My family just returned from our trip to Paris, and detoured to Disney before we went to stay with…read morefriends in Paris. I had heard mixed things about Newport, but wanted to give this place a shot because of its cute theming. Man, I should have listened to the negative reviews and switched to another hotel. To give context, I have stayed in numerous Disney hotels, so I feel I have a pretty decent baseline on which to give this review. So let the magic behind. Not!
So let's first start off with the lack of welcome we received when we got there. First, you are welcomed with having your luggage go through an X-ray machine by two security guards joking around, who aren't even watching the machines. Yes, I feel really secure after watching that. With all that going on, not one person greeted us when we actually walked into the hotel, as you see at other Disney properties in the US.
When we walked in, we were greeted by a guy with red hair, beard, and Mushu from Mulan on his shoulder, who gave us a smarmy laugh when I didn't have my booking number memorized or on hand when we walked up to reception. Sorry, Bub, but we just got off an 8 hour flight (with no sleep) and one hour bus ride in which we used to nap, so we didn't have it readily available yet your majesty. Even after I retrieved the number, he still wouldn't let us get in line to check in, and just ushered us to baggage check-in instead. When I asked him if we could see if our room was ready, he again gave us his signature smarmy chuckle and told us, " Of course, a room is not ready, people want to sleep in". What does that even mean? It was 10:30 a.m., and I have checked into other Disney hotels a lot earlier than 10:30. So this guy sucked to say the least, and the funny thing is, the days we were heading to the park at 7:30 a.m., we saw people getting their paperwork after getting checked in early to their rooms, and they weren't part of the Compass Club (the extra charge you can pay to have specialized treatment at the hotel). This individual was not just a jerk, but also a liar.
So we move on to baggage check. We waited in the long line, watched two guys argue over who was in line first, and had to deal with two rude lifeguards with unhelpful comments to say when we were shifting our stuff around to our luggage, so we didn't have to carry things to the park. The baggage check guy only gave us tickets for four of our seven bags, and when we came back later to get our bags, we were met with a rude attitude from a guy named Igor, who got upset when we told him that we were missing 3 bags and he wanted to argue with us. So Igor sucks too. Also, to the two rude lifeguards, you suck, too.
We then hit up the parks, and unfortunately, it was hotter than you know what on the days we were at Disney. As the first day went on, we still hadn't gotten our room assignment yet, and it was close to 7 pm. When we returned to the hotel, we had to ask someone at registration what room number we had and to get our room keys. She was shocked that we hadn't received our room yet. Before I tell you about the crappy room, let me first explain part of our frustration about our room. I had asked for a first floor, closest to the lobby as possible. What we got was a 3rd-floor room, as far away from the elevators as possible. I mean, going down 5 different hallways and the last room in the hall closest to the end of the building. So when we had to leave the room for the lobby, we really had to leave with some intention.
Now for the room. The room was decent size, but absolutely no air conditioning in the room. We had it jacked to 60 degrees, and still would not cool down after being in the parks (with hardly any air conditioning or fans in the parks) all day. We called down to the reception, and they said they would send maintenance. That didn't happen. We called 2 hours later about the room, and they were dumbfounded that no one had checked on the air conditioner yet. They said they would call back. Spoiler alert: They did not call back. So needless to say, our room never cooled down the whole time we were there.
Overall, there is no counter service restaurant here, the ice machines are tiny in the hallway that is meant to serve over 150 rooms on each floor always out of ice, and the lobby bathrooms have zero air conditioning going through them, even during a heat spell.
The only highlight of this place was a bellhop named Julio. One of the friendliest staff members there. Other staff members could learn a lesson from him.
Overall, heed the warnings of others on Yelp. This place is horrible, with mostly horrible and inefficient staff. If you notice, most of the people posting negative comments are long-time Disney fans who know what they are talking about and have enough Disney hotel stays to give honest reviews of this place. We know what is expected of a typical Disney stay, and this place ain't it.