We stayed at the Hilton Buena Vista Palace in Orlando, Florida in April 2022 for spring break.
Being an Official Walt Disney World hotel, you do get a few Disney perks such as a free shuttle to the four Disney parks and early Genie+ selections. Unfortunately, there are no special parking privileges if you choose to drive to the parks yourself.
The Hilton Buena Vista Palace is made up of two buildings. The main building (high rise pictured above) and the Island building (garden style pictured below). You'll find the two pools, cabanas and lazy river between the two buildings.
We booked a one bedroom Island suite pool view room located in the Island building.
Travel Tip: Make sure to download the Hilton app! You're able to check in a day prior to arrival and can even select which room you'll stay in based on availability. There are floor plans of each hotel so you can take a look and decide which room works best for you.
When you enter the Island building, you'll find a seating/lounge area to your left and right. To your left you'll also find two computers with internet access and a printer. A mini "business center".
Immediately ahead you'll find the elevator lobby consisting of 3 elevators. The elevators have a glass wall giving you a view of the building's atrium as you go up and down. If you're lucky enough to get the middle elevator, you'll even get to see the water fountain feature!
We booked room 4320 which is located on the 3rd floor. As soon as you exit the elevators, the room is located immediately across from the elevator lobby.
All other rooms are either to the left or right but it doesn't technically matter which way you go as the hallway circles around the atrium.
Note: The atrium does cause noises to echo and/or be amplified. If there are some noisy guests running and screaming in the halls, you will hear it.
When you open the door to your one bedroom Island suite, you immediately walk into the foyer and see a glimpse of your living room and first balcony.
The living room features a dresser with 6 drawers, a TV, sectional (sleeper) sofa, and a table with an ottoman. You can pull the blue ottoman out from under the table and use it as additional seating!
You'll find a wet bar in the foyer with a mini fridge and microwave. The door to the half bath is on the left.
On the other side of the living room are nesting tables with two chairs and the balcony door. This is where you'll find your in-room coffee maker and ice bucket. The lamp has two electrical outlets.
Room 4320 is a connecting room so there's an extra door in the living room that non-connecting rooms do not have.
The balcony has metal railings and features two swivel chairs and a table.
Between the wet bar and living room TV, you'll find double doors that lead to the bedroom.
The bedroom features a king bed or two queens. Room 4320 has a king bed with nightstands integrated into the headboard and an ottoman at the foot of the bed.
Across from the bed is another dresser and TV. This particular dresser has 3 drawers and a cabinet door on the right side. Most likely this type of dresser houses a mini fridge in other rooms, but since we had a mini fridge in the foyer cabinet, this cabinet was empty. Could be used for dirty clothes if bringing a pop up hamper!
To the left of the dresser is a floor lamp, chaise, door to the second balcony, and entrance to the full bathroom.
The sink area is separated from the toilet and washing area.
Walking into the bathroom, you'll find a bathtub with shower head to your right with the toilet at the end on the left.
Behind the door you'll also find a walk in shower! This room comes with options in terms of how you'd like to bathe!
To the left of the sink is a closet complete with hangers, an ironing board and iron.
The half bath when you first walk in has a large sink area with a lighted mirror (my favorite!)
The view from this room is amazing! You see both pools, palm trees and the main building beyond that. You can't help but feel like you're on vacation with this kind of view!
This room was absolutely perfect for our family. At 850 sq. ft. it gave us quite some space to spread out. The sleeper sofa is good enough for kids, but the springs in the mattress are super uncomfortable for adults. Having two balconies was a special treat. Having both a bathtub for the kids and a shower for the grown ups was very much appreciated.
Being in the Island building meant we were a few steps away from the pool area and closest to the walkway to Disney Springs. One thing to note, the pool is open from 7am to 11pm. People actually do wake up super early and get to the pool at 7am and others stay up late and play until 11pm. You will hear said people. It didn't really bother us, but if you're looking for peace and quiet at all times while in your room, a pool view in the Island building may not be for you.
Also, if you plan to valet park, be prepared to walk a long distance! In order to valet park you must go to the main building. From there, you'll enter the lobby then go down the hall to the elevators. Go down the elevators. Then walk thru the Bistro area and exit the building then walk across a bridge then along the pool area all the way to the other side to enter the Island building.
The self parking lot however is between the two buildings and convenient to both. Unless it's pouring out, skip the valet and self park. If you go back and forth between self parking and the valet, make sure to check your bill at the end of your stay. They may try to charge you for valet for every night. Also, once you valet, your key card won't work to access the self park lot so you have to click the call for help button for the front desk to let you in.
The building is shaped like a triangle extending towards the pool. All the balconies are angled; there is no direct pool view per se. Our balconies faced East and in April, we got a tiny bit of sun on our balconies until maybe about 10am. And not full sun. More like 10% of the balcony was sunny, the rest was in the shade.
On the first floor, instead of balconies, rooms have patios. Some patios have cushioned lounge chairs others have a table with chairs.
Overall, we loved our stay at the Hilton Buena Vista Palace! We spent this trip with our time mostly tied up at the Disney parks or Disney Springs, except for the one afternoon we rented a cabana. We'd love to come back!
*If you're interested in booking a stay at this hotel, please fill out this form to request a travel quote from me!
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