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Well that was fun! The JW Marriott Orlando Grande Lakes is the dictionary definition of mega resort! It’s huge! With 26 floors of rooms, multiple restaurants, water park, huge swimming pool, tennis, spectacular lobby and activity centre.
I had one night at the JW Marriott Orlando Grand Lakes. I had a terrific time with my family.
It’s a great place for kids and big kids alike! I booked with Marriott Bonvoy Points and got a nice upgrade. To a room on the 18th floor. Looking over the resort and the lake. It was spectacular! The photo at the top of the article is from my room.
The resort is well located for Universal, SeaWorld and Disney. With a free shuttle bus for guests.
It’s a beautiful location and a wonderful base for your Orlando vacation.
As always, this is an in depth review. There’s loads of JW Marriott Orlando Grande Lakes photos. Each photo can be clicked, to open the slideshow.
I booked the JW Marriott Orlando Grande Lakes using 53,000 Marriott Bonvoy Points. I stayed during the low season in October. At the end of hurricane season. On the day I checked in, the cost of my room had fallen to $505. That rate was refundable, and included a $50 resort credit.
$505 for a refundable rate with $50 credit would have been an excellent deal.
You can book your room on the Hotel Website here.
The hotel website has a really two good minute video. Complete with unnaturally good looking models (as always!). It provides a great feel for the resort.
The points booking wasn’t bad value either. There’s many ways to accumulate Marriott Bonvoy Points. You can buy them from the Marriott website here.
The resort was virtually empty when I stayed. I think some people had cancelled due to the storms in the weeks prior.
The resort charges a $53 resort fee. At this point, I don’t blame hotels in the US for these charges. Nearly all resorts in the US charge a resort fee. This is a cost in addition to the nightly rate.
Resort Fees are basically a con. The resort fee is always compulsory. Resorts provide a list of benefits for the fee. These benefits are normally ones that you would expect to receive anyway. That being said, every resort on the US now charges a resort fee. So I don’t blame resorts for jumping on the bandwagon.
In fairness to the JW Marriott, their list of benefits weren’t bad. It included use of their driving range. And the aqua course. That being said, I wasn’t told about the resort fee at check-in. I wasn’t given a list of benefits.
I only found out about the resort fee at checkout, where I was presented with the bill. I told the front desk agent that I wasn’t told about the resort fee at check-in. And that I didn’t know about the benefits. In fairness, she immediately took off the resort fee. It may have helped that I’m a Marriott Platinum.
The JW Marriott Orlando Grand Lakes is in the Grande Lakes resort complex. In Orlando Florida. Just 15 minutes drive from Seaworld, Disney and Universal. There’s a free shuttle from the hotel to the theme parks.
The JW Marriott Orlando Grand Lakes is next to a lovely lake. The lake is at the back of the resort. On the other side of the lake is a golf course, designed by Greg Norman. The golf course is associated to the resort.
The resort is next to the Ritz Carlton and Marriott’s Lakeshore Reserve. Two excellent hotels.
Orlando International Airport is 10 miles away. A 20 minute drive. I reviewed the Plaza Premium Lounge in Orlando Airport. One of the best airport lounges in the US, with premium alcohol and terrific food. In the article, I explain how to enter the lounge for $26.30.
Orlando is all about the entertainment and the theme parks. Indeed, Orlando is the Theme Park capital of the world. The Theme Parks are expensive however. But there are some great activities in Orlando that are well priced.
My favourite activities are listed below.
The best value theme park in Orlando has to be Legoland. Book your ticket here for $58. Ticket includes live shows, rides, and interactive attractions.
You can book a ticket to the Wild Florida Safari Park here. For only $31. One of my favourite attractions in Orlando. Rated 4.6*.
Book your tickets to Orlando Magic NBA here for $31. $31 is a great price for an NBA game. You also have access to the Kia centre, with 9 bars and restaurants.
The JW Marriott Orlando Grande Lakes is a mega resort in every sense! It’s massive. 26 floors high. You can see the JW Marriott from miles around as you drive in.
