What type of experience can I expect if my family stays the the Helios Grand Hotel? I booked a 3 night stay in late February and I am feeling a little bit nervous about it. Most of the reviews I read on reddit seem to be fairly negative with poor customer service, noisy rooms and even leaky ceilings. On our last trip, we stayed at the HRH and really loved it (plus express passes)..
Should we stick with HRH?
I had a negative experience at Helios opening weekend, and largely wouldn’t recommend the hotel to most folks, especially at the current prices. Are you doing more Epic or the USH/Islands during your trip? If it’s less Epic focused, I’d encourage HRH for your stay, and shuttle/Uber to Epic.
It’s overpriced for what you get. Stay at HRH or one of the other premier hotels instead.
The vloggers who stayed there when it first opened all seemed to give such horrible reviews of the experience, it turned me off of the idea of ever staying there. Not a good idea to open that hotel when they weren’t ready (same with Terra Luna and Stella Nova). Even if they have resolved all of the issues, the damage is done.
I would be inclined to stay anywhere else, personally, unless you REALLY want a theme park view room and willing to splurge for it.
I’ve got it booked for Dec and can let you know how it goes. I booked it before it was open and got it for under $400/night tho. I know it’s almost twice what I paid now. But I’m also a sucker for a hotel in a park love being able to just go to my room to use the bathroom lol. But also have two days in epic versus 1 in the older parks together so it makes sense for us
Yeah, I figured it wouldn’t be “ready” opening weekend, but there are design flaws that go beyond opening weekend service woes that are unfixable at this point.
If you go in with the right attitude, I think it’ll be fine. I just don’t think the hotel is worth the prices they’re charging, and the overall experience is unfortunately below the existing three Premier hotels that include express.
I would love to hear your experience. Hopefully they have got it together since they opened.
This is me too. We are set for next year, and I guess we’ll see how we like it!
wow that’s one park hop! 
I’d recommend doing EPA at IOA then getting to USH for a late lunch!! 
Might be possible with the time diff.
That’s what I was implying….
When I go back to USH for FanFest on 2026 I plan on arriving in the mid-morning. Then staying up all day & night through the event. I’ll leave USH at 2am when it’s over to go to LAX for a 6am flight!! 
We’re doing the same thing - 3 nights in late Feb can’t find any professional reviews written much after the initial opening. FWIW on TripAdvisor most of the more recent reviews are pretty positive. We’ll have to come here and write our own when we get back.
How did your December stay at Helios go?
It was my least favorite of the four resorts but it’s not bad. Just small and the little quick service sucks honestly. Way too small, not cute and not that much variety of options. The entrance into the park is lovely tho. And the rooftop bar Fantastic. And the checkin and bell services people were amazing
https://forum.touringplans.com/t/the-suite-life-christmas-episode/107183/151
A little more detail. The bedrooms and living area in the suite all felt small. Really small. Like big city hotel room small. Not much room to walk around the bed or store stuff like your suitecase. It feels cheap in some ways too. Reminds me of ikea which is not my thing. I’m not for Scandinavian straight lines and emptiness (like the walls feel bare). And I don’t like the design choices except the bathroom. For example the carpet, the bedding, the headboard, the one picture on the wall, all of it is ugly imho. But it’s clean and new and nothing was broken or stained or smelled bad.
I’ve done the kids suite at HRH which was gorgeous and the bathroom split into two so the kids could take a bath while an adult showered for example. Both the kids and adult sleeping area was huge in HRH.
With respect to Helios kids room, Besides the door, one wall and the headboards which were well done it was still really small and somehow still lacking fun childhood character. It’s just missing something.