare presentations. So, if you ever get those promotional offers in the mail, choose Marriott...