SpringHill Suites by Marriott Orlando Lake Buena Vista in the Marriott Village — Hotel in Dr. Phillips

Stayed here for 8 nights for the second half of our honeymoon and booked via Last Minute.

I'll start with the positives because it is a lovely hotel, but we just experienced some unfortunate circumstances. Upon arriving at the hotel, they allowed us early check-in and as we had mentioned our honeymoon when booking, they gave us 2 complimentary drink tokens each - this really made our day! We had also been upgraded to a room with a balcony which we were very pleased with. The room was lovely - spacious, clean and modern with a fridge and plenty or room for relaxing.

The room and building were clean and everything was well signposted. The hotel was well designed and modern and was in stark contrast to the hotel we had been previously staying in. I loved the fact that guests have access to all 3 pools onsite and I thought the pool areas were great. I really loved the different features of each and the fact that there was also hot tubs available.

The breakfast buffet was okay - not a very large number of choices but well stocked at least.

It was great that the hotel had shuttles to the Disney parks and I liked that there was an online booking system to help guarantee your place, however, the bookings weren't always checked by the drivers.

Despite how lovely the hotel is, we had a surprising number of concerning issues and negatives to deal with. We did raise all issues at the time.

Firstly, we had issues with the shuttle on the first day. We checked in on the last day of September and were told about the shuttle schedule and told to take a picture of the printed out schedule. However, the staff failed to inform us that the schedule would be changing the next day (1st October). When we tried to catch the shuttle back to the hotel after our first day in the parks, it didn't show up and after waiting for a long time late in the evening, we had to pay for our own taxi back to the hotel. After complaining to the manager, we did eventually get reimbursed, however, it was in the form of a cheque mailed to our home address which costs more to pay-in to our bank than the cheque is worth so we technically never got our money back.

Secondly, and the biggest issue we faced, on that first day when we were out from early morning and did not return until after midnight, we had placed the sign on our door for our room not to be cleaned. When we returned in the early hours, not only had our room been cleaned, but we found the door to our room had been left unlocked and open. This was completely unacceptable as anyone could have gone into our open room and removed any of our personal items. Luckily, all valuables were on our person or locked in our suitcases (due to no safe in the room) and nothing had been taken, but the story could have been very different. I was very shaken up by this and this incident made me lose confident in the safeness of the hotel.

When my husband complained about this, the staff did not seem very interested and did not show empathy for the incident that had happened. The staff member said they would report it to the manager, but when my husband spoke to the manager a couple of days later, they hadn't heard about it. The lack of investigation into quite a serious incident is quite concerning and it really affected our stay and the way we viewed the hotel.

Another smaller issue was that when we went to redeem our free drink vouchers one evening, the staff member at the bar was very unhelpful. She expressed that she could only make a handful of the cocktails on the list and just seem like she couldn't be bothered. She seemed to be closing up the bar, despite it not yet being closing time and we were made to feel like we were just being an inconvenience.

Luckily, we still managed to have a nice time on our honeymoon as we had a great time at the parks and restaurants in the surrounding area. However, it is a shame that we had to face so many incidents during such a special trip and these were not dealt with in an efficient or effective way. We would unfortunately most likely not return...

We used Marriott points to stay here, and we felt it was a good use of the points. We had no problem getting Ubers/Lyfts to or from the hotel during our stay. The location is great. It is by the outlet mall and Disney Springs area, so it is close to Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom. There is a little food hall here, a gift shop, and a small playground. This central area is also where the bus stop is for the complimentary shuttle. We checked in, and got a map of the property, the hours of the amenities, and the shuttle schedule. We also got a complimentary $5 credit per night of stay. It works at the food hall as well as the little markets next to the front desk. So everyday when we came back from the parks we stopped by the market to grab our free box of candy. The hours of complimentary breakfast are the same every day, 6:30am-9:30am. Everyday they had scrambled eggs, some meat option of bacon or sausage, and sometimes a taco option with tortillas and fajita veggies with salsa. They usually had apples, bananas, and sometimes oranges. They had yogurt, cereal, muffins, bagels, bread for toast, oatmeal. They had a toppings bar for the oatmeal, which I also used for my yogurt. They have a waffle station that makes Mickey waffles. They also have a small toppings bar for the waffles. For drinks they had milk, chocolate milk, apple juice, orange juice, and cranberry juice. The lobby is nice and renovated, with plenty of places to sit. The room itself was pretty good. We had a king bed in our room, the sink was separate from the bathroom which had the toilet and shower. The shower was well used, with the tub showing its age as well as the faucet fixtures, but everything worked well and the shower got hot. There are shampoo, conditioner, and body wash provided and attached to the shower wall in pump bottles. The toilet did run a lot, but we never reported this. The only other issue we had was the automatic deadbolt was glitchy as we had to do some magic with holding the handles just right to actually get the door to shut with the deadbolt in. We also did not report this, we just made sure the door shut properly each time. There is a small closet with hangers, a duffle holder, an ironing board, a hair dryer, and the extra pillow and blanket for the pull out sofa, which we did not use. The main area upon entering the room had a couch, two small tables put together as a sort of coffee table, a desk, and a counter with a sink, coffee maker (single serving), with a mini fridge and microwave underneath. There were two cabinets under the sink and microwave, three large dresser drawers next to the sofa, and two small night stand drawers next to the bed. The air conditioner worked great and kept the room cool. The curtains were light blocking so it did not heat up the room or flood light in in the morning. We did not hear anyone in any other rooms or the hallway while here. There is housekeeping every day. The bed you could tell was very worn and in need of a replacement soon, but they put a pad on the bed so it made it more comfortable for the time being and we had no problems sleeping. The TV got plenty of channels, and it was able to swivel to either side. Upon checking out, they were able to store our luggage for the day until we came back. For how the shuttle works (or doesn’t), The first pickup takes you to Epcot, where you either take the Disney bus to Animal Kingdom, take the monorail to the TTC and then another monorail to Magic Kingdom, or take the Disney bus to Hollywood Studios. NOTE THAT THIS IS A HUGE TIMESUCK. It is ran by a third party company called maingate transportation. Note this bus makes ATLEAST 7 OTHER STOPS. It took an entire hour to go from the hotel to the park. Do yourself a favor in the morning and take Uber/Lyft. They pick up and drop off at the charter bus area in the busses areas of the parks. I wouldn’t rely on the shuttle as your main method of transportation, as its mostly inconvenient, and takes a long time. If you have a car, you can park here...

