Omni Championsgate Review (Golf, Pools, and Disney)

If you’re looking at Omni Orlando Resort at Championsgate for a family vacation, conference, or a trip to Disney, I’ll give you all the details of the resort and our experience staying there recently. I was there for a work conference (with a lot of Disney between sessions) with my wife, so I didn’t get the full kid experience, but I can tell you what they have.

Overview of Omni Orlando Resort at Championsgate

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The Omni Championsgate Hotel near Orlando is a sprawling golf, pool, and convention hotel in the city of Championsgate, just south of Disney World. It’s a great resort for the whole family, with decent food (multiple upscale restaurant and fast casual options), and good golf (and a Top Golf-style driving range part area). It has multiple pools, including a wave pool, water slides, splash pad, adult pool, and several hot tubs. It also has a great spa. Finally, it has a kids’ club if you need a little alone time.

Omni Championsgate is considered a Walt Disney World Good Neighbor Hotel, which means it meets (and exceeds) minimum standards and offers transportation to the Disney parks. However, the Omni does not offer Early Entry like many other Good Neighbor hotels.

Location of Omni Championsgate near Disney

The Omni Championsgate Resort is located Championsgate, FL, just two exits south of Disney World (World Drive) on I-4. It’s southwest of Disney and Orlando. Depending on traffic (and which park), it can take 20-35 minutes to get to Disney World. It's also about 45-60 minutes from the Orlando International Airport (MCO). 

If you’re planning an exclusively Disney trip, this may not be the best option because it’s farther away than similar resorts. However, if Disney World is only one of your goals for your trip, and you’re planning on spending a lot of time at the resort, then this might be perfect.

Here's a screenshot of the distance from Omni Championsgate to the Boardwalk Resort (so we could go to Jelly Rolls).

Pools at Omni Championsgate

The pools at Omni Championsgate were probably the most standout feature to us. It has 5 pools, including an adults-only pool, a family area with a water slide and zero-entry family pool, a kids pool with smaller slides, a wave pool, and a lazy river (as well as a separate pool for the villas)! While there are other resorts with more water park features, I haven’t seen another resort with a slide, lazy river, and a wave pool! In fact, the resort claims it’s the only Orlando resort with a wave pool. I’ve stayed at a lot of Orlando resorts, and this was my favorite pool experience, rivaled only by Disney’s Beach Club’s sand bottom pool. The hot tub was great as well.

The kids pool, with zero entry area and small water slides. This just one of several pools.

The staff also came around and took drink orders from our chair, and there’s a pool bar and restaurant called Crocs that has decent food. There are also cabanas for rent.

Omni Championsgate Restaurants

Our take: The breakfast was not the best buffet we’ve experienced in the Orlando area, but it has some good options. The Trevi's breakfast buffet was small, but the service was great. The Broadway Deli had great grab-n-go sandwiches and custom coffee drinks. The dinner food was decent but not amazing. The staff swears that the food at Eagles Edge is the best on property (the driving range party venue). David’s Club, Zen, and Trevi’s offer a great variety of upscale, fine dining food options. The golf clubhouse and practice facilities also have food options. Croc’s, the poolside bar and grille, had great fast casual food and drinks. We didn’t eat there a lot because (as you can tell) this is a Disney-focused blog, and we spent most of our time and money eating on property at Disney World.

The spread at Trevi's breakfast buffet

I want to note several unique features of the restaurants and bars. David’s has a cigar patio with a great cigar selection, and several restaurants have great patio seating for a more Florida resort feel. They also have a great room service selection, which also runs through Trevi's.

Golf at Championsgate

Another amazing feature of Omni Championsgate is that they have two championship 18-hole golf courses designed by Greg Norman, a 9-hole par 3 course, and an 18-hole mini-golf course. That’s a lot of golf. If you want to work golf into your vacation (at almost any level or age), this a great place to go. If you need more convincing, it also has Eagles Edge.

Eagles Edge at Championsgate

Eagles Edge is a pretty unique offering for a hotel, even a golf resort. I haven't seen it at any other hotels. Photo cred: https://www.eaglesedgeorl.com/

Eagles Edge is a driving range party venue (similar to Top Golf and run by the same technology, if you’re familiar with that), where people can enjoy food and drinks and compete on a driving range. This is perhaps one of the most unique things I’ve seen at any resort in Orlando. Many of the guests at the convention I was at spent tons of time there.

Rooms at Championsgate

Omni Championsgate offers a variety of hotel rooms, suites, and villas (with full kitchens). Our room was a king bed and balcony. In the distance we could see Tower of Terror, Spaceship Earth (the EPCOT ball), and the Contemporary Resort (while imagining we could see the castle next to it). We could see fireworks from Magic Kingdom and EPCOT each night, but they were very far away.

Our room at the Omni Orlando Resort at Championsgate. 

Our view from our balcony. Disney (not pictured) was barely visible to the left.

The room at the omni hotel was clean, and the staff was friendly and attentive. We were able to get free bottled water from the front desk when we asked. The TV was easy to connect to our phones for Chromecast. It wasn’t the fanciest room we’ve ever stayed in, but it more than met our needs.

Spa at Omni Championsgate

We accidentally ended up in the spa our first day there. We walked by, and the manager offered us a discount on massages, which we took. The masseuses were amazing, paying special attention to our needs (my wife’s headaches and my injured shoulder). An added bonus was that our spa treatments gave us access to the locker rooms with rain showers and saunas for our entire stay. I definitely recommend the spa experience. It was a great way to start our vacation.

How Easy is it to Get to Disney from Omni Championsgate?

In theory, it’s fairly easy to get to Disney World from Championsgate. The only exception is rush hour traffic. We might be on vacation, but most everyone in Orlando has to go to work rather than the theme parks, and they’re using Interstate 4. It took us between 20 and 40 minutes each time we traveled there from the Omni Resort. Magic Kingdom takes the longest because it’s the farthest away.

Does Omni Championsgate have shuttles to Disney World?

Omni Championsgate offers free shuttles multiple times a day to and from the Disney World parks. They recommend you request the shuttle 24 hours in advance to make sure you have a spot. It’s not a problem at closer resorts, but here, not requesting the shuttle could mean that it doesn’t run (because no one is on it), or that it’s full and you’ll have to pay for an expensive Uber. 

Is Omni a part of a hotel loyalty program?

Omni Hotels are their own independent brand, but they do have a loyalty program. Unfortunately, it doesn’t have any bank transfer partners, and it isn’t connected to larger chains like Hyatt, Hilton, or Marriott. The only way to earn points there is to spend money there.

Conclusion and Further Reading

The Omni Championsgate Orlando hotel is a great resort for a recreation, sports, pool, or conference experience. It’s close to many Orlando attractions by not ideally situated. The food is decent but not critically acclaimed. The accommodations and staff are amazing. There are a few things we didn't use that are also available: camp omni kids escape, tennis courts, soccer fields, and fitness center.

I highly recommend this resort for any family that wants to spend a majority of their time at the resort with some visits to local attractions.

For more hotel reviews, check my stay at the Hilton Buena Vista Palace and my stay at the Drury Plaza Disney Springs.