The Rosen Center Hotel in Orlando has not weathered well over the years. Originally the Omni-Rosen hotel when it opened, the hotel is now branded as the Rosen Center. Adjacent to the Orlando Convention Center, the hotel leaves a lot to be desired.
The pool, which looked nice enough, looks nothing like the pictures on the hotel’s website.
The room overlooked the rooftop air conditioning system. Beds were fair, but the pillows were lumpy, flat, and old. Bathroom was clean, no mildew evident, towels were small but plentiful. The water pressure was terrible. The room is very old and small but clean, adequate. The room seemed very dark.
The hotel has a sushi bar and tapas bar, upscale restaurant called Everglades, family restaurant called Gauguins which is mainly buffet but also has a menu. Rosen’s Deli is like a Qwik Pic or 7Eleven (the hotel website has not been updated and still calls it Red’s) . The food is fairly pedestrian, pre made turkey burger, frozen, pre seasoned with steak fries, and a huge bread slice for a bun.
The Crete Plate came with freshfruit, gourmandise cheese, and a banana walnut bread that was so heavy with oil and so sweet it wasn’t edible. The chicken, corn and black bean quesadillas came with canned salsa, cheese, sour cream , and avocado. The rice with black beans came on the side, and it was a good thing because it was dry, dry, dry and lacked any flavor at all.
The hotel did not get a lot of raves and probably needs a major face-lift and some new menus. Prices for conventions are sky-high, so you expect a much better product. For example, the hotel charged $600 per day for wireless internet access for exhibitors in the meeting halls. For breaks, the hotel charged $47 for a dozen cookies plus a $27 service charge. With those rates, you’d expect a 5-star facility.
The Rosen Center is not somewhere I’ll be planning a meeting anytime soon – or even visiting anytime soon. It’s so sad because it was such a nice place when it opened.
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