The luxury resort has around 1,000 rooms. Including 64 suites. The resort sits on a 500 acre estate, which includes the Ritz Carlton and Lakeshore Reserve.
The JW is a family-friendly resort in Orlando. There’s so much to do here that you won’t get bored. In fact, it’s probably a bad idea to stay here and visit the Disney Parks. As you won’t have enough time to enjoy the resort.
The Resort has the following facilities:
I loved the resort! it’s great for big kids like me! I giggled as I went down the water slide. I laughed as I beat my wife at table tennis. I cried as nobody wanted to play pool with me!
The most popular activity is probably golf. I’m not a golfer at this point. I have a young family and a business to run. I don’t yet have the time for golf. Here’s hoping for the future!
The lobby was large and had a magnificent water feature in the middle. The design of the hotel was really impressive.
The resort has three awesome water slides. Really fast. The JW promotes the slides as an actual water park.
The resort has multiple restaurants.
I ate at Whisper Creek Farm for dinner. I didn’t enjoy the food. But then again, I’m more into healthy eating rather than junk food.
The JW Marriott Orlando Grande Lakes is in the middle of two other Marriott resorts. On one side is the Marriott Lakeshore Reserve. A Marriott Timeshare resort with apartments rather than hotel rooms. It’s the most budget of the 3 hotels. But I absolutely loved it when I stayed there.
It's a fantastic hotel with lots of activities. Including lazy river, table tennis, shuffle board, table tennis and more. My review of Lakeshore Reserve is here. In the article, I explain how to book the resort for $199 for 3 nights. Via a timeshare preview package.
The Lakeshore Reserve also has two excellent water slides. These aren’t anywhere near as good as the Water Slides at the JW. But they’re a lot of fun.
While I loved Lakeshore Reserve, I wasn’t able to get really good photos of the resort. Normally, my photos are really good. At Lakeshore Reserve, my room view was blacked by the trees. And there’s not many other elevated places to get shots of the resort.
One great think about the Lakeshore Reserve is that they don’t charge a resort fee and parking is free. Saving over $100/night compared to the JW Marriott.
The resort only has 86 apartments. It’s the smallest of the three resorts.
The Ritz Carlton is on the other side of the JW Marriott. It’s the most expensive of the 3 resorts and the most luxurious. They have 582 luxury guest rooms and suites.
The Ritz Carlton feels like an extension of the JW Marriott. They are almost two parts of the same resort. Guests at the Ritz Carlton can access everything from the JW Marriott. The guests at the JW can access the facilities at the Ritz Carlton.
I did consider staying at the Ritz Carlton instead of the JW Marriott. It was 77,000 points (rather than 53,000). I decided against it, as I didn’t see how the Ritz Carlton was any better than the JW Marriott.
Having been to the JW Marriott and looked at the photos of the Ritz Carlton. I’m still not sure how the Ritz Carlton is any better. You have access to all of the same facilities.
The Ritz Carlton resort fee is $60 per night. Valet Parking costs $58 per night. Similar prices to the JW Marriott Orlando Grand Lakes.
I had a fantastic room. It had lots of space. I was upgraded to a Guest room, 2 Queen beds, balcony, on the 18th floor. Overlooking the lake.
The room was fantastic for a bunch of reasons. It was large – around 450 feet. The room was overlooking the lake and the golf course. The view was spectacular. It was also on a high floor.
The upgrade was good. Probably due to my Marriott Platinum status and the fact that the hotel was virtually empty.
The room had the following facilities
The room design was modern and clean. With carpets.
Ultimately, the star of the show was the room view (photo at top of article).
The bathroom was pretty nice too. It had marble effect worktop and a separate bath and shower.
There was also a set of amenities by Aromatherapy.
As a Marriott Platinum, I get complimentary breakfast for two people. It was gooooddddd!!!!!
At the weekend, the hotel offers a continental buffet for Marriott Platinum. I stayed during a weekday, so instead we got to order one item from the breakfast menu. And have a drink.
