Disney's, Newport Bay Club

We choose to stay for 4 nights in the Newport Bay hotel of Disney. As we were here during xmas, we paid highest fair; about 1700 EUR for 4 nights, including 5 day tickets for Disney Parks, and breakfast.

Room: you can notice that the hotel is already getting a bit old. Mirror getting rusty; Bathroom same feeling. The pressure of the warm water for shower was really low; so not more than a small stream of warm water.

Room itself was well cleaned, and cleaning service was adequate. Water cooker/heater is not standard provided; but upon request they brought a nice Philips Avent bottle warmer. Baby bed was already setup for us, but is camping bed type; so actually the bottom feels pretty hard as there is not a real mattress in it. Internet wired and wireless are both available (10 to 15 EUR per day).

Restaurants; there are two restaurants in the hotel, and you need to make reservations upfront, otherwise you need to wait (can be over 1 hour, which is not nice when you are with your children. Same thing for breakfast (included in package): you need to decide the day before which breakfast shift you like to take (blocks of half an hour, till 10.30am). Not very convenient that they force you to decide upfront when you should get up on your holidays to have breakfast.

When we came back around 8pm in the hotel, the restaurants were full, so I looked for alternative dinner. I asked for room service, but room service is only for guests that stay on the more expensive floors (5th and up). I didn't realise this before. When I went to one of the restaurants to ask for take away food, they told me they were not allowed. The manager was so nice to call the room service and ask them to still deliver us on the 4th floor. Though they charged us 10 EUR extra for this "service". I am so dissapointed that I had to beg them, to be allowed to order some food from the room service. Besides the restaurants that were fully booked, no other food can be found except ham & cheese sandwich in the bar. The room service itself was okay. But overall I think the food service that this hotel offers is really below what you expect for such a place.

We tried both restaurants; one restaurant (Yacht Club) serves a-la-carte, and the other buffet. The buffet is okayish, but choices of food are limited; don't expect a buffet a-la-Club Med. It's no match at all. The Yacht Club food, was also dissapointing. A good Clam Chowder, followed by a overcooked and non-tender steak. The shrimp dish was also somewhat overcooked. So overall, was the food really bad? No; but given the premium prices they asked for, it's for sure not good.

Service: well towards kids they are pretty nice; but I would rate the service of the personnel as just ok. They are polite, and they do help if you ask for (e.g. ask for a child seat in restaurant); but you can't claim that they are pro-active. Moreover I didn't find the magic that I expected of Disney; it didn't came from their hearts; it was just a job. Maybe we've been spoiled too much in Asia, and have to get used to the European service levels; but for sure the personnel was not very enthousiastic.

The shuttle bus goes every 12 minutes to the entrance of the Disney Parks and is free. Is pretty convenient.

So; will I go again to this hotel: absolutely not. I think that for this price, it's better to find a good hotel outside (but close to) Disney Resort, as the Disney brand doesn't deliver. The stay was not "magical", I felt to be in a "commercial" environment, where every EUR is squeezed out of the guests, and compared to other hotels from well-known hotel chains, the value for money is poor. At least in other hotels, you don't need to make reservations for breakfast and dinner every day.