How is Palms Suites Lakeside (formally Mainstay Suites)?

[Mkaz]

I just tried looking it up on hotelplusportal and I can't even find it anymore?!?!?!?!?!?

They now have it listed as Lake Suites Hotel. I wonder what gives.

 

[OhioGrumpyGirl]

We stayed at there from March 4 to March 14. The wooden walkways that go back to the rooms need some replacing, but other than that, we had no problems. We got the family suite for 39 a night through hotelplusportal. The hotel does add a 5.95 per night resort fee once you get there, but even at 45 a night total, it was definately worth it. We stayed in building 4, room 407. It was in the back, so we didn't have the noise from the lot. We looked out over the lake, but from where we were, it looked more like a swamp!!! I was waiting to see a gator!!!!! The rooms were huge. 2 queen beds, a queen sofa, chair, coffee table, end table, 3-drawer dresser, tv, full kitchen (which was bigger than the kitchen in my first apartment!!!), very nice sized "dressing room" (where the sink & mirror are), and nice sized closets. We had no problem with the maid service either. We had left one morning at 8 to go shopping and when we came back at 1 to swim, our room was done. The maids even put our dirty dishes in the dishwasher and washed them for us!!! The free breakfast was nice -- bagels, toast, muffins, waffles, pancakes, oatmeal, pastries, cereal, milk, juice, and coffee. The only thing missing was fruit. We saved a ton of money by eating breakfast there every morning and by cooking meals (frozen pizzas and stuff like that) in the room. We only ate out at the parks and 2 other nights. The pool was very nice. Nice playground for the kids on the sand. BBQ grills and picnic tables on the sand too. There is a small pier that goes out onto the lake for fishing or whatever too. We will definately be staying there again. It was sooooo nice to be able to walk through the room without tripping over anyone!!!!!!!! I can't post pics yet, but the ones they show on the site when you book are exactly what the place is like! There is a SuperTarget right across the street which was nice for grabbing groceries. If anyone has any questions, PM me and I will answer them if I can!!!!!!!!!

 

[Mkaz]

OhioGrumpyGirl,

Thanks for the review. Did you have any problems with the rate from hotelplusportal?

 

[Neoshoegal]

We're back from our stay there, we stayed for 9 nights from 4 until 13 March.

Check in was smooth and when we got to our room (402) it was large and clean. A bit dark though.
Overall, the place could do with a make-over as some things were a bit dated. Having a kitchen is nice even though we never used the cooker. Big fridge with freezer which we stocked up with drinks and fruit. Breakfast was ok, we always had in our room which we thought was nicer.
Airco does make a bit of noise, but the fridge was worse! Bathroom was clean, shower was a bit old but in perfect working condition.
Our room was on the side of the street but there was no noise from it (the fridge probably drowned it out )
Housekeeping cleaned the room every day, changed the sheets halfway through our stay. We always got plenty clean towels and they even did the dishes for us when we didn't. However on 1 occassion when we got back in the evening, our door was left open. You did really have to pull the door to close it properly. We told reception and they couldn't have been more apologetic. Nothing was missing and they made sure it didn't happen again. The only other thing that went wrong was that my Kellogs Frosties went missing (we bought one of those variety packs). I would have prefered the Raisin Bran had gone missing...
As far as we could see, they were always trying to keep the place clean and tidy. All the staff was always very friendly. We didn't use the pool or even got the lake as we spend all our days at Disney and by the time we got back we were too tired to anything else but sleep!
There's a super target across the road. However, there's a publix just west from it and we thought the food was nicer there. There's also a wal-mart around the corner on the 535.
It took us on average about 15 minutes to get to the parks (longest was 25 minutes).
The name did change to Lake Suites Hotel while we were, didn't affect us in any way.
Overall, we were happy with the hotel and would recommend it. Clean and big room at a bargain price and (apart from the fridge) it was nice and quiet.

2 photos of the hotel can be found on
http://www.everaftervideos.com/hotel1.jpg
http://www.everaftervideos.com/hotel2.jpg

 

[bigsis1970]

Great reports -- Thanks so much for getting back to those of us awaiting our trips !!!! sounds like everything went well for both of you! Michelle

 

[loveysbydesign]

Thanks for the descriptive reviews!!!! I'm starting to feel a little bit better about having reserved our stay there now! I was beginning to feel like maybe we should stay somewhere else due to the fact that others had given poor reviews on tripadv. We don't go until May so I'll be sure to keep a close eye on this thread and hopefully others who have stayed there will give us their reviews too. Thanks again!

 

[DaddyDon]

Thanks glad you all had a great time !!!!!!

 

[Mom of Sleepy Bashful and BabyDoc]

I unfortunately had to cancel our plans for May so we won't be staying at Palms Suites. I hated giving up that rate!

We are now planning on two weeks in Aug. so I had to cancel my Contemporary reservations in October also.

All this because we are hoping to send two of our children to private school. Oh well, at least it's for a good cause.

I'm glad it sounds like a decent place and all of you that have been there had a good time.

 

[kikakeko]

I am glad you all had such great trips!! Thanks for the reports!

 

[OhioGrumpyGirl]

OhioGrumpyGirl,

Thanks for the review. Did you have any problems with the rate from hotelplusportal?

No problems with the rate. The hotel did add the 5.95 resort fee to the 39 rate though. (The walk in rate while we were there ranged from 79-119.)
They did say that the new management is trying to get their own website, so they probably won't be on hotelplusportal anymore.

