The honest review
If you're doing Orlando and don't want every day to be a park day, Gaylord Palms solves that. The Cypress Springs water park is included in your room rate (rare for Orlando properties of this scale) and includes a FlowRider surf simulator, dueling 4-story slides, a lazy river, and a zero-entry pool with toddler slides. On a typical day you'll find the water park crowded but not miserable; lounger competition starts around 10am.
The defining feature is the 4.5-acre atrium under glass. It's themed to Florida — there's a small alligator habitat (real gators behind glass), koi ponds, a faux Key West village with shops and restaurants, and a faux St. Augustine fortress. It sounds gimmicky and it is, but kids 4-10 are riveted. Parents get an air-conditioned indoor space to walk laps with strollers when it's 95 degrees outside.
Rooms run 380-450 sqft, which is fine for a family of four but tight for five. The atrium-view rooms are worth the upgrade — kids spend a surprising amount of time on the balcony watching the action below. The Emerald Bay concierge level adds a lounge with included breakfast and evening snacks, which pencils out if you've got two kids eating breakfast.
Downsides: the resort fee is $40+/night, parking is $32, and the property shuttle to Disney/Universal is $30+ per person round-trip. Add in the fact that it's a convention center (you'll occasionally share elevators with lanyard-wearing pharma reps), and the all-in cost gets close to what you'd pay at a deluxe Disney resort. But you get a water park you'd otherwise pay $80/person/day for, and that's where the math works.
Go during ICE! (Nov-Jan) if you can swing it — the holiday installation of frozen sculptures is genuinely worth seeing, but expect rates to spike $200+/night.
