Just back July 26-31

[pinkxray]

We just got back yesterday. First time at Portofino Bay. We are a family of 5. Dh, myself, DD16,Ds6 and DD4. It was the first time to Universal for the two little kids. Dh and I have been to Universal multiple times along DD16 has been a few times.
We tend to go every other year or so but haven’t been since the little kids were born. We were trying to wait until everyone was at least 40 inches.DD4 has been stuck at 36inches so we gave up and booked.

Dh and I are essential workers and have been working throughout Covid plus dealing with online school and daycare closures. By Spring we were ready for vacation. The hospital I work finally canceled covid test and quarantine when returning from traveling in May. I think we booked that night.

We booked Portofino Bay because it was the cheapest AP rate. We have stayed at Royal Pacific years ago and have Hard Rock booked in Dec.

(I apologize for any typos or badly written reports. The dis keeps crashing when I type and erases everything so I am trying to post quick)

 

[pinkxray]

We are from CT. I am an X-ray tech in a hospital in CT so am used to masks all day. The kids have been wearing masks in school and daycare so they are used to them. When the covid numbers in FL starting increases I got a bit nervous and considered canceling. Dh and I told the kids we considered canceling but decided to go. We decided to wear masks indoors (right before Universal switched back to recommitted then inside)

We arrived on July 26. We usually rent a car but due to booking so close to travel we decided to listen to this board and book Tony Hinds. Art was our driver and was waiting for us to whisk us away to Portofino. He was ready at 4:15am on Sat to bring us back to MCO for our departure flight. Very easy.

We booked a garden view room and stayed in a villa room. It seemed like a LONG walk to the lobby but was a quick walk to the beach pool, which was my one request. We traveled with a double stroller so it was a little hard to navigate. There were probably short cuts if we were walking but since we had to use the elevators we certainly got our steps in.

The room was spacious and seemed to have plenty of room for the family. We brought a small air mattress for DD4 and that worked well. Beds were comfortable. We tended to be in our room in the afternoon so only had housekeeping one day. The rest of the days they knocked on our door and DH gave them our trash and towels. They replaced whatever we needed. Thought they did a very good job. Very nice staff everywhere we went.

My only dislike was the bathroom set up. The sink was in with the glass door shower and the toilet closed off. If someone was taking a shower the bathroom was pretty much out of use. Next time I would request a tub. If there was a shower curtain at least someone else could use the sink or sneak to the toilet. DD16 took the longest showers at night and it drove me crazy since I was trying to get everyone ready for bed.

Otherwise the room worked well and we would book it again.

 

[pinkxray]

Food-
We typically go with with the flow when at Universal. I have never made a reservation before as we would typically grab food wherever we happened to be. When seeing the reports to book reservations I decided to book one per day.
I booked Confisco, Mythos, Toothsome, NBC and Trattoria.

We ended up only using the reservation for Toothsome. The rest were cancelled or switched around. We ended up having to cancel Mythos bc we changed parks. I was bummed to cancel since I wanted to try it. I was able to rebook the next morning when someone else cancelled. If you don’t get the reservation try the night before or the morning of. Just like us, people change their plans and cancel.

We ended up eating at Mythos, Toothsome, and NBC on a different day. NBC was around 1130 and they were talking walk ups. Everywhere we ate had great food and decent service.

We only ate quick service at the parks on day. We ate ate Burger Digs around 1130 and the line was as you would expect on an afternoon in July. Moved quickly and had no problem getting a seat outside. Dh grabbed a salad from the pizza place in Jurassic and that line moved quick as well.

The longest lines were for the snack carts. We got the refillable popcorn bucket and filled it multiple times. After lunch the lines to do so were long and took forever. We tended to refill as soon as we got to the park to have it later and then on the way out.

We ate at Sal’s and Splendido Grill multiple times. Food was fine.

Dh eats a high protein/low carb diet so breakfast was a challenge at first. We ended up eating at Trattoria 2times for breakfast so he could get an omelet. We were happy to sit outside in the morning. Staff looked at us like we were crazy bc the chairs and tables were a little wet but we tried to do outdoor dining when possible. The only times we ate inside were toothsome and Mythos. Both had outdoor options but Toothsome was a long wait and it was brutally hot the day we ate at Mythos. We ate at Mythos at 11 and had no one close to us until right as we were leaving.

We also ordered Uber eats 3 times and that was good. Cheaper and easy to get everyone what they wanted. DD16 loves Chick Fil A but we don’t have one close so we got that twice.

We didn’t go to the parks much at night but the one night we DD some carts were running out of things (7pm) DD couldn’t get vanilla ice cream and while waiting for popcorn the lady announced no more turkey legs.

Overall the concerns I had about finding food turned out ok. It was still possible to remain flexible and eat well.

I also placed an instacart order for our first night for bottled water and some snacks. I ordered 30 bottles of sport top water and we used almost all of them. I also brought along Powerade powder packets to have some variety. This was great. Everyone stayed hydrated and we avoided the long lines at the carts. I did buy a coke freestyle cup but didn’t activate it after the first day. We were fine with water and didn’t use it much the first day.





We also went to voodoo doughnuts. Placed a mobile order while in the store next door. It was ready in 10 minutes. Bypassed the massive line and angry glares from those waiting in the rain. There was no sign for mobile order. I went to the door and the girl working said the long line on the side of NBC is the line. I asked where to go and she sent me in the exit to the counter. Some people were standing around waiting for something so I asked them if they were in line and they said no. Not sure why they were all standing there.

