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The description of the Rosen Centre was written by our own Mary Ellen Jernigan for our 2013 convention with only minor edits reflecting layout changes through the years.
Looking down from an airplane flying high above the Rosen Centre Hotel you would see a long, tall structure oriented in a mostly east-west direction. It would appear to be very slightly V-shaped. Extending from the point of the ‘V’ you would see a long low structure oriented in a mostly north-south direction. Toward the south end of the low structure, you would see a covered bridge about the length of a football field extending toward the west and connecting into the West Building of the Orange County Convention Center, a second very large low structure with a mostly east-west orientation.
Your pilot might quibble a bit with you about your notions of north-south and east-west. If so, just tell the pilot that they will do quite nicely for navigation from the hotel lobby to the Exhibit Hall, even though they might end you up on the wrong continent if you were flying across the Atlantic. So, put away your compass and enjoy the convention.
Back on the ground as you enter the hotel through the revolving doors at the main entrance you will be facing south. You will be at about the center of the twenty-four-story east-west wing of the hotel. The main hotel elevators will be directly ahead of you in a U-shaped elevator lobby. Slightly to your right (west) of the opening into the elevator lobby is the entrance to the long two-story north-south wing of the hotel. Turning slightly to your left (east) takes you to the hotel check-in desk, which is located on the south wall of the east-west wing. Opposite the hotel check-in desk on the north wall of the east-west wing is the bell stand and the concierge desk.
All of the sleeping rooms are located in the twenty-four-story east-west wing. The first three elevators on each side of the U-shaped elevator lobby serve floors 2 through 15. The last two elevators on each side serve floors 2 and 16 through 24. A short passageway on the west side of the elevator lobby between the third and fourth elevators serves as a shortcut between the elevator lobby and the north-south wing. It also serves as a convenient landmark to separate the low-floor elevators and the high-floor elevators. When you exit the elevator lobby on the sleeping room floors, the rooms ending in numbers 1 through 32 are east of the elevator lobby, and the sleeping rooms ending in numbers 33 through 64 are west of the elevator lobby.
West of the main entrance along the north wall of the east-west wing is Smooth Java, a full-service coffee bar featuring Starbucks coffee. Beyond the coffee bar across the end of the wing is the entrance to the Spa and Fitness Center. The hotel gift shop is located on the south wall just before the Spa and Fitness Center.
All of the hotel meeting rooms, restaurants, and other food and beverage areas are located in the two-story north-south wing. (There are a few meetings which will take place in hotel hospitality suites, which are located on the second floor of the east-west wing.)
As you enter the north-south wing from the north end and head south, Sam & Bubbe’s, which serves “New York deli noshes” as well as beverages, is located on the west side. Beyond Sam and Bubbe’s are many doors leading to the outside deck, pool area, and the tropical Harry’s Poolside Bar and Grille. On the east side is the 98Forty Tapas and Tequila Bar featuring forty premium tequilas and Spanish and Mexican specialties. Just beyond 98Forty is the Banshoo sushi bar followed by Red’s Deli.
This deli is open twenty-four hours a day and is a combination of convenience store and quick-service restaurant. The restaurant part of the operation opens at 6:30 a.m. and continues until midnight, offering hot and cold deli-style sandwiches, salads, pizza, hot entrees, and desserts, either for dine-in or takeout to your room or the outside eating area near the pools. Continuing south beyond Red’s Deli you will find the hotel’s two full-service restaurants—Café Gaugin (which is open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner) and Everglades (which is open for dinner only).
Opposite the Everglades Restaurant you will find the grand staircase. Two separate curved flights merge into one on a landing and continue in a single flight to the second-floor meeting rooms. When you enter the curved stairs from the lobby level you are heading west. The single flight from the landing reverses direction so that when you come off the stairway onto the second floor, you are facing east.
Continuing south beyond the grand staircase the floor surface changes from terrazzo to carpet, and you enter the Ballroom Prefunction foyer. (NFB preregistration, registration, banquet ticket sales, and information desk will be located here.)
