Park Royal Orlando

There's a cool pool with a nice children's play area, plus a spot upstairs for lounge chairs. A racetrack is in the same parking lot, and the location is fantastic, close to theme parks and other amenities. The staff are friendly, personable, and very accommodating. Breakfast is available for $10 per person per day, and it was great and absolutely worth the money. Knowing there are other options is handy, though. In hindsight, I probably would have gone for the $4 coffee, muffin, and hash brown breakfast.

For a hundred dollars a night, the room was cramped, with badly arranged furniture that I kept bumping into. The outlets were old and loose in the wall, and the housekeeper woke me by dropping rubbish and dirty laundry from the upper floors to the ground. There was a $5 charge for each delivery from the mail room and $10 for breakfast. They seemed not to care about my stay, and there was no service to justify what I paid.

The staff were helpful and pleasant, and breakfast was a nice standard spread of eggs, bacon, sausage, waffles, fruit, and yogurt. Laundry facilities worked well, and the pool was nice. We stayed here to visit Disney, about a 30-minute drive away. We've stayed at other locations from this timeshare company, and they were much nicer, so this one fell short. The rooms need attention. The beds offered little support, and the pullout sofa was unusable because its mattress was paper-thin and the support at the foot was broken. Several outlets didn't work, the table in one room was broken, and the main door had to be slammed shut. Its metal frame and jamb were damaged, as if someone had tried to pry them. One toilet seat was nearly falling off, and the shower was very narrow. The shower fan worked, but it was yellow and dirty. The AC cooled well, though its fan sounded like a windstorm. The elevator also felt a little sketchy. Not a terrible stay, but the place could use some upkeep and refreshing.

The desk staff were really friendly, and the pool was heated with a nice area around it. The place is older, but it was well maintained and clean. Having a gas station and Publix nearby was handy. There weren't many spots to charge phones, probably because the property is older. It's budget friendly, and we'd stay again when we're in the area for competitions.