Coco Key Hotel & Water Park Resort

“Not satisfied”

Brought my son here for his 8th birthday. At first I thought this would be a great stay… once we got to our room that slowly started to change. Our newly renovated room was not properly cleaned. Hair on some towels and one of my son’s pillows… okay, no biggie. Our room was set at 66 degrees and was super cold… again no biggie…we then set the thermostat to 72. Heat then kicked on and made the room smell like smoke. We quickly shut it off and reached out to the desk. We were first told it was just a fluke and would “burn off the smell” okay, no biggie…later on we came back to our room and it smelt even worse and was super hot…but set at 72 degrees.. we obviously set it back lower but then it was back to freezing. We contacted maintenance and the gentlemen spoke no English, couldn’t understand us but kept saying over and over “yes normal” shrugging his shoulders like sorry that’s just the way it is… we went to the front desk, they apologized and put us in another room…as we’re moving rooms the manager comes to our room “to inform us that the other room will do the same”. We were baffled. Why would the heat turn on at 71/72 degrees… he pretty much told us if we want an old, unrenovated room our air will work as normal there…. Yet that’s not what we paid for nor what we want. Just super frustrating something so simple turned into a big ordeal… who would keep their room at only 66 for cold or 72 for heat…No in between. Very unsatisfied.

“Great location, but our stay had some disappointments”

We booked this hotel on the recommendation of a Virgin Holidays representative when we went to enquire about booking another trip. We had previously travelled to Florida eight years ago, staying at a mix of hotels including Hard Rock Hotel at Universal, Disney’s Animal Kingdom, Hilton on International Drive and finishing with a Disney cruise. At the time, we thought it would probably be a one-off trip, but fast forward eight years, a new child and my sister getting married — with Florida being her chosen honeymoon destination — and we found ourselves booking another trip! Location The hotel is in a great, central location on International Drive, making it easy to get around and within easy reach of the parks. One of the biggest positives for families is the onsite splash park, which our 5-year-old absolutely loved. When we checked in, we were told we had been upgraded to a Superior Family Room with a splash park view. In hindsight, I honestly wish we had declined the upgrade and kept the room we had originally booked. The room Our room was directly next to the area where the hotel entertainment took place. Unfortunately, this meant karaoke was still going on past midnight on several nights. On a few occasions, my husband actually had to go down to reception and ask for the volume to be reduced. After spending a full day at the parks, the last thing you want is to come back exhausted with a 5-year-old and then struggle to get to sleep because of loud entertainment. The location of our room definitely had a big impact on our experience. The rooms themselves are fairly basic but functional, with a small kitchenette. One thing that really surprised us, especially as we were staying for 16 nights, was the lack of wardrobe space. There was only a very small hanging rail, which would have been a struggle for one person’s clothes, never mind a family of three for a long holiday. Universal shuttle The hotel does offer a shuttle to Universal, but it needs to be booked in advance and only runs three times a day. It is also shared with two other hotels, so the buses could get very busy. We often opted to use Uber instead. At around $10 each way, we found this much quicker and more convenient, particularly when travelling with a child after a long day at the parks. Birthday disappointment Unfortunately, the biggest disappointment came on our son’s birthday. Before travelling, I contacted the hotel about one of their birthday packages, which cost $40 and included room decorations. We thought this would be a lovely surprise for him and paid for it in advance. On the day of his birthday, we spent the day at Discovery Cove and left the hotel at around 7am. We returned at approximately 7pm expecting to walk into a decorated room — but our room hadn’t even been cleaned. I went to reception and was told they had no record of the birthday package. I showed them the email correspondence and payment receipt, which I had made on our arrival day, and was assured it would be sorted. We went out for dinner and returned around 9:30pm, but there was still nothing in the room. I went back to reception again and was eventually told someone was on their way. When the decorations finally arrived, I have to say I was quite disappointed. The package consisted of a towel decoration, a teddy, some sweets and a few balloons. This was nothing like what we had expected from the advertised birthday package, particularly after paying $40 and having made arrangements in advance. Overall, the hotel has some definite positives — the central International Drive location, onsite splash park and convenient access to the parks are all great for families. However, our experience was let down by the noise from the entertainment, limited storage in the room and, most disappointingly, the way our son’s birthday package was handled. We still had a fantastic time in Florida and made some amazing family memories, but unfortunately this hotel wasn’t quite the experience we had hoped for, especially after it had been specifically recommended to us by Virgin Holidays.

“Amazing hotel amazing staff everything was lovely”

We had a fantastic stay for 2 weeks reception staff and manager was lovely all so very helpful restaurant staff were awsome as well we had good chats with shaun in the restaurant i can't fault this hotel at all they all work very hard to keep it to a great standard free disney and universal shuttle service free I ride tickets for international drive thankyou to you all at coco key we will be back 😀 oh and I don't get why some people leave a bad review some ppl just exaggerate and picky out of boredom so those who moan for sake of it im glad you won't be going back one person less to moan 😀 thankyou coco key keep up the great work

“Two week stay”

This was a great base for us to stay whilst exploring Disney and universal. However, our boiler broke halfway through our stay and we were given another room to use for a shower. Whilst using the shower we noticed how much bigger and more appropriate it was for a family of four than the one we were currently using. We were given two queen sized beds for four of us, my husband, myself and our two children, our daughter 13 and son 11. I spoke with staff and they moved our room. Our new room still had only two beds but at least they were now double. I shared with my daughter and my husband shared with our son. Apart from this, staff were friendly and the place itself was clean.