Conrad Orlando Review
Orlando is of course one of the most popular destinations in the entire world, thanks to world class theme parks and warm weather year round. While there are dozens of high quality resorts to choose from in the area, including those on the Walt Disney World Resort and Universal Orlando Resort, I wanted to be one of the first to stay at the Conrad Orlando. This place has a little bit of everything. Including one of the unique features of any hotel, anywhere, an eight-acre artificial lagoon complete with real boats! It feels so natural that is creates a beach-like atmosphere in the middle of Central Florida.
Armed with my Amex Hilton Honors Aspire card‘s annual free night certificate, I scored a free night at the newly-opened resort. That one perk of the card saved me over $500 for my one-night stay, including taxes and resort fees. Read to the end to find my full video tour of the stunning property, too!
Location
The Conrad Orlando is one part of a larger resort complex known as the Evermore Orlando. This is mostly new construction, taking over the Villas of Grand Cypress Resort, as well as their golf facility. The location is as close as you can get to Disney property without being on Disney property as you can see on the map above. This hotel is a super convenient location for visiting the Disney parks without paying Disney prices (at least if using points). While the resort offers a free theme park shuttle as part of its resort fee, note you do not get early entry perks like other Hilton resorts located near Disney Springs, which are Official Walt Disney World hotels.
Conrad Orlando Review: Typical Booking Cost
The Conrad Orlando is a part of the Hilton Honors loyalty program, and points rates start at 90,000 points a night for standard award availability. One unique feature of Hilton's program is the ability to redeem points for any room for sale on the website, but those points rates quickly skyrocket beyond 90,000 points and aren't typically great value. If you find standard room availability you can use a free night certificate earned from your Hilton Aspire card, like I did, or Hilton Surpass card. Unfortunately, the ability to earn free night certificates with the Hilton Business card is coming to an end.
The Conrad Orlando has 433 rooms, but the greater Evermore Orlando resort has other room types available not associated with the Conrad. These include villas and multi-bedroom suites that are priced fairly reasonably compared to the Conrad. Of course, you can't use Hilton points for those room types, as they aren't a part of the Conrad, but would still have access to the greater Evermore Orlando resort. I'll go into a bit more detail on what that means below.
Check In
When I say I wanted to be one of the first to stay at the Conrad Orlando, I really got my wish. The grand opening for the property was the same week as my check in, but the hoards of guests hadn't arrived just yet. So much so that during my stay I saw at most 8 other guests. It was explained to me that they were still very much in the “soft opening” phase of their rollout, which wasn't detailed on their website when paying full points rates or cash. The only clue I received before check in was that the fitness center, spa, and rooftop restaurant weren't quite ready yet. I should note that I was able to access the gym at another part of Evermore Orlando, which was fine by me.
Typical Hilton Program Upgrade Issues
However, there were some problems. I am a Hilton Diamond member thanks to my Amex Hilton Honors Aspire card, and know the ins-and-outs of upgrade rules with the program, which sadly lags behind other brands I frequent like Hyatt and Marriott. Given this was a new and under-booked hotel, I figured an upgrade from a standard view to a lagoon view would be no issue. Especially considering the hotel likely wanted guests to experience the hotel in the best light possible. A message to the property about a possible upgrade 24 hours out through Hilton's app, which works seamlessly by the way, was met with an offer to upgrade, but at a charge. When I explained the rules of the Hilton Honors program, they eventually caved in and upgraded me to a lagoon view room. Not the best first impression none-the-less.
Over The ToP Service At Check In
The check in agent was incredibly helpful and friendly, and even escorted me to my room. It seemed this was less about great service, and more to make sure that every feature that should be in the room was in fact in there, and that everything functioned properly. It was smooth, and if I didn't stay at hotels as often as I do I might not have noticed!
Conrad Orlando Review- King Lagoon View Room
In short, the rooms at the Conrad Orlando are absolutely stunning. They are what you would expect from a five-star luxury hotel anywhere around the world, if a little austere for a leisure destination known for fun like Orlando. Lots of blue tones on the walls and floor flowed nicely to the real star of the room, which was the view of Evermore Bay.
As you enter the room, you're met with closet space on the left, complete with robes, slippers, and even an offer for a shoe shine, which is a common touch for high-end hotels. To the right was the room's bathroom, featuring a vanity with two sinks, a marbled walk-in shower, and a toilet hidden behind a frosted door. The bathroom could be entered from the entry corridor or the main bedroom.
