just back from portofino....

[lemstar]

just got back today from portofino bay hotel and US/IOA. the hotel is beautiful, definitely 5 star material....but the service, well, more like 3 star...boat ride to the parks was convenient, front of the line was amazing and great!!, priority seating worked well. we were there for 5 nights, and got a little sick of Italian food (all the restaurants at portofino are italian), and the food was expensive, but good. they ahve a great breakfast buffet ($15 per person, not including OJ)-----
any questions?

 

[Spaceman Spiff]

hi lemstar, what type of room did you stay in? what time did you normally wake-up each morning?
was any attractions down for re-hab? what portofino restaurant did you really enjoy? can you tell me more about the breakfast buffet? were the parks crowded? what days did you go? sorry so many questions, im just little too excited about our mini-vacation and it is my first time on-site

 

[lemstar]

we stayed in 2 deluxe bay view rooms (with huge wonderful balcony)--there was no door connecting the 2 rooms, but our rooms shared the balcony--the kids stayed in one room, we stayed in the other...
mama della's and trattoria del porto were both good--the breakfast buffet had an omelette guy, eggs, french toast, bacon, ham, ptoatoes, cereal, fruit, pastries, yogurt....we didnt eat at the nicer fancier restaurant--
we went to US/IOA on sat nite (last nite of mardis gras), sunday, monday, tuesday and wednesday, and it was cold and overcast and rainy and not very crowded, but with the front of the line passes, the crowds dont matter all that much....
hope that helps...

 

[DisOrBust]

Are those the rooms you had reserved, or did you get a Loews upgrade? You said 3 star performance, any examples? If you got an upgrade how did you go about it.

 

[Spaceman Spiff]

no more question and i will leave you alone, promise. can you please tell me about the bay room? thats what i booked and would like to know more about the room. how is the bathroom set up? is the room spacious? what floor did you stay on?
thanks again!

 

[flyerfan22]

Welcome back. We'll be there a month from now. I'm curious what you experienced with the FOTL access. Was it unlimited? Did you go to the front, or the Express line? Could you go on the same ride twice in a row?

Thanks for your help.

Ruth & Steve

 

[nhrenee]

Sounds like you had a good time overall. What wing of the hotel were you in, east or west?
Thanks, just curious!

 

[lemstar]

we were on the 5th floor, in the west wing, and it wasnt an upgrade--our dear friends own a store at city walk, and they reserved us these specific rooms at a corporate rate, so we didnt ask for an upgrade--
the rooms were large for hotel rooms, but not gargantuan, the bathroom was large, had glass enclosed shower as well as normal size tub with shutters that open to bedroom area (nice for kids!), 2 sinks in bathrm, hair dryer, nice amenities...
the service was lacking--where? well, my 6 yr old found a p9ill on the floor of our room that did not belong to us, hair in the bathtub, had to ask for our loew's amenities about 6 times to get them, poor service in the restaurants, toilet broke twice, hard to get someone to come fix in in a timely manner, etc---not awful, but not 5 star service---whne we first checked in, i was so impresssssed with pbh, i thought it might have been nicest hotel we have been in--service knocked it down a notch or two, or three....
FOTL worked the same as express passes while we were there, ie we went to the same place as express pass holders to go in, and often had no wait, and sometimes waited up to 20 minutes--still was great! no hour waits, no 40 minute waits....and you could ride oover and over, just had to get back onto express line, which in some places was at the exit of the ride, so getting back on was a snap (mostly kids' rides)--
does that answer all those questions?