This Hotel is so very big but struggles so hard to take care of all their guests. We had to wait hours to get a table for dinner and with children wanting to eat at teatime because they are hungry just wasn't good. It could be after 9pm some nights before we could eat and so therefore I wouldn't recommend anyone going half board. Even at breakfast we had to be down stairs for 7am or que for an hour which meant we were late getting into the parks. The staff in the shops at the hotel were so helpful and friendly but the ones behind the reception were clearly stressed with all the complients coming in from guests. All in all id go to a much smaller hotel if I was ever to go back again.

The Newport Bay Disney Hotel I have mixed feelings about. The good stuff; The location is very good with a pleasant 10-15min walk to disney along a pretty lakeside. Breakfast good with lot sof continental options (no cooked) and cereals and yogurts, fruits etc. Cleanliness and rooms OK. The outdoor pool was fantastic (we had 30degrees & sunshine).
Not good; prices in the restaurant way too expensive for waht it was. The lifts are rubbish, i would estimate 50% of the lifts worked during our stay, which ones were broke varied from day to day. The design of this hotel means that if you are on the 1st floor (which is onbe floor below the reception on 2nd) then to get out you need to take a lift from floor 1 to floor 2 walk past reception (always always very very busy) and then take a lift (theres only one small lift on otehr side of hotel) to then get down to the restaurant and rear lakeside exit - it makes it a real faff and as if the designers did nit think that families and buggies would be maoin users and given its a disney hotel that is a bit poor. The prices in the restaurant and bar are horrendoes - 2 coffees and a kids orange cost me a tenner. 2 adults and 2 kids buffet with a half bottle of wine and a kids lemonade was 78 euros!!

Stayed at the Newport in the run up to Christmas. It was VERY busy. The room was nothing special, quite spacious but a few cobwebs! Looked like it was ready for a lick of paint.

Breakfast at the hotel was bog standard continental and good. Evening buffet we tried once and again was good. No complaints.

We timed check in and check out at the right times, although for the rest of our stay, we noticed that the reception area resembled a mass scrum at times, with no where near enough staff on to check everyone one in and out.

Used the hotel pool facilities once for the kids and it is excellent and clean. Perhaps the best feature of the hotel from our experience.

Really nice location, and was well decorated for the Christmas period.

I received a free upgrade to the Newport Bay Club when I arrived at my original hotel, the Santa Fe, on 6th october 2008. Of course I said yes please!

The lakeside entrance to the hotel is just beautiful, as are the public areas, reception, bar, restaurants etc. It did seem to take quite a while for us to get checked in - we waited behind only a handful of guests for at least 20 minutes. But, that done, we collected our luggage from the conciergerie and headed off to find our rooms.

Our rooms were on the 1st floor in the East Wing. I feel that this wing is in need of some TLC I

Originally booked for 2* Santa Fe motel, but they were overbooked when we arrived, so they put us in the 4* Newport Bay hotel. Wahey! I knew the Santa Fe was a basic hotel, which was ok, as it is cheap, but to be transferred to the Newport was wonderful.

Firstly, the good points: The hotel is spotlessly clean, spacious, and very well kept. It is only a 10 min walk along the lakeside to disney. The breakfast was really good....continental style with all Kellogg's cereals, real cheddar cheese and Yorkshire style ham (no processed food) croissants, warm rolls, toast, juices and coffee.We ate at the Cape Cod all-you-can-eat buffet one evening...amazing, well worth the $28 euros per person, considering everywhere else in the resort you pay over 20 euros for a small main course. My daughter loved the shop in the hotel and meeting the disney characters every morning! Our room was spotless, spacious and the best thing of all, it overlooked the disney lake AND the Princess castle could be seen clearly in the distance! It was like a dream come true for my daughter, who actually believes it is her castle, and she is in fact THE sleeping beauty.

Bad points: Not many! Main one would probably be the wait to check in and out at reception. The queue to do this is constant 24/7, 365 days a year, as people are coming and going all the time. The only place at disney you can actually relax is in your hotel room. Reception was always packed. The staff on reception looked a bit vague about it all, perhaps they need retraining, and to employ more staff. Really cant think of any more bad things.

A few tips to make your stay easier! I will be doing this next time I go: Fill up on breakfast so you dont have to buy lunch...

We booked a family Admiral room on the top floor. The brochure promised private reception desk, bit misleading but didn't have to wait too long to check-in. We were also promised tea/coffee making facilites but again don't be fooled. You have to ask for them, you only get one lot of tea/coffee during your stay and paper cups! We pre-paid for half board meals and drinks, definately saved money here. Cape Cod restaurant is a fab buffet, this was better for our children. Staff and food first class. The Captain's Quarters is just what you need after a day in the park. Staff excellent but drinks not cheap, 11.50 euros for a glass of champange but a real must at the end of the day. Hotel pool superb however a little cold in March. Great to have a shop in the hotel and a bonus to be able to leave our luggage on the last day.

