Portofino Bay Hotel Club level

who has stayed at PBH in a club level room. What can you tell me? What is your review of the ammenities and pro's for staying in the club leve. Do you have any pictures? What sort of things were offered while you were there?? Thanks for any and all information!

I have stayed PBH Club 3x now, the most recent the end of Jan..FIrst it is NOT its own floor like at other resorts.The lounge is located on the 3rd floor , lobby level near the Bar American .It is accessed by a special gold club key you are given at check in( this is in addition to room key and express pass).Generally they keep club guests in the villas wing which is the deluxe room category.Your room can be anywhere though and a bit of a hike from the lounge( though not for us).The views are either of the beach pool ( main pool) with Universal studios /IOA in the distance or of the Villas pool( both are beautiful). The lounge itself is very large.The food offerings are tasty and though downsized in the past 18 months or so, are still quite varied and plentiful.Examples: breakfast 7am-10am? is assorted pastries and breads, Cream cheese/butter/PB/Jams , hardboiled eggs, yogurt, oatmeal with mix-ins like granola, Fresh fruit .Coffee,tea, juice, soda.Afternoon- goldfish crackers, cracker jacks, terra chips, granola bars, pretzels, waters ,sodas, coffees /teas. Evening Appys-5p-7p? - Changes nightly .One night we had Lemon/alfredo PAsta, Salad, crudites, cheese/crackers, bruschetta assorted beer and wine offerings in addition to water/coffee/sodas.Dessert 8p-10p , Changes nightly .Generally Choc chip cookies, and small -single serve desserts like Tiramisu, cheesecake, red velvet cake etc.
We find the Club lounge worth every penny, but we like to spend a lot of downtime at the resort and use the club a lot.It likely wouldn't be a good deal if you are park open-close types.

We've always stayed at the PBH with club access and love it. For us it is breakfast every day, coffee to go in the morning, all our sodas for the room and dessert every night (with a big glass of milk) - and that justifies it for us. If we happen to catch some of the snacks and appetizers at other times it's just a bonus.

We like staying club level just because it gives us more space (without having to rent another room). The large lounge room and the food within makes the resort 10x more relaxing to us. We rotate out for showers letting everyone have privacy back in the room.

Breakfast is HUGE! The cost savings, plenty of healthy choices and convenience of grabbing a coffee to go hit rope drop = brilliant.

The menu changes nightly. I think there are about 7 'themes'. So unless you are staying two weeks, you will not get the same thing each night. We had one night where no one liked anything. No harm, no foul, just went on to dinner like normal.

awesome information! thanks so much! Are the snack items prepackaged? just curious if any of it you would be able to take with you to the parks or pool etc. (obviously not the "meal type items") also what are some of the "healthy type options"? We will be a healthy nut with us. is there fresh fruit out all day or just in the mornings?

They will let you walk out with fruit and prepackaged items. For instance, fruit in the morning is out, take some apples and bananas back to the room for later. Granola bars and packaged PBJ sandwiches are the lunch items you can grab to go.

surgefest said:

awesome information! thanks so much! Are the snack items prepackaged? just curious if any of it you would be able to take with you to the parks or pool etc. (obviously not the "meal type items") also what are some of the "healthy type options"? We will be a healthy nut with us. is there fresh fruit out all day or just in the mornings?

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The snacks are packaged. I only ever saw the fruit out in the morning. They will allow beer/wine out but ONLY if they pour it into a cup first.You can not take beer bottles out of the lounge. Water is in bottles or there is a dispenser of Citrus infused water and cups with lids. There is also tea ,Iced tea, lemonade and coffee..I never saw the Pb& J and I was there end of last month

Evening offerings were changed when Daigon Alley opened. It is no longer themes each night. It's now Chef's Choice, which means whatever is left in the fridge. After 6 fabulous stays club level, we were totally disappointed in our stay last August. We are going to try RPH for our next visit. With the severe downgrading of formerly fabulous evening offerings, we no longer think PBH Club Level is worth the money. A Club Level employee we have gotten to know over the years was apologetic and rather embarrassed by the changes when we spoke with him about it.

Wow, that is a huge change! Thanks for the update

Pumbaa_ said:

Wow, that is a huge change! Thanks for the update

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I think it depends on when you go/went and what your expectations are..We went end of Jan this year( 2015) thinking the worst by all the posts we had seen saying how horrible it all is now( not just here but on another forum)...For us it was nowhere near bad, in fact it was very good,..Yes the selections are smaller ( at dinnertime at least.Didnt see any changes at breakfast , afternoon snacks or dessert time), and didnt seem to be as many choices as earlier trips, but we found the food tasty and they DID refill and put out more constantly. FWIW, while there we spoke with Joe at PBH CLUB ( longtime club employee ) and he said when Diagon Alley opened last summer, ALL THE CLUBS ( not just PBH) had downsized a bit and had a lot of complaints