Talk to me about Downtown Disney Hotels

[disney obsessed]

While I have been going to DW for years I have never stayed in Downtown Disney. We are thinking about the Holiday Inn. Tell me what you think. Also, I have no idea what the transporation is like. Can someone who has stayed there please fill me in?

[tennantsrwe]

We have stayed at a DTD resort once. Our hotel offered complimentary transportation via shuttle to the parks. You could also head over to DTD, take a bus to the resorts and then take another bus or monorail to the parks for free. We never used the resort shuttle as the bus was rather small and the line was long. We did use the DTD to resort to park option once but it took sooo long...over an hour to get from Magic Kingdom back to DTD area. FYI none of the buses run directly from DTD to the parks, so you have to go to a resort and transfer. Honestly all the hassle of doing that made us just drive every day. Not sure if you're going to have a car, or if you'd want to pay the additional parking fee...it does add up. I'd contact Holiday Inn to nail down the specifics of their transportation ahead of time so I knew where/when to be ready. Hope this helps!

[Melanie]

Here is the review (http://www.intercot.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=167997&highlight=holiday+inn) I did on the Holiday Inn after getting a preview before the hotel opened last year.

We finally got around to staying there a few weekends ago, but only for a night. We got a king room with a pullout, and it was a very nice room. No issues, except there were no linens for the pullout in the room. Housekeeping brought up some immediately though. Unfortunately, our view was of I-4. ;)

We drove our own vehicle, so I'm sorry I can't advise on how DTD hotels handle transportation.

[MississippiDisneyFreak]

The only one we've ever stayed at was Best Western in 2005...it was very expensive, actually more so than the Disney hotel we stayed at the rest of the trip (Coronado Springs). The non-smoking room we had reeked of cigarette smoke and was very worn. The bathroom was horrible. Ceiling tiles were leaking and broken and there was mold all over the shower and bathroom ceiling. It definitely was not up to the standards of the Disney owned hotels and I doubt we will ever stay at a DTD property again. Sorry I can't tell you anything about the Holiday Inn.:(

[emmatink]

We stayed at this Holiday Inn for 1 night in Feb. this year. We chose it because of it's close proximity to DTD. We were taking a cruise that left out on Sat from Port Canaveral and since we were driving from GA we thought it would be a great choice so that we could spend friday night at DTD. They do have shuttle buses but it is only like a 10 minute walk to DTD. I am not sure how often the shuttles leave from the hotel but you could always walk to DTD and take the disney buses. Very nice hotel, I would recommend it.