Homewood Suites by Hilton Flamingo Crossings

Homewood Suites by Hilton sits in Flamingo Crossings Town Center, Winter Garden, less than two kilometres from the western entrance to Walt Disney World Resort. It opened in February 2021 with 229 suites. It is the best-equipped hotel in the area for cooking, and the only one offering a complimentary evening reception.

The suites and their kitchen

Three documented configurations: the king studio, sleeping four, the one-bedroom king suite, also four, and the one-bedroom two-queen suite, sleeping six.

An honest caveat belongs here. Disney's page for this hotel advertises one- and two-bedroom suites. Surveys made on site record only studios and one-bedroom suites. If you need two closed bedrooms, have availability confirmed in writing before booking rather than relying on that listing.

The kitchen is complete in the useful sense: full-size refrigerator, microwave, dishwasher, cooktop, sink, counter, dishes and coffee maker. What it lacks is an oven. Along with Residence Inn and TownePlace Suites, it is one of the three Flamingo Crossings hotels where you can genuinely cook dinner.

The pool with a slide

Homewood Suites shares its pool with the neighbouring Home2 Suites. It is a large resort-style pool with a water slide, a zero-entry edge and water play features. It is the only one of the six area hotels with a slide, and it often settles the argument with the children.

Breakfast, and the evening reception

A hot breakfast is included each morning. Added to that is something no other Flamingo Crossings hotel offers: Monday through Thursday, the hotel puts on an evening reception with food and drink. For a family coming back from the park at six with hungry children, that is a meal saved.

The rest of the food service amounts to a pool bar, a lobby bar and a shop open around the clock for snacks, wine and drinks. There is no full-service restaurant on site, though the Town Center is a few minutes away on foot.

The hotel has a self-service laundry, a fitness room and a Disney planning desk in the lobby. Parking is in a covered garage for a fee. Pets are welcome, up to two per room, within a weight limit and for a non-refundable fee.

What Gateway Hotel status gives you, and what it does not

The Walt Disney World Gateway Hotel designation allows the hotel to be booked directly through Disney in a package with park tickets, and it explains the planning desk in the lobby.

It confers no park access benefit. Homewood Suites appears neither on the official early theme park entry list nor on the extended evening hours list. Your dining reservations open at sixty days one day at a time. Your Lightning Lane purchase window opens three days before arrival, against seven for a Disney Resort hotel guest. Theme park parking is charged to you.

Getting to the parks

A free shuttle serves select parks daily. Sign-up is required from twenty-four hours before departure, seats are limited, the shuttle is shared with other hotels and it drops at the Transportation and Ticket Center rather than the park gates. The last return generally leaves before the fireworks. By car, allow about ten minutes to Disney's Animal Kingdom Theme Park and Disney's Hollywood Studios.

Who this hotel suits

It suits families who genuinely want to cook, who want the slide, and who like coming back in the evening without having to go out again for dinner four nights out of seven. Pets are welcome.

It suits you less if you need two closed bedrooms without prior confirmation, if you want a full-service restaurant in the hotel, or if you plan to rely on the shuttle alone. Your Voyages AquaTerra advisor can compare the real cost of a stay here, parking included, against a Disney Resort hotel, at 1-866-628-6241.