Gaylord Palms Resort & Convention Center

We had our annual corporate summit here and I couldn’t have enjoyed myself more! Will definitely recommend this venue for next year.

Beautiful Hotel and great if you want a legitimate get away. We got there Saturday afternoon and never had to get back into the car again for anything until we left since there is so much to do at the resort alone. Not the cheapest route to take but really convenient.

The Gaylord Palms resort is located in Orlando. Conveniently located near Disney as well as the 417 express way which takes you to and from the airport.
The resort is huge and fabulous look from the out side and inside. however, the room is a different story .
The resort is distributed in a theme park manner. The resort is divided into 5 sections each is representative of different areas of Florida.
In the center of the resort you have an enormous in door atrium with live animals
In which you have areas with live gators, turtles, and fish.
During Christmas the resort put their Christmas tree in the center and with the lights it is awesome to see. The rooms can have either to outside view (cheap) or the inside atrium view which is much more expensive and usually includes and balcony which you will be able to access.
The rooms are somewhat clean but old. Clearly the finish and doors have not been remodeled in 2 years.
MOST IMPORTANT
NO PRIVACY
YOU CAN HERE YOUR NEIGHBOR ABOVE YOU AND IN THE NEXT ROOM!
VERY DISAPPOINTING
THE BEDS MAKE NOISE every time you toss and turn not to say the least if «exercising» with a partner!
I found one of the towels was DIRTY WITH A BODILY STAIN (LOWER GASTROINTESTINAL TRACT) to be exact!
I told them and nothing was done!
They have a kids mini water park which is great but my only problem is the water is COLD! It should be heated to 85 plus. They say it is heated. 70oF for a Floridian is COLD!
The have an adult only pool which is also cold and 4 hot tubs for adults only
The resort also has direct access to its convention center
Finally, If you do VALET PARKING BE VERY CAREFUL
THEY SCRATCHED MY LUXURY EXOTIC VEHICLE 3″
They gave me the impression that is was my fault.
I had the guy check with me the car when i came in and left the vehicle with no issues and then when i left the guy from the valet tossed me the key fob very fast. I did not think of it until i started to check the car and noticed the issue.
I immediately ask for the manager who proceeded to do all the paperwork accordingly.
MY HUMBLE RECOMMENDATION IS ALWAYS
VIDEO TAPE YOUR CAR WITH THE VALET WHEN YOU HAND THEM THE KEY AND
MOST IMPORTANT
BEFORE ACCEPTING THE KEYS TO YOUR CAR DO A WALK AROUND WITH THE VALET AND VIDEO TAPE IT QUICKLY NO MATTER HOW BUSY OR LATE IT IS!!!
THIS WAY IT IF YOU SEE ANYTHING THE KEY IS STILL IN HIS HANDS!
Really upset
I WILL TAKE MY MONEY ELSEWHERE!
WILL NOT RETURN EVER!

This year our national meeting was held here at the Gaylord. I can’t comment on the rooms since they were incredibly expensive (rates increased due to the conference) and we chose to stay elsewhere. What I can comment on though is the hotel in general and all of the amenities we enjoyed at the conference.
Firstly, everyone we interacted with was very professional and friendly. We got taxis a couple of times and the valet service did a great job accommodating the large number of conference guests that always got out of the meeting at the same time and needed to be chauffeured elsewhere. The service during the conference included water, coffee and tea and there was always someone in attendance asking you how your morning was.
This hotel is huge by the way. It could literally be a theme park all by itself. It is beautiful outside but truly breathtaking inside. Once you get past the main lobby, it opens up to this beautiful indoor atrium with lush tropical greens and waterfalls and creeks with bridges. There are koi ponds and even little alligators with scheduled feeding times. Lots of peaceful places to sit and relax. There are little restaurants and shops nestled here and there. At the far end there are cobbled streets and you feel like you’ve entered a little town. Here you can get your Starbucks on, visit some shops, or proceed down the hall to a sportsbar with the largest tv I’ve ever seen.
The conference rooms are on the other side and had comfortable chairs and the rooms were kept at a good temperature. Acoustics were good and their large screens made it easy to see the speakers and their presentations.
The pool area is also really nice with a lot of seating and a bar inside the pool area where you can grab drinks or snacks.
Overall a beautiful hotel that makes you feel like you are in a resort. If I’m ever traveling to that area and I’m no longer an impoverished student, it would be fun to stay here.

