Lodging

Five years ago, Holiday Inn bought the property formerly known as the Courtyard by Marriott that was located right next to Downtown Disney at Walt Disney World in Lake Buena Vista, Florida.  Then the hurricanes of 2004 rolled right through the area and caused some damage to the 323-room hotel, delaying work on converting the property over to the new owners.

A Two-Queen Bedroom at Holiday Inn Walt Disney World

This week, Holiday Inn announced they are now accepting reservations for stays starting November 15, 2009 and later at the new Holiday Inn at WDW.  Just in time for the annual holiday rush of visitors to Walt Disney World.

While structurally the hotel still looks pretty much the same from the outside, Holiday Inn has invested $35 million into completely renovating the hotel. The hotel has turned a section of the beautiful atrium into a restaurant, and yes, per most Holiday Inn properties, kids will eat free here when accompanied by an adult (that could save quite a bit of money per stay). It also looks like the pool area has been redone with a new zero-entry pool. I love those – like being at the beach without the sand clinging everywhere.

Perhaps one of the best features of the changeover that I can see is that rooms that were formerly two double beds are now outfitted two queens.This will make it more comfortable for four people to share the room. I’m told king bed rooms will also now come with a sleeper sofa.

Other new features of the rooms include 32″ LCD HD televisions, pillows in your choice of “soft” or “firm,” and complimentary Wi-Fi.

In fact from the list of renovations, the only thing I’m not so thrilled about is that the hotel will be charging $8 for self-parking. I know they don’t have the largest parking lot, and several other neighboring hotels also charge for parking, but I always feel guests should get this as a complimentary feature of any hotel.

Staying here will also include several benefits of this being the only Holiday Inn on Walt Disney World property, like free shuttles to the WDW parks and the ability to ship purchases back to the hotel from the Disney stores (instead of having to carry the bags around all day).

It looks like opening rates will be around $135 a night but be careful when booking as it seems there are additional per person charges for some rate plans at this hotel that could add an extra $20-$30 a night to the rate.

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Holiday Inn at WDW
1805 Hotel Plaza Blvd.
Lake Buena Vista, FL 32830
1-407-828-8888

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[photo courtesy of Holiday Inn]