Mariott Orlando - World Class Disappointment
Written: Dec 01 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Well, it's big. And it's near Disney
Cons: Just about everything else
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| Joubert's Full Review: Marriott Orlando World Center Resort |
Readers familiar with my hotel reviews know that I hold the Marriott chain in high regard. Their properties flow across the entire spectrum of travel, and quality tends to be a key mission at many I’ve visited.
Earlier this year, I spent a week at The Orlando World Center Marriott Resort and couldn’t have been more disappointed. At a rate approaching $300 per night, an investment of several thousand dollars for a longer stay should at least yield a pleasant, if not superlative experience.
I found suburban hotel quality, indifferent service, technical problems with the equipment, overpriced restaurants and the hotel experience and its staff greatly lacking. Let me break down the stay for you to better explain my disappointment.
Checking In
As with most resorts, valet parking is a must. Parking for do-it-yourselfers is way over there. That’s fine, but with two thousand rooms, valet parking is not as fast as it should be.
Although I was staying a week, I travel light and had a big garment bag and my ever-present laptop. The bellhop crew in front didn’t seem to care for the way that I slung my bag over my shoulder and had my son, who was leaving that afternoon, carry my garment bag. I understand they make their living on tips, but I honestly didn’t need their service. Quality service means knowing when you’re not needed and being pleasant anyway. And besides, they had the car.
Once inside, the front desk stretches for eternity, but the staff displayed a perfunctory attitude at best. What particularly irritated me was the way that rooms were laid out. The hotel has various wings due to its constant expansion and rooms are difficult to find. Yes, you may now say that I should have had a bellhop, but all I needed was a clear set of directions to my room.
I made my way back to the front desk, leaving my son near the elevators on the 20th or so floor, and got those directions. Another journey upstairs only to find that… well, the key didn’t work. Bad key. Back downstairs once more for a key that was coded to the proper room. Of course, there were lines at the desk each time, so the entire check-in process took more than 30 minutes. At that time, it would have been nice to hear an apology. Nope, nothing doing. The staff was busy.
The Room Itself
Incredibly unremarkable.
Okay, there was a nice big desk. There were some chairs and a love seat. The television screen size was an inch or so bigger than the norm. But honestly, that was about the only difference between this hotel room running nearly three bills a night and a Marriott or Holiday Inn sandwiched between an interstate exit and a shopping mall.
Housekeeping didn’t thrill me, but didn’t upset me either. It was just so ordinary.
That’s okay, too, but with a casual service atmosphere and a basic hotel room with minor flourishes, I was wondering why I just hadn’t stayed at the local Days Inn, where I had spent the previous week with my family for 25% of the price. So the room was a little bigger and I was now two miles from Disney. Location is everything in the hotel business, but the room doesn’t deserve any special awards.
My Technical Nightmare
Without writing a dissertation, this Epinion will have to serve as the letter I never sent to Bill Marriott about trying to make a simple Internet connection through the phone switch in this room.
I tried multiple times. I tried multiple numbers. I tried long distance, toll free, tweaking Dial Up Networking within an inch of its life and had no success.
Did I mention there was a broadband connection in the room? Angry at the thought of not being able to dial out and forced into a $10 daily broadband connection that I didn’t need (see bellhop above), I finally broke down and hooked everything up.
No Internet.
Several calls to the front desk were pointless. I demanded someone from the hotel’s IT department. No luck. I went to the concierge. I’ll see what I can do, but many of our guests find it difficult to use their computer away from home was her response.
Step back and breathe a minute. I’m traveling with more than a dozen colleagues for a trade show. We’ve got a web site generating millions of visitors each month. I call two of the most tech savvy people I know. These aren’t just web gurus; given a different moral sway, they would be hackers. Nope, they can’t help me get out either. One is talking about going to a mall and buying a wireless modem.
Finally, the concierge and the hotel’s MIS group realize I understand what I’m talking about. A phone technician is dispatched to my room. Diagnosis? The broadband is “wired wrong” – they’re going to have redo this room when you check out. (sigh) What about dial-up? Oh, the problem here is that you have to change your modem’s maximum speed to 9600 baud.
What?!
The phone switch can’t handle anything faster, the contract technician replies. Besides, they (his word) get more money when you use the fast connection. But I couldn’t use the broadband in my room because it was “wired wrong”.
He got the tip the bellhop didn’t get, and I spent a week downloading email at 9600 baud. Frankly, having my MIS department send me a daily CD with my mailbox and work via Fedex would have been faster.
The Restaurants
Visiting the so-called coffee shop will set you back $15 with tip for breakfast. There’s a beautiful buffet there, but if it’s not a holiday or a special event, I’m not going to visit a full breakfast buffet. As with all of the hotel’s services, the restaurant was always crowded and noisy. A coffee cart with muffins and fruit was a little better if you enjoy sitting at a vacant lobby bar table with low slung seats and slurping your coffee from Styrofoam.
There’s a sports bar on the mezzanine level. Visit during off-hours and you can order bar food at slightly less outrageous prices. The ambience there is the same as in any sports bar in the world, but at least you’re not getting as badly hammered on price.
Hawk’s Landing Steakhouse and Grill had decent but pricey food. The server my party had there one afternoon was simply awful. Botched drink orders and inattentiveness seem to be our waiter’s core competencies.
I did have a very nice dinner on my last night at the hotel in the Solaris restaurant. I arrived with two colleagues at 9:15 p.m. on a Monday night. Although the kitchen was due to close soon, our orders were taken, the food was good and our server was excellent. Because the restaurant was empty and we didn’t want to go to one of the bars, we asked if we could stay and continue our dinner meeting there. As long as you don’t mind us cleaning up around you was the reply. Even sitting in the closed restaurant until midnight, the servers who were by now doing their side work, were very attentive and kept bringing us fresh coffee and water. I think we left a tip equal to the bill. Don’t ask how we expensed it. They deserved it.
The Bottom Line
Why would I ever choose to return? Orlando is a haven for conventions, and I usually end up there every 2 years or so. I’ve also brought my family there twice in six years. My lodging has ranged from the aforementioned Days Inn to various Disney properties.
This stay was, without question, the worst I’ve ever had in Orlando. Marriott consistently failed me on this trip. I made my complaints known at the time they were occurring and an appropriate resolution was never given.
Unlike General MacArthur, I will not return.
Recommended:
No
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