The Grove Resort Orlando – Our Family Review

After spending a week there for Thanksgiving, I am excited to share our Grove Resort Orlando review. We made a new tradition of taking a trip for Thanksgiving, but this year we didn’t want to travel very far. My husband found The Grove Resort online, with an on-site water park and close proximity to Disney parks, so we booked it!

Keep reading as I share our full experience and our best tips if you plan to visit The Grove Resort.

Insider Tips for Families

Based on our experience, here is a summary of my tips if you plan to visit The Grove. Keep reading for our full experience and more info!

• Pack keurig coffee pods, laundry detergent, dishwasher pods, aluminum foil (if you plan to cook), ziploc bags, and dryer sheets
• If you plan to use a sleeper sofa in your room, ask for sheets when you check in
• It’s best to get to the water park as soon as they open in the morning to secure your seating
• First thing when they open also seems to be the ideal time to do the surf simulator without having to do it with too many other people during your 30-minute session
• Navigating the hotel can be confusing. We found it very easy to get lost in the hallways. They give you a map when you check-in, so be sure to keep that.

Accommodations

We rented a two-bedroom, two-bathroom “condo” in The Grove. 

Pros:

• Our room was super spacious, with nice big bedrooms, large bathrooms, and lots of closet storage space. It was perfect for our family of five (our two oldest slept in the bedroom with the two full-size beds and our youngest slept on the pull-out sofa bed in the living room).
• It was very clean and overall nice.
• These rooms have full-size washers and dryers in a laundry closet.
• They also have a full kitchen complete with full-size appliances (oven/stove, refrigerator/freezer, and dishwasher).
• The bedrooms have ceiling fans.
• We had a small balcony with chairs.

Cons:

• There were no sheets in the room for the pull-out sofa bed (we had to ask for these). Read more about this in our check-in experience section below.
• Our Master TV did not work (they came to fix it the next day). Read more about this in our check-in experience section below.
• Our phone did not work (they never fixed this).
• There was a keurig in the room, but no coffee. This always irritates me. Most hotels include at least one or two servings of coffee, so I was annoyed to find that I wouldn’t have coffee the first morning in my room. I went to the store to buy pods (which I don’t use at home so they’re useless to me if I end up with extra).

The Grove also has one-bedroom suites, three-bedroom suites and studio rooms. See more of their accommodations here.

Dining Options

The main on-site restaurant at The Grove is Valencia Restaurant. We actually did not try this restaurant. They serve breakfast, lunch and dinner. 

We did eat at their poolside bar, LongBoard Bar & Grill. The food and service was good.

They also have a market, the Alfresco Market. They do have a coffee shop here and serve Starbucks (so that is a bonus!), and a ton of other things you may need or want. I did find the prices to be very high.

For example, a bottle of wine that would be about $20 that we buy at home all the time was $60 in the Alfresco Market. That type of mark-up is just wrong. So pack everything you need (including your wine), but the market is there if you’re in a bind!

I had pre-cooked several things for breakfast and lunches since we had a full-kitchen, so we didn’t eat all meals out. We had other meals outside of the hotel (more on that below).

Learn more about dining options at The Grove here.

Family-Friendly Activities and Amenities

The biggest reason we booked The Grove Resort was because of the amount of activities there. Here is a summary of those activities and our experience with them:

Surfari Water Park

We had fun at the water park and our kids really liked it, but to be honest, it’s not what I think of when I think of a “water park”. It has:

• Two large water slides (one closed/tube, one open – this one goes a little slower)
• A huge lazy river
• A large zero-entry pool
• A kids splash/play area with climbing and slides
• A surf simulator

While it has a nice pool at the water park, that pool was very cold compared to the lazy river, so our kids didn’t play in it at all. On the first day they did the slides over and over, the surf simulator once (this is an extra charge, more on that below), and went around the lazy river a million times.

We did enjoy the water park, but after two days of spending several hours there, our kids were bored with it. There are only so many times you can do the same slide and lazy river over again.

They absolutely loved the surf simulator, but it was $35 per person for 30 minute sessions that were shared with up to 4 other people, depending on how many people booked at the same time.

So I paid $70 the first day for my oldest two to do it, and the second day I paid $105 to do it with them again. Plus, I tipped the instructors (who were both really great). It was, no doubt, the funnest part of the water park, but it came with a hefty price tag!

