PORTOFINO BAY HOTEL INFO...FAQ`s and more.......

Just an FYI, when hubby called PB last week to make reservations for our upcoming trip he was told that the price for adding on club level has increased from $125 to $150.

Thanks so much for posting!

It’ll help some folks when making the decision to stay there CL or not.......:thumbsup2
 
We're staying club level in a 2 queen deluxe room. I'd like to be close to the lounge because I know with my 3 kids, there will be lots of trips back and forth-just their kind of thing (I hope anyway, that's why we're splurging!) But if I request a room closest to the lounge, will that put us too far from the pool and boat dock? Also, if we have club level, are there extra charges for things like a balcony or patio or water view? And would I want to request something like that if my main priority is being close to the lounge?

We're okay walking, I just didn't want more than a few minutes to get there. The same floor would be great but I didn't know if there were any different views for the 3rd floor that I could ask for or if that floor would be way far from the boat dock?
 
We're staying club level in a 2 queen deluxe room. I'd like to be close to the lounge because I know with my 3 kids, there will be lots of trips back and forth-just their kind of thing (I hope anyway, that's why we're splurging!) But if I request a room closest to the lounge, will that put us too far from the pool and boat dock? Also, if we have club level, are there extra charges for things like a balcony or patio or water view? And would I want to request something like that if my main priority is being close to the lounge?

We're okay walking, I just didn't want more than a few minutes to get there. The same floor would be great but I didn't know if there were any different views for the 3rd floor that I could ask for or if that floor would be way far from the boat dock?

We have requested a balcony on 4 of our stays and have gotten one on two of our visits. There is not an extra charge. The walk to the club was a bit longer on the stays when we had a balcony, but both of those rooms were very close to the beach pool. They do try to put you closer to the club (and usually in the villa wing) when you book club level. On our last stay we stayed in a bay view patio room in the east wing because we had our dog with us. Our walk to the club and to the boat was shorter, but the walk to the pool was longer. We really enjoyed the location & patio, and have requested that room again for our trip this May.
 


We'll be staying for 2 nights in August - I believe my husband's offer from American Express travel includes two breakfast credits per day, a $100 dining credit, automatic room upgrade if available and late checkout. I've been told that you don't need to make advanced dining reservations for Universal or the Portofino. Is that everyone's experience too?
 
In general, yes that has been my experience. But with that said, if the parks are crowded, the in-park sit-down restaurants (Mythos/Lombards/Finnegans) those can sometimes (around normal eating times like 11am to noon and possibly late in the day just before they close) be hard to get into. I didn't make reservations for my last trip (1st week of February), but I did make a few reservations for my trip last September, just to be safe.

But I can't remember the last time a made a reservation for one of the City Walk restaurants nor one of the hotel restaurants. For the most part you should be fine with them without a reservation.

Update: OK, I thought a bit more on this. Since you will only be there for a couple of days, if there is a specific restaurant in City Walk that you really want to hit for dinner, I might go ahead and make a reservation. It won't hurt anything and if it turns out to be crowded, you don't have to worry or wait.
 
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Thanks!

With the dining credit, we're just going to have dinner at one of the hotel's restaurants. As much as I'd like to try that Chocolate Emporium place in City Walk, the monetary savings makes it worth dining at the Portofino.
 


We'll be staying for 2 nights in August - I believe my husband's offer from American Express travel includes two breakfast credits per day, a $100 dining credit, automatic room upgrade if available and late checkout. I've been told that you don't need to make advanced dining reservations for Universal or the Portofino. Is that everyone's experience too?

No you don't at all. Also if you're staying on site, you can actually show your room key to skip the line at some locations. I don't think you can for some, but we've done it at Cowfish. They also will text you when your table is ready so you don't have to just sit there and wait.
 
If I had to choose between PBH or Sfalls, PBH would win
ou’re very welcome.....

That’s a nice plan.........hope you have an amazing trip........:)
Well, I was overruled by DH, DD and DS. DH wants to go CL for the "free" breakfast. DD can't live without EP, and DS was won over by the theme music he heard on someone's PBH review. It looks like we are staying PBH CL this trip, and we'll go visit Sfalls for a meal. We're likely to have our Irish family over for a visit in 2019 or 2020, so maybe that will be our Sfalls trip. Thank you both for all your input - especially on the thread about PBH rooms being nicely update, despite some reviews on TA.
PBH, here we come! Now, just have to get these kids through the end of the school year.
 
Well, I was overruled by DH, DD and DS. DH wants to go CL for the "free" breakfast. DD can't live without EP, and DS was won over by the theme music he heard on someone's PBH review. It looks like we are staying PBH CL this trip, and we'll go visit Sfalls for a meal. We're likely to have our Irish family over for a visit in 2019 or 2020, so maybe that will be our Sfalls trip. Thank you both for all your input - especially on the thread about PBH rooms being nicely update, despite some reviews on TA.
PBH, here we come! Now, just have to get these kids through the end of the school year.

That EP is pretty hard to argue with..........

You’ll have a wonderful time at PB. It is gorgeous, no denying it........:thumbsup2
 
So - I thought I would share my thoughts on the resort - we only stayed for one night, but I think we still got a general overview - though didn't get a chance to dine at the restaurants or anything.

FYI we are normally Disney / DVC people, but had bought an AP for Universal last February, and went for 3 days at the start of our trip this year. We stayed at PBH because it actually had the best price of any of the FOTL resorts, which were the dominant reason we were choosing to stay there. The FotL benefit was HUGE, though I would argue the "early entry" benefit was practically a non-starter - the crowds at "early entry" were so high, we ended up going in for Early Entry, but ended up sitting around waiting for the FotL to open, because the wait for "Early Entry" was 45 minutes on Forbidden Journey - and sat around for 20 minutes to walk on in 5 minutes with FotL.

The resort is very nice - very relaxing, very clean. While we ended up in a "deluxe" room - so I am not sure how this compares to a regular room, but the room was HUGE. High ceilings and significantly more spacious than the Disney deluxe resorts. The resort transportation to the parks was very handy, never waited more than about 5 minutes for a boat. (I think went back and forth 4 times total.) And never had to wait for a second boat or anything. The pool area was also pretty decent, but I thought it was a bit small - at least at the time we went we had a very hard time finding seats, and the pool was very full of people - but it was around 4 PM. Certainly decent but not top end for theme park resort pools. (We didn't try the quiet pool.) In fact, it reminded me of the Polynesian Pool in that it was nice but not big enough to handle the people using it.

The theming of the resort was nice, but having just been to Italy I'd say the one part they maybe missed on is it was much to "clean", it didn't have the old feel that Italy has. It's a minor thing certainly, but it made the theme fill somewhat "false" to me.

Overall, I have to say this is a very nice resort. Honestly, even though I wasn't super happy at the price - the $385 per night + tax price was actually a decent price considering (a) the holiday and (b) the FotL benefit. While I think many of the Disney deluxe resorts are nicer - this price point still makes this a better "value" (if you can call use that term at these price points) than the Disney deluxe resorts which often run at $500+ and don't provide any park benefits other than location - especially considering the size of the room. This WAS an AP rate, so I am not sure how much it would've cost without the AP. That said, at a slower time of year where the FotL benefit isn't as beneficial - I would not pay this price just for the resort, but that's just me.

Overall, it was a very nice experience - and I would definitely go back there again, though I would still consider trying whichever FotL resort was cheapest. (That was the case here - where even the Royal Pacific was more money than this resort was.)
 
We booked a Bay View 2 queen room for a few nights in the summer. What request should I put in to be as close to the pool and boat as possible?

I know there are extremely long halls at PBR (we had one at the end of the resort last time). What type of request should I make? I definitely want to be on the side of the main pool- not the quiet pools on the other side of the resort. Just "Close to Main Pool?" Or would it be better to request a particular wing?
 
We booked a Bay View 2 queen room for a few nights in the summer. What request should I put in to be as close to the pool and boat as possible?

I know there are extremely long halls at PBR (we had one at the end of the resort last time). What type of request should I make? I definitely want to be on the side of the main pool- not the quiet pools on the other side of the resort. Just "Close to Main Pool?" Or would it be better to request a particular wing?

I would suggest requesting the West Wing. I put in a request for that (we are currently at PBH) and our room is in a great location. Main entrance to the building is right next to the boat dock and if you take the elevator to the 2nd floor you just a have a short flight of stairs down to the main pool.
 
So my husband told me that it's a deal breaker that PBR does not have mini fridges as opposed to HRH, but this says they were being added starting March 2017, does anyone know if that has been completed to all rooms?
I was so torn about the 2 hotels, finally made my choice and then not having a fridge seems to be an issue staying 8 nights...thoughts?
 
So my husband told me that it's a deal breaker that PBR does not have mini fridges as opposed to HRH, but this says they were being added starting March 2017, does anyone know if that has been completed to all rooms?
I was so torn about the 2 hotels, finally made my choice and then not having a fridge seems to be an issue staying 8 nights...thoughts?

They all have mini fridges now as far as I know. So that should not be an issue at all.
 
So my husband told me that it's a deal breaker that PBR does not have mini fridges as opposed to HRH, but this says they were being added starting March 2017, does anyone know if that has been completed to all rooms?
I was so torn about the 2 hotels, finally made my choice and then not having a fridge seems to be an issue staying 8 nights...thoughts?

Mini fridges were installed in all rooms by last year.
 
About when would reservations open up for a March 2020 stay? For the past several months the last date available is the first weekend in January 2020 and it hasn't changed. I want to make sure to get in before any price increases to keep our overall budget as low as possible.
 
About when would reservations open up for a March 2020 stay? For the past several months the last date available is the first weekend in January 2020 and it hasn't changed. I want to make sure to get in before any price increases to keep our overall budget as low as possible.

Give them a call and see if you can book now if you really need to lock in the price.

They`ll let you know if you can or not.
 
Hi I was wondering for anybody who has been there lately. I write trip reports on Trip Advisor and I read through plenty of others while I am on there. I know that there can be such mixed reviews and some people just come up with these awful reviews that make no sense. I am coming here where there are straight forward reliable answers. :thumbsup2 Anyways I have read a few these last couple of months that the hot tubs here are having some problems. I read one hot tub has only one jet working and another hot tub has luke warm water. Has anybody experienced this? Good working hot tubs are important for me on a trip as it dubs for therapy. Thanks for your help!
 
Hi I was wondering for anybody who has been there lately. I write trip reports on Trip Advisor and I read through plenty of others while I am on there. I know that there can be such mixed reviews and some people just come up with these awful reviews that make no sense. I am coming here where there are straight forward reliable answers. :thumbsup2 Anyways I have read a few these last couple of months that the hot tubs here are having some problems. I read one hot tub has only one jet working and another hot tub has luke warm water. Has anybody experienced this? Good working hot tubs are important for me on a trip as it dubs for therapy. Thanks for your help!

I can't speak to the jets working or not, that could be more of an isolated issue. But some people do think that one hot tub is warmer than the other. Apparently the one in the back, left side from the front gate of the pool area is supposed to be warmer. I personally didn't notice a difference, but you might. I usually go for the one nearest the pool bar, up the stairs and sort of to the right of the front gate.
 

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