I visited with my family. Four of us. They provided free breakfast for three of us. Myself, my wife and my son. My son was under four, so he didn’t pay.
Both my kids had the kids breakfast. Pancakes, one egg cooked any way and fruit. There was also a choice of sausage or bacon. But as they’re veggie, they didn’t have that!
The food looked good! They enjoyed the pancakes. It was served melon and pineapple. They both had scrambled eggs.
I had pancakes. My wife had oatmeal. The pancakes were good, as you might expect. Served with maple syrups and strawberries. A set of three thick American pancakes.
My wife said the oatmeal was as good. It was served with syrup, sugar and strawberries.
I had a coffee with my breakfast. It was really bitter. Not great.
It’s a pity that I couldn’t have the continental breakfast, as the options looked fantastic. The menu is below and includes oatmeal, avocado toast, bagels and more. I don’t eat meat, so the options would have been great for me.
Here’s where it gets interesting! The hotel has a huge swimming pool and lazy river.
There are floaties you can use and lay on. As the current takes you round the lazy river. The lazy river is a quarter mile long.
I went round once with my family. The current was weak! I had to push the three of
them!
On the plus side, the water was a lovely temperature.
The swimming pool is open from 8am to 10pm.
I took a load of photos of the lazy river. Not surprising, as it’s a quarter mile long! These photos can be seen in the above slideshow.
There’s also a couple of whirlpool hot tubs. I used them. They were ok. Not quite hot enough.
There are three huge water slides at the resort. I used all three. I loved them all as I’m a kid at heart!
When I previously stayed at Lakeshore reserve next door. I walked by the JW and was envious of the people on the water slide! If you stay at Lakeshore Reserve, you need to pay $50 extra to use the water slides. Guests at the Ritz Carlton can use the water slides for free.
The rapids are a slide that you can go down alone or with a partner. You sit on a float as you go down. I went down with my daughter. It’s fun but not super fast.
There’s a green slide called the current. You go down alone. It’s fast and fun. At the bottom is when it’s fastest. It also goes dark and is a little scary. My daughter closed her eyes.
The chutes was the slide I went down most. It’s super scary, fun and fast! As you 1st go down, the descent is really steep and you go very fast. The initial descent lasts for less than a second, but it feels much longer!
The slide then gets more shallow. But as you’re going so fast, is doesn’t take long for you to get down.
The slides are awesome!
As the resort was empty, i didn’t need to queue. My daughter got bored and walked away. But I still went down the slides a few more times.
The slides are open from 10am to 6pm.
The JW has an aqua course, which I have never seen before. It’s basically an obstacle course with water coming down. You also have water cannons to use against the other users.
You’re also strapped to a harness.
I didn’t go on the course as I didn’t have time. But it looked like fun.
The JW had an activity centre with the following activities
I played table tennis with my wife.
I wanted to play pool, but my wife refused! As she can’t play.
For some reason, I took quite a lot of photos of the activity centre. These can by seen by clicking the above photo and looking at the slideshow. I probably should have spent more time playing with my kids.
The resort has a set of tennis courts and pickleball courts. The facilities are shared with Lakeshore Reserve and the Ritz Carlton. The courts are high quality hard courts.
I played once with my wife. I was also able to borrow gear from the hotel to use.
I recently stayed at a luxury Marriott resort in Europe, where they charged guests to borrow tennis rackets and balls. That annoyed me!
The JW Marriott Orlando Grand Lakes is fantastic as there’s so much do. It would be a mistake to come here and go to the theme parks. As you would miss out on the fun of the resort.
It’s the sort of luxury resort to enjoy for a day or two. At the end of your vacation.
The water slides are as good as a water park. The lazy river is huge. The views from my room were spectacular. I enjoyed my breakfast. There was also a bunch of other stuff to do.
I reviewed the Sheraton Maitland Orlando here. One of the best value hotels in Orlando. With a lovely swimming pool, executive lounge and terrific American Breakfast.