Sheraton Orlando Lake Buena Vista Resort — Hotel in Dr. Phillips

I have a lot to unpack here! Overall, my experience at this resort was great.

Check-In: Cianna was the lovely lady who initially checked me in - she is absolutely phenomenal at her job and deserves all of the kudos in the world. She is very kind, respectful, and knows how to do her job exceptionally well. My short interaction with her at check-in made my stay all in itself to be completely honest. The check in line can be a little lengthy, but that has to do a lot with just wanting to get to your room after a long travel day! But please be mindful of this and kind to receptionist who do go out of their way to apologize and be considerate.

The room: overall, it’s an older hotel, it will be a little outdated in some areas, but it’s as expected. I do firmly believe this hotel would thrive if corporate designated some money for some much needed reservations, but the property managers do well with what is allocated to them. Floors need to be replaced in rooms due to their age & some undesirable stains, same goes for light fixtures, technology, and bathroom amenities - but beds were exceptionally comfortable, and they do make a conscious effort to make the room nice.

House keeping: they are excellent at their jobs. Very respectful of your items and very kind ladies. I appreciated coming back from the parks to a clean room everyday.

Property food/beverage: Zest is overpriced in my opinion, they take a while to get to you if you’re busy, and they seem very under staffed in the evenings. The drinks are pricey… very pricey, but that’s what you get staying at a property close to the parks. I genuinely felt bad for the bartender working Friday night as he seemed very understaffed and overwhelmed, but he was excellent when he had the time to allocate to you. The bartender working Saturday was not as busy, he was also a very kind gentleman and very sweet. The food is mediocre at best - I would recommend going somewhere else if you’re looking for a good dining experience, or grabbing something outside the hotel to-go if you’re just looking to enjoy food in your room.

Check-out: the line wasn’t long, but it did take the receptionists a while to get through it, but this is likely due to the nature of guests complaining or trying to go through all of their charges. I do not believe this falls on the receptionists, but they should allocate more staff during peak check-in/check out. Both times only two individuals were working, when they should have 3-4 during peak hours.

Phone Service: when calling in, it’s a hit or a miss. It either goes really well or really not. I had left something at the hotel and the receptionist working instantly just told me to fill out a form. Well I ended up calling back an hour later and a kind gentlemen went out of his way to connect with security and confirm it was there or not and helped me sort out the details.

Maintenance: I did request a crib to be brought to my room, but it took me calling 3 times to actually get it. I requested at check in, then at 6, and then again at 7… this process needs to be better defined and structured. Typically if someone is requesting a crib, it should be understood that 8 times out of 10 the child’s bedtime is probably close to that 7pm hour, and should be a priority, especially if requested at check-in.

Overall, my stay was great. If you need a hotel crib, please bring your own sheets - if you’re not a frequent traveler with littles, this is a tip I recommend anywhere as most hotels do not have crib specific sheets. Search for food elsewhere, and budget accordingly if you plan to drink at the hotel. Please be kind and considerate of the employees and I assure that you will get exceptional service :) (this usually goes...

I would not recommend this hotel to someone with how it is currently portrayed online. I booked through the Marriott Bonvoy app. The pictures on the app are a minimum of 10 years old. I would guess they are older than that though.

The pool has seen much better days. Tiles were falling off or missing around the pool, exposed wiring around one of the hot tubs, and an apparent slide schedule that was not made evident on the front end were annoying.

The free shuttle does not run as often as you would hope. It ran to most parks later in the day and pickup times were well after many parks closed. Staff did inform us we could take a shuttle to Universal and then get to Disney via shared shuttles. This would have taken over an hour to get to our first park of the day. Luckily, we drove and could bypass the shuttle.

The rooms and entire hotel are in a significant need of upgrades. Wall coverings are falling off, furniture is cracked and falling apart, the comforter on the bed was thin and dingy and wrapped in a sheet to hide its appearance. When we finally got an appropriate amount of towels daily, they were ragged and falling apart. We had to call the desk daily and ask for more washcloths. There were four of us in the room. Housekeeping only left 1-3 washcloths per day.

We also chose to park on our own instead of valet since much of the lot was available. We awoke to staff putting up barriers and cones throughout the parking lot Thursday morning. We were told it was being blocked off for valet purposes and the large bus, trailer, and box truck that were taking up 12-15 spaces would be moved by the time we returned that evening. They were not moved and we had to park at the back of the property. I don’t mind walking, but a heads up earlier in the week from staff at check-in would have made this part more tolerable.

