Holiday Inn & Suites Main Gate
Value, location, and quality are some of the things I look for when looking at a room for a vacation. Disney does a great job of offering their guest a wide range of rooms to meet their guest needs. Disney resorts,even the value resorts, are by far some of the best quality rooms across the country. Adding in the location and the perks Disney resorts offer, you really can't go wrong staying on site. Universal Orlando on the other hand, has 3 elegantly themed hotels, great location, great perks, but the price can really stretch your budget. This is where Universal Partner Hotels bridge the gap offering a wider variety of room options and pricing. The Universal Partner hotels give Guest a great value,quality room, along with some perks, and some offer really good locations next to Universal Orlando.
We wanted to make the most of our August 2011 trip to Florida. We wanted to make it a mega Central Florida trip allowing us enough time to do everything thing we wanted to do along with visiting places we hadn't been before. To do that, we opted to split the trip into two parts, Disney and then Everything else. In the decision to do this, we looked into staying at the Universal On-site hotels and decided that if we wanted to do as much as we could around the Central Florida area, we would have to opted for a Universal Partner Hotel. After much consideration, the choice was made to stay the Holiday Inn & Suites Main Gate Kirkman Road for our everything else part of the trip. Our Disney Portion would be spent at Disney's Port Orleans- Riverside, our family favorite.
When it comes to the Holiday Inn & Suites Maingate, you really can't beat the location and the ease of access by car or by walking to the Universal Orlando Resort for an off-site hotel. Just remember parking is not free at Universal and the walk from this hotel is a small trek. In order to get to either the Island of Adventure or Universal Studios you are going to have a journey through City walk,you can find out more about that here.
The value of this hotel is marvelous. The beds are comfy. Check in and check out were a breeze and the hotel staff was friendly.We were even pleasantly surprised to get a free upgrade from a regular room to a Suite. The hotel has easy access to I-4, I Drive, and literally is right across the street from the Universal Orlando Parking Garages.The ease of getting to all the attractions in the Orlando attractions areas from this hotel is great. There is a TGIF Fridays attached to the hotel, a small gift shop, and a small pool. It is an older hotel, but was under renovation during our stay. We stayed in the portion of the hotel that had not been renovated, and while the hallways showed some age, the room was in very decent shape minus a few scoff marks on the wall.
The room we had offered 2 queen size beds in one room, a couch that folded out into a bed in another room, 2 flat screen TVs, a full sized refrigerator, and a small kitchenette area with a sink and coffee maker. The view from our room was a sweeping view of parking lot that in a previous visit, 10 years earlier, used to contain a bungee swing.Now no signs of that exist.(Honestly, we were not here for the view)
If you looking for an amazingly themed pool, spectacular views, or overly themed rooms; this hotel is not for you.You can pay for that across the street and that is something I would do if I am going to have a short stay(one or two nights) and are just going to do special events that Universal Orlando has to offer(examples:Halloween Horror Nights, Summer Concert Series, Mardi Gras music series, etc.)or just feel the need to splurge. This hotel is a great value for families, extend or short stays, and the value increases substantially when you book a Universal Orlando package.Make sure you contact a a Universal Parks & Resort Specialist, like myself, to see what kind of package you can get for your stay here or at any Universal Partner Hotel or Universal On-Site hotel.
Based on what we wanted to do, the package we booked included the Orlando Flexticket Plus and Early Entry to the Island of Adventure for the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. The Orlando Flexticket Plus ticket option gives you unlimited admission and park hopping abilities for Universal Studios, Island of Adventure, Seaworld, Aquatica, Wet N Wild,Citywalk, and Busch Gardens Tampa for 14 days from the first use. An added bonus is that once you pay for parking for the day, if you save your reciept you don't have to pay for parking for the rest of the day, just show your flexticket and parking reciept to get readdmission to wherever you are headed after that first park of the day.(This was the terms of the ticket in August of 2011, parks included and parking terms can be changed at anytime.)
I would just offer 3 warnings about this hotel.
#1Be aware there is a hard sell time share here. You will be informed that you have a welcome package with coupons and a map of area attractions awaiting for you in the front lobby. When you pick it up, the person tries to get you to commit to going to a time share presentation for a resort that is "close" to the Disney properties. Once again this happened in August of 2011, this may or may not still be there, this had not been there in previous visits.
