JW Marriott Orlando, Grande Lakes — Hotel in Oak Ridge

Quick Summary- the JW Marriott Orlando Grande Lakes has excellent facilities and provides a comfortable stay, but service can be a mixed bag that detracts from the luxury feel.

Longer description: I had the opportunity to stay here for a company event. Admittedly, this was my first time staying at a JW Marriott, so I don't have comparisons to other properties of the same brand. That being said, I've stayed at several Ritz-Carlton properties before (including the Ritz-Carlton property next door to this location). Marriott classifies both of these as "Luxury Brands" so that designation may have set my expectations a little too high. Regardless, I was expecting a little bit more than what was offered. I'd probably call this location a "Marriott plus" more so than a Luxury Brand.

High Points: The facilities were great. Everything was beautiful and modern, the room was a good size and the bed was comfortable. The water park area was great (even though I didn't get to use it due to scheduled events and thunderstorms, but I can't blame the hotel for that). From my high floor Lakeview room, I was able to see the fireworks from 3 different parks which was nice.

The location is kind of nice. I wouldn't consider it "close" to the parks except maybe SeaWorld, which may be a concern for some. I found this peaceful, though- as soon as you arrive on property, you feel separated from the Orlando chaos.

There were many restaurants on site, offering a nice variety of food options. Most of the food I had during my stay was provided in separate venues as part of the event I was with, but I did enjoy in-room dining on our first night. It was pricey as expected, but I wouldn't say it was any more expensive than any other in-room dining I've had, and I felt the portions were generous. All the food we had on site (including at the event) was delicious and well prepared.

Room for Improvement: Service was underwhelming overall. All the staff members we encountered were perfectly pleasant, but there were a few shortcomings for a hotel that is classified as a "Luxury Brand." To start, no one came to help with our bags in our car upon arrival. Even at the Disney moderate resort we had just come from, the Bell Services staff were practically running to our car to see if they could help, so I was disappointed to find that we were on our own upon arrival here.

Additionally, during the company event's formal dinner, the wait staff struggled. Having been to a number of these exact dinners at other hotels (even this same resort complex 11 years earlier), I'm used to the servers placing the food at the table one complete table at a time. This time, about a third of the table received their plates, and the rest of the table had to wait another 5-10 minutes for their food. At one point, two people at our table were skipped entirely simply because they had briefly stepped away to use the restroom, and we had to actively chase down a server to make sure they received an entree. (Note: I am willing to remove this section if these servers are not employed by the hotel, but I assumed they were based on their uniforms).

Cleanliness was also an issue. When we arrived at our room, we found hair all over the shower walls. Later that afternoon, we found an entire clump of hair in one of the hand towels we pulled from under the sink. We appreciate that housekeeper put in a higher level of effort to clean the room the next day, but unfortunately even after that effort there was still a little clump of hair near the shower drain that didn't belong to either of us staying in the room- it remained next to the shower drain until I actually removed it with a tissue on the 3rd day.

Overall: If I was paying for a room in the area, I would consider this hotel only if they made improvements to their service. As it stands now, I'd rather go to another property with better service at the same price point (Marriott, hotels on Universal or Disney property, etc) or stay at a truly luxury property like the Ritz-Carlton if I...