The hotel market area also closed at random times. It holds a Starbucks as well. The lady working the counter was extremely friendly and went above and beyond to make my kids a chocolate milk frap after they ran out of bottled chocolate milk. The hours though made it difficult to get coffee in the afternoon or even buy snacks from the hotel market as it was part of the Starbucks.

The final straw came at 12:15 AM on our last night (5/29/25). I was woken up by the sound of beeping in the pool area outside our room. It sounded like a truck backing up. Finally, I called the desk at 1:00 AM after looking out my window and seeing a lift and multiple workers. Workers were installing tarps, a stage, and other props for an event being held at the hotel starting the following day. The front desk said they were trying to find a way to resolve the issue. How about making the workers stop since it’s 1:00 AM?! They stopped but promptly resumed their work at 7:15 AM. Having a 12-13 hour drive the following morning made this less than ideal.

I will have to give props to most of the staff though. I think they realize the hotel is not what it once used to be and are doing the best they can and were very friendly and attentive, outside of the man at the front desk at 1:00 AM.

I have stayed at lower quality hotels (Fairfield Inn, Holiday Inn Express, Hampton Inn, etc) and had better quality rooms and facilities. This hotel is not up to the standard I have come to expect from a Sheraton branded hotel. I could easily see this “resort” changing names to a discount brand hotel soon if upgrades and repairs do not occur. I wish I had taken photos to share. We will definitely be staying at other properties on our next trip to Orlando. That is very unfortunate as the location of the...

I am saddened to need to leave this review for future guests.||1. The resort fee is simply a way for them to attempt to makes some kind of a profit and it shows.||There are a few things to be mindful of when staying here.|-$25 a day to park is insane ask when there is enough parking for this to be added in the resort fee & all together it's not necessary.|-The pool area is closed at 10 pm, which means if you're here to see Disney fireworks - you'll be missing out on any relaxing afterwards.|-The slide at the pool is not operating the entire time we stayed (which was 7 days)|-They charge you for the bus transportation to and from Disney and Universal and sadly they say the bus is located on 77 and I can assure you that won't be the case - due to how many buses go in and out of this location they cannot guarantee that they will be in that specific location and when I stood there (at the time of pick up - which has absolutely no grace period - which means 5 mins from time it will be gone) it was the wrong bus and by the time I called the hotel and they transferring me to the bus company they told me there was nothing they could do and I paid for transportation from Lyft because they aren't consistent. Speaking of the times - getting us to the parks an hour later is unnecessary and the last bus that does go to Disney is so much earlier than the park is closed that if you want to experience the fireworks and magic that come with Disney then you'll need an uber or Lyft - which begs the question of why am I paying a resort fee that covers services that are not useful to me.||2. The rooms are outdated and in need of love. Everything in the room that can be rusted - is. Everything, the lamps, the lights, the sprinklers.||3. I will always give credit where credit is due and that housekeeper that was in charge of my room did great and was attentive to the fact that we liked to have three pillows and they started making our bed with three pillows and as someone who stayed at The Ritz-Carlton, I must say that's a Ritz-Carlton level anticipation.||4. I got spa services at the spa on the top floor, and they don't do associate discounts because they are separate from the hotel, but they are in the Marriott app as a spa, so I was confused. They changed my appointment on the day of the appointment, and it was a birthday gift... which was highly disappointing. However, the services that I received was nice, it was just not what I asked for. So, no fault to either massage therapists.||5. They offer a free appetizer to you as a part of the resort fee and sadly you'll need to read that because its only certain appetizers and that doesn't really accommodate people who may have restrictive diets.||6. All of the employees of this hotel were attentive and polite.||7. They need badly to service their elevator - just strange sounds as you're taking it and every time, we took it with other people staying - they also commented on it.||8. There is no microwave in the room and although I am not someone who uses a microwave usually, when you travel you don't always have a choice. We went downstairs to ask about a microwave, and they pointed us in the direction of it, but to have to go downstairs to heat up food is a little weird, and also makes their lobby smell like Indian food. They did not have it out the next time I went to use it, and I had to pull them out myself and even then, some of them they have do not work? A very bizarre experience for me.||9. The water vending machine - yes you have to pay to fill up a water bottle -...