Springs Pools

We checked out these pools, but didn’t spend a lot of time by them because the kids wanted to be in the water park area. Here they have three full-sized pools, an oversized hot tub, children’s splash area and private cabanas.

Kids’ Activities

There was a kids’ activity room that we spent some time in one day when it was raining for a little bit. They have toys, arts and crafts, coloring, and a PlayStation. It was nice for the kids to have something to do for a little bit rather than being stuck in our room.

They also do some fun activities by the pool in the water park. My daughter entered a hula-hoop contest and won a free snow cone. 

Flip Flops Arcade

The arcade was decent sized but given the cost of the game cards, we decided to skip it and spend our time outdoors. That said, I did see that they do some deals (I think one day there was a $40 game card deal), so be sure to check with them on current rates.

​Glow-in-the-Dark Putt Putt (mini-golf)

Glow-in-the-dark mini golf sounded so fun, but the course was very small and didn’t look worth the price to us, so we skipped that too.

Lake Activities (Lake Austin Pier)

We were excited for some lake activities. They have paddle boats that I really wanted to use with my kids, but unfortunately the person working on the pier the first day we were there told us we were not able to do any of the lake activities out on the water, even the paddle boats, because their rescue boat was not working.

We were able to do the fishing off the pier, which we did the last day we were there, but were shocked at the additional cost of $20 per person for 2 hours. So for our three kids to fish, that would be $60 for 2 hours just to borrow a pole and get a small cup of cut up hot dogs. 

Gym

The fitness center looked nice and I really intended to use it daily, but kids. I love that they have it as an option though.

Our overall feeling on the amenities was that it didn’t feel worth the $50/day resort fee to then have to pay additional for all of the activities. The flip side of this is that it cuts down on lines (for example, I know the surf simulator would be non-stop madness if it were free). Learn more about the amenities at The Grove here.

Proximity to Orlando Attractions

A perk of The Grove is that is it close to Walt Disney World and other local attractions. We didn’t do the parks this time, but we did spend two evenings at Disney Springs, and one evening at Disney’s Winter Summerland Mini Golf. 

For our daily transportation, we just used Uber. It was easier then navigating the traffic and parking while everything was so busy.

It took us about 20 minutes in an Uber to get to and from Disney Springs. Magic Kingdom is only about 16 minutes from The Grove.

10 Disney Tips That Made Our Trip Amazing

Value for Money

I am honestly really torn on my opinion of the value for the money. Our room was large and made for a comfortable stay at what I felt was a great rate, but there were so many additional charges on top of the $50 per day resort fee (and $25/day parking fee), it felt like we were being “nickeled and dimed”.

I would have rather paid more for our room and had more activities included. As mentioned above though, the trade-off of activities being an extra charge is that it cuts down on lines. Then there were things like the missing ping-pong balls.

We ended up buying our own at the store when we were out, but when you’re paying a $50/day resort fee, should you have to buy your own ping-pong balls?

Here is one example:

You need to get to the water park right when they open to get good seats near a pool (especially if you have kids to watch). However, there are pools all the way around the pool that are “reserved” for those who pay to reserve them.

The entire time we were there, we maybe saw 2 sets of 2 chairs reserved (because it’s yet another expensive add-on). So while people are struggling to find seating, there are tons of empty chairs all around the pool not being used.

For what we were paying for the resort fee and all the other extras, it felt like they could just give us the darn seats by the pool.

There are also cabana rentals, but I think I only saw one in use during our entire stay. I can understand these being an extra charge.

Arrival and Check-In Experience

I wrote this section at the beginning of the post and then decided to move it to the end. I am not going to sugar coat it, our check-in experience was bad. Keep reading to learn how they accommodated us afterwards.

I do believe this was a one-off experience and met other people who were returning guests who had a great check-in experience during their prior visits. However, I have to be honest about our personal experience.

When we arrived at The Grove, we loved the beautiful entrance to the property, lined with tall palm trees. We drove through the gate and were directed to park in building 1 while we checked in. 

