Conrad Orlando

TLDR: hotel makes a solid effort to meet a 5-star standard, but has a LONG way to go. Does not command the rates they're charging in the meantime. Would only stay with points or free night certificates. Hotel is brand new and very nice. The grounds are beautiful... lots of plants & trees, landscape lighting all around, seating areas throughout. Of course the lagoon is the star of the show, and it is great to look at. Considering it's basically a big pool, would be nice if there were lights in it so you could see it at night. Received a 1-category room upgrade which was much appreciated. I know upgrades are never guaranteed, so we take what we can get. That said, you know the great properties when they give "best available" upgrades. After research and speaking with team members, this property does not do that, so temper your expectations. Room was well appointed, spacious, and comfortable. Top tier amenities in the room. Careful with the minibar and associated charges... we didn't partake of anything, but had to have minibar charges removed from our bill. Ate at both Papaya and Sophia's... food was awful, but at least it was expensive! Everything was SO salty, and flavors were jarring... "grilled wings" were 100% fried and then given some quick grill marks before serving... eggs benedict uses the equivalent of bologna and the hollandaise was so sour from the lemon, it tasted like the sauce had turned. This is one of those resorts with a mandatory gratuity at the restaurants, which means service does not have to meet any kind of standard. Budget enough time, as you'll be waiting for a minute. Had to request turndown service multiple times before they showed up... which ended up being after 8pm as we were returning to our room... so we waited in the hallway while they completed the service. No ice makers anywhere so you have to call... and wait... a while... before they'll get to you. Really nice market/coffee shop in the lobby... except it closes at 8pm, so if you want/need anything after that, you're forced to order room service or go to a restaurant. The lowest tier hotels have access to snacks & sundries 24/7, so this felt really lame.

We spent January 17-21 at the lovely Conrad Orlando, what a wonderful experience. Although the weather was on the chilly side, this did not take away from our wonderful time. Customer service was outstanding, we were especially impressed with Ainsley, Kameron, and Nicole. Whether they were serving us delicious meals, setting up exercise classes, or tending to our spa needs, all was well done. We will hopefully return again. Thanks Conrad staff, you do right.

It was our second time at the Conrad Orlando and our first Thanksgiving in 20 years without our family. McKenzie made sure to secure our reservations on Thanksgiving Day at Sophia's restaurant. Well, we have our new hotel family now! What an fantastic property that deserves its Diamond rating. We were so impressed with how delicious the Thanksgiving meal was it made us forget that we were not around a huge table with family members. Tim, who we remembered from the Bull & Bear at the Waldorf was our amazing waiter. It is a beautiful, luxury exceptional property. There are plenty of things to do on the property but the room was so nice we had to drag ourselves out to take advantage of everything. While we missed Alyssa, we were surrounded by Kenny, Chris R., Allen, Kylie, Jose, Ryan, Kameron, Sara and so many more people who were helpful to us. We cannot wait to visit again. Thank you!

The resort itself is beautiful and well maintained, but the overall experience was significantly undermined by what felt like a deliberate, manipulative design strategy intended to keep guests captive on property and spending as much as possible. From the start, it’s clear the resort is structured to discourage guests from coming and going freely. Valet-only parking, gated entry and exit with scanning every time, and an overall layout that adds friction to leaving all contribute to the feeling that you are being intentionally funneled into staying on campus. This might be acceptable if the on-site value matched the pricing—but it didn’t. Once “stuck” on property, the pricing model becomes impossible to ignore. The resort layers mandatory 22% gratuities on nearly everything, along with various service and restocking fees, on top of already premium prices. These charges are not optional, not always clearly justified, and add up quickly. At one point, I paid over $8 for a very small Coke, which perfectly captured the broader issue: high prices paired with low perceived value. We genuinely wanted to enjoy more of what the resort had to offer, but instead found ourselves leaving the property whenever possible because staying felt financially punitive rather than relaxing. That alone should say a lot about the experience. We had planned ahead to book a couples massage at the spa. While $500 for a couples massage is already expensive, it’s at least understandable for a luxury resort. However, once the resort’s mandatory additional 22% was applied, the cost ballooned to nearly $600, which felt wildly disproportionate to the experience delivered—especially when similar services elsewhere cost a fraction of that. This pattern repeated across multiple amenities. The issue here isn’t luxury pricing—it’s value mismatch and forced add-ons. I am more than willing to pay premium prices when the experience, transparency, and quality justify it. In this case, they often did not. The resort feels less like a luxury destination and more like a carefully engineered system designed to extract maximum spend from a captive audience. Lipstick on a pig, as the saying goes. That said, the staff were outstanding—friendly, professional, and genuinely helpful throughout our stay. They were easily the highlight of the experience and clearly not the problem. Unfortunately, they are operating within policies that detract from what could otherwise be a truly great resort.

This hotel has converted the Handicapped Parking Area to Valet only. So can’t/won’t stay eat or visit. I took the matter up with management some time ago and they said they would rectify but all they did was add a ‘Valet Only’ sign. I guess it’s profit over people !