ENDLESS SUMMER RESORT.

[Keyser]

Looks like we will be at Surfside in August. As I try to plan ahead, I do have a couple of questions:
1) I understand that buses are fast/frequent, but how long would you say it would take to get from the US/IoA entrance to the hotel (or vice-versa)? For example, if we were planning to take a break in the afternoon from those parks, how much time would be eaten up just in leaving the park, getting back to the hotel, and then returning? Or, along the same lines, if we needed to leave the park to be at the hotel at a particular time (such as to get luggage and go to the airport), how long should we allow?

2) I read above that the buses were just a few minutes to CityWalk, but how about to Epic Universe? Do they run about as frequently, and are they direct, or do you have to go to take 2 buses (like to Citywalk then to EU) or something?

Thanks!

 

[CAPSLOCK]

Bus to CityWalk is pretty much constant, in the really busy times (park opening) you may have a short wait to board & buses will be very full ("if you can see floor, there's room for more"), but they will pretty much have a bus waiting as soon as one fills up. I think I have only ever waited more than 15min for a bus ride once or twice, and normally that's at quiet times while they wait for a fuller load - meaning that you're at least waiting seated on the air conditioned bus.

I would say it's probably safe to guess 5-15min from getting to the bus stop to stepping off the bus. You hit a bus that just left, waiting to fill up the next bus, uncooperative traffic lights, I'm sure it could go over that. Actual time on road is probably 5min average.

Walk from park gates to bus, depending on walking speed, maybe 10min. Keep in mind you will need to go through security on the way back in, they're efficient but could still be 5min.

My official guesstimate:
Walk from park gate to bus stop = 10min
Await bus to pull away = 1-10min
Bus ride = 5min
Hotel break
Await bus to pull away = 1-10min
Bus ride = 5min
Security = 2-5min
Walk from security to park gate = 10min
Total mid-day break transit time = 34-55min. Less if you walk fast.

Epic Universe - approx drive time maybe 15min? They have a bus lane so traffic is less of an impact. Hotel Epic buses may be shared between hotels, but they don't go to CityWalk, it'll be a dedicated Epic bus.

 

[mlggator22]

We are coming for a week in October. Everything seems to be booking out like crazy. We are spending most of our time at WDW staying at AKL Villas (daughter works for Disney so we are getting a really good rate). We have 5 adults in our room. However, the AKL villa did not span our entire trip, so we are going to have to switch hotels for the last night.
Since we are doing Universal last, we thought we might stay at a Universal hotel that last night. Because of the number of people, we are thinking of this hotel.
I have stayed at Royal Pacific and Portofino Bay and had great experiences there. But I don't want to pay $1000+ and have to get a roll out cart.

I stayed at Cabana Bay with 5 people and did not have a good experience. When we checked in the room was not cleaned properly and was gross. They were full and couldn't move us. Had the cleaning crew come in again, but were kinda rude about the whole thing and I was a bit freaked out the whole time wondering if they really a thorough cleaning the second time.

I would love to know what you guys think of this hotel. It is me, my husband, my daughter and her boyfriend and my son staying there. I think we will mostly be in the parks all day and won't need to use the pool. Just a clean and comfortable place to sleep.

Also, do they store luggage?

Thanks for any help.

 

[PollyannaMom]

I would love to know what you guys think of this hotel. It is me, my husband, my daughter and her boyfriend and my son staying there. I think we will mostly be in the parks all day and won't need to use the pool. Just a clean and comfortable place to sleep.

We stayed there a couple of years ago and liked it. It was me, DH, DS, and our nephew (both early 20s) so 4 adults. We enjoyed the surf vibe a lot - very open and airy feeling. The suite was enough space, and the view from up high was good. The QS place was fine, there was a Starbucks if you like that, and there was a pool bar as well. I think our only slightly negative observation was that the towel hooks were in kind of weird spots? I remember taking pics by the big surfboard letters in the lobby.

 

[CAPSLOCK]

We were upgraded from a standard room to a 2 room suite - just the two of us. The room was clean (to be fair, we've never had a problem at any of the Universal hotels, and we're not picky). We've since stayed in a standard room and that was also fine. It does have a nice beachy feel, and I didn't find the lobby to be busy - Cabana Bay seems to be the busiest lobby.