In the main bedroom, there was a nice nook to store my carry-on bag, fitting it as if it was custom made for my luggage. Beneath the 55-inch television was a small marble bureau and counter top to store clothing and other items, including electronics, given a charging port with both plugs, USB-A and USB-C was built in.
The king bed featured two nightstands with charging ports built into the wall, along with reading lamps above. The bed itself was plush and one of the most comfortable I had experienced, which seems to be a nice-to-find standard across the Conrad brand.
Seating Area
Rounding out the bedroom, as we moved to the balcony, was a table with two modern chairs set up for dining or perhaps a casual game of cards. There was also a couch with one side ready-made for sprawling out. A moveable table was available to place drinks or room service.
Balcony Seating & Views
Outside on the balcony, a unique and colorful bunny sculpture was featured, with a table, comfortable couch and chair set up on the other side. The stunner was the view of the pool and lagoon, which even looking at it in person seems hard to believe it exists. Imagine the bluest water in the Caribbean, with the whitest, most picturesque sand possible, and you get the picture.
Conrad Orlando Review: Property & Amenities
There real showstopper of the Conrad Orlando are the vast, and beautiful, amenities.
Spa & Fitness Center
The Conrad Orlando has a lot on offer for guests, some of which wasn't quite ready for my stay, but is now open to enjoy. In the immediate Conrad Orlando area is the resort's spa and fitness center, which boasts a sprawling outdoor relaxation area. I was able to sneak a peek of what the area was shaping up to look like (see my video below), and it appeared quite impressive!
Pool & Beach Area
The Conrad Resort has an exclusive pool and beach area, which is in addition to the other pools and beach areas at Evermore Orlando which guests have access to. The pool area is what you'd expect from a luxury resort, with cabanas (still under construction during my visit), pool loungers, and a slick looking zero-edge rim to the pool. Across the public pathway is the resort's beach area, which had more chairs and umbrellas for guests. Nearby the resort's lagoon-side restaurant Papaya Club are some fire pits that added a Tulum-y vibe, which was very welcomed in my opinion.
At the greater Evermore Orlando resort, you have the aforementioned Evermore Bay, which is massive. It didn't appear as if the resort allowed you to swim clear across the lagoon, as there were various boats to take guests from one side to the other, as well as paddleboards and kayaks on offer. On the other side of the lagoon was a public “beach” featuring a massive family waterslide, as well as a rope swing. There are also two golf courses, featuring two 18-hole tracks, one of which is new.
Dining
For restaurants, at the Conrad Orlando there is the resort's signature rooftop restaurant Ceiba, which I sadly can't comment on since it wasn't quite open during my visit. Papaya Club is normally open for lunch and dinner, but was closed early due to low occupancy during my visit.
That left Sophia's Trattoria, which was a stellar Italian restaurant that doubled as the resort's breakfast restaurant. As a side note, the resort is a part of American Express' Fine Hotels & Resorts, so this is where you'd have your free daily breakfast if you booked through that channel. At first glance I found the food to be inventive. I opted to try the Endive salad, which was topped with very fresh ingredients like grapes and shaved parmesan. I felt it was worthy of the price, especially since my daily Diamond credit and my resort credits on my Aspire card helped eliminate my on-resort charges!
Conrad Orlando: Service
Overall, service at the Conrad Orlando was fantastic. I did run into “new hotel” issues which I'll feature here as an example of how a great hotel can recover from an inconvenience. After a long day exploring the resort I wanted to watch the NFL Playoffs in my room, where I found my television did not work.
Several calls for maintenance went unanswered for about an hour. When I finally did track someone down some nice maintenance workers tried to fix the problem to no avail. The manager on duty apologized profusely for the issue, and offered a suite across the hall with a functional television. The problem was it didn't have a lagoon view, but I still decided to accept the offer. I also received 45,000 Hilton points for the inconvenience, which was another nice gesture.
I don't expect guests of the hotel checking in today to have any of my same issues, but it was good to see the hotel try and correct problems for their guests promptly.
Conrad Orlando: ToP Thoughts
Overall, I'd choose to stay at the Conrad Orlando again with a visit to the Orlando area, as long as I wasn't planning on visiting the Disney theme parks. That is because the early entry benefit that is missing from the Conrad is a necessary one to take advantage of for any theme park centric vacation. With excellent dining, an impressively designed hard product, and one of the most stunning features of any domestic or international resort I believe the Conrad Orlando lives up to the hype. If you're interested in checking out a full video tour of the property, check out my video below!
Let me know what you think of this resort in the ToP Facebook Group. Thank you for reading & watching!
