Caribe Royale, Orlando, Florida: All-Suites Resort and Convention Center expands to serve meetings market. (Hospitality).

The Caribe Royale All-Suites Resort and Convention Center is growing again-all with the meetings and conventions market in mind. A $30 million project will more than double the property's meeting and exhibition space. By the fall of 2003, Caribe Royale will offer 150,000 square feet of flexible meeting space, including a new 40,000-square-foot ballroom.

Even before the meetings space expansion is complete, Caribe Royale will enhance its restaurant operations by adding the Venetian Room, a fine-dining restaurant featuring a Northern Italian menu, and by renovating the Tropicale Restaurant, expanding its service to breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The Venetian Room and Tropicale projects will be completed this fall, "The whole concept of Caribe Royale is to go beyond business as usual, and the expansion of our Grand Caribe Convention Center and the enhancements of our restaurants prove that. We are a full-service destination for successful association meetings," says John Murray, director of sales.

Growth and expansion are the hallmark of Caribe Royale that opened in 1996 with a special blend of meeting and leisure amenities. The first phase of the Grand Caribe Convention Center was added in 1998. "We are optimistic about the meetings industry, and our goal is to provide the facilities and full service that meeting planners and attendees seek," says Eric Rosenbaum, general manager of Caribe Royale. "We're expanding our capabilities to serve even more meetings while maintaining our resort atmosphere." The property is Orlando's fifth largest meeting resort and has 1,218 one-bedroom guest suites arranged in three towers and 120 two-bedroom villas in four buildings. The four villa buildings have their own pool. The three towers and the property's reception and restaurant building surround a 250,000-gallon, free-form pool with a waterfall and waterslide. The entire complex, located in Orlando's Lake Buena Vista area, has an airy, Caribbean-accented layout.

The original portion of the Grand Caribe Convention Center offers 6,000 square feet of meeting space, including the 26,000-square-foot Caribbean Ballroom, 16 breakout rooms, and three executive boardrooms. Another ballroom, the 6,000-square-foot Martinique Ballroom, is in the property's reception building. "Creative meeting planners also make excellent use of our 120 two-bedroom luxury villas. In effect, these villas give us 120 extra breakout rooms for sessions of up to 16 people. They are tremendous for training programs and other meetings where presenters need an especially comfortable atmosphere in which to work," Murray says.

The current expansion will take the Grand Caribe Convention Center to more than 150,000 square feet. A 40,000-square-foot ballroom, the Grand Sierra, is the centerpiece of the expanded space. Additionally, the expansion includes 20 breakout rooms of 1,000 square feet each. The Grand Sierra Ballroom can be configured to create spaces from 2,300 square feet to the full 40,000 square feet. The breakout rooms are divisible into multiple spaces with up to 4,000 square feet each.

The expanded Grand Caribe Convention Center and the enhanced restaurant operations complement Caribe Royale's guest room design to create a distinctive meeting destination. "The design and concept of our resort make Caribe Royale work well for all types of meetings. Since every room is a suite, our guests enjoy a feeling different from a typical hotel room, and the quality of our overall product means they can mix business and leisure with ease. Because we are independently owned and operated, we can make decisions for meeting planners right here on site. We're proud of how quickly we can respond to planners' needs," Murray notes.

Caribe Royale is 12 miles from Orlando International Airport, within five minutes of Walt Disney World, and 10 minutes from Sea World and Universal Studios.

CONTACT

John Murray, Director of Sales

Phone: [phone]

Fax: [phone]

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Web site: www.cariberoyale.com