cabanas portofino

[grittyreid]

hello,

can anyone tell me do i have to reserve a cabana ahead of time (we are going 1st week of september) and whether i should do beach pool cabana or villa pool. any suggestions welcome. thank you

 

[happymommy]

Hi! I just booked August 22 - 26th in a club room at PBH. I reserved a cabana for the 25th. The concierge was SO NICE (his name was Andrew). He said there are only 3 cabanas at the beach pool, and since my kids are 9 and 11, I thought we'd spend more time there. There were 2 still available today, so I booked one ($125 for the day, regularly it's $150 but you get a discount for being in a club room, not much but hey it's something). It sounds nice, you get it for the whole day. I think if you know the day you want, I'd book it now. He said you can request drinks; I told him the usual sodas and water is fine for us. I'm not telling DH - it's our last full day there (short trip only 4 nights) and it'll be nice to have all day to come and go.

He said there are maybe 12 or 16 at the villa pool. I like the idea of the beach pool myself.

It has a tv. Wow, my 11 year old will love that! I will kick back with a book.

 

[macraven]

you can get a discount if you have the ap..

 

[happymommy]

how much is an ap discount?

told hubby - he thinks it's cool. I can't keep a secret!

 

[disneyfreakk]

you can get a discount if you have the ap..

REALLY???!!??? Do tell Mac!

Happymommy, You can book a cabana at any of the onsite hotels if you want. and if you are not staying club, just call the hotel and ask for the fitness centers number and then have them connect you. Sometimes you have to call back to make your ressies, and that is why I suggest you always get the number before they connect you. Its just easier.

 

[happymommy]

I know we could use the other pools, but since we have the club lounge to go by if we feel like going inside, as well as our room, I'd rather be at our resort.

Only bummer is I always do laundry, and even for only 4 nights I'll have to do some! I'll either go to HRH for a couple of hours or send it out to be done.

I am curious what the discount is for AP holders. Our room rate was better than the AP discount rate, so don't think I'd get one though.

 

[joenan88]

Can you tell me what is included in the $125.00 for the day?? I am club level also and think the cabana would be great for the day we arrive.

 

[happymommy]

I was told the cabana is yours for the whole day until the pool closes. You get an assortment of sodas and bottled waters in the fridge (I think 2 cokes, diet cokes, sprites, and waters) as well as a fruit bowl or some fresh fruit. They asked if we had a preference of sodas, but I told them that the standard sounded perfect for us. Also, a tv and vcr or something like that. Funny, don't think I'd watch tv by the pool, but my DS will! They will serve food and drinks to you also. I wanted to save this for our last full day, as the other days we'll be enjoying the theme parks more (we've never been to US so it's going to be all new to us).

 

[joenan88]

I was told the cabana is yours for the whole day until the pool closes. You get an assortment of sodas and bottled waters in the fridge (I think 2 cokes, diet cokes, sprites, and waters) as well as a fruit bowl or some fresh fruit. They asked if we had a preference of sodas, but I told them that the standard sounded perfect for us. Also, a tv and vcr or something like that. Funny, don't think I'd watch tv by the pool, but my DS will! They will serve food and drinks to you also. I wanted to save this for our last full day, as the other days we'll be enjoying the theme parks more (we've never been to US so it's going to be all new to us).

We went to Universal in November and stayed at The Hard Rock..we LOVED it! The Hard Rock was sold out for our dates so we are trying The Portofino. We are doing Disney for 5 nights and then 2 nights at Portofino. You can do both parks in 1 day so we decided since it is going to be so hot to use the pool the day we check out of The Contemporary and check into The Portofino. I thought a cabana would be nice..but my husband is still not convinced about a cabana....but I am Have a nice trip!

 

[Motherfletcher]

We are going to Loew's Miami Beach this weekend and have reserved a cabana for 2 days. I would have never done it but I won an auction for the room (St. Moritz suite or Jr. suite), a cabana for 2 days and breakfast for 2 for 2 days at Prestons. I felt kind of bad that I spent $430 for the auction's certificate but found out that the room rents for $550/night this time of year, the cabana rents for $250 a day (9am-dusk) and breakfast is $30 each more or less. They have PLAT on my reservation so I'm hoping to get the $100 hotel credit too. I wonder at 250 if our cabana is worth twice that of PBH's? I think the topper is our's comes with a Butler. It is kind of nice to have a spot that is reserved for your party as well. The pool at Loew's South Beach is extremely popular and all of the chairs around the pool are grabbed up early. You need to stake a claim before 9 am if you hope to get a pool side chair. Any luck we'll get the top floor St. Moritz suite again with the balcony/deck bigger than a PBH standard room and views stretching from downtown Miami to the Atlantic. I love Universal and it's hotels but this Loew's is one where you can truly relax and be pampered. James, I'll take another frozen grape, please.

 

[dsmom]

Motherfletcher,

Lucky you!! Please take lots of pictures!!

Let me know how it is. We are still Plat. and are thinking about a trip to the Don Caesar and then on to Miami (since we are here in Florida) to maintain our status. Have you ever stayed at the one in St. Pete?