Along the east side are seven sets of doors leading into the Grand Ballroom. Opposite the fifth set of doors are escalators and a staircase leading to the second-floor meeting rooms and to the covered bridge walkway to the West Building of the Convention Center. The staircase is between the two escalators. The “up” escalator is on the west side of the staircase. The “down” escalator is on the east side of the staircase. Beyond the escalators and staircase is an elevator to the second floor. Just before the elevator on the west wall of the Grand Ballroom Prefunction foyer is an exterior door leading to the dog relief area closest to the meeting rooms.
Just beyond the Grand Ballroom are two additional, smaller ballrooms, one on each side of the Prefunction foyer. Each of these ballrooms is split into two sections. The Junior Ballroom is located on the east side of the Prefunction foyer. There are two sets of doors into Section F of the Junior Ballroom followed by two sets of doors into Section G. The Executive Ballroom is opposite the Junior Ballroom on the west side of the Prefunction foyer. Similarly, there are two sets of doors into Section H followed by two sets of doors into Section I of the Executive Ballroom. The Prefunction foyer ends with doors to the outside just beyond the ballrooms. The exterior doors lead to the Rosen Centre surface lot and parking garage.
The second-floor meeting rooms consist of twenty-four salons numbered 1 through 24 and the Signature 2 meeting room. Salons 1 through 12 are located along both sides of a U-shaped east-west corridor found immediately opposite the opening to the Grand Staircase. The numbering system begins with Salon 1 starting on the left (north) side of the corridor as you enter it continuing consecutively through Salon 6 on the north side, crossing over to Salon 7 on the south side and running back up the “U” through Salon 12 on the south side of the “U,” which is opposite Salon 1 at the entry point into the “U” on the north side.
Leaving the “U” you are facing west. Turning left (south) the first salon on the east side of the north-south corridor is Salon 13. Salons 14 through 24 follow consecutively south along the east side of this corridor. If when leaving the “U” you turn right (north), you are headed toward the intersection of the north-south second floor meeting room corridor with the east-west corridor of the twenty-four-floor sleeping room wing. Turning left (west) at this intersection takes you to a number of hospitality suite parlors, where some meetings are scheduled. The numbering system of the hospitality suites follows the same pattern as the numbering for sleeping rooms. Turning right (east) at the intersection takes you to the elevator lobby serving the sleeping rooms. All ten elevators in the main bank of elevators serving the sleeping rooms have a stop on the second floor.
Salons 13 through 24 are located directly above the Grand and Junior Ballrooms along the east side of a north-south corridor that is above the north-south Ballroom Prefunction foyer. The escalators and staircase originating in the Ballroom Prefunction foyer opposite the fifth set of Grand Ballroom doors terminate on this second-floor corridor opposite Salon 19. The Signature 2 meeting room is located opposite Salon 17 west of the escalators and staircase. The entryway to the covered bridge to the Convention Center West Building is located west of these escalators.
The covered bridge walkway to the West Building of the Convention Center is 343 feet—slightly longer than the length of a football field. It connects to the second level of the West Building. You enter the West Building at the extreme east end of the West Concourse running from east to west.
The doors to our Exhibit Hall and Independence Market are on the south side of the West Concourse in WA1, across from the doors where you enter the Convention Center. We are also using meeting rooms W202 (which divides into three sections) on the north side of the concourse.
The full length of the West Concourse from east to west is a few feet more than a half mile. The Rosen Plaza Hotel is located just beyond the west end of the concourse. The Exhibit Hall and meeting rooms we are using extend only about a fourth of the way along the concourse toward the termination at the west end. It is possible to leave the Rosen Plaza Hotel, walk the entire distance through the air-conditioned concourse to the covered bridge walkway to the Rosen Centre Hotel, and travel across the walkway to the meeting room level of the Rosen Centre Hotel. The exterior doors of the Convention Center at the Rosen Plaza end will be open for entry from 6:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. The exterior doors of the Convention Center at the Rosen Centre end will be open for entry from 6:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. Doors at both ends will be open for exit twenty-four hours daily.