Is the WiFi Good at Flamingo Crossings Hotels?
It depends on which hotel — and, at some of them, which room you're standing in.
I've run speed tests on the free hotel WiFi at all six Flamingo Crossings hotels over the last year and a half. The spread is wider than anyone would guess for six properties sitting in the same development. Here's what I actually clocked.
TownePlace Suites was close behind and held up across the property. Pool: 561 Mbps download / 23 Mbps upload. Second floor room: 146 Mbps download / 268 Mbps upload. Breakfast area: 94 Mbps download / 189 Mbps upload. Another test read 98.5 Mbps download / 167 Mbps upload. No dead spots.
SpringHill Suites is the one to understand before you book. The pool bar hit 372 Mbps download / 18.3 Mbps upload on one test and 9.84 Mbps download / 10.1 Mbps upload on another. The lobby ran 127 Mbps download / 181 Mbps upload. The workstation area of the lobby: 53.4 Mbps download / 41.1 Mbps upload. My fifth floor room: 9.61 Mbps download / 9.76 Mbps upload. The exercise room was the slowest thing I measured anywhere at Flamingo Crossings — 7.65 Mbps download / 3.78 Mbps upload. Same building, same free WiFi, wildly different depending on where you stand.
Home2 Suites: 9.88 Mbps download / 10.3 Mbps upload.
Homewood Suites: 9.28 Mbps download / 10.4 Mbps upload.
Download or upload — which one matters for you
If you're browsing, streaming a show, or checking wait times, download is what you care about, and every one of these hotels is fine for that. Even the slowest reading handles a phone.
Upload matters if you're sending things out — video calls home, uploading photos and video from the day, or working from the room. That's where the gap gets real.
Fairfield Inn and Suites was the most consistent performer: 178 Mbps download / 210 Mbps upload on the free hotel WiFi. That upload number is unusually strong for a hotel.
Residence Inn, sixth floor room: 14.3 Mbps download / 14 Mbps upload.
Fairfield at 210 Mbps upload and TownePlace at 268 Mbps upload are in a different category from Home2 and Homewood in the 10 Mbps range.
What my cell phone got in the same buildings
Worth knowing, since a lot of families are on Verizon and never connect to hotel WiFi at all.
TownePlace parking lot, 582 Mbps download / 29.5 Mbps upload.
At SpringHill's pool bar, 354 Mbps download / 16.4 Mbps upload.
Home2, 86.6 Mbps download / 4.32 Mbps upload.
At Homewood Suites my cell read 359 Mbps download / 10.8 Mbps upload.
Fairfield, 151 Mbps download / 5 Mbps upload.
At Residence Inn, sixth floor, my cell read 233 Mbps download / 5.26 Mbps upload — same room where the hotel WiFi read 14.3 Mbps download / 14 Mbps upload. The phone won on download by a wide margin. The hotel WiFi won on upload.
The pattern: my cell usually beat the hotel WiFi on download, sometimes by a lot. But upload was almost always under 11 Mbps, and often under 5. And inside rooms at both SpringHill and TownePlace, the cell test wouldn't complete at all — the signal was too weak to finish.
So the honest read is cell for scrolling, hotel WiFi for anything you're sending out. And if you're on a high floor at SpringHill or TownePlace, don't count on your phone signal in the room.
For how these six hotels compare on everything else, start with the full breakdown at Everything Flamingo Crossings.
One more thing before you book.
Hotel WiFi is one of a dozen things that don't show up in the photos or the star rating. Parking fees, breakfast crowds, shuttle timing, laundry — they all cost you money or time you didn't plan for.
Marketing photos look the same across every property. I've stayed in them all. Filmed them. They're not the same.
See the real walkthroughs — not stock photos, not star ratings — real video from a budget dad who's done 48+ Disney trips and stayed in 36+ off-property hotels.
Don't book the wrong hotel. Stop guessing before you book.
ddadbudget.com
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