Any of the Universal hotels store luggage, it's quite convenient.

 

[Keyser]

We just got back from a 5-night stay at Surfside last week. Feel free to ask me any questions and I'll answer if I can... Here are a few notes/thoughts on the hotel that I hope will help those planning a trip here.

1. We were in Tower 1, which I think was definitely preferable to Tower 2. The bus stops (which were the main place we went) were midway between the lobby and the mid-tower elevator bank in Tower 1, so this cut our daily walks to/from the bus stop significantly (we were at the "end" of Tower 1).
2. There is a 24-hour Walgreens across International Drive. We visited twice - basically bought a bunch of breakfast food/snacks for the room.
   1. There is a shortcut to International Drive - basically to the left after leaving the lobby, right after the gate to the parking lot. But, the gate between the hotel and I-drive sidewalk is only open (I thnk it was) 5 a.m. - 9 p.m. Of course, we were going there late at night, so had to hike all the way down the length of the hotel to where the road comes in, then back again that whole distance on the sidewalk, adding a good 15 minutes overall to the walking time.
   2. The checkout line at Walgreens at midnight on a Saturday ran the length of the store. We weren't the only ones with this plan... Second visit late on a Tuesday had only a short line.
3. We stayed in the 2-room suite, which was really nice for our family of 4 (the "kids" being 17 and 23). It was nice to have the room to spread out, and the refrigerator/microwave/picnic table made eating breakfast (and some other food) much easier.
   1. We would definitely stay in this room type again, and would prefer it over a "standard" room at a higher end hotel (e.g. we stayed at Royal Pacific years ago - I preferred this room, if not the location).
   2. There is not a lot of space to spread out luggage, though, so be prepared for that; floor space is still pretty tight.
4. The food court was not bad; we ate dinner there once. I wouldn't want to make it my regular meal place or make a special point to go there, but it's certainly good for a meal or two (we had mainly pizza, pasta, and desserts there).
   1. Note: they have refillable mugs you can use in the Freestyle machines there. These are not usable with the Freestyle machines in the parks, though, and the ones you get in the parks aren't usable in the hotel.
5. Buses worked fine but were not nearly as "fast" as I had thought they would be.
   1. Every time we returned, the buses go to Dockside first. That adds a few minutes for Surfside folks. Sometimes we also went to pick up at Dockside after loading at Surfside (but usually went straight from Surfside to Citywalk).
   2. Most times bus waits were not long (they were either waiting or arrived very soon), and they usually did not take a long time to get going (except a couple of low volume times - e.g. very late leaving Epic Universe).
   3. The last 2/3 of our trip, they were doing some repair work on the drive at Dockside, so the buses were taking a more roundabout route on return (looping back behind the hotel). This also increased travel time for us, but probably won't be an issue in the future.
   4. I should have timed more precisely, but to give you an idea, the absolute shortest time we had between the Citywalk entrance (where the moving sidewalks end) and the hotel bus stop was about 20 minutes. The longest was a little over 45 minutes. Average was probably pretty close to 30 minutes. (We walk average/fast and use the moving sidewalks if possible.) Going to Citywalk, you have additional time for security, but we also found we ended up with shorter waits at the hotel bus stop (usually the bus left soon after we boarded) than the Citywalk stop (where it would always wait a little while).
6. There are some laundry machines. We hadn't planned on needing them, but the Bilge Rat Barges had other ideas for us... The machines were flaky, though (one of them basically ate our money on one cycle - I expect the hotel would have reimbursed us if we'd asked, but the $4.50 was not worth the hassle of heading to the lobby and explaining it all at that time of night...).
7. Luggage check worked really well.
8. We only had one problem (missing washcloths one day), and they resolved that quickly.

I'm sure there's more I could add, but hopefully that is helpful to people.

 

[gottalovepluto]

We just got back from a 5-night stay at Surfside last week. Feel free to ask me any questions and I'll answer if I can... Here are a few notes/thoughts on the hotel that I hope will help those planning a trip here.

