Radisson hotels don’t have the best reputation in the United States and are generally lower level properties that tend to be past their prime. As a part of the Carlson Hotel Group, the Radisson hotel chain has quite a long history dating back to the first hotel in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1909. Currently, the chain is part of the Radisson Hotel Group (recently renamed from the Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group). One of the biggest Radisson Hotels was right in our backyard, the Radisson Resort Orlando Celebration. This is a huge hotel complex is located just outside Walt Disney World property on RT-192 in Kissimmee, Florida.
When I was driving by the hotel recently, I noticed a change to the sign outside the hotel. The Radisson logo was gone replaced by a rather generic looking sign.
The resort has undergone a name change to become the Grand Orlando Resort at Celebration. Not very inventive but OK. These type of names are often a placeholder while a hotel undergoes renovations to become part of a new property while they make the necessary updates.
The property, which has 718 rooms and over 10,000 square feet of meeting space, is located on 26 acres just off the main I-4 interstate. It was renovated in 2013 but apparently that that wasn’t enough to keep up with the rapid hotel expansion in the area.
Brazilian investors purchased the property in February for 29.4 million US Dollars but they immediately sold the land to another company for $28 million while keeping a 99 year lease on the hotel. This investment group apparently doesn’t plan on sitting on the property, as they also announced plans of joining the Marriott family and branding the hotel as a Delta Hotel.
Apparently no one had told Marriott about this as the Delta Hotels home page still only shows 13 Delta hotels in the US and the only one in Orlando is the Lake Buena Vista property (where you were able to use your Marriott Free Night certificate until it was upgraded to a Category 6 property).
So if you’re looking for a cheap hotel near Walt Disney World and don’t mind some construction, you might be able to find a inexpensive room at the Grand Orlando Resort until (hopefully) becomes a Marriott Delta hotel. Just a warning that the current reviews on TripAdvisor aren’t good at all. I haven’t seen that many one star reviews at a hotel, ever.
I’m curious to see what category Marriott puts this hotel into when (if) it becomes a Delta hotel. If it’s a Category 5 hotel, it may be a great place to use your free night certificate from the Marriott credit card.
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