Posted by DIS MEMBER Phrank40 8/22/06:
Good location not far from Downtown Disney. If you enjoy walking and have 30 minutes or so you could walk to DTD in that time. I would probably drive but I have also walked it. Numerous restaurants across the street and Orlando Ale House a short walk down the street.
The Courtyard is clean, I did not notice any problems. We had a double room which was a nice size. Some of the rooms, like ours , have a balcony. The employee at the front desk discussed potential room choices with me since I told him I was a light sleeper and gave me 2-3 choices of room locations. One of the best mattresses I have slept on in a hotel and nice pillows. One section of the Courtyard has interior room access, the other section has exterior room access but these rooms face into a courtyard and a room key is required to get into the courtyard through security doors.
My rate was $79 which included free buffet breakfast for two. This was a AAA rate, normal rate was $109. The normal cost of the buffet breakfast was around $10/person. Marriott rooms are all now nonsmoking so didn't have to worry about that.
Bus service from the front of hotel to the Parks, seem to run fairly regularly but not sure how often.
Nothing overly fancy about this Courtyard but a good value for the rate I paid.
Posted by DIS MEMBER gpaint on 9/15/06:
My wife, daughter and I stayed at this hotel Aug.27-Sept.3. I echo the comments of all the posters in this thread. Rooms are well kept except for our toilet seemed to work eratically. I don't know how the acoustics are, because we were on the 3rd floor. I could hear the odd banging by kids in rooms adjacent to us. I had requested a non-smoking room, which they came through with. Having pay laundry facilities were a plus. Downtown Disney is a $7-$10 cab ride or a 15-minute walk. We even got to experience a mild version of Hurricane Ernesto and could have witnessed a shuttle launch had it not been delayed by the hurricane and lightning.
We definitely plan to come back to DisneyWorld but will stay on property this time. The main reason is because of the EXTRA shuttle bus or taxi you have to take to get on to Disney property to use their transportation. There is a shuttle that comes by this Marriott and it picks up passengers at the Sheraton Safari, the Staybridge and the Doubletree. All are within a block around the Palm Parkway area. There are about 5 trips (starting @ 7:50 AM, about 1hr.30min. apart) where shuttle buses pick you up from one of these hotels and bring you to the DisneyWorld Park(s) and there are about 3 to 4 shuttles back to the hotel from each park. The last bus usually leaving the park 45-60 minutes after closing. The privately owned Bethany shuttle buses are adequate. On one instance, I thought we were struck by lightning, but in fact the front escape hatch overhead blew open from the driving wind and rain. Man, I almost got a heart attack! But nothing can beat Disney Transportation. Buses run anywhere between 5-30 minutes to each Park or Resort. Also, once you arrive at Orlando International Airport, you can board a Disney Magic Express Bus to your Disney Resort hotel. We had to pay for a round-trip Mears shuttle van service, which was adequate at best. One tip is that you have to first get on to Disney property to use their transportation and you CANNOT go directly to a Park from Downtown Disney without having to take a bus to one of the Disney Resorts.
Other than that, it was a very exciting and pleasant 1st DisneyWorld experience, Hurricane Ernesto, Shuttle Launch scrub, and all
