On a recent trip to the Orlando, FL area, I needed a place to stay with my kids. When I’m traveling, especially with my kids, my priority is to find a safe place for us to stay. Price is also a consideration. It’s nice to be able to get out of town for a couple days, but I still have a budget I need to stick to. This wasn’t a trip where we’d planned to splurge and stay somewhere fancy. Because I waited to make our reservations, I wound up going with Hotwire and purchasing one of their special rates where you don’t see the name of the hotel until you complete your purchase.
The Hotel
This time around we got the Baymont Inn & Suites in Celebration, FL. After spending the day driving to Florida and grabbing dinner at The Florida Mall, we finally made it to the hotel to check in. Thankfully the gentleman who checked us in was very patient with my kids who had a million questions about the hotel. Once we were all checked in, we had to stop at another desk to get our parking pass. You also had the option to purchase park tickets or attend time share presentations. They only asked once about me wanting to purchase tickets or attend anything and I was glad the person there wasn’t overly pushy about it.
Elevators were located through the lobby at the back of the building near the pool area. Drink and ice machines seemed to be on each floor at the elevator area for guests who needed anything. All the guest rooms are accessible through an open air hallway. Sometimes enclosed hallways can make noise echo and make things louder so I don’t look at the open air hallways as a drawback personally.
We were given a room on the fifth floor and I’d read that you could see some of the Disney fireworks from our resort. Since we’d arrived so late, I wasn’t sure we’d be able to catch them but they went off not long after we arrived. Not visible from our room, you could see them on the sixth floor balcony so several kids headed in that direction once they heard the booms starting to sneak a peek.
Our Room
After taking the elevator to our floor once we finished checking in, we were able to quickly find our room. I honestly didn’t have high expectations based on the price I’d paid and the location we were in. Never have I been so thankful to be wrong. Our room was large with two beds, a desk, small kitchenette including a sink and microwave, and large bathroom area. There were a couple small things we didn’t love about the room (there was a spot on the carpet that was wet when we got to the room and the tub didn’t look the cleanest but we were only staying overnight so these weren’t huge concerns).
The Pool
Not long after arriving at our room, the kids wanted to go check out the pool. I hadn’t planned on visiting our hotel’s pool during our visit (we’d planned to be out and about, not hanging at the hotel) so I hadn’t brought any pool toys or anything but we decided to give it a try anyways. The pool was large and went from three feet to a depth of six feet at the far end of the pool with varying depths throughout. Night had already fallen but the pool was open until 10:00 so in the kids went. It was pretty chilly – I’m sure because the sun wasn’t out and the pool was so large that it takes a good while to heat up. My boys enjoyed the deep end of the pool while my daughter had fun checking out the more shallow end.
Plenty of seating was available around the pool area. Clean towels were available for guests and there was a spot to leave wet towels as well. In addition to the large pool, a small 12 inch deep pool was also available for smaller guests to enjoy.
Breakfast
After a couple hours of swimming, we headed back up to the room to crash for the night. The beds were comfortable and no one had problems sleeping through the night. Before long, the sun was back up and the kids were hungry. One amenity the hotel had was a free breakfast so we decided to head downstairs to the lobby to check it out. Things like cereal, toast, waffles, eggs, and sausage were available as well as coffee and juices. Lines were long for both breakfast and coffee. This might have been resolved by spreading out the offerings to different areas. Guests were asked to enjoy their breakfast in the lobby area but all the tables and seating areas were full so we were forced to head back to our room to have our breakfast. Overall breakfast was alright (especially for being included in the price of the room) but nothing special.
Once breakfast was finished, the kids wanted to swim a bit more before it was time to check out and head back to The Florida Mall to visit The Crayola Experience Orlando. Sadly there were no clean towels available even though the pool hours stated it was open. The other guest and his daughter who were in the pool got our attention to let us know about a large bug hanging out in the deep end of the pool and that’s when we spotted it ourselves. None of us were sure about what it was but it didn’t look friendly. My oldest son went to alert the front desk and they were going to send someone to take care of it. Before long, someone showed up to scoop the bug out of the pool. On the way to show them where the bug was, they thought it was funny to joke about a bug being in the pool. “It’s Florida! What do you expect?” When they spotted the bug themselves, their tune changed. After a couple of expletives, they were able to catch the bug and remove him from the pool and apologized for thinking it was a silly little bug.
Now that the pool was safe again, the kids wasted no time getting in and enjoying themselves before it was time to go. Lots of swimming and jumping in took place. The pool did seem to be a bit warmer that morning thankfully. Another hotel employee came around to wipe down all the seating and eventually clean towels were brought out. After a while, we headed back to the room to change and head off on our other adventures for the day. On our way back to the room we did notice some room doors were labeled as Kid Suites. Not sure what they are – but they sounded cool!
Even thought we only stayed one night at this resort, it’s a place we would stay again. The rooms were a generous size and having the kitchenette area is a huge bonus.
We have stayed at the Baymont!! It’s not fancy but it gets the job done!! The Kid Suites are kinda cool, the second bed area is closed off (with an open “door” space) and there are bunk beds inside for the kids! My boys loved it when they were younger. All in all, for the price, you can’t beat the Baymont.
It’s always been a pleasure staying at Baymont. My wife mentioned during our first stay that the bedroom could be more spacious. However, I have always favored the overall experience we got at our every stay. Won’t recommend any other place in the entire Orlando.