Here is a summary of our check-in experience:

• Arrived at front desk and were told their system was down and they could not check us in
• They asked for our number so they could call us when they could check us in, and told us to go to the water park
• We were not offered a place to change or store our bags, so we walked around exploring the property
• Ended up at the water park (where we learned your towels are in your room, so changing would have done no good with no access to towels)
• Settled by the pool bar where kids were excited to see a ping pong table (but there were no ping pong balls)
• Our server was very kind and attentive, but proceeded to tell us all the many things that had gone wrong that day including that a child had just thrown up in the pool (yet we didn’t see any pools closed)
• Ordered food and drinks (all was good) and our server did comp all of our drinks (this was appreciated given the situation)
• After a couple of hours with no call we decided to check back in at the front desk, but I was a bucket deep in margaritas at that point so I stopped by the bathroom where there was no toilet paper
• Found a very long line at the front desk where they were, in fact, checking people in “manually” (felt very irritated that we didn’t get a call that this was an option)
• Waited in line for a very long time, finally got checked in and we were told to head to our room and security would meet us there to let us in (since they could not make a room key with the system down)
• We had to move our car from building 1 to building 3 where our room was, unload all of our bags and navigate to our room, where there was no security person
• Waited in the hall…for a long time…
• Tried to call the front desk, no answer
• Chris heads down to the front desk, very frustrated
• I wander the halls looking for help when I happen upon a security officer who told me we didn’t get to our room fast enough
• We were finally let into our room (but now, we can’t all leave or we can’t get back in)

Once we got into our room…

Now here I am, trying to salvage the situation with 3 exhausted kids and a very unhappy husband who had his mind set that we were leaving after that mess. I start to unpack and get everyone set up when we realize there are no sheets for the pull-out sofa bed and the TV in our master bedroom doesn’t work.

I tried to call the front desk from our room, but our phone didn’t work. So, I changed back out of my PJs and headed down to the front desk, knowing is Chris went he was going to lose it.

After waiting in line, again. I let the person at the front desk know about our issues and they told me that they never include sheets for the pull-out sofa bed “because most people don’t use them”. I found that very odd.

He noted our other issues and let me know that their system was up, so thankfully I was able to get room keys. 

​A few minutes later, the sheets were dropped off at our door, but our TV and phone were not fixed. The next afternoon, a manager called my husband to discuss our experience thus far.

He was kind and accommodating, and credited us our first night back, plus the resort fee for the first day. He also sent someone that day to fix our TV. We were happy that he called and tried to make it right.

What we wish would have happened:

We are super understanding, go with the flow people. Things happen, we get it. However, the way it was handled honestly was terrible service. As Chris pointed out to the manager who called him, there was so many things they could have done to salvage the situation.

For example, they have an on-site arcade. It would cost them nothing to give our kids free arcade cards to go play some games while we waited. They also have a glow-in-the-dark putt-putt course that is an additional cost. It would have cost them nothing to give us a free round while we waited. 

Instead, it felt like they basically said, we can’t check you in, you’re on your own, figure it out. In their defense, it felt like none of the staff were trained in what to do if their system went down.

They were definitely scrambling and clueless. Like anything though, it was a learning experience for them and my hope is that they use that situation to do better the next time something goes wrong (because, that’s just life and things happen).

Overall Customer Service

In general, all of the staff we encountered were friendly and helpful (to the best of their ability), but the one thing that bothered me was that everyone was on their cell phones. It was almost as if they were hanging out, and we were interrupting them.

For example, I walked up to the hut at the Surfari Water Park to purchase a flow rider session and there were two staff there. While one helped me, the other called what sounded like her boyfriend, on speaker phone, and I had to raise my voice over it to communicate with the girl beside her to check out.

Multiple staff were walking around literally staring at their phones, not looking up to even smile or say hello.

I found that very odd and just honestly, not a good look for a resort. It’s just unprofessional, in my opinion.

FAQ

Final Thoughts our Grove Resort Orlando Review

Overall, I am happy we went to The Grove Resort & Waterpark Orlando. Despite the check-in experience and other issues, we had a good experience overall. Would we go back? Ehh, I feel like it could be a been there, done that situation for two reasons: there weren’t enough things to do that we would feel like we need to go back and do again, the overall experience didn’t wow us enough to say, “we can’t wait to go back there!”

That said, I did meet some families who were returning for the 2nd or 3rd time, so for some families it does turn into a repeat trip!

Do I recommend you should stay at The Grove Resort Orlando?

We did have fun and enjoy our time there once things got sorted out, so yes, I would say it’s worth checking out at least once, as long as you are prepared to pay for all of the activities.

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