Marriott's Royal Palms — Hotel in Kissimmee

Resort?! What a joke. This resort is undergoing massive construction projects that are not communicated at any point during reserving. I looked at previous reviews and it looks like this has been happening for over a year and after talking to a few people here, it sounds like it is ongoing for another 4-6 months. Stay away! It's like a third world country trying to get to and from your room.

I've been in and around Disney 5 times in the last 2 years to come to conventions for work. Most hotels and resorts around Disney go above and beyond and have exceptional amenities and service. This place does not. I booked this hotel because it was the closest thing available to the convention around the corner. I needed to go back and forth from the convention multiple times per day to get supplies and take calls. I thought being close would make it easy. It was anything but easy. I was sweaty and late for multiple meetings due to roadblocks everywhere and having to hike through grassy areas and parts of the golf course. They charge a hefty amount for parking but there were no spots available during the 4 days I was there. All of the spots are filled with construction trucks, shipping containers, dumpsters, maintenance golf carts, construction workers cars, mattresses, furniture etc. I hope they're throwing the pile of 30+ mattresses/box springs away. They sat outside in the parking lot uncovered and got rained on for multiple days. The first day I was there I had to park three buildings away from where I was staying. When I went out in the morning I couldn't find my car. In a panic I just decided to run over to the convention and figure it out later. Turns out that they had put construction fencing around my car in the morning. It was the kind that has fabric built in so I couldn't see my car. I had to ask them to move it so I could get out later when I figured it out. The rest of the trip I struggled to ever find a spot in the entire hotel parking lot. I usually had to park at the very front and walk to the back which is a 10-12 minute walk carrying all of my supplies and work gear. In the Florida heat, I was a sweaty mess everyday in my work clothes. After two days of this chaos I talked to the front desk. They offered to comp my parking fees but I explained I just wanted to have somewhere to park. They explained that they were parking off property too. Ok, I guess that's inconvenient for them, but I'm literally a paying customer at a "resort".

The final day I had a meeting at 2pm so I was hoping for a later check out. I called down and they said they couldn't accommodate that because the maids needed to get in. I ended up going down and sitting in my car for an hour doing work on my laptop. I was parked in a fire zone since there was no parking. For the hour or so that I was in my car, they never made it to my room to clean it.. so they kicked me out at 10am for nothing. So much for my 245 night Marriott status.

The cherry on top is that at this resort, they act like it's an Airbnb. They ask that you run the dishwasher (I didn't use any dishes), take out the trash, strip the beds and leave the sheets and towels in the entry. Are you serious?! It's laughable how terrible...

A well-run, clean, crisply landscaped, calm resort that is almost certainly the closest place to stay near Disney World other than actually staying in an official Disney residence: turn out of this resort to the right and you are at the Disney gates. The units are well sized and clean. A two bedroom like ours has a private suite with its own door, bathroom, and bedroom for the secondary guest(s); the master suite with a wonderful hot tub and enclosed stand up shower, plus a nice screened-in back porch sitting right against the golf course that's part of the resort; a sizeable living room with another pull-out bed; a well-appointed kitchen, and a separate laundry room with its own door. All parts of our unit were clean and well maintained, and quiet with no noise from adjacent guests; unless your tastes are remarkably extravagant, I can think of no complaint anyone could have with these residences. The resort has two pools, each with hot tub areas. The larger pool area does have food and drink delivery which comes from "FreshBites" at the adjacent World Center Marriott, and it's near a clubhouse with a working fire pit, fitness center, and small conveniece store with a reasonable snack, drink, and necessity selection. There is also a basketball and tennis court area, and a stone gazebo with a nice view of the "beach" area of the resort's golf course. The Royal Palms resort is actually part of the larger Marriott World Center, which is basically a city of resorts - even the main resort is a skyscraper that can be seen from several Disney areas. There is a shuttle to the main World Center area where there are restaurants, an arcade similar to Dave & Busters, a splash pad/kids pool, three water slides, a concert stage with bands and a laser show. The World Center area also offers a running track with a variety of surfaces, which is accessible by paths right from Royal Palms without the shuttle. It may be important to note that part of the running track, as well as World Center's main pool (but NOT Royal Palms which is the focus of this review) is current closed for expansion, but the track can still be run in both directions as a non-circuit sprint track. Finally, Marriott gets it right with three X-factor amenities: excellent sanitation, outstanding respect for mask wearing, and a good recycling program. Recycling is convenient to each set of units. Sanitation during COVID includes bagged remote controls and other clean touches, and during COVID all staff strictly wear masks at all times on the property, showing respect for the health of everyone - masks are also enforced indoors in the clubhouse and on the shuttle. This resort is recommended. The only reason I give it four instead of five stars is that it doesn't have its own restaurant or bar, and the nearly World Center must be accessed with shuttle or via the running track area in order to have those further amenities. However, it is a close call between 4-5 stars because you may actually prefer the calm, quiet resort over the more packed...

Our family of 4 stayed 6 nights during March Break at the Royal Palms. The location is close to Disney and the other attractions, but the traffic was horrible (no fault of the hotel of course) and took for ever to get to anywhere, which was a pain if you wanted something simple such as quick visit to the grocery store.

Overall we enjoyed the pool, hot tubs, basketball court, pickelball and tennis at the Royal Palms. Gas BBQs were only located by the pool which was a pain when cooking dinner as I had to drive to the BBQs. The pool at the World Center was very busy with many young people partying on the weekend which made us turn around and walk out of the hotel on our first day. We had stayed the prior night at the Gaylord and had really enjoyed there pool and waterpark so it was a huge let down.

Overall, we didn't end up using the main hotel facilities much due to hassle of taking the shuttle, the crowd on the weekend and the conventions during the week. In addition the waterpark is only accessible for a fee which is disappointing.

We would maybe stay here again but it wouldn't be my first choice and I would probably try another Marriott Vacation Resort or return to Holiday Inn Orange Lake where we have stayed 4 times in the last 12 years. Our room was very well appointed and comfortable. Kitchen was well equipped with dish, pots and pans etc. We brought a small omelet fry pan which was a big help. The room didn't have a cookie sheet and we had to use the broiler pan in the oven.

The location of our room was huge disappointment. We were on the ground floor looking out into bushes and couldn't even see the golfers behind the bushes. We also had guests above us that partied until 4am one night and were constantly dragging chairs across the floor. So much for my gold elite status with the preference of a high floor.

I complained at checkout and the front desk apologized for the noise. They also indicated security had talked to the guests, but didn't provide any...