we stayed at the Portofino for 3 nights, ate at La Trattoria at PBH & The Kitchen at HRH along w/ some counter-service in the parks - International Food & Film Festival at US & Enchanted Oak Tavern at IOA. we went to IOA after a t-storm on thurs from 3-7 - the storm really cleared out the park! we went to US from 9-2 on friday, 5/12. 5/13, we went to sea world. FOTL was great as usual so i can't comment on the lines since we barely had any. we had our 2 DDs w/ us, ages 22 mo. & 4, so our focus was the kid rides with some adult rides using child swap.
some quick comments on some problems that i had:
1. i left my diaper bag w/ my child's meds in it, souvenirs, etc on a table in a fairly empty restaurant in Marvel Island near the Hulk around 6:15 (park closed at 7). i realized that it was gone as soon as i got back to the hotel - made several calls just to contact a person in lost & found &/or security (lots of answering machines picked up) and it was gone. the manager of lost & found looked for it in the restaurant, etc. i continued to call for the next few days but nothing. it was my fault but still a real bummer that someone would steal it. Lost & found people said it happens all the time. people take it looking for $, credit cards, park passes, etc then sometimes toss it in the garbage. thankfully, i had all of the important stuff in my belly bag. my DDs prescription was able to be filled again at the local CVS. what's wrong w/ people that they would take a diaper bag?
2. Portofino, IMO, is a 5-star hotel but yet the service was not up to par. the staff there are extremely polite but seemed to get their signals crossed w/ each of our requests. we arrived at 2:30, room not ready (OK since check-in is at 4). we go to the room at 7, only to be placed in a room w/ a king, not 2 queens as requested so we were moved. we had a pool view deluxe room & they were going to place us in a non-pool view room for the 2nd room - i corrected her. we got our 2nd set of keys brought up to us. we then had asked for a crib & bed rails earlier in the day to be in the room when we arrived since the kids would be tired - nothing in either the 1st or 2nd room. the man brought us the crib 1/2 hr later & knew nothing of the bed rails so we waited again. the next day, we're in US & realize that the check-out date on our key cards was wrong (off by a day). that was straightened out then we got our 3rd set of keys. another little detail was that they misspelled 1 of our daughter's names wrong so i had that corrected too since it's an important keepsake to us. all little bumps in the road that didn't disturb our trip but still worth mentioning since i had requested all of the above at the time of our reservation & when i had called a few days in advance of the trip.
some quick comments on some problems that i had:
1. i left my diaper bag w/ my child's meds in it, souvenirs, etc on a table in a fairly empty restaurant in Marvel Island near the Hulk around 6:15 (park closed at 7). i realized that it was gone as soon as i got back to the hotel - made several calls just to contact a person in lost & found &/or security (lots of answering machines picked up) and it was gone. the manager of lost & found looked for it in the restaurant, etc. i continued to call for the next few days but nothing. it was my fault but still a real bummer that someone would steal it. Lost & found people said it happens all the time. people take it looking for $, credit cards, park passes, etc then sometimes toss it in the garbage. thankfully, i had all of the important stuff in my belly bag. my DDs prescription was able to be filled again at the local CVS. what's wrong w/ people that they would take a diaper bag?
2. Portofino, IMO, is a 5-star hotel but yet the service was not up to par. the staff there are extremely polite but seemed to get their signals crossed w/ each of our requests. we arrived at 2:30, room not ready (OK since check-in is at 4). we go to the room at 7, only to be placed in a room w/ a king, not 2 queens as requested so we were moved. we had a pool view deluxe room & they were going to place us in a non-pool view room for the 2nd room - i corrected her. we got our 2nd set of keys brought up to us. we then had asked for a crib & bed rails earlier in the day to be in the room when we arrived since the kids would be tired - nothing in either the 1st or 2nd room. the man brought us the crib 1/2 hr later & knew nothing of the bed rails so we waited again. the next day, we're in US & realize that the check-out date on our key cards was wrong (off by a day). that was straightened out then we got our 3rd set of keys. another little detail was that they misspelled 1 of our daughter's names wrong so i had that corrected too since it's an important keepsake to us. all little bumps in the road that didn't disturb our trip but still worth mentioning since i had requested all of the above at the time of our reservation & when i had called a few days in advance of the trip.
