Renaissance Orlando Resort About This Page:

[Chelledun17]

Hope this is the right spot to post this! We are doing five days in Key West followed by four nights in Orlando and focusing on Universal while we are there.

It looks like we will be staying at the Renaissance Orlando Resort at Sea World because we got a killer rate. Has anyone stayed there?

Thanks!

[Shell_of_the_South]

Hi Chelledun17!! This is the right place to discuss anything Universal!! I've never stayed in the hotel you mentioned. I'm sure they have a shuttle to the Universal parks, most hotels in that area do. You might also post the question in the Sea World forum if that hotel is close to Sea World, maybe someone there has experience with that hotel.

Happy Universal planning!! Feel free to fire away with any other Universal questions you might have.

[Chelledun17]

Originally Posted by Shell_of_the_South

Hi Chelledun17!! This is the right place to discuss anything Universal!! I've never stayed in the hotel you mentioned. I'm sure they have a shuttle to the Universal parks, most hotels in that area do. You might also post the question in the Sea World forum if that hotel is close to Sea World, maybe someone there has experience with that hotel.

Happy Universal planning!! Feel free to fire away with any other Universal questions you might have.

Thanks! We've been to Universal Studios once, but never to Islands of Adventure so we're really excited. We're also pumped about the new Simpsons ride because it was under constructions last time we were there.

Anyone have good restaurant suggestions at either Universal park or the hotels? We've done Margaritaville and NBA Cafe, both just okay to me. We plan to go to Mythos.

Thanks!

[Sue M.]

I think The Renaissance will be great. We stayed at The Hilton Garden Inn next door, and we could walk to Sea World, and see the fireworks from our room window! Will you have a car? You will be near I Drive and there is a Bahama Breeze I like there. If you phone before you leave the hotel, they will but you on the wait list, so that when you get there the wait is shorter.
Will you be staying there while you visit Universal too? You may want to phone the Hotel to ask about Universal shuttles. There are so many restaurants in Universal, I can't remember all we ate at There was an Italian restaurant we enjoyed in City Walk, and Margaritaville of course! You'll love The Simpsons Ride!!! It's really so much fun. We rode it at least 5 times!
We are going to Key West too, in August, before we go to WDW. Staying at The Sheraton Suites. I'm looking forward to it, as we've never been to The Keys. WE are staying 2 nights. Then 2 nights in Cocoa Beach on the way to WDW.

[ShellingConnie]

I stayed at this resort in July 2008. I did a trip report with some mentions of the resort. It was just my 2 kids and I.

We arrived at the Renaissance and my jaw just dropped. That place was gorgeous. I parked the car in self parking, the kids and I grabbed our suitcases and we checked in.
My kids love hotel rooms especially ones as nice as this.
I walked around the resort and snapped a few pictures while the kids played in the room.




They just wouldn’t go to sleep either. They goofed and giggled until 11pm even when I made them hit the bed at 10pm. No surprise there though.
Pics of our room: 1059.




The other mention was the breakfast the next morning:

We went down to Tradewinds for the breakfast buffet. They had a chef who will make your eggs the way you want them, or make you pancakes or waffles. It was a great selection. I chose a ham and cheese omelet and Drama Queen went for her usual scrambled eggs. Dude decided on the waffles. Then we looked for bacon and looked for bacon and well you get the idea – they had no bacon. Only sausage – blech. Drama Queen and I had to settle for eggs and toast only. We also grabbed some delicious strawberries. Dude got the sausage much to his dismay later in the day. Dude didn’t like the waffle because it had cinnamon in it and refused to try anything else but at least he ate the sausage. They also had cereal as well as tons of other stuff that we didn’t pay attention to since we were in a hurry to eat and get to SeaWorld.

After our breakfast, we walked across the street to the SeaWorld parking lot. We had to be careful because there was a crosswalk but no traffic light. The street wasn’t too busy but it sure would’ve made me nervous if I had had younger kids.

Then the final mention in the trip report was about the pool.

After hanging out in the room resting our feet for 30 minutes we decided to hit the pool. That resort had a really nice pool and it had a pool bar which I had to try. I just realized I don’t have any pictures of it. Oops.

The kids had fun playing in the pool while I enjoyed a very expensive frozen margarita. I tested the water before getting my margarita and it was just right - not too warm, not too cold.

Just as I was finishing my first drink, the clouds rolled in and the thunder started. So everyone had to exit the pool.

We played a couple of games of foosball that Dude won but it didn’t clear up so we went to our room for a rest. The kids told me know they were too old to nap so they played video games while I took a quick nap.

I also had a note in the report about the fridge not keeping things really cold so I used the small cooler we brought along since we only stayed 2 nights and the fridge didn't matter.
At the end of the report, I mentioned that I'd love to stay there again sometime.

[Shell_of_the_South]

ShellingConnie - what awesome photos! Thanks for that report - this looks like a super place to stay.