 

[Erica Ladd]

Thanks for the report! Cute kiddos!!!

 

[pinkxray]

Overall we had a good trip. We tended to hit the parks at opening and stayed until around lunch time. By lunch it was too hot and too crowded for us. By having 4 days with express passes we were able to go slow and be flexible. The kids did great and had fun. (Well, maybe not DD16. She refused to wake up early on vacation and would meet us about an hour before we left. We told her multiple times what our plans were and she didn’t care. I did take her back to the parks one night)

We had hoped to spend afternoons in the pool but Mother Nature had other ideas. Tues-Thur had the pools shut down for hours. We were finally able to swim after dinner and let the kids swim until around 930. They loved the pool and slide.
Our last day was beautiful weather but we ended up going to the pool at night until around 10. Such a beautiful pool and could see fireworks over the trees.

DD4 is 36” but she had fun. Went on storm, the suess rides, despicable me and woody pecker.

We were able to get Hagrids everyday and loved it. Never made it to Velocicoaster since DD was never up in the morning. We will be at Hard Rock in Dec and DD and I will be trying the Orlando informer meet up for the first time. Hope to try it then.

Other than wearing masks I didn’t really feel like COvid had much effect on our trip. Seemed like a normal, hot, busy summer trip. The lightning storms and moody teen were the biggest bummers.

 

[Gr8t Fan]

Thanks for your trip report. I enjoyed reading it. The look in your daughter's eyes while watching her brother sip his milkshake is priceless!

 

[Dizney73]

Thanks so much for sharing your trip report!

 

[mamamelody2]

Thanks for sharing your trip report! Glad you had a good time!

We will also be staying at Portofino Bay this October. May I ask how exactly it worked doing Ubereats there? I've never done Ubereats at all, but definitely considering using it. Do you wait in the lobby for the person to show up? Cash tip?

I feel like our trip may be opposite of yours as we're taking our 15 and 21 year olds, so we will be there until close most nights, and probably not in the mornings. My 15 year old would be okay with getting going early at least some of our days, but the 21 year old...I don't think so. LOL.

 

[pinkxray]

Thanks for sharing your trip report! Glad you had a good time!

We will also be staying at Portofino Bay this October. May I ask how exactly it worked doing Ubereats there? I've never done Ubereats at all, but definitely considering using it. Do you wait in the lobby for the person to show up? Cash tip?

I feel like our trip may be opposite of yours as we're taking our 15 and 21 year olds, so we will be there until close most nights, and probably not in the mornings. My 15 year old would be okay with getting going early at least some of our days, but the 21 year old...I don't think so. LOL.

We met the Uber eats driver right outside the lobby. You can track where the driver is so you know when they were close. Once they were a few minutes away I went outside the lobby to wait. Once they are there you can see their picture/chair and license plate so you know who they are. Each time I would send a message like “I am sitting on the bench right at the entrance”They would pull up and hand me the food.
Everything including the tip was paid online.

 

[bobafemme]

Thank you for your report and food details. I love the mango tango at Voodoo.

 

[mamamelody2]

We met the Uber eats driver right outside the lobby. You can track where the driver is so you know when they were close. Once they were a few minutes away I went outside the lobby to wait. Once they are there you can see their picture/chair and license plate so you know who they are. Each time I would send a message like “I am sitting on the bench right at the entrance”They would pull up and hand me the food.
Everything including the tip was paid online.

Thank you so much for explaining! Sounds pretty easy!

 

[Christina78]

Thank you for the detailed report and glad you had such a nice trip! We have a very similar trip planned - Aug 14-18 at Portofino for my family of 5; but I've been really worried about the COVID numbers in Orlando and we're thinking about cancelling. My two youngest are too young to be vaccinated, and I worry about putting them into close quarters with other guests who are unmasked and potentially infected. I'm wondering if you could make a guesstimate as to what percentage of guests were wearing masks indoors vs. maskless guests. Were most guests maskless?

 

[pinkxray]

@Christina78- It seemed like maybe 80% no masks/ 20% wearing masks

It seemed to pick up towards the end of my trip.(Universal went back to recommending them indoors right as our trip ended) Team members were also maskless when we went but have gone back to wearing mask.

We followed mask indoors no matter what others were doing. There were times in crowded areas like Harry Potter during the afternoon were I would keep it pulled down and move it up as we moved through the crowd. Diagon Alley was pretty much wall to wall people most Of the time.

 

[Christina78]

Thank you so much, that info really tipped the scales for me. Not judging anyone, everyone has their own comfort levels, but I cancelled our Universal reservations. We have Disney scheduled for directly after Universal and then have to fly back to NY, so I want to hedge my bets on staying as healthy as possible for as long as possible. The idea of having to rent a car (if I could even find one) and drive a sick kid 28 hours home is just not for me. Hope everyone stays safe and healthy; we'll try again when we're past all this.

 

[ofcabbagesandkings]

Thank you so much, that info really tipped the scales for me. Not judging anyone, everyone has their own comfort levels, but I cancelled our Universal reservations. We have Disney scheduled for directly after Universal and then have to fly back to NY, so I want to hedge my bets on staying as healthy as possible for as long as possible. The idea of having to rent a car (if I could even find one) and drive a sick kid 28 hours home is just not for me. Hope everyone stays safe and healthy; we'll try again when we're past all this.

I would have made the same call. Our trip isn't until December, and whether we go or not will hinge on Florida's numbers and whether our kids can, at minimum, have gotten their first shot.

 

[macraven]

Thanks for sharing!