 

[tracycd2]

Hey Guys,

I too had to cancel my reservations.
I had two weeks booked for 616.00 taxes in.
It just feels terrible to pass up a deal like that.

BUT.. I broke my foot and can't be on it for any length of time.
Lets just hope a deal like that comes around again.

 

[bigsis1970]

Oh goodness --hope your foot heals quickly!! Michelle

 

[bigsis1970]

Ok bumping up from Kid@heart25 when they come back -- Looking forward to another report !!! Michelle

 

[dwmlaf]

After reading the reviews and pitching a couple of more dollars (was originally staying at the Thriftlodge)

I went ahead and booked on the hotelplusportal, my rate came out at $49.95 a day (staying first week of May). So, when adding the $5, I guess my rate will end up being $55 a night. Still not a bad deal (cheaper than staying at Pop).

 

[kid@heart25]

Well we just got back from our trip. The hotel was not bad. The rooms were very very clean. The bed was a little uncomfortable and the room had a slight musky smell. So we added more pillows and blankets to the bed and we went to the target across the road and bought an airfreshner. We did not use the stove or any of the cookware. we did use the the fridge for soda's and leftovers and the microwave and those were fine. A little outdated but I did not care...it is not like I am going to be using them everyday for a lifetime...all I care about is it clean and does it work and the answer to both of those is yes. The last night we found some wet carpet on the floor near the air conditioning unit. We told the front desk when we checked out and he was sending someone in to check it as we were leaving. We are not in our room very much at all. We leave every morning at about 7:00am and get back around 11:00 - 12:00 at night....but every night when we got in, housekeeping had come and gone and left the room very clean and with plenty of fresh towels. I usually do not use housekeeping but I have read that so many people have a hard with the housekeeping at this hotel so I thought that I would try it. But like I said we are gone for so long that I don't know if they cleaned it in the morning or if they cleaned late at night. We did not eat thier breakfast either. We did try the Ponderosa breakfest buffet down the road...it is the $3.99 breakfast. It was not good at all. I would advise skipping that one. If you want a breakfast buffet, go to the Golden Corral. There is also an IHOP and lots of other resturantes right near the hotel.
Overall the hotel was good. I would not pay a lot to stay there...but for the price you can't beat it.

 

[FayeW]

Well we just got back from our trip. The hotel was not bad. The rooms were very very clean. The bed was a little uncomfortable and the room had a slight musky smell. So we added more pillows and blankets to the bed and we went to the target across the road and bought an airfreshner. We did not use the stove or any of the cookware. we did use the the fridge for soda's and leftovers and the microwave and those were fine. A little outdated but I did not care...it is not like I am going to be using them everyday for a lifetime...all I care about is it clean and does it work and the answer to both of those is yes. The last night we found some wet carpet on the floor near the air conditioning unit. We told the front desk when we checked out and he was sending someone in to check it as we were leaving. We are not in our room very much at all. We leave every morning at about 7:00am and get back around 11:00 - 12:00 at night....but every night when we got in, housekeeping had come and gone and left the room very clean and with plenty of fresh towels. I usually do not use housekeeping but I have read that so many people have a hard with the housekeeping at this hotel so I thought that I would try it. But like I said we are gone for so long that I don't know if they cleaned it in the morning or if they cleaned late at night. We did not eat thier breakfast either. We did try the Ponderosa breakfest buffet down the road...it is the $3.99 breakfast. It was not good at all. I would advise skipping that one. If you want a breakfast buffet, go to the Golden Corral. There is also an IHOP and lots of other resturantes right near the hotel.
Overall the hotel was good. I would not pay a lot to stay there...but for the price you can't beat it.

I'm curious as to why you chose to pay for breakfast elsewhere rather than take advantage of the free breakfast offered? Did you have issues with the quality or cleanliness of the breakfast area?

 

[kid@heart25]

There was nothing wrong with the free breakfast, we just do not like to eat at the hotel. We really enjoy going to a resturante and having a waitress and not having to hang out in the lobby and fight all of the other people in the hotel over the toaster or bagel or juice. We never eat at the hotel. It is just not our thing.

 

[bigsis1970]

Hi kid@heart25 -- glad to hear you had a positive stay ! did it seem to take long to get back and forth to the parks?? was the Breakfast open before you left at 7am (for some reason I thought it was open 7am to 10am) and what type of unit did you have ? Did you swim (I did see up early out late but thought you might have snuck into the pool once or twice?) Thanks so muche .. Michelle

 

[kid@heart25]

It took about 10 minutes to get to disney from the hotel. We were in a bi-level suite. I am not sure if the breakfast was up and going when I left because we did not go into the lobby in the mornings before leaving for the day. I did sneak a dip in the pool. It was an ok pool...nothing wonderful. It was kind of cold the night that we got in and so we were not out there long. Some of of friends decided to go with us at the last minute and could not get a room at the Palms and so they books at the Radison celebration and spend $535 for 4 nights and they had numerous complaints. There hotel was beautiful and very large but had problems with housekeeping and thier air conditioner was not working and then it kicked in but would only work on full blast...so thier option was either be hot or cold. They also said that the front desk staff were rude and offered limited help when they needed it.

 

[bigsis1970]

Hi and Thanks.. I just came from a staff meeting and thought of a few more ??'s if you don't mind--- Did the rooms come with a Coffee maker (12 or 4 cup) did they provide dish liquid / dishwasher liquid, Ice cube trays, a toaster, a can opener ?