Overall the hotel was ok but an item was taken from my room during the stay (belonging to my daughter) which was of sentimental value and the staff basically weren't interested in following it up and didn't give me a courtesy call when I returned home of which they promised.

If you have to stay here I would recommend you use the safe even for non valuable items that you wish to hold onto.

Would not stay here again.

We stayed here for my daughters fourth birthday and were delighted to arrive in our room and find they had put balloons all over the room for her. The room was spacious with two queen sized beds which were very comfy. My parents were next door to us and they had a balcony which did have bird poo over it. The only thing missing from the rooms which would have made our stay nicer would have been tea/coffee facilities as having a young child it was well-needed after a day in the parks.

Breakfast was great, plenty of cereals and the best hot chocolate. Croissants, toast, fruit salad, bread rolls, lovely ham. Really great!! We filled up my daughters canister with the fresh water every morning.

Hotel is very big, wasn't struck on the restaurants and there were 2 conventions there and the bars were heaving with members so it was difficult to get a drink from the bar without the usually queueing and people pushing in front of you.

The characters meet and greet were great for the children and its a superb location.

I would go back but perhaps on the Admirals floor next time.

Pool was nice but my husband came back with impetigo..???

Having previously been to Disney's Sequoia Lodge Hotel 3 times and looked at the Newport Bay each time as we picked guests up, we were really looking forward to staying here as it always looked lovely.

We were however a little bit disappointed and cannot really understand why Newport Bay has a higher classification than Sequoia Lodge.

On arrival we checked into our room and found that it had one very large bed for the 3 of us (our daughter is nearly 3) rather than 2 doubles as requested. It had a mini bar that was open for us to use as a fridge and we had borrowed a hairdryer from reception on arrival as they are only provided if you request one.

The bathroom was strange in that the toilet was far too high not only for our toddler, but for my wife as well (I'm well over 6 feet tall and my feet barely touched the ground either!). On closer inspection the bath needed updating as well, as the taps and shower head were in the middle at the side but there was still space at the end where the taps usually go. This space had a broken "blocker" in it.

We complained about the room at reception, but they said they could not move us until the next morning as there were no other rooms ready. The next morning we were moved and upgraded to an admiral room with a lakeside view. This room was in better condition, but the fridge/mini bar was locked so I had to go down to reception with my credit card to unlock it (I hadn't needed to do that in the first room) and even then it was hard to open and kept sticking. The bathroom suite was much better in this room and had a "normal" toilet.

We were a little disappointed with the choice in the breakfast room, cereals, fruit cocktail (not pieces of fruit), salami, ham, garlic sausage, yoghurt,croissants and bread were available as well as tea, coffee and juice. On our second morning we filled a bottle with milk from the "fresh" milk dispenser for our little girl. She took one drink from it and was very quickly sick on her top and on the floor. I quickly told a member of staff who was showing someone to a table and she did nothing about it. She actually said you'll have to tell a waitress as I am a greeter and then walked away. I opened our little girls bottle and smelt the milk which was obviously sour as it smelled really badly. We then looked for a waitress and showed her the bottle and where the milk had came from and explained that our little girl had been sick. She went away and brought the bottle back refilled with very cold fresh milk from the kitchen but made no attempt at all to put any new fresh milk in the dispensers that people were still using for their cereal etc and didn't get a mop for the floor.

To sum up, I wouldn't pay the extra again to stay here and would much prefer the Sequioa Lodge as I didn't think it was worth the extra money.

We were a party of three, 2 x 50 something's and Mum who is 77.

We checked in smoothly and were shown to our room - bit of a disappointment as we were a lake view room but, the tree's were in the way! The room was fine though, clean enough although under the sink where the safe is the cupboard's were a bit worn and the door's didnt shut. Our balcony - we had a choice, fridge or balcony - was dirty with bird dropping's and the wooden banister was worn away in places with the rain damage. Looking under the other balconies there were lots of house martin's nest's so that is where the mess came from. We also found that the carpet's and wallpaper were a bit in need of a touch up in place's but then it is the end of the school holidays so perhaps that had all occured in that time.

Breakfast - you are allocated a time of your choice for this meal. We chose 9.30 as we thought that all the kiddiwink's would have trotted off to see Mickey etc by then. How wrong we were, no matter what time you are allocated people just go when they want!! The queues were right up the stairs and, the waiting time was about 30 minutes. Breakfast was fine, the usual continental but with a nice fresh fruit salad, proper fruit juice and a nice container of chilled water.

The location was fine - a nice 10 min stroll to the village and then a similar stroll to the actual gates of the park itself. The hotel lake is not to be missed - there are koi in there that are so big and, feed them bread and they push the swan's and duck's out of the way!

Staff - OK, nothing too get excited about but, polite and there if you need them. The doorman was a godsend on our last day as we were stood in the wrong place for our departure bus and he soon sorted us out.

Entertainment - was there any? Didnt see any advertised!

Yes - but would definately book the Admiral suite as it seems to just add that final touch that a majical disney holiday needs, listening to the reviews anyway.