⭐ 1 Star||Absolutely unacceptable — one of the worst hospitality experiences my family and I have ever endured.||||As a Marriott Bonvoy Member and Platinum American Express cardholder, I’ve stayed at JW properties many times and have always appreciated the standard of service. But what happened during this stay at JW Marriott Orlando, Grande Lakes was nothing short of a nightmare — filled with safety issues, dishonesty, upcharges, and poor service from start to finish.||||⸻||||🛏️ Reservation Misrepresentation||||I reserved a King Room with Sofa Bed and Lakefront Balcony — clearly confirmed in writing. Upon arrival, I was told that the room didn’t include a real sofa bed but only a “wedge,” which obviously could not accommodate my child. My options? Pay $300 extra per night for a room that actually fit my family — or accept a downgraded Double Queen room and have my son sleep on the floor.||||To make matters worse, the front desk (Ian) blamed American Express Travel, even though my confirmation clearly listed the correct room type. It was a Marriott mistake, and no one took accountability.||||⸻||||💧 Unsafe and Unsanitary Conditions||||Later that evening, my wife found that the carpet underneath the air conditioning unit was soaked, squishing underfoot and stained with rust from the furniture legs — indicating a long-term leak. This wasn’t just an inconvenience — it raised serious concerns about mold exposure, especially for our child who was forced to sleep on the floor due to the botched room assignment.||||⸻||||⏳ Two Days Wasted Before We Got a Room||||After arriving, we spent two full days waiting to get a room that could reasonably accommodate our family. For those two days, we were bounced around, left sitting in the lobby, told to wait, and fed empty promises. By the time we were finally roomed, the trip was already derailed and stressful.||||⸻||||🚫 Fire Safety Violation & Elevator Failure||||Just when we thought it couldn’t get worse — it did.||||On our final day, we tried to take our children to the pool, but the elevators were out of service. We took the fire exit stairwell, only to discover that every exit door was locked. My family — including small children — along with other guests, was trapped in the stairwell and eventually had to exit through a basement maintenance corridor. This is not only unacceptable — it’s a serious life safety violation.||||We were so shaken by this incident that we checked out early that morning, cutting our trip short for our safety.||||⸻||||💳 Unauthorized Post-Checkout Charge||||Despite checking out at 11:00 AM and being told my account was fully settled, I was later charged $311.25 for a poolside daybed/cabana I obviously never used, as I was no longer on the property. The receipt even shows the transaction was made after checkout. The hotel is now refusing to refund me, even though this charge is entirely invalid.||||⸻||||🧾 Inadequate Resolutions & Excuses||||Despite multiple attempts to resolve these issues, the responses were beyond disappointing:|| • A token $100 dining credit (which I couldn’t even use because I checked out early)|| • Shifting blame to Amex Travel|| • Zero ownership of the fire exit safety issue|| • Refusal to reverse an unauthorized charge made after I left the property||||⸻||||🚨 Bottom Line||||This stay was an embarrassment to the JW Marriott name, marked by:|| • 🔥 Blatant disregard for guest safety|| • ❌ Failure to honor confirmed bookings|| • 💳 Improper and unauthorized charges|| • 🤢 Unsanitary room conditions|| • 🛑 Two full days wasted waiting on a room|| • 🙅‍♂️ Unkept promises and runaround from the front desk||||For a brand that markets itself as a luxury leader, this experience was completely unacceptable. I’ve trusted Marriott for years — but this experience has shaken that trust to the core.||||Guests deserve better. Families deserve better.||||Do better, JW Marriott.||||Kyle R. Himes||Marriott Bonvoy Member #066137475||Reservation #: 80019690||Dates: July 4–6, 2025||Email:...

Pro: The views are beautiful. If you get a balcony facing the theme parks, a proper altitude will show you fireworks and drone shows across the horizon. Also, the pool area is a wonderful layout.

Cons: Everything costs more. It's all an additional upcharge and often a mandatory service fee on top, which could be why the service is abysmal at every level with exception to the bartenders. These need to be by category--

Bars: You learn the vartenders are great once you give up on waiting for a server to come to your table, because even if you make eye contact and wave them down, you may never see them. I am not sure exactly how long they were going to make us wait at any location, but if it was open seating, we have waited for a server and played games with our kids before realizing it had been 40 minutes without even a hello. Then I walked up to the bar and got a drink immediately. The next day we waited 10 before we realized we'd seen this show before and I just went to the bar. Knife Burger was similar; we got our first round of drinks and never saw the server again. At poolside, we didn't even know there were supposed to be servers, because we had been by the water for over 2 hours before someone came and asked us if we'd like anything. We were surprised to know they offered that service.

Activites: We found a sign-up desk for an escape room, filled out our names, got bracelets with return times on them... only to show up and find out that someone else had that time already and all we got was "I don't know why they signed you up for this time."

Staff: People just magically disappear. You can see them there one minute, right at the desk they should be at, but when you actually need them they are suddenly gone. When we decided to make a reservation at Citron, the attendant was gone in the middle of the day. We waited 10 minutes and he never reappeared, the desk completely unattended. So we gave up and went up to concierge and they were gone too. The whole section was empty. I caught a random front desk person walking by and asked where the concierge was, and he went in the back area and checked. One came out right away because they were all back there. He was happy to help, but not before reminding me that the desk was actually "closed for now". I asked him if there was somewhere I could have seen that, but no answer. He made our reservation for the Citron BBQ buffet, and we headed out to the pool. As we walked past Citron, the desk was still empty. As for the pool staff, we gathered up a collection of snacks and water into a cooler on wheels. When we got to the pool entrance an attendant stopped me and said he had to search the cooler. He also went two hands deep into my wife's shoulder bag, rummaging through it to look for unauthorized items. When he was all done searching the cooler and the bag, he told us we have to take it all back to the room, including the cooler itself. Then he started to read the entire sign of rules to us, but we just walked away. We reduced everything down to the one shoulder-bag of suntan and goggles and such. When we got back to the pool, we watched him let another woman in with an entire cooler and didn't even check it. He just opened the door for her with a smile and let her right on through. When we asked him about it, he said he didn't know what we meant and denied searching our stuff.

Restaurant: At Citron's buffet, every item was marked for allergens. My wife and son of Celiac disease, so they were excited to find a pasta salad marked GF. It was weird that the wedge salad was NOT marked GF. After they had eaten the pasta salad, they learned from the chef many of the items on the buffet were mislabeled and they had both consumed gluten. We got their deepest apologies and they comped our meal, but they still both had an autoimmune reaction. The chef and F&B were courteous to check up on us and the comp was great, but we would have rather not get them...