*** Important: Trip Reports Only On This Board! ***

[WebmasterBarry]

Please note that this board is only for trip reports about your visit to Universal. Please post all other questions or comments to the Universal discussion board. Click HERE to visit that board.

Thank you.

 

[Earlene217]

Our stay July 6th -10th at the RPH we arrived to early and had a lowes blue card and had already filled out a form on the internet on what free gifts we wanted. there was no lines at check in so my card really didn't help me that way, And they only ask me on the food item what I wanted and I told them that what I had picked on the Web, we had to wait lhr and 15 mins for our room,they gave me a phone number to call on the house phone at the hotel so I kept calling untill they said it was ready, they never did tell me my room number??? On my last call I asked what room number it was and they said 1216 in tower I It was on the 6th floor which was a water view of the pool It was a really nice view. The room was dirty when we got in there was papers from another hotel guess in the drawer and candy wappers in the window seal and under the bed it was dirty.
The milk and cookies that I picked out was o.k. not much milk, 3 big cookies, We got a paper every day but not the one I picked out it looked like everyone got a paper of the same kind no matter which one you picked out, I wanted the loal paper but got the USA Today, I asked for the teen free item my son is 13yrs
and he got a blue bag with some candy, sample shampoo and sun tan lotion ect... Which was nice.
On the last day they left our bill on our door knob I filled it our for express check out. and i asked for directions to sea world they gave me a booklet with a map but no coupons for any free picture frames like I had read on other boards, we carried our own luggeg out and had my husband drive up as it wasn't that far from the parking lot, Then we was on our way to sea world then home.

 

[Patty Blackburn]

Let me begin my review of our Universal stay (July 1-5)– magnificent!! We checked in at the Portofino Bay Hotel around 2:00. The check-in line was very small, I think one person was in front of me, and were given our room keys in a matter of minutes. A very informative young man, who also showed us around a bit too, escorted us to our room. I loved our room, it was in the Villa building, attached to the main building (they also have East and West Guest rooms on both sides of the villa rooms) and had a huge bathroom with a separate stand-up, very elegant, shower as well as a oval shaped tub on the other side of the bathroom. The bathroom also had two sinks and a wonderful array of toiletries. The towels were monogrammed and oh so very soft! The bathroom itself was grand and worth the upgrade!! Our sleeping area had two oversized queen beds (theses beds were wonderfully comfy and had an assortment of pillow choices on each bed too), TV, chair, wet bar (locked, but they will give you the key) and a table with chairs. We also had a great view of the Harbor Piazza and boat dock.
The pool area was very nice and roomy, a quiet pool is also located near by and quiet nice too. I, along with my family, absolutely LOVED the Portofino Bay Hotel; I recommend it highly to anyone traveling to Orlando!

If my hotel review hasn’t convinced you to stay at the Portofino then listen up! When you stay at a Universal hotel you receive FRONT OF THE LINE ACCESS all day/stay!!! This added benefit saved us so much time, we simply went to the FOTL entrance area at the attraction we were going to ride and almost every time walked on the ride (the longest we waited was about 13 minutes once or twice) – it was grand!! If you are going to go to Universal’s parks you must stay on site!

I hope this helps you plan your trip to Universal. If you have any other questions feel free to ask.

 

[kit]

We just got back from a feb3-7th family trip to rph. the hotel was gorgeous! pool was wonderful. Most of the staff were excellent and very fun. good breakfast buffet(little pricey for adults, but great price for kids). I thought the rooms were smaller than hfh. Nice walk to theme parks or a quick ride via the water taxi. We visited both theme parks. Hulk, spiderman, mummy, and jimmy neutron were the favorites. I thought the mardi gras parade was fun but i expected more. (guess i am use to wdw wow). the express pass is the past thing ever invented. we really only had to use it on the weekends since crowds were down this time of year. The guys watched the superbowl in the orchid lounge. they had a plasma tv and appetizers. there was a big crowd at citywalk watching it on a huge outdoor screen. looked like fun. We ate at nba city and nascar-both fun for the kids. Good food. I had eaten at the other restaurants before which are all good too. Tony hawk stayed at the rph. we saw his show from across the water at city walk. was fun but we did not want to pay the price to sit on the bleachers. were there when the skateboard fell into the water and they jumped right in to retrieve it.
Weather was cooler but much warmer then here and was nice to see palm trees, green grass and flowers!