I've previously stayed at all three properties in the Marriott Village complex, and this quick 1-nt staycation was booked due to a great rate and location. This repeat experience definitely missed the mark on meeting almost all expectations, which was surprising and, of course, disappointing . . . but I will start this review by trying to highlight any positives. My room was clean on arrival. The air conditioning was reliable for keeping the room comfortable. The shower had consistent temperature and pressure. The tables in the breakfast area were being cleaned rather quickly after dining guest exited the tables. OK, that's it - that's all the positives I experienced. At check-in it was unknown that my booking rate included self-parking, but it was easy to provide that written proof. After receiving my keycard and an outdated tri-fold information brochure, I waited for an elevator. Your floor is determined by the second digit of your room number, and NOT the first digit. That's unique and odd, but I'm sure there a quality reason. The elevator seemed to take quite a while, but at the time I was unaware that out of three elevators, only one is in working order, and has apparently been that way for a while. Immediately upon entry I could see that the view out the large window was going to be disappointing, but only after I went all the way to the window did I realize there was 100% obstruction for the booked room view type (Pool view). Of the entire hotel only two rooms that have this situation. You cannot see the pool, the walkways, the bushes, Nothing at all. Zilch! You see the top of an overhang roof with electrical/air machinery. I went downstairs to confirm assignment of correct room and was told that it was correct. I returned to my room and heard what sounded like an alarm tone. A rather loud high-pitched sound that I traced to the bathroom. The toilet produced this sound every 10-12 minutes. I knew this would be a challenge at night, but once the bathroom door is closed and a bath towel is rolled up and placed at the bottom/floor it was much more muffled. Still audible. I checked for a Privacy hang tag to put on the door for a nice nap, but there wasn't one available. None were seen on any door so I assume they are not provided. The microwave didn't work and had no display whatsoever. No big deal, but it negated doing the popcorn I'd brought. Yes, there are a few USB ports, but a different style than most modern electronics use. I had an adapter, so no problem. There is a local convention (2025 National BETA) beginning and this is an overflow hotel for attendees which are mostly youth. In large numbers the noise is naturally going to be significant. Chaperones knocking on doors at night to check on them can certainly be heard in neighboring rooms. As they say, "It is what it is". Morning breakfast was going to be challenging due to increased numbers, so I thought I was planning accordingly. Got an early start, but that was met with numerous things being inoperative. Only one of four milk dispensers was working, creating a backup. There are four juice machines, and two had 'Out Of Order' signage on them. The waffle station had a confusing queue arranged. Another thing not working is the exterior signage on the building front with the name of the hotel. Every letter is out beyond the one 'S'. Housekeeping knocked at 10:00 to see if I was still in the room. Had a Privacy hang tag been available that wouldn't have happened. I told the lady I'd be leaving at 11:00 (standard checkout). 10:30 arrived and another knock. My things were already gathered, so I grabbed my phone and did a mobile checkout. It only affected a few minutes, but it just seemed to complete a pattern of service at this location. Will I return here? No, that's not in the cards. Can/will I recommend this location to others? That's also a No. This is a lengthy, yet totally honest, review of my recent stay. I hope the BETA groups are being treated better, as they are spending a lot of money...