Waldorf Astoria Orlando

This is our second visit to the hotel and whilst it is a lovely hotel and close to Disney I am disappointed with a few things. We are from the UK, and as a Christmas present, paid for our parents to come on holiday to Disney world with us. When we checked into the hotel they asked each seperate room member for card details - therefore both sets of parents had to give their card details over. This was for ‘security’ purposes. We are a week into our trip and there have been numerous random charges to their cards. One day they got notified on their banking app that they had been charged $300, whilst the other parents got charged $700. Originally the payments said pending, but then they proceeded to take the money. This has upset me as this holiday was meant to be a present and they have been caused stress and money has been taken! When we have asked at reception about the payments, they can’t give a straight answer - extremely vague and say it’ll be put back in the account if no damage is done to the rooms. They have also put random charges on our rooms saying we have had things from the mini bar etc which we haven’t. What I don’t like about any of this is it feels underhand and sneaky. The hotel itself is very nice and we enjoy the pool area with our little one. The charges and lack of transparency about them has put me off ever coming back here.

Sept 3rd. My husband took me to the Bull and Bear restaurant for my Surprise Birthday dinner. We always enjoy eating at the bar. However, the Bartender did not seem to enjoy our presents there. The service was not the standard "Waldorf" experience that we have had in the past. She was short, no verbal communication, Just slammed down the dishes and walked away. My husband was very disappointed in her attitude of not acknowledging my Birthday nor did she care. Also, the Seafood tower we ordered was still frozen, the bartender never came back to check on us. So disappointing on the whole experience. We will NOT be going back for our special celebrations.

We had a deluxe suite over the Labor Day weekend. The room was very comfortable for the four of us. The kids were on the sofa bed, and the sofa bed had to have the best mattress I've seen on a hotel sofa. Pretty much everything about our stay was absolutely lovely. Comfortable luxury is the best way to describe the Waldorf. This is not your typical Disney-adjacent resort, despite the hourly buses and huge number of kids in the lobby. The WA pools are lovely and restful. They have live music during the day. There are ample lounge chairs and servers to bring anything you might want to drink. If you want more of the wild pool scene, you can walk over to the Signia Hilton, which has a water slide, lazy river, and a DJ. It was nice to have that option, and I do love a lazy river, but even my kids preferred the WA pools as being more comfortable. We went down to Park Avenue Cafe for breakfast one morning, and the service was lovely, but the menu was so limited. We ended up going off campus for breakfast the rest of our trip because I didn't fancy a huge buffet or sit down breakfast. I'd happily return for a relaxing weekend getaway.

Overall, we loved our stay at the Waldorf Astoria Orlando. The rooms are clean, high-end, and nicely appointed—our only slight critique is that the beds were a little on the hard side. The staff provides excellent service throughout the property; even when the pool area got crowded, they quickly helped us secure lounge chairs. The lobby vibe is wonderful with live piano music and complimentary champagne toasts, and the shuttle service to Disney Springs is a super convenient perk. Highly recommend!

The hotel interior is beautiful and all of the staff were extremely pleasant. We were slightly disappointed by the pool area. It seemed a bit bland and underwhelming for a luxury hotel. My main issue was with the service. While everyone was nice, a few weeks prior to my stay, I received an email from the hotel concierge specifically asking if we were celebrating anything and I informed them that it was my anniversary. At that time they stated they would note that on my reservation. I was also asked by the valet and two different people at the concierge desk during check in, if we were celebrating anything and I again reiterated to them that it was our anniversary. So there was a total of four times that I informed hotel staff prior to getting my room that we were celebrating our anniversary. Nothing special was offered to us or anything placed in our room as you would expect in most luxury hotels welcoming people for an anniversary stay. It was peculiar to me that the concierge would email me before my reservation to ask that and then still not provide any sort of welcome gift. Then beyond that I have Hilton Gold status and am AMEX platinum member. Both of those statuses provide me with a free upgrade when an upgrade is available. This was even brought up and acknowledged by the front desk, but ultimately they did not provide me with the free upgrade I’m entitled to with my status. After checking into our room I went online to see if upgraded rooms were available and they were. The hotel simply just did not upgrade my room despite confirming I was eligible for one. Further, when arriving at the hotel, I pulled up to the lobby and was greeted by valet. I told them I was just stopping there to check in. They automatically took my keys and valeted my car. No mention of the option to self park and no mention of a charge for valet. Upon cashing out at my room, I saw that there was a charge for over $60 to valet my car. While, I understand that a hotel may charge for valet, they should be informing guests of the charge especially when it is such a heavy price tag. I feel a bit scammed that I was not even offered the option to self park and valet just took my car. Lastly, after paying my bill at check out, there was a $16 mini bar charge. I went back and question the hotel why I was being charged when I had not taken anything from the mini bar. I was told that there are sensors that indicate if something had been taken. Since I had not even looked at the mini bar this was impossible. They did refund me the $16 but I would warn people to check their bill before leaving. Overall, I feel a bit misled and underwhelmed by my stay. I’ve stayed at many other luxury hotels and given all of these things, I feel as though my experience was quite lacking from what I would normally expect from a hotel of this caliber. I do not see ourselves staying here again.