Review of Hilton Grand Vacations Club at Sea World International Center - Orlando, Florida

In the world of high class hotels, no name stands apart as the paramount in sophistication and class as Hilton. The name Hilton has come to be associated with gracious living, splendid surroundings and that perfect family vacation. The Hilton Grand Vacations Club has three properties in Las Vegas, Nevada and two in Orlando, Florida. On my last family vacation to Florida we stayed a the Hilton Grand Vacation Club at Sea World International Center.

We booked our trip 2 weeks in advance and reserved the room with a credit card. When we arrived at the hotel, after a 13 hour drive from Kentucky, it was around 6 in the evening and we were all beat right down to the bottom. We all cheered when we rounded the corner and seen the Hilton sign. We couldn't wait to get in the room and settle down and relax. We entered the lobby, which was beautiful, and were ignored by the staff there. The only person that spoke to us was a lady selling vacation time shares and such at the door. After tracking down an employee we were pointed to the front desk.

At the front desk, I informed them we had a reservation and would like our room as soon as possible. The woman at the desk was from Jamaica and could hardly speak a word of English. The words that she could speak wasn't very understandable for a country boy from Kentucky. After about 20 minutes of talking back and forth a man came over to help us. He spoke with the woman and determined that our room hadn't been cleaned yet and that if we would wait in the lounge, he would have us paged when it was ready. Our hearts sank. We had made reservation 2 weeks in advance and was tired and beat, I was outraged. For $1,500 they should have rolled out the red carpet, but instead, as we walked in we felt totally alienated, was talked down to by the front desk attendant and to beat it all, our room wasn't available yet and it was 7 in the evening.

After some grumbling on our part, another man came to assist us. He gave us another room that was usually a non-smoking room but was all that was available at the time, and told us to smoke anyways. We went to the room and started to unpack. The room was elegant. No detail was over looked. Spacious and very well decorated. The room was on the ground floor, which made access very easy. They have seven buildings at the property all having names instead of numbers, we were in the Smith building.

The resort was surrounded by a wall and had security at the front gate 24 hours a day. You used your room key card to open the gate to enter. The property was very well decorated with a Bermuda Village look and feel. They had two pools, one main pool and a separate pool for adults only. We enjoyed both but liked the quieter, more secluded, adult pool more. Like any other hotel pool, there was no life guard on duty at any time and when the attendant kicked us out of the pool at 11:30 on the grounds that no life guard was available, we were outraged again. I mean, I could have understood if it was unsupervised kids playing around in the pool, but we were adults, in the adult pool.

The main pool was huge, with fountains and an overhead waterfall that fell into the pool. There was billiard tables and table tennis available on the side of the pool. A general store and Pizza Hut restaurant was also available. The main building also housed a theater and game room. The place was huge, very lavish and totally spectacular but for the money we had to pay, we were expecting more freedoms with the pool and more courteous employees. The biggest problem we had was the room not being available when we arrived. Over all we were satisfied with the room, but we won't be returning next year.

Also rest assured that any complaints will fall upon def ears. We tried pleading with the attendant to let us stay in the pool a little longer, to no avail. The property is very well located, right in the middle of all the excitement, yet far enough back to afford some peace and serenity. Only a short drive to Sea World, Universal Studios and Disney World. Tickets were available in the main building of the hotel to all the major attraction, saving you time standing in lines at the parks.

Be advised that if you are thinking about staying at the Hilton Grand Vacations Club at Sea World International Center, don't expect all the glamor and hype that is usually associated with the Hilton brand name. On a scale of 1 to 10, this hotel rated in at 8.1 for rude employees and lack of proper attention to its customers.