I was really looking forward to my trip and especially staying at this hotel. Unfortunately, Hurricane Fay disrupted our plans and our flight was cancelled. Due to work / time constraints we were unable to reschedule, and Buena Vista refused to bend on their 5 day cancellation policy. Not only did they charge us one night's stay, they charged us at the higher rate that we originally booked at - not the lower rate we changed it to when rates dropped. I find this completely unacceptable customer service and despite the good reviews WILL NOT be booking this hotel when I return later in the year. I'll stay somewhere a little more flexible and a little more concerned with return business.

I am a frequent traveler with many, many nights in hotels, and many many miles on airlines. I don't go looking for problems and things to pick on, but when things stick out -- badly -- or when things are outstanding, they need to be said.

I stayed at this property for a meeting and brought my family along with me so they could enjoy the parks. We were onsite for 5 days, and my colleagues were there for about 3. I've stayed many times in the Orlando area on and off Disney properties, and this was my very first time at this resort.

For dining, there are a couple of restaurants on property. One is called The Outback Restaurant (with no known association with the Outback Steak house -- we were totally confused when we got there because we expected it to be "the Outback"). This has an interesting (pricey) menu that has alligator and kangaroo as offerings. We had an excellent waiter who helped us through the menu, made some good recommendations, worked with us and made it a memorable evening. The food was expensive, but the quality excellent and the family really enjoyed the quiet atmosphere.

The other restaurant we went to is the Watercress Cafe, where I ate breakfast with my family before they went to the parks and I went to a business meeting. We decided to try the buffet, as it had a lot of the same food our kids like to eat, and thought we'd save some money. Food was okay (bacon tasted funny, like it was old). The price? An average-at-best buffet breakfast for a family of six... $133. An expensive lesson for us.

There is a shuttle that runs from the Spa area to Disney. Getting to Disney can be many stops, and the shuttle makes many stops on its return to the BV Palace. By the time the family returned to the hotel they were bus sick. If you take the car, be prepared to walk for a distance: there is limited parking.

In terms of cleanliness, let me begin with some positives. This property has many areas that are very clean and stylistic. With the exception of the convention center, where carpets were somewhat worn and stained, most of the condition of the facility is okay.

This next part gives me the most pain to write: cleanliness was a big issue, and specifically, insects were a problem. We had small black ants in our room, but since we spent a lot of time out of the room we just ignored them (dumb move because some came home with us in our luggage). Worse, when checking out there was a businessman in the lobby complaining loudly that he had cockroaches in his room -- I wrote him off as a malcontent until I spoke yesterday with a colleague who had the same problem (she had them in her bathtub, and decided to wash them down the drain and keep the water running to keep them down there). Don't know about you, but a couple of insects here and there is life, but I'm now convinced that there's more to it than that.

Some other observations about cleanliness. Our first night my wife noticed perfume on her pillows and sheets and suspected that they had not been changed the previous night, and I brushed it aside. Another colleague of mine found hers to be clearly dirty (makeup, etc) when she checked in, and actually supervised the housekeeper when she changed her bed. Even the towels were suspect: one of the towels in our bathroom began foaming when it got wet, and many of them smelled like antifreeze.

The morning of checkout we had a bill slid under our door. On it was a mystery charge from a restaurant -- something we did not charge. The desk clerk would not remove from my bill, and after watching her pull out wads of receipts and then say that someone else would need to look into it, and me with a flight I had to catch, I checked out with unresolved issues.

What's most interesting is that I got a survey link by email, that I answered truthfully and fully and -- wouldn't you know it? -- it crashed out when I hit submit. Another colleague of mine tried to give feedback the same way, and got some message that about 2000 responses had already been received, but thanks anyways -- so we guessed that the hotel isn't actually collecting any feedback. Most of us felt like it was once a great property that was turned over to be run by some sort of fly-by-night outfit.

This property might look like a great buy but, in our experience, we left it waiting to get home to take a long hot shower. In short: unless you decide to try dinner at The Outback, I'd suggest staying somewhere else.

We had a very nice stay at the Buena Vista Palace Hotel and Spa. The staff was great and registration took only a couple minutes. All our questions were answered quickly. The room was great. Very Clean and well set up. We asked for and received a room with a view of Disney. We sat on the balcony and watched the fireworks while enjoying a nice glass of wine.
The walk to Downtown Disney is short and saves looking for a parking space.
We took advantage of the valet parking ($16.00) and saved the walk back from the parking lot after a long day of walking around Disney.
There are easy options for checking out.
The only downside we found was on the breakfast baffet. The french toast was too hard to cut with a knife and the breakfast roll my wife had was dry and a little hard. Not what I expected for $20. a person.
We will return again this fall at least twice and look forward to visiting Buena Vista Palace and Spa. Next time we will set aside time for the spa.

We got a great deal on the room so we stayed there for a Saturday night and went to SeaWorld in the morning. We had the kids with us, Sun. mornings at the breakfast buffet we were suprised to see the Disney characters going table to table. The kids loved it. The room was awesome, very clean. We stayed at the island resort where there was some construction going on, but it didn't effect us one bit. The pool was great. I had no complaints about our stay and I would definitely stay there again.