Jennifer J.
Yelp
A friend and I met up here for a girls' weekend last weekend, and we LOVED IT. We had so many positive customer service stories and were totally impressed with how many employees were working multiple jobs and shifts in the hotel in order to get the hotel through the uptick in business as the hotel recovers from Covid.
I'll start with our time at the spa. We enjoyed a fabulous visit to the spa for massages with Wil and Michelle, and Jonathan and Terra warmly greeted us upon arrival. My friend and I are big time spa lovers and we both agreed our massages were some of the best we had ever had. Wil did a great job addressing big trigger point problems I had but still making the massage relaxing and enjoyable. (Remember: there's an art to that, y'all!) The massage table I was on was the most comfortable massage table I've ever been on. It's got memory foam in it. So relaxing! We loved trying the sauna, steam room, and aromatherapy/cold showers, too. The only suggestion we have is that management needs to hang some robe/mask hooks around the sauna and steam room so guests can hang with robes before they go in. Instead, we just put our robes and masks in a little pile on the floor by the doors. It would have been good to have some towels on shelves around that entrance, too, instead of walking back to where they were stored. It's a beautiful new spa, but there are these little quirks to work out. Prices are expensive, but sometimes you just have to splurge and enjoy on vacation.
Our hotel room was nice and very JW Marriott -- elegant, well appointed, etc. Our small refrigerator was broken upon check in but maintenance swapped it out for a new one and get it working for us within about an hour of check in. I told my friend that we probably would have had a broken refrigerator for days with some hotels, but JW got that taken care of like it was a priority. We appreciated that. The room had a beautiful bathroom with a full tub, glass shower, and separate toilet room. We loved all the small touches like the magnifying makeup mirror and aromatherapy products.
We tried the Sear and Sea lobby bar and restaurant, poolside dining/drinks, and Unreserved, and all had exceptional service and great fare. Valet was also very responsive and efficient. Check-in with Danielle was great.
The real stars of this hotel right now are the employees, many of which are working double shifts in multiple areas to keep this place operating until they can get more employees on board and trained to handle the growing crowds. We saw employees like Drew at the pool, working poolside all day as a helpful attendant, and then assisting with food service late at night at Sear and Sea. We saw Jory serve us breakfast in the morning with a smile and then working poolside as a server, and at the Unreserved bar all day long (and even training a new employee). We saw Jonathan welcome us at the spa and then later being a welcoming pool attendant. It felt like pool employees Shauna and Emily were there the entire time we were, and they were so sweet and customer-focused to us. Each time, though I'm sure these people were exhausted from working so long and in multiple areas, they made us feel welcomed and important to them. We commented several times that whomever hired all these people hired the right people. They're all so versatile, friendly, and professional. We hope they all get promoted once the hotel gets up to full staffing again, as these are the kind of people they would want representing the JW branding. I didn't catch one of the pool attendants names, but she worked with Emily a lot and was also exceptional. Though all the employees we met were fabulous, we were especially wowed with Jory's work ethic and hope the next time we come to visit he is one of the hotel managers.
We were really grateful for the adult only pool so we could relax and work. Both the adult pool and family pool were pretty full on the weekends (and I think the hotel was only 50% full), so competition for chairs may get messy if the hotel is more occupied. The only weird thing there is that kids often end up coming through that adult-only area to go to the hot tub and splash area. Not sure why it was designed that way.
We know this will quickly become THE hotel to hit in Orlando. We're happy we got to go while it is on the upswing. We want to come check it out once the sushi bar/restaurant is open. Thank you to all the awesome employees who took such good care of us. We highly recommend this hotel!