Holiday Inn Express & Suites Orlando at SeaWorld by IHG

The room was large, with a nice bathroom, kitchen, and bedroom. The beds were comfortable, Netflix was available, and room service was good. Breakfast was solid too, and the staff were nice. One front desk employee made an error and charged me twice for the stay, not just an incidental hold. I let them know and they corrected it at checkout. Parking is pricey at $20 a night.

Close to SeaWorld and good value for money. The room was large and well maintained, and check-in was easy with friendly staff. Shower water pressure was low, though. You can skip breakfast, the quality isn’t good. The coffee in the room is much better than the one in the breakfast area. There’s a fitness center and pool, plus a poolside bar and a fireplace near the pool, which is great.

We wouldn’t return. The family suite was a good size, but the kids’ room could use a door, and a few more hooks would help with drying beach towels and damp clothes. The pool stays open late, though it’s very shallow and feels designed as a play area for young children, not older families or adults. Parking is plentiful but costs extra. The location is handy, with Discovery Cove and Aquatica within walking distance, SeaWorld a short drive away, and shops and restaurants nearby. The room itself was noisy: the air-conditioning compressor was loud, as seems common in American hotel rooms, the fridge-freezer was very noisy too, and the paper-thin walls let us hear neighbors talking and watching TV, even late at night. Breakfast was hit and miss, with provisions often running out. The single staff member struggled to keep up during the busy breakfast periods, and there were queues for the few waffle machines. We went at different times and it was busy each time.

I won’t choose this hotel again. A bottle of water in the room was marked $12, which feels like they’re trying to milk their guests. The check-in experience was another big problem. We arrived before the stated time and were told repeatedly by two different attendants on separate days that we had to wait until the official check-in time. We waited more than four hours, even though many guests from the previous night were leaving before the official checkout time. At other hotels I’ve stayed at, the longest such wait has been about an hour. The Marriott website said the place had recently been fully renovated, but several things seemed to have been missed. The faucets’ water had an odor, possibly because the plumbing wasn’t addressed, and there was a bit of sewage smell that seemed to come from the washbasin drain. The bedroom dresser drawers, especially, and the living room drawers were partly broken. The horizontally divided curtains in both rooms wouldn’t fully overlap despite repeated attempts, letting morning light in. After sunset, the room was dark because there weren’t enough lights or enough bulb wattage. Taken together, it felt like the hotel was acting out of selfish motivation.