Fun time! This hotel is stunning and there is so much to do. A little more expensive though.

I really enjoy staying at the Gaylord Palms. It is huge with tons to see. They have a waterpark, alligators to watch being fed, tons of waterfalls and beautiful exotic plants and trees. To top it all off, they have a fantastic little waterpark and pool. They have a separate adult only pool, too. I come here for business events that are held at the attached convention center. The food they serve for the events has always been extremely delicious and at times unique. The rooms are comfortable and most offer a balcony overlooking the interior’s beauty. There is a great assortment of restaurants to choose from within the resort.

This resort has only one adult pool and one kid pool. Hence, if a company books that area for special event, you have nowhere to go.
The spa pools were very dirty, and I don’t think anyone working here cared for them. I went there for 2 consecutive days and they had leaves and bugs in the pools there in 2 days I went. Not acceptable at a resort like this.

What a great place to spend Christmas, headed out of the house for Christmas was a risky decision as we arrived at The Gaylord Palms one can only become enthroned in the massive size of this hotel. Also during the trip I was able to attend ICE this show is a little overrated however it does what the name is FREEZING COLD ICE burr I can still feel the chill. Luckily it was 80 degrees outside in Orlando that night. To sum up great free Christmas tree lighting show great hotel exceptional service, super pricy but you will remember this stay for years to come.

What a jaw-​dropping modern architectural accomplishment!!! Absolutely blown away by the sheer size of the property, level of details in every part of the hotel, and the giant glass that covers the entire atrium.
There is a motherducking SHIP inside the property. You hear that right. They managed to put a big pirate ship in the hotel.
—– Positives —–
The atrium: You can easily spent a few hours here. There’s a ship, castle, alligator pond, waterfall, Amazon, etc. Did I mention there is a huge pool outside too?
Room: While it’s not as fancy as JW or Renaissance, it’s definitely a step above Courtyard.
Service: Everyone was very accommodating and room service was great.
—– Not So Positives —–
Parking: $ 20 a night (WHY? This hotel is not adjacent to anything… No one is going to park here and walk to Disney) $ 27 for valet.
Room: For $ 200+ a night I expected rooms to be at least on par with or better than JW/​Renaissance. There is a ZERO wow factor upon entering the room. Small TV, boring furniture, boring colors, and uninteresting bathroom layout.
Outdated elevators & hallway: Slow elevators barely big enough to fit 3 – 4 people with luggages.

First time went yesterday for family Thanksgiving. The place is beautiful with all the light surrounding the hotel. The pool was pretty big with a nice size slide. Too bad it was a little cold for the kids to go for a swim. Stay for the Ice show. Very beautiful. Enjoy my visit.

Why is everything sticky?
Attended a conference here, Gaylord Palms was one of the three sites that held events for the conference and this site wasn’t #1 in my book. Granted, it’s pretty to look at when approaching it’s expansive acre estate — however, I can’t quite say more to the staffing or the room as we did not stay here.
There is plenty of space to hold the nearly 20k (as I estimate) attendees going to a from the rooms for registration, lectures, and classes. A wedding here would seem super extravagant. But the two things I can really comment on is the atrium-​like area and the main restaurant.
The atrium-​like area holds a few shops and restaurants, probably close to the center of the entire hotel. Beautiful koi fish pond on the center. However, why is everything sticky? Walked into the little café and our shoes had this weird sticky feeling to them. Walked into the market and the floor just felt sticky… Walked to the restaurant everything felt sticky. Did a child spill a pool of soda that water and soap could not fix? I don’t know. My toes curled in my shoes as I walked. And it was humid, why is it humid indoors? I guess they’re trying to bring the outside indoors, but the idea of being indoors is to avoid the outside.
Anyway — the breakfast buffet in the main restaurant was good, not amazing, but good. Nice selection and for $ 26/​pp it was fine (I suppose) — the bunch at $ 40 seemed extravagant to wait an additional hour to eat. Friendly staff, liked that their badges listed where they’re from.
But seriously, I don’t know why it felt sticky and it wasn’t just me or so I think.

