Just returned from our trip and thought it would be worth sharing my family's experience at the offsite we stayed in, Comfort Suites Maingate. (On the western side of highway 192) First I should tell you we have never stayed at this hotel before. It was avaliable as a package deal through Air Canada Vacations and I could use my Aeroplan points to get a discount voucher. It looked nice online, usually famous last words I know, but not in this case...
The Pros
The condition of hotel was great, very well kept up, must have went through a major reno within the last five years or so. Very clean and new looking grounds and rooms. I actually wonder if another hotel was on this site at one time because while the pool is huge, warm and well maintained, it's bigger than it needs to be for a hotel of this size. It also looked older than the buildings themselves. The rooms were an okay size for a hotel room, with two Queen beds instead of doubles and a pull out couch. Plus there is a decent size fridge and microwave, and good size bathroom.
Housekeeping were friendly, and did a great job on the room. The only thing they messed up is one day they left one of their rags in the room, but not a big deal to me.
There is a free breakfast served off the main lobby which consists of the usual muffins, toast, cerals, coffee, and juices, but also had a three day rotation of egg and meat dishes. The food wasn't anything to gush over, but it was tasty enough and fresh, not dry and bland. The breakfast staff never stopped making sure everything was supplied and the tables were clean for the next guest to use. Oh almost forgot the best thing about breakfast, there were two waffle iron stations for making your own fresh Mickey shaped waffles. Not the real thing, but nice to have fresh made waffles rather than toaster ones and the kids loved that it was shaped like Mickey.
Very low noise levels. The hotel is about a half block back from highway 192 so there wasn't any noticable highway noise. As I said this hotel is relatively small for a chain hotel, three floors with only two average sized wings. Clients were families or retirees thus the noise level from other guests was also low.
As for convience, the hotel is located directly next to a large strip mall with several restruants and a Winn Dixi Marketplace Supermarket. I should mention I found the selection and prices at Winn Dixi were not great for someone looking for prepared items for quick, cheap meals. I would suggest the Publix which is a very close drive to the west. I should mention the hotel has BBQ grills available in the main courtyard for those who want to use them. Distance from Disney is fairly close, it is the furthest hotel on the main section of 'Maingate west', but still a closer drive than anything on 'Maingate east'. The parking lot was also large enough to easily find a spot when returning from WDW at night.
The Cons
The biggest downside to this hotel is how it gets away with calling itself a Confort Suites hotel. All of 'suites' are only a bit larger than your average hotel room. Now I was okay because I knew this going in from the pictures I saw online, but for anyone thinking they are getting true junior suites at this hotel, you will be disappointed.
A minor complaint is the TVs. They are the old tube type, not a bad thing seeing there are no HD channels, but they are positioned across from the first bed, rather than the couch. I can understand why they placed the TV there, to make room for a small two seat dining table. While they can rotate they are only just bearly viewable from the couch. It would have been better for us with young children to have it on the couch side of the room so we could watch while they sleep. They told me they were going to upgrade to LCDs in the near future, so I made the suggestion to them they should wall mount them above the table across from the couch.
I mentioned the staff were friendly and great at their job, the same can't be said for the front desk. While they did everything I asked for it always seemed like it was chore for them, sort of 'why are you bothering me' types. The good news is on the last day I had someone different at the desk check me out and they were actually much friendlier than the other front desk staff I had encountered.
Despite this would I stay there again? Yes
The Pros
The condition of hotel was great, very well kept up, must have went through a major reno within the last five years or so. Very clean and new looking grounds and rooms. I actually wonder if another hotel was on this site at one time because while the pool is huge, warm and well maintained, it's bigger than it needs to be for a hotel of this size. It also looked older than the buildings themselves. The rooms were an okay size for a hotel room, with two Queen beds instead of doubles and a pull out couch. Plus there is a decent size fridge and microwave, and good size bathroom.
Housekeeping were friendly, and did a great job on the room. The only thing they messed up is one day they left one of their rags in the room, but not a big deal to me.
There is a free breakfast served off the main lobby which consists of the usual muffins, toast, cerals, coffee, and juices, but also had a three day rotation of egg and meat dishes. The food wasn't anything to gush over, but it was tasty enough and fresh, not dry and bland. The breakfast staff never stopped making sure everything was supplied and the tables were clean for the next guest to use. Oh almost forgot the best thing about breakfast, there were two waffle iron stations for making your own fresh Mickey shaped waffles. Not the real thing, but nice to have fresh made waffles rather than toaster ones and the kids loved that it was shaped like Mickey.
Very low noise levels. The hotel is about a half block back from highway 192 so there wasn't any noticable highway noise. As I said this hotel is relatively small for a chain hotel, three floors with only two average sized wings. Clients were families or retirees thus the noise level from other guests was also low.
As for convience, the hotel is located directly next to a large strip mall with several restruants and a Winn Dixi Marketplace Supermarket. I should mention I found the selection and prices at Winn Dixi were not great for someone looking for prepared items for quick, cheap meals. I would suggest the Publix which is a very close drive to the west. I should mention the hotel has BBQ grills available in the main courtyard for those who want to use them. Distance from Disney is fairly close, it is the furthest hotel on the main section of 'Maingate west', but still a closer drive than anything on 'Maingate east'. The parking lot was also large enough to easily find a spot when returning from WDW at night.
The Cons
The biggest downside to this hotel is how it gets away with calling itself a Confort Suites hotel. All of 'suites' are only a bit larger than your average hotel room. Now I was okay because I knew this going in from the pictures I saw online, but for anyone thinking they are getting true junior suites at this hotel, you will be disappointed.
A minor complaint is the TVs. They are the old tube type, not a bad thing seeing there are no HD channels, but they are positioned across from the first bed, rather than the couch. I can understand why they placed the TV there, to make room for a small two seat dining table. While they can rotate they are only just bearly viewable from the couch. It would have been better for us with young children to have it on the couch side of the room so we could watch while they sleep. They told me they were going to upgrade to LCDs in the near future, so I made the suggestion to them they should wall mount them above the table across from the couch.
I mentioned the staff were friendly and great at their job, the same can't be said for the front desk. While they did everything I asked for it always seemed like it was chore for them, sort of 'why are you bothering me' types. The good news is on the last day I had someone different at the desk check me out and they were actually much friendlier than the other front desk staff I had encountered.
Despite this would I stay there again? Yes
