Holiday Inn Express & Suites Orlando - Lake Buena Vista by IHG — Hotel in Dr. Phillips

We stayed on a Sunday night in lade December 2024.

Check-in was fine. Front desk staffed asked if we had a car after I had just told him we had driven here in the rain. Sounds like they were on autopilot. Something about the staff member made it feel like he was forcibly trying to be nice/pleasant and it didn't feel genuine. I can't put my finger on it and I rarely, if ever mention anything like this in any of my reviews. We were told NOT to use the QR code in the parking lot to pay and were instead handed a printed half sheet of paper that was to be our parking pass. It really ticks me off when hotels charge extra for parking. This hotel also charged tax on top of the parking fee!

The parking lot, the whole time of our stay, had many open spots. Can they not build this into the price of the room? Do they have that many guest whole don't drive or rented a car and just uber/lyft everywhere? They advertise area shuttle but I couldn't find more details on this. I can't get a discount for not using the shuttle because I have my own car? They are a Walt Disney World good neighbor hotel but other than being close, it doesn't really offer much else that I noticed anyways. They did have a dedicated staff member who helped with booking parks and attractions and he was genuinely fun to interact with.

We didn't do any of the Disney World parks but only Disney Springs, which offers free parking. It's a bit of a drive if there is a lot of traffic. Like in the evening it took twice as long as google said it would but the following morning (Monday) when we went again it was much faster. This hotel was also close to the Disney Character Warehouse at Vineland Mall (which was also a traffic cluster).

The hotel itself was nice. the lobby area had plenty of seating, we arrived just after 3PM and were told our room wasn't ready yet and that we had to wait like 10 mins. That was fine. There was a market with snacks and items and some Disney themed merch if you needed something last min. The fitness center was on the larger side and completely empty which would be expected for 3PM on a Sunday. It was raining so we didn't really get to try the pool. The pool was a unique shape of concentric circles.

We stayed in a Family Suite Room #524. The room was pretty typical Holiday Inn Express themed with decor. The one big difference was the set of bunk beds and bean bag chairs in their own special nook for the kids. They LOVED it! Some of the furniture you could see had bumps and scrapes and a little worn. Otherwise it was fine. The bathroom was clean and had decent water pressure in the shower. Standard Holiday Inn Express amenities like Dove shampoo, conditioner and body wash. Oldest took the sofa bed which is also typical and said it was fine.

Breakfast was pretty typical Holiday Inn Express as well with hot foods being biscuits and sausage gravy, pork sausage, turkey sausage, scrambled eggs. One disappointing factor was the cinnamon rolls as it wasn't the standard crispy flakey ones (most Holiday Inn Expresses) but some other generic cinnamon roll which honestly looked dry but I can't confirm because I didn't try it. They also had already prepackage muffins which is nice for a grab and go.

Overall it was a nice stay and we would stay here again if the price was right. For similar price maybe try a different hotel in the area. There are a few different Holiday Inn Expresses if you wanted to stay in that bubble. Each have different fees and amenities so it's a lot of...

I don’t know where to begin, but let me just start by saying that if you’re coming to Disney/Orlando/Universal, or just looking for somewhere to stay in this part of town, then I suggest you choose a different hotel to spend your money at.

When we booked this room, we chose to book a standard King room (King being the operative word) because my wife is pregnant, and I wanted to make sure she had enough space to relax when we weren’t taking in the town. Of course I was surprised when we entered our “King” room to find 2 queen beds. This was obviously not what I had booked, and I figured what a silly mistake, I’m sure it’s an easy fix.

The first warning light went off when another guest asked me in the elevator: “something wrong with your room, huh?” I brushed this off and quickly explained we had just gotten the wrong type of room, which he responded “yeah, that happened every time I stay here.” Not off to a great start, and I hadn’t even made it back to the front desk yet.

Upon arriving at the front desk, I showed the front desk employee my reservation which clearly showed a King bed. He lets out a big sigh, and grabs my phone out of my hand before saying “let me explain this to you as nicely as I can… you didn’t book a King room, you booked a “standard” room, which means whatever room is available for us to give you.” Now look, I may have been born at night, but it wasn’t last night. I have my reservation, it says King bed, that’s what I paid for, and that’s what we wanted. This employee then proceeds to start talking down to us, telling us to complain to Expedia (not who we booked through) because it’s not his problem.

However, he was going to “do us a favor” and give us a “King Suite” for our troubles. I explain to him that regardless of that, we booked a King room, not two queens. This employee then begins talking down to us again, making sure to note that we “chose the cheapest rate the hotel offers” like that was supposed to be demeaning to me in some way. I’ll clue you in, sir. If you want to insult me in front of my wife, calling me out for saving money is not the way to do it.

Tired of the disrespect I’m receiving, I ask to speak to the General Manager. This fills the employee with what I can only describe as giddiness as he picks up his cell phone, proudly proclaiming “of course, of course, you can speak to him right now!” Before speaking with the GM for about a minute before hanging up and saying “he’s not here.”

The moral of the story is, if you want to be gaslit, disrespected, and talked down to then this is the hotel for you, and I wish you a happy vacation. However, if you want to enjoy the place you’re staying, I suggest steering clear of this place. If possible, I’d give a 0 across the board. Unfortunately 1 is as low...

Hotel was ok, clean with simple breakfast included.

Tea and coffee available 24/7 at the lobby.

Parking not included, charged at USD$27 with no alternative - no parking garage(s) within walking distance or street parking, luckily we only stayed 2 nights. Tried to get a receipt for the parking upon check out as they said it would be charged on my credit card I have on file for incidentals when we checked in but the lady said because I booked through Trip.com, l'd have to get it from them. This didn't make sense and I tried to explain that I didn't approve Trip.com to charge my credit card for parking, only to for the room which was already paid for - the hotel had my credit card details and had also given me the parking slip to put in my car 🤦‍♀️ She kept saying she can't give a receipt and Trip.com would send me one "eventually" and trying to send me away. She eventually "found" the parking receipt section on the computer and printed it conveniently after a line was forming with people wanting to check out behind me. It was quite strange; not sure if she just couldn't be bothered dealing with printing a receipt, made me more persistent to get one in case there was an issue with payment in the future 🥴

We were on the same floor as the laundry mat (second floor) so can conveniently check if it was free.. Disadvantage was that it needs quarters but the coin machine doesn't work so will have to go to front desk, who also ran out of quarters. Walked to Aloft and the hotel next to it - they also didn't have quarters for exchange. We had enough quarters to do a load so went to dinner and then came back to use dryer (this time with plenty of quarter at hand). Detergent dispenser also not working so you'll need to either BYO or can buy at front desk. Staff member said both have been broken for a while, so much so that the detergent prices has increased a couple of times since lol! One of the dryers was not working during our stay too & finished doing laundry at 1:30am - lucky family and I were still battling jetlag.

Few restaurants and shops nearby but with 3kids, we didn't do the 15min trek, much more suitable to drive esp when we had the laundry timer to think about as there were people waiting to use it.

Thank you for having us but this would most likely be the only time we'd stay at this hotel as there was not much offerings compared to other hotels...