just got back portofino

[grittyreid]

day 1
we stayed at portofino from Sept. 7th throught Sept. 11th. it was a 5 star experience in every way. couple little glitches, but truly the first time i ever went on vacation and never wanted to leave.
it was me and my dh, both 48. we stayed at royal pacific club last year and thought it was great, but portofino looked good so we booked a deluxe club room. we are gold, so were hoping to get a suite upgrade (which we did)
we left cleveland at 9:05 am and were at hotel by 12:00. we booked fla tours car service ( we had a nightmare with tiffany towncar the year before) and they were waiting for us. driver was nice until my hub and i started yelling at each other and he became very quiet. we told him, don't worry; this is normal. lol.
hotel is gorgeous, told desk clerk i know there is no smoking in club rooms but could he find one with a balcony. he couldn't but we did get portofino suite. my husband was in heaven. he could have his own remote. it was room 3363 in west wing. you could see boat dock outside the window but it was a walk to the elevator. at the end of trip, we spied some stairs that were near to our room the other way but it was to late by then. it was also quite a hike to the club lounge, quite a hike - throught corridor after corridor, it took a while to get aclimated. we spent the rest of the afternoon by the beach pool and bar. mike the bartender was fabulous. we went to the club lounge at 4:30 for appetizers and beer and wine.
here's what they had monday, 3 kinds of beer, a few bottles of wine, little bottles of coke, diet coke, sprite, fiji water (soft drinks and water were out all day. snacks between breakfast and happy hour were granola bars, trail mix and chocolate and yogurt covered raisins. there was a vegetable tray with ranch and blue cheese dressing, crackers with a cheese plate, martini glasses with strips of ham and different peppers, there were spinach/chicken wraps and tiny pigs in a blanket but they were fabulous - dough was light and fluffy. we came back around 9 pm for desserts - they were pretty weak;
sliced peaches, miniature tiramisu, cookies, brownies with frosting and mini canolis. more later

 

[Metro West]

So far so good...please continue!

 

[bubba's mom]

3363 IS a great view. We were just down the hall in 3333.....Gorgeous view, huh?

 

[Melanie230]

Great report so far!!! I know how it feels not to want to come home.

 

[grittyreid]

we got up early and went to breakfast at club.continental breakfast included oatmeal, cereals, breads, bagels, melons, strawberries, delicous pastries etc.
got on the boat to go to us. we went on et first- love that