We are in Fl, the Celebration area around Orlando, in a hotel named the Mona Lisa. (http://www.monalisasuitehotel.com) It is quite nice. We have a 2 bedroom suite (Monet layout) and I can’t tell you through words how nice it is. It’s the most pleasant place we’ve stayed, as far as rooms go. The property is beautiful, it’s just too cool outside to take advantage of the Florida niceties, balconies, pool and such. The hallways and public places are beautiful. The buildings curve in that art-deco way, and there are grand painting and mural paintings in impressionistic styling all over, the area that I saw.
Inside our room looks out over the pool area, tons of light in all three rooms. Good looking heavy white out drapes cover the windows. The walls and ceiling are a nice texture, no wallpaper in sight, all edges nicely finished. Flat beige-yellow carpet, no ugly design. Beds have big nice headboards covered in a striped fabric, very nice, with good firm mattresses and lovely white duvet covered feather/down comforters. The furniture is dark and modern-ish bushed SS accents. There are flat-screened TV’s in both bedrooms and one in the living room. Some HD channels too. The space is large. Entryway is very large and tiled, and flows to bathroom on the right, and bedroom next to that, then living area ahead to the left and kitchen directly to the left, with the master bedroom suite further to the left off of the living room. Master bathroom is large with a stand alone tub, and a separate glassed in shower.
The sinks in the bathrooms are rectangular undermounts, very chic. Tall arching faucets grace every sink. The kitchen sink is a super deep stainless steel rectangular one. Solid surface counters. Nice couch, leather-like. Chairs that match in each room. The only “art” inside the room is a painting over the couch. Elsewhere there are mirrors, so it’s the simplisticness of nice walls and windows with views and minimalistic furniture that meld into an overall style of very “Florida Impressionistic-Neo-Art-Deco-meets-Mid-Century-Modern” — I like it very much.
There is a washer/dryer combo unit in a closet. Wow! I was going to use it, but I can’t get it opened now. I looked at it earlier this morning, and now it’s shut and seemingly locked or stuck shut. I have no idea how that happened, or if it’s common or what.
This isn’t the cheapest place to stay, but it’s not too bad, “pricelined” it. For the sort of space it is, it’s well worth the price. I’d love to stay here again, just plan on what I need to bring to cook/eat in the room. They have lots of stuff, I just need a few more things from home to be fully comfortable. This is much more spacious than the first apartment my hubby and I shared when we got married. It’s a very “live-able space” in how much room there is and how the layout is, though I’m not into apartment living anymore, much prefer a house in a moreso country setting. Anyhow …
This was just a quick trip to FL for a meeting hubby had to attend. Last minute, in a way. This is by far the nicest we’ve stayed at. Second on the list are two Embassy Suites, one in Charlotte, NC that opened in the summer of 2007, we were there quite by accident in August while doing some minor-league baseball trips; and one in the Crystal City area around Washington D.C. Both were classic Embassy Suites, but had moreso modern styling in the rooms, with that NC one being the very first time we REALLY saw an HD tv show, an MLB game in HD. It sold me hard and fast on HD. That hotel is sort of a spa hotel, in the middle of sort of nowhere. The D.C. one we stayed in on the way home from a PA/NY (Sept. 2008) it employs a sort of Washintonian-Political-Mid-Century-Modernism style. No flat screen tv’s there, but everything else was fairly nice.
Those hotels have wonderful breakfasts, but I was not impressed with the restaurant in Washington, high priced and nothing much I’d like to eat on the menu, so we go take-out for dinner after we arrived. The NC place I don’t remember what we did, that’s a blur due to the type of trip, and I had a 2-3 month old baby at the time as well.
Where we are today, from how I understand it the restaurant on site isn’t what we’d frequent with 4 children, pricier than we’d normally do. One reason we like Embassy Suites is that immense cooked-to-order breakfast that comes with the room. It’s give and take. This hotel where we are now has excellent everything, except for food choices. Food can be obtained elsewhere satisfactorily. So I don’t mind.