By the co-author of The easy Guide to Your Walt Disney World Visit 2020, the best-reviewed Disney World guidebook series ever.

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Review: The Holiday Inn Orlando in the Disney Springs Resort Area



By Dave Shute

THE HOLIDAY INN ORLANDO

Guests at the Holiday Inn Orlando are eligible for Disney World’s Early Entry program.

(Note that there’s more than a dozen Holiday Inns in the Orlando area–only this one, which has Hotel Plaza Boulevard in its address, offers this distinctive Disney World perk.)

The Holiday Inn Orlando offer tower rooms with a king bed, or two queens. Similar “pool view” rooms are available in a six story building next to the tower.

The best features of the Holiday Inn Orlando are its microwaves and balconies–balconies are rare among the Disney Springs Resort Area hotels, and microwaves even rarer–and its lower prices, commonly among the lowest of these seven hotels.

Weaknesses include un-divided baths, and so-so hotel amenities–all the basic amenities are here, but none is special, although the pool is strong for this price point. The Holiday Inn Orlando is in the middle of the Disney Springs Resort Area hotels for distance from Disney Springs itself. It shares with all the Disney Springs Resort Area hotels weak transportation.

I’ve stayed at the Holiday Inn Orlando three times, and my full review has five pages:

ACCOMMODATIONS AT THE HOLIDAY INN ORLANDO

Standard rooms at the Holiday Inn Orlando offer one king bed, or two queen beds. These rooms were refurbed in 2018.

The bed side of a refurbed room.

Note the balcony–among the Disney Springs Resort Area hotels, only the Holiday Inn, Best Western, and the Hilton Buena Vista Palace offer balconies in the vast majority of their rooms.

The undivided bath opens from the main entry hall. A divided bath would make this space much more livable–especially for families.

Pool view rooms are similar.

A photo tour of a two queen tower room at the Holiday Inn Orlando is here, and a photo tour of a pool view room at the Holiday Inn Orlando is here.

DINING AT THE HOLIDAY INN ORLANDO

The principal dining venue at the Holiday Inn Orlando is the Palm Breezes Restaurant, serving a breakfast buffet, and also dinner.

A nearby bar serves lunch (and also the dinner menu), and is between the restaurant and pool, with outdoor seating by the pool.

Snacks, drinks, and grab and go items are available in a shop near the corner of the bar. There’s also a Disney gift shop offering souvenirs, park tickets and such off the lobby.

There’s more on dining and the other amenities at the Holiday Inn Orlando here.

THE POOL AT THE HOLIDAY INN ORLANDO

The pool at the Holiday Inn Orlando has the basics–a pool and a hot tub–and adds to these water play jets, and games–during my stays, these included ping pong and cornhole.

The games and water play options make it middle-ranked among the Disney Springs Resort Area pools.

For more on the pool at the Holiday Inn Orlando, see this.

THEME PARK TRANSPORTATION AT THE HOLIDAY INN ORLANDO

The Holiday Inn Orlando participates in a transportation program sponsored by all the Disney Springs Resort Area hotels. One group of buses serves the Hilton, Holiday Inn, B Resort, and Doubletree Suites, and another the other three hotels here.

Buses run about every thirty minutes, each serving two parks–so, for example, to get to Disney’s Animal Kingdom, you may have travel to the Magic Kingdom first.  Moreover, unlike the buses from Disney-owned resorts, Magic Kingdom buses drop off at the Transportation and Ticket Center, not the park itself, necessitating another transit, via monorail or ferry, to get to that park.

In addition to the theme park buses, buses to and from Disney Springs run through the evening.

On the important dimensions–frequency, and the time it takes to get to and return from the parks–the transportation system at the Disney Springs Resort Area is much worse than that at the Disney-owned resorts, but better than that at most off-site hotels.

Having your own car or a rental is a much better option. Self-parking at the Holiday Inn Orlando is $14/night and valet parking is $20/night. Parking at the theme parks is $25/day.

For more on transportation at the Disney Springs Resort Area hotels, see this.

PRICING AT THE HOLIDAY INN ORLANDO

Pricing at the Disney Springs Resort Hotels is much less visible than that at the Disney-owned resorts, and multiple prices for the same room e.g. for non-refundable stays, stays by folk with AAA, etc. are common.  Discounts and deals are also common, especially for the hotels like the Holiday Inn Orlando without significant convention business, and these hotels commonly show up on the various hotel deal sites.

Pricing for most of them is also obscured by mandatory “resort fees.”  Resort fees are a mandatory extra cost added every night of your stay, whether you like or not. I personally find mandatory resort fees a misleading and unethical practice.  A fee that is mandatory, and charged each night, should simply be rolled into the nightly room price.

The Holiday Inn Orlando resort fee is (after tax) $24.75 per night–in the lower range among the Disney Springs Resort Area fees.

Prices at the Holiday Inn Orlando (before any discounts you might find, but including resort fees and taxes) are generally among the lowest among the seven Disney Springs Resort Area hotels, and are typically about mid-way between those for a Disney-owned value resort and moderate resort.

For families on a tight budget who can find a deal that makes prices at the Holiday Inn Orlando more comparable to a Disney value resort, the opportunity to get queen beds (rare in standard rooms at the Disney values except at Pop Century and refurbed rooms at All-Star Movies), a balcony, and a more spacious room may trump the absence of a divided bath, so-so amenities (except the pool), and weak transportation.

Kelly, the long-time travel agent partner of this site, can book your Disney World vacation at the Holiday Inn Orlando–or at any other Disney World hotel!  Contact here using the form below.

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PHOTO TOUR OF A TOWER ROOM AT THE HOLIDAY INN ORLANDO

This review continues here.

MORE ON THE HOLIDAY INN ORLANDO

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