This is a very overrated hotel with very expensive dining options inside the property and expensive daily parking.
The room was not clean. The skirt on Thebes was stained and had bleach marked on it. There was something in the cleaning solutions of the sheets that I was allergic to. I woke up with hives on my legs and when I told the front desk nothing happened. The bathtub was moldy around the metal handle. This is easy to clean. There were stains on the towels. I’m not sure what it was but it was black.
As a resort and spa I expected to have bathrobes in the rooms but there weren’t any.
The pool areas were okay but they did not have enough towels. They were also rough and thin, not fluffy like other resorts I’ve been to.
It was a very disappointing experience.

My family and I stayed at the Gaylord Palms resort last month during the holidays. I was very excited to see the holiday décor and atmosphere at this already gorgeous resort. Before entering the resort, we were stuck in the valet line for 45 mins. We didn’t mind the wait because we were expecting to wait due to holidays. However, the system is very disorganized and many people did not respect the line.
Once inside, we went to guest services to check in & pay for valet. There is a manager greeting and directing guests to front desks agents. The check in process was easy since we had prepaid for the room and winter ICE attraction. The agent gave us the room keys and schedules, but let us know that one out of the two rooms in the atrium were available. We had to wait an hour for the second room. During that time, we spent 30 mins on the phone trying to reach someone to locate our bags and find out if our second room was ready. We had to walk downstairs to get the key and shortly after returned since the room key did not work.
After all that, we were ready to have a good time & checked out the restaurants, pool and gift shops. We also enjoyed the ICE attraction with 9 degree weather and ice sculptures. Overall, great family resort with great ambiance, clean room and friendly staff. Gave four stars due to gorgeous resort and cleanliness of room and attraction. However, there were various logistical issues (Long wait times for parking, room and bags, room key didn’t work and they charge us four times for valet parking), and high valet prices ($ 12 per night).

Have stayed here for the last 4 years around the same time for my daughters birthday and has been great. We always book it months in advance, this time it
Has left a lot to be desired.
First off pulling up the parking lot we waited 45 minutes just to get up to the valet stand then at the valet stand there was like 15 cars being handled and luggage thrown around (saw a luggage hit a car at this point) next you walk into the lobby to approx.100 guess waiting in line to check in. Another 40 minutes.
We check Into our room with a balcony that was all made of concrete my kids couldn’t see out, last few times we had a balcony with bars they can see through.
The the balcony view was of the top of a restaurant and worse was it smelled like raw fish (which I found out later was due to the restaurant below us).
At this point I waited for 20 minutes for the front lobby to answer the phone to hear my issues so far.
They said they would change our room but we waited another 30
Minutes for the person to come up
To give us the new keys and assist with luggage
The whole time I was thinking what a horrible birthday my daughter must be having as we wasted we spent In total almost 3 hours getting it all together. After all this I’m just ready to go to bed. Horrible experience .
Gaylords needs to step up their game or they will loose a lot of their visitors and I for one am not looking to come back.
Stay away or take this as a warning as to what to expect
Update … As of today 1÷3÷2016 I had written back to the management on this stay and no one has contacted me back. It seems like they don’t need customers. As they don’t care about their customers experiences

If I could give it a 0 star I would. Most over rated 5 star hotel I’ve ever stayed in. U spend half of ur vacation waiting for valet

