Marriott Orlando World Center

[WDW Mad4Mickey]

Hi! Has anyone stayed at the Marriott Orlando World Center hotel and traveled back and forth to the parks? Is it fairly close to property?

 

[chalee94]

Super close and easy access to the parks. Less than 8 minutes to Epcot - didn't time the rest but you're only a mile or so from the property main gate.

 

[mckennarose]

We frequently stay at the Marriott Sabal Palms, which are the condos on the Marriott World property. It takes us about 5 minutes from the time we walk out of our condo to Epcot parking.
The Marriott properly is beautiful and the World Center pool is amazing!

 

[dioxide45]

The gates to WDW are just past I4 on World Center Dr. However, distances to the parks vary as the Disney property is so huge.

 

[DeanDoug]

I have stayed at the Marriott World Center and it is very close... in fact, I've seen fireworks from my balcony! Have you ever stayed there? I will say that it is one of my least favorite hotels/resorts of all time (and I've traveled all over the world). It is HUGE and since guests without cars are captive, VERY expensive. You'll enjoy the prices at WDW after experiencing them at MWC!

 

[Dream Finder]

We have stayed at the main hotel and the timeshares.
The one time we stayed at the main hotel, we too could see fireworks from our balcony.
Pros: it is close to the parks. We were able to get our rooms on priceline, so it wasn't expensive. They have a wonderful pool with a pool bar.
Cons: this is a convention hotel, so everything is priced as such. There are several nice restaurants, but they were expensive. Even sundries will be "Disney" expensive. Also, with all of their recent additions, parking is a free-for-all.
The timeshares (Sabal Palms, Royal Palms and Imperial Palms) will give you more room and a little reprieve from the craziness that is the main hotel.

 

[chicagoshannon]

We stayed at one of the time shares behind the World Center. We loved it! The pool was fun even though it was too cold to use it for most of our trip. We didn't think the prices for the counter service place were too bad. And they were very accommodating. We wanted to get a PBJ for DD. All they had were uncrustables that were frozen solid. They ended up making a fresh PBJ for her for free. The service was really great.

They also have a lazer light show at night. We would definitely stay in the time share units again.

 

[penguin29]

Trying to decide between Sabal Palms, Harbour Lake and Grande Vista. Kids will be 5 and 8 for the trip and water features are important. We ruled out Cypress already simply because there are no water slides. Distance to Disney is important, but not the most important, and we do want to choose a resort with the newly renovated rooms (not sure which those would be or this knocks out any of the options automatically). A decent restaurant would be a huge plus, but also not a necessity. So, in order of importance, our criteria is:

1. Renovated Room (we are getting a two bedroom)
2. Water Slides appropriate for children ages 5 and a cautious 8, ha
3. Closeness to Disney Parks

Since the Palms use the World Center resort, I looked at that Pool, and there are water slides, but they look like they are 100 feet high!?!?!? Are they? They appear to be geared towards older children, are there any water slides for medium kids? There seems to be only the little kids splash pad and the huge water slides, but I am only able to look at photos, so that info might not be accurate.

Thank you in advance for your help!

 

[mckennarose]

The Sabal was recently renovated. I called them last week to see if all the villas were done and was told yes. I'm very excited for our upcoming stay here again!

Yes, the slides are very high and probably not good for really young children. I don't recall any other slides. The pool at the World Center is impressive and has varying depths.

The Sabal pool is quiet and never crowded, at least the times we've been there. They have pool noodles, balls and a basketball hoop over the pool to use. There's also an electric fire pit and two hot tubs in the pool area. They have resort activities every day for all ages.

We haven't eaten in the restaurants except to grab a quick bite in the ala carte area, but there are lots of nearby restaurants. We like to drive over to Bahama Breeze for dinner on a non-park day.

Epcot is a 5-7 minute drive from the Sabal, to give you an idea of how close it is. You can see the hot air balloon in Disney Springs from the Sabal pool.

The Royal Palms and Imperial Palms are also on the World property. I haven't stayed in either of them, but you might want to check them out too.

 

[dioxide45]

Grande Vista has no water slides, though there is one at Harbour Lake. It would be appropriate for children that age.

 

[MrPTato]

Stayed there when my wife was at a conference. I was able to Uber right over to Disney Springs and it was a very close ride. We were on one of the higher floors and you could see quite a bit, Tower of Terror, Spaceship Earth, and a lot of the Springs.

 

[chicagoshannon]

We loved Harbor Lake! The slides are perfect for the age group your talking about. There is also a large splash park with dumping buckets and water spray guns. The resort is about a block away from I4 so it's very easy to get to Disney. There is also mini golf.

The water slides were very tall at the World Center. My 8 year old thril junkie loved them but my 5 year old wouldn't go near them. The pool is very impressive and they did have a kids pool area on an upper level. I don't recall any mini golf here but they did have a nice room with video games.

 

[Monykalyn]

Trying to decide between Sabal Palms, Harbour Lake and Grande Vista. Kids will be 5 and 8 for the trip and water features are important. We ruled out Cypress already simply because there are no water slides. Distance to Disney is important, but not the most important, and we do want to choose a resort with the newly renovated rooms (not sure which those would be or this knocks out any of the options automatically). A decent restaurant would be a huge plus, but also not a necessity. So, in order of importance, our criteria is:

1. Renovated Room (we are getting a two bedroom)
2. Water Slides appropriate for children ages 5 and a cautious 8, ha
3. Closeness to Disney Parks

Since the Palms use the World Center resort, I looked at that Pool, and there are water slides, but they look like they are 100 feet high!?!?!? Are they? They appear to be geared towards older children, are there any water slides for medium kids? There seems to be only the little kids splash pad and the huge water slides, but I am only able to look at photos, so that info might not be accurate.

Thank you in advance for your help!

Have stayed at all 3 (Cypress is next on list for Thanksgiving-we LOVE the Marriott TS)-
Harbour lake (stayed 2004-was pretty new at that time, dedicated 2 bedroom) -has an awesome pool with a pirate ship in the middle (very shallow water) and smaller slides. We did find the 2 bedroom we had there to be the smallest of the places we stayed-was several years ago & kids were much smaller and even then I thought the unit was small. Didn't think drive to Disney bad at all, and IIRC it was pretty quick to DS-although with all the building this could be quite different.

Grande Vista (stayed 2014 -lockoff 2 bedroom) is one of our favorites! Awesome main pool, great bar (and quick grab eat area at pool bar), they have "dive in" movies and kids splash area is separate (nice to have littler ones separated from the bigger kids. No slides. The units are big and very nice. Very close to Sea World.

Sabal Palms (stay 2015-dedicated 2 bedroom)-most recent stay was here. The unit is HUGE, does have a couple steps "down" into the unit (we were on top floor-not sure if bottom unit has this step down or not). Quick walk to World center pool-my kids LOVED the MWC pool and slides. The quiet pool was never busy (and we went in June).But that slide is very long. Odd bathroom layout with a large open walk in shower with glass block wall (you can't see through it) but it does let alot of light into MBR so do not plan on sleeping past sunrise (if you are used to pitch black sleeping area the way my DH is LOL). Is a 12 minute trip to DHS in mornings from front door to drop off in front of park (DH may have been going a weee bit fast as I was running late and really wanted to see pre RD show with Storm Troopers on a star wars weekend )

Sabal is closest to Disney, Harbour has the great pool for your age kids, GV has lots of activities and nice unit.