1. We were in Tower 1, which I think was definitely preferable to Tower 2. The bus stops (which were the main place we went) were midway between the lobby and the mid-tower elevator bank in Tower 1, so this cut our daily walks to/from the bus stop significantly (we were at the "end" of Tower 1).
2. There is a 24-hour Walgreens across International Drive. We visited twice - basically bought a bunch of breakfast food/snacks for the room.
   1. There is a shortcut to International Drive - basically to the left after leaving the lobby, right after the gate to the parking lot. But, the gate between the hotel and I-drive sidewalk is only open (I thnk it was) 5 a.m. - 9 p.m. Of course, we were going there late at night, so had to hike all the way down the length of the hotel to where the road comes in, then back again that whole distance on the sidewalk, adding a good 15 minutes overall to the walking time.
   2. The checkout line at Walgreens at midnight on a Saturday ran the length of the store. We weren't the only ones with this plan... Second visit late on a Tuesday had only a short line.
3. We stayed in the 2-room suite, which was really nice for our family of 4 (the "kids" being 17 and 23). It was nice to have the room to spread out, and the refrigerator/microwave/picnic table made eating breakfast (and some other food) much easier.
   1. We would definitely stay in this room type again, and would prefer it over a "standard" room at a higher end hotel (e.g. we stayed at Royal Pacific years ago - I preferred this room, if not the location).
   2. There is not a lot of space to spread out luggage, though, so be prepared for that; floor space is still pretty tight.
4. The food court was not bad; we ate dinner there once. I wouldn't want to make it my regular meal place or make a special point to go there, but it's certainly good for a meal or two (we had mainly pizza, pasta, and desserts there).
   1. Note: they have refillable mugs you can use in the Freestyle machines there. These are not usable with the Freestyle machines in the parks, though, and the ones you get in the parks aren't usable in the hotel.
5. Buses worked fine but were not nearly as "fast" as I had thought they would be.
   1. Every time we returned, the buses go to Dockside first. That adds a few minutes for Surfside folks. Sometimes we also went to pick up at Dockside after loading at Surfside (but usually went straight from Surfside to Citywalk).
   2. Most times bus waits were not long (they were either waiting or arrived very soon), and they usually did not take a long time to get going (except a couple of low volume times - e.g. very late leaving Epic Universe).
   3. The last 2/3 of our trip, they were doing some repair work on the drive at Dockside, so the buses were taking a more roundabout route on return (looping back behind the hotel). This also increased travel time for us, but probably won't be an issue in the future.
   4. I should have timed more precisely, but to give you an idea, the absolute shortest time we had between the Citywalk entrance (where the moving sidewalks end) and the hotel bus stop was about 20 minutes. The longest was a little over 45 minutes. Average was probably pretty close to 30 minutes. (We walk average/fast and use the moving sidewalks if possible.) Going to Citywalk, you have additional time for security, but we also found we ended up with shorter waits at the hotel bus stop (usually the bus left soon after we boarded) than the Citywalk stop (where it would always wait a little while).
6. There are some laundry machines. We hadn't planned on needing them, but the Bilge Rat Barges had other ideas for us... The machines were flaky, though (one of them basically ate our money on one cycle - I expect the hotel would have reimbursed us if we'd asked, but the $4.50 was not worth the hassle of heading to the lobby and explaining it all at that time of night...).
7. Luggage check worked really well.
8. We only had one problem (missing washcloths one day), and they resolved that quickly.

I'm sure there's more I could add, but hopefully that is helpful to people.

Are the beds particularly hard? (I have no complaints with Disney even at Values but I found the beds at Aventura and even SF hard so it kinda scared me off of trying Endless summer assuming they’d be even worse.)

 

[Keyser]

Are the beds particularly hard? (I have no complaints with Disney even at Values but I found the beds at Aventura and even SF hard so it kinda scared me off of trying Endless summer assuming they’d be even worse.)

I didn't find them hard at all (I would have said medium/soft) but I tend to prefer firmer mattresses, so they were probably "medium". They were not very springy, and didn't transfer movement from one person to the other when getting out of bed, if that make sense.

 

[gottalovepluto]

I didn't find them hard at all (I would have said medium/soft) but I tend to prefer firmer mattresses, so they were probably "medium". They were not very springy, and didn't transfer movement from one person to the other when getting out of bed, if that make sense.

It does, thank you!