We recently checked in (my girlfriend & I) into the Clarion hotel Universal for 5 days while visiting Orlando in April 2006.
The hotel’s location was good, right opposite Wet’n’wild, and very close to universal studios and reasonably close to Sea World. 7 Eleven was right around the block, with a good selection of restaurants, steak houses and seafood joints just around the corner. The hotel was a little old with bad renovation attempts.
Transportation in Orlando was easy, a nicely developed bus system called I-Ride takes you anywhere in Orlando for 1 $ per person. The closest I-Ride stop was around the block from the clarion universal hotel. Complementary shuttles are provided to both attractions, but not advisable because same shuttle has to pick up more people from over 5 hotels, so you naturally reach in late. Take the I-Ride, it’s more convenient and cheap.
The hotel was generally clean. The front desk guy called, he was a little on the slow side, so we needed to explain everything to him 3-4 times. And most times, he still got it wrong. He was a little on the rude side as well.
Bad sides of the hotel: Imagine house keeping entering your room without knocking and while you have specifically asked for no room service/housekeeping at a specific time and while you had a “Do not disturb” sign on your room door! It was awkward.
At the end of our stay, we have specifically asked during our last day there that we didn’t want any housekeeping and we didn’t want anyone in our room because we had all the souvenirs, cash, valuables and everything we bought from Orlando spread out in our room. We have notified both housekeeping and front desk. We also kept a “Do not disturb” sign on the door, just in case. Nevertheless, when we got back into the room, we found that people were in our room and house keeping was done while we were out, which is exactly what we have asked not to be done. Nothing was taken though.
We didn’t try any of hotel’s restaurants, though I did have a turkey sandwich from the cafeteria next to the lobby, which was very good! It was not on the cheap side though.
Universal studios had an office in the Clarion hotel right opposite the main entrance. Their staff was very good, one hotel employee was very knowledgeable, and very friendly. He knew all the ins and outs of the city and he was a great guide. So was a universal employee, using the same counter. Another guy from the Bahamas was trying to be helpful was simply dumb, lost and he knew nothing about tourism in Orlando.