#2 If your planing on using the shuttle to Universal, don't, it really is not convient and the times for pick up and drop off , from lack of a better word, SUCK. If you have a package that allows you early entry to the parks, you are either going to have to walk, drive, our get a cab.This not unique to this hotel, it a problem for all off site hotels since the transportation is not provided by Universal and is from an outside company.
#3 Be prepared to look for a parking spot. You are in competetion for spots with a rental truck company, TGIF Fridays, and other hotel guest. It was frustrating at nights to come back and have to wait for a TGIF guest to leave so we could have a spot since the rental trucks took up a chunk of the parking lot.There was talks at the time we were there, that the rental Truck company was going to be told at the end of their contract, they would need find someplace else for their trucks because that portion of the lot is prime expansion property for the hotel.
Room Tip: Ask for a room that is not facing kirkman Road
First stay June 2000. Last stay August 2011
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| Part of the Front Room of our Suite. Nice sofa that folds out into a bed. |
The value of this hotel is marvelous. The beds are comfy. Check in and check out were a breeze and the hotel staff was friendly.We were even pleasantly surprised to get a free upgrade from a regular room to a Suite. The hotel has easy access to I-4, I Drive, and literally is right across the street from the Universal Orlando Parking Garages.The ease of getting to all the attractions in the Orlando attractions areas from this hotel is great. There is a TGIF Fridays attached to the hotel, a small gift shop, and a small pool. It is an older hotel, but was under renovation during our stay. We stayed in the portion of the hotel that had not been renovated, and while the hallways showed some age, the room was in very decent shape minus a few scoff marks on the wall.
 |
| A Glimpse at the Bedroom of our suite. |
If you looking for an amazingly themed pool, spectacular views, or overly themed rooms; this hotel is not for you.You can pay for that across the street and that is something I would do if I am going to have a short stay(one or two nights) and are just going to do special events that Universal Orlando has to offer(examples:Halloween Horror Nights, Summer Concert Series, Mardi Gras music series, etc.)or just feel the need to splurge. This hotel is a great value for families, extend or short stays, and the value increases substantially when you book a Universal Orlando package.Make sure you contact a a Universal Parks & Resort Specialist, like myself, to see what kind of package you can get for your stay here or at any Universal Partner Hotel or Universal On-Site hotel.
Based on what we wanted to do, the package we booked included the Orlando Flexticket Plus and Early Entry to the Island of Adventure for the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. The Orlando Flexticket Plus ticket option gives you unlimited admission and park hopping abilities for Universal Studios, Island of Adventure, Seaworld, Aquatica, Wet N Wild,Citywalk, and Busch Gardens Tampa for 14 days from the first use. An added bonus is that once you pay for parking for the day, if you save your reciept you don't have to pay for parking for the rest of the day, just show your flexticket and parking reciept to get readdmission to wherever you are headed after that first park of the day.(This was the terms of the ticket in August of 2011, parks included and parking terms can be changed at anytime.)
I would just offer 3 warnings about this hotel.
#1Be aware there is a hard sell time share here. You will be informed that you have a welcome package with coupons and a map of area attractions awaiting for you in the front lobby. When you pick it up, the person tries to get you to commit to going to a time share presentation for a resort that is "close" to the Disney properties. Once again this happened in August of 2011, this may or may not still be there, this had not been there in previous visits.
#2 If your planing on using the shuttle to Universal, don't, it really is not convient and the times for pick up and drop off , from lack of a better word, SUCK. If you have a package that allows you early entry to the parks, you are either going to have to walk, drive, our get a cab.This not unique to this hotel, it a problem for all off site hotels since the transportation is not provided by Universal and is from an outside company.
#3 Be prepared to look for a parking spot. You are in competetion for spots with a rental truck company, TGIF Fridays, and other hotel guest. It was frustrating at nights to come back and have to wait for a TGIF guest to leave so we could have a spot since the rental trucks took up a chunk of the parking lot.There was talks at the time we were there, that the rental Truck company was going to be told at the end of their contract, they would need find someplace else for their trucks because that portion of the lot is prime expansion property for the hotel.
Room Tip: Ask for a room that is not facing kirkman Road
First stay June 2000. Last stay August 2011
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