I am not sure the beauty of the property makes up for the rest.
One star for below. Two stars for the gardens.
I am going to skip the nice parts, because that’s all written already. They do exist.
Staff — they most all seem tired of dealing with tourists all the time. A few were polite and pleasant, many were less so.
Bartenders: The three who worked behind the downstairs bar at Wreckers Sports Bar the night of Saturday, December 12^th should be fired. As soon as one gave us service, the other two ignored us completely. But we couldn’t get the one back. Finally had to get the outside server to get us drinks. Promote Christopher. Fire the others (a brunette, a blonde, and a surly man). Sitting with 2 empty drinks and asking for another round and being ignored is despicable service.
Rooms: View from the room was gorgeous. Room itself was fine. More Courtyard fine than JW fine. Bed was all right if you like really firm.
Parking: Was told self parking would be really packed. Probably just a ploy for Valet.
Telephone: Really fun calling the smiley face on the hotel room phone to ask a question, and wait on hold for 10+ minutes, multiple times. Saw a woman having to use a hallway phone asking for a late checkout because no one would answer when she called from her room.
Checkout: Since NO ONE WOULD ANSWER THE PHONE to have my car brought around, we went down, carrying our own luggage. Got IN LINE to request our car be brought around with about 100 other people, all waiting and angry. Was told the wait for our own car was about an hour. One Hour Wait for Valet? Talk about being really glad to drive AWAY from a hotel with a bad taste.
I’ve stayed at over a dozen Orlando hotels in the past few years. This is one of the prettiest and one of the most poorly run.

Beautiful property conveniently located near the parks. They have some great restaurants (Wreckers Sports Bar, MOOR, and a steakhouse to name a few), fantastic space for small break-​out groups and larger conferences, an adult pool with a bar and a pool that allows children with numerous activities, and a very nice gym.
The staff was phenomenal — I do not think I walked by a single staff member who did not welcome me or ask if I needed any help! The rooms were nicely designed and very comfortable as well.
I think the biggest drawback was the food for our conference (got the job done, but was not the best), and one time we had an outdoor lunch when it rained and there was no contingency plan. Other than that, this is an ideal place to stay for either business or leisure.

A place to call home.
What hasn’t already been said about Gaylord Palms? It’s a modern marvel of ingenuity. The designers and the architects have done a perfect job executing their vision. The replication of Key West, Saint Augustine and the Everglades are nearly too good to be true. It’s something a picture cannot do justice.
Hotel amenities include multiple fine dining restaurants, a coffeeshop, a yogurt shoppe, a sports bar, a few convenience stores, a water park, an adult pool and some of the most scenic grounds of any hotel in the Southeast.
Experience it for yourself.

Had the pleasure of staying here 3 Nights for a work conference of 1,000 attendees. I was very pleased with my stay. Below is my review broken into service areas.
Hotel: The hotel facility is a Beautiful, very well kept and very impressive with lush gardens, ponds, with koi fish, turtles, gators, fish trees and beautiful restaurants with lots of variety.
Rooms: I stayed in a double room with two queen beds. Found the room to be very clean with a comfortable mattress fresh sheets & fluffy pillows.
Amenities: The Gym is well sized with a good number of equipment & weights. The pools were wonderful. One for families and other exclusively for adults. Self Park parking was also available for an extra charge of $ 18.00 a day. Do keep in mind you will have to walk a bit, I personally enjoyed the exercise.) I only ate at Wrekers for lunch and it was pretty good. Didn’t have a chance to try others so I would look at Unilocal for a specific review of each as they have about 6 different restaurants which were very nice.
Service: Everyone was extremely friendly & helpful. Hotel employees kindly greeted me every morning as I walked to breakfast half asleep and the other times I was trying to find something.
Convention Center:
It’s really impressive how organized the convention operated during my conference of 1,000 people! We were served Breakfast daily & lunch. The team was friendly & knew what they were found. The banquet food was also excellent!!!
Overall I would definitely consider this hotel for business and even more so pleasure! Totally worth it, would definitely love to stay her again!
Sweet dreams!

Solid experience in terms of room quality, comfort and staff service. This place misses the mark on location as it’s terribly isolated. There is no outdoor walking path around the property which is a shame. Surely it would be a mile or so to run around the entire property? The gym is nice, but it seems odd to not enjoy the Florida warmth and sun. The food served for the conference was very carbohydrate rich and lacking in proteins. Hotel and convention center temperatures were kept frigid. The whole biodome experience is very delirium inducing. At one point I thought I was at the Gaylord Texas. Perhaps they didn’t realize the retinal pineal glad pathway for circadian rhythms.
Staff were all kind which helped bump the star rating.