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Located a short drive from Walt Disney World, the Orlando World Center Marriott is one of the largest and most wheelchair accessible resorts in Orlando, Florida. With 1,883 guest rooms and 121 suites, the resort has plenty of space to accommodate families and groups of all sizes. Handicap accessible hotel rooms feature updated decor, comfortable bedding, free wi-fi and ADA compliant bathrooms, making it a great choice for travelers with disabilities.
This family-friendly resort near Disney World and many of Orlando’s top attractions suited my needs perfectly, and I am excited to share my review with you.
Booking an Accessible Hotel Room
The easiest way to reserve an accessible hotel room at the Orlando World Center Marriott is online at the hotel’s website. Rates at the hotel vary based on the time of year and nightly demand, but usually start at around $200 USD.
Searching for rates and availability is possible from the homepage. Once you’ve found a room and rate you like from the search results, select it. The ADA accessibility features available will be shown under “Choose Room Features” – in the example above, I have ticked the box for a roll-in shower.
The hotel has a large number of ADA accessible rooms which are dispersed among the various classes of rooms. Accessible room features include roll-in showers and bathtubs with grab bars. Some rooms offer accessibility features for the hard of hearing.
Like most resort properties in Orlando, this hotel charges a resort fee of $25.00 per night. The resort fee includes:
- Enhanced in-room wireless internet for up to 6 devices.
- Unlimited local and domestic long distance calls.
- Bottled water (two 10 oz. bottles) replenished once daily with housekeeping service.
- Daily scheduled shuttle service to Disney Parks for up to 4 guests.
- Daily credit of up to $10 per room towards dry cleaning (credit is not cumulative through stay).
- Daily bucket of practice balls at the driving range.
This fee is disclosed during booking, but I always encourage guests to ask to have a portion waived, especially if they have not taken advantage of some or all of the included amenities. Obviously, as a wheelchair user, I won’t be hitting any golf balls on the driving range!
Wheelchair Accessible Hotel Room
I was assigned to room #30116, which was located on the first floor of tower 3. It was a long trek from the hotel’s atrium lobby to my room, but I arrived to find a wonderfully accessible accommodation. The door was unlocked with a tap of the key card and opened fairly easily.
Having checked-in late (after midnight), I made my way straight to the King size bed. With a pillow-top mattress, soft duvet and fluffy pillows, I was asleep within a few minutes.
Before drifting off to sleep, I made sure to plug-in my power wheelchair. Outlets on the wall next to the bed were easy to reach from my wheelchair, but not from the bed itself.
There was plenty of space for my wheelchair in the hotel room, with all sides of the bed being accessible. My first-floor room had an outdoor patio through a sliding glass door, a nice space to relax in the evenings.
A chest of drawers, work desk and television were located opposite the bed. The desk chair rolled easily out of the way, and the desk was high enough to accommodate my wheelchair. There were plenty of power outlets in this area for charging my phone, laptop, camera and other electronics.
All-in-all, a spacious room that offered a comfortable space for rest and relaxation.
Wheelchair Accessible Bathroom
When booking a handicap accessible hotel room, you can’t always be certain what you’ll find when you check-in. Fortunately, I had no reason to worry – my room at the Orlando World Center Marriott was accessible and had an ADA compliant bathroom.
Clear floor space next to the toilet provided a spot to park my wheelchair and made lateral transfers between my wheelchair and the toilet possible. Grab bars aided in these transfers and were in all the right places.
The sink was also accessible, with space to roll one’s knees under the basin. A wooden shelf was oddly placed on the floor below the sink, but could be moved easily or with assistance from the hotel.
The roll-in shower utilized a design that is not very common, but it is an approved option in the ADA Standards for Hotel Bathroom Design. This shower had a wall-mounted seat, grab bars, handheld shower spray unit and water controls all within reach. I appreciated the shower curtain, with allowed me to protect my wheelchair from the water.
The toiletries offered in this hotel were wonderful Thann products, including aromatherapy shampoo, condition, shower gel, body lotion and bar soap.
Resort Accessibility
The Orlando World Center Marriott is an expansive resort, with eight restaurants, a golf course, a full-service spa, multiple swimming pools and more than 2,000 guest rooms and suites. But despite the complex’s enormous size, getting around the resort is actually easy.
Sidewalks throughout the resorts are well maintained and wheelchair accessible, but may be littered with the beautiful blooms of flowering trees. The hotel’s doors are all electronic, activated by movement or by pressing the door access button, making it easy to go outside or get back inside the hotel. Wheelchair users won’t have to struggle to open doors.
All of the swimming pools and hot tubs have wheelchair accessible lift chairs. People with disabilities will be able to get in and out of the water easily, which is a great freedom to have. Sadly, the water slides are accessible only via stairs and are not wheelchair accessible.
Location & Transportation
Resorts offer everything – accommodation, food, shopping and entertainment, making them extremely attractive to families and travelers with disabilities.
If you are driving to the resort, parking fees are $22.00 per day for self-parking or $32.00 per day for valet parking. Alternatively, you can save a lot of money by leaving your vehicle at home. SuperShuttle offers a great deal, with round-trip transportation from the airport for just $40 per person.
If you’ll be visiting the Disney parks, the hotel provides complimentary transportation each day which is included as part of the resort fee. The shuttle buses used are wheelchair accessible, with a wheelchair lift and securement straps. Using the hotel’s shuttle to Walt Disney World will also save you money on parking at the theme parks.
Wheelchair accessible taxis are also available in Orlando, and the hotel’s concierge can help arrange one for you.
Final Thoughts
The Orlando World Center Marriott is one of the city’s largest resort properties, and one that I enjoyed staying at very much. With free transportation to Walt Disney World parks, great food, swimming pools and comfortable rooms, the World Center Marriott has a lot going for it. And, if wheelchair accessibility is important to you, this hotel should be at the top of your list when selecting a hotel for your next vacation in Orlando.
Feature image courtesy Marriott Hotels.