Have a great time- it sounds wonderful!

 

[Tizzy_Meliss]

You are soooo lucky!!!! I used to live in Miami, I've seen the resort, but never stayed, it is a beautiful place.

 

[Motherfletcher]

Have you ever stayed at the one in St. Pete?

My daughter and I stayed at the Pink Lady on New Year's Eve. The hotel is old and has more history than most Florida hotels. I remember going there in the early 60's with my dad when it housed the Veteran's Administration. Most of his military paper work was lost in Pearl Harbor.
As Plat's they gave us a Jr. Suite with bedroom, parlor and a large bathroom. I think that most of these suites are not the same like PBH since the hotel has been retrofit and updated several times since the 20's. Some of the rooms are small. Being New Year's Eve they were busy and somewhat flustered. We couldn't get our room until 7:30 when it was supposed to be ready by 4. A guy, who was Plat as well, was waiting for a room too and made a scene and they gave him and his wife free dinner at their fancy restaurant. They had to fit him with a jacket and dress shirt. I asked for the same compt without the theatrics and they were more than willing to comply. We didn't want to eat at the fancy restaurant so they gave us free dinners through room service. Excellent food! They gave us popcorn, the local LF amenity which was salt water taffy and we got a free movie of our choice.
The beach at St. Pete is great and we found lots of shells and the water was flat as a lake.
Miami is the best but Don Cesar is worth going to just for the historic value. Plus they say its haunted.

 

[dsmom]

Thanks Motherfletcher for all the info. We will definately try it. We are a two hour drive north of Universal so we might take a road trip this fall- hitting all the Loews Florida resorts- have to get our ten stays in somehow.

 

[Motherfletcher]

Loews Miami Beach is the best. We we're given a St. Moritz Suite with a parlor on the 12 floor, which I thought was the top floor, but the bedroom was on the 14th floor. The elevator went to our room on the 14th floor but we were the only room on the floor. The bathroom was huge with a claw foot bath tub that I had to soak in a couple of times. Our balcony was big enough for 2 tables and chairs and 4 lounge chairs.
The cabana was in the perfect location next to a hot tub and the pool. I would never pay $250 a day for a cabana but it was nice to have it as an extra on the certificate. The cabana had 2 lounge chairs, 2 straight chairs, a table, an end table, a small fridge with some sodas, a ceiling fan that we had to have fixed and a LCD TV. Outside was 2 lounge chairs facing the cabana then another row of lounge chairs that appeared to be overflow seating for the pool. Saturday morning this lady approached the cabana next to ours and told the lady sitting in there that the Glamour magazine that our neighbor was reading was hers, that she had left it on a lounge chair, that she could read it because she had another but she would like to have it returned. This started a chain of events that took me a while to figure out. Our neighbors were just a couple in their thirties and the lady most have gotten mad about the magazine because they had 3 or 4 of the pool attendant/butlers there and they talked for a long time before the pool guys asked the magazine lady to leave. A few more people tried to sit in the far row lounge chairs and were run off as well. One lady was using it to cahnge her babies' diaper and had to leave. I thought our neighbors were expecting guests and had reserved the chairs but no one showed up. One older lady asked to move put up a fuss when the cabana occupant herself told them they couldn't sit in the chairs. I heard the older women say "What do you mean they belong to you?"
I heard the neighbor lady say that those chairs were assigned to the cabanas. Each cabana was to have 6 lounge chairs. If I would have known that I would have allowed 2 people to use our extra 2 lounge chairs. Some people are really uppity.
I'm not sure how it happened but we were compted dinner at Preston's as well as breakfast. I had steak and lobster, the wife had steak, the kids ate regular but ordered appetizers and desert. I had a hot fudge sundae that was served in a huge champagne glass. When we were done the hostess came to the table and said everything was taken care of. That saved me a couple hundred $s.
When I received the express checkout it had about $500 with "pool" as the description. When I checked out they said I owed nothing! Not even the $34 a day valet parking?
I think it helped that Yasmine who used to work at RPR is the VIP Mgr. and she knew me from RPR and I was at the Miami Loew's on her first day there and put in a good word for her with management. It is worthwhile to keep the Plat status!

 

[dsmom]

That sounds incredible! We will definately try Miami. We have driven though but have never stayed there. We have stayed at St. Pete a lot and driven by the Don Cesar but have never stayed there either. Have you ever gotten a suite there? I am looking forward to staying there- I am a history buff and love the look of this place.

Do you have any pictures from Miami that you would be willing to share?

 

[Motherfletcher]

I think the kids took a bunch of pictures so once we wade out of the Fay waters I'll get them to send them to me at work. They fired about 25 people here for inappropriate emails so I've been chillin' on my posts.

 

[dsmom]

Hows the weather there? We are on the beach here in NE Florida and getting soaked...hopefully this thing will make up it's mind and get out of here soon!

 

[Motherfletcher]

Weather is OK today but we got soaked.