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

This time next week I’ll be on my way to Portofino for my first Universal trip! We were initially spending our first two nights at cabana bay, but yesterday I found an APH discount room for all six nights that saved me $100. Thank you to all of you for the advice and information, I’m so excited!
 
This time next week I’ll be on my way to Portofino for my first Universal trip! We were initially spending our first two nights at cabana bay, but yesterday I found an APH discount room for all six nights that saved me $100. Thank you to all of you for the advice and information, I’m so excited!

Awesome! Have a great trip!
 
This time next week I’ll be on my way to Portofino for my first Universal trip! We were initially spending our first two nights at cabana bay, but yesterday I found an APH discount room for all six nights that saved me $100. Thank you to all of you for the advice and information, I’m so excited!

Glad to hear you`re staying all your nights at Portofino...…..I`m sure you will love it!!!

Have a wonderful trip and come back and tell us how you enjoyed it...…...
 


Thanks! It feels like a very “Disboards” vacation: Tony’s picking us up at the airport and we are upgrading our tix to APs for a room discount. :D :thanks:


You're welcome! I love Tony! I am going to miss him this year because we are driving down in a couple of weeks. I upgraded last summer to an AP and enjoy the benefits. When we go back in a few weeks it will be my first time back at PBH in 14 years. I usually stay at HRH or CBBR. I look forward to hearing your report.
 
I had a couple of questions about club. Has anyone been recently that has the menu? Or just the evening rotation?

If we’d bring refillable water bottles, can we fill up anywhere that has filtered water at Portofino? I know there is bottled water to take in the lounge but if possible I’d rather just fill up.

Finally, are all the deluxe rooms in the Villa wing? Should we request any specific location? Easy access to pools and the boat launch is good. Yet closer to the lounge. Does that even exist?
 


Here now on a quick trip before our AP expire. Booked an AP rate for a Garden View 2 Queens. We arrived yesterday at 12:30 in the afternoon.. not only was our room ready, we were upgraded to a Deluxe 2 Queens Garden view. Our garden view is now a view of the Villa pool. Yay!! Every staff member we have encountered has been wonderful..from the front desk, bell hops, to the cleaning lady who could tell I was lost and led me to my room. No issues with boats, except for a thunderstorm yesterday afternoon when all resort boats were shut down. As Captain Obvious would say... this place is gorgeous!!
 
Here now on a quick trip before our AP expire. Booked an AP rate for a Garden View 2 Queens. We arrived yesterday at 12:30 in the afternoon.. not only was our room ready, we were upgraded to a Deluxe 2 Queens Garden view. Our garden view is now a view of the Villa pool. Yay!! Every staff member we have encountered has been wonderful..from the front desk, bell hops, to the cleaning lady who could tell I was lost and led me to my room. No issues with boats, except for a thunderstorm yesterday afternoon when all resort boats were shut down. As Captain Obvious would say... this place is gorgeous!!

So happy to hear this!!!

PBH is beautiful, and sounds like you are having the best time!
 
We usually stay at RPH and I love the pool there. Hubby has a conference the end of September and his work is paying for PBH. I would feel bad going to the parks alone while he is stuck doing conference things so will probably spend a lot of day time at the pools. I see pics of the beach pool have noodles and floatie tubes. Do they have them at the quiet pools? Can I bring one over if they don't have any? My favorite thing at RPH pool is to float around in a tube reading a book and watching the ducks. We've walked around PBH before and it does look beautiful. The theming is very true to Italy although Italy is not as spotless!
 
I wanted to give a quick review of our recent stay at PBH. We stayed 2 nights- 6/7 -6/9 (Thurs/Fri). I had an AP discount room, standard 2 queen (I believe) for $259 and $284/night. There were 4 of us (DH, myself, and DD5 and DS7), but apparently I forgot to put the 2 kiddos on the reservation, so when we went to check in they had upgraded us to a Bay view King room. When they saw there was 4, they were going to switch us back, but we asked to keep the king room and they let us. This was awesome! The bay view came in handy when we were looking to see if the water taxi was running or not because of afternoon storms. The room was very nice, spacious, light, and we all really enjoyed it! Unfortunately we didn't ever make it to the pool (hopefully next time!) as the kids played hours in the Curious George area so we figured that was enough water for them. We got takeout food from Sal's twice, both times were good but pricey, but that's to be expected I suppose. The front-desk people and bell services were all very friendly and helpful. We really enjoyed the short water taxi's to/from the parks, and the short security line to get on the boat was great!

Really I can only think of 2 minor negatives - the first was one afternoon coming back from the parks we had to take the bus to the hotel because the boats weren't running due to lightning. The wait for the bus seemed to take forever, and the area was very crowded and seemed disorganized - there wasn't a sign indicating if we were in the correct line or not, and the bus wasn't marked either. I'd say if you can try to wait out the lightning and just ride the boat. The second was on our last night/day in the room, I noticed some tiny ants (I think) on the bathroom counter. They were so small they were hard to see, and at first I thought it was just one or two that somehow maybe got in with the clean towels or something, however I probably killed 25 or so of them. I didn't call the front desk because I didn't really want to move rooms since we liked our room so much, and we had a short stay. If we were there longer I might have called to see if they could spray or something.

Overall we really, really enjoyed our stay and would definitely like to stay at PBH again! Hopefully next time we'll make it to the pool, and would probably pay extra to get the Bay view room again. A few other notes - They never did ask us to show our AP's, which we did upgrade to on our last day (for only $21 for 4 of us!). Also, on our last day bell services was able to hold our cold food in refrigerated storage for us while we toured the parks. Any questions please let me know!
 
Does anyone know if the Bay King rooms have a pull-out sleeper sofa? I will be attending a conference & the room choices are Bay King or Queen Deluxe. Would you pick one room over the other? Deluxe looks like more room, but Bay looks closer to the boat dock. Is one nicer than the other? It will be me, DH, & 15 yo DS.
 
I went back to look at the pictures of the rooms.
It shows both king and 2 queen rooms.

With you having 3 in the room, probably best to choose the 2 Queen beds so no need to rent a rollaway bed for your teen.
The deluxe room will have more sq footage than the standard rooms.

The king deluxe does not have a sofa bed.

From UO website info regarding the bay 2 queen deluxe rooms:


Portofino Bay Hotel – deluxe rooms
These elegantly-appointed accommodations offer an even larger living space at 490 square feet, plus a stylish and roomy bathroom featuring a separate tub and shower. In addition to the extra comfort, you’ll enjoy a view of the serene Villa Pool and surrounding gardens, or the dramatic Roman aqueduct-styled Beach Pool.

  • 490 square feet
  • Features crown molding and a stylish bathroom with a separate tub and shower. There is an elegant opening with shutters between the bathroom and bedroom area
  • Inventory of 171 rooms: 28 king, 143 double queen
  • No sofa beds in king rooms; limited sofa beds in double queen rooms (request only)
  • Connecting rooms can be king to double queen or double queen to double queen
  • This is a great option for a family of five people who want more space and want the opportunity to request a room with a sofa bed
 
Thank you very much McCraven. Would you recommend I make a certain location request for the deluxe?
 
Some like to be closer to the boat dock while others want to be near the pool.


All the room types are good but you might have a preference for views
 
I have used gc at rpr eateries so assume you could use them at PBH

On the safe side, call the hotel direct in case anything has changed in the past 8 months
 
I called to cancel my old reservation when I made the new discounted aph one and asked. They said all hotel restaurants accept the Universal gift cards, just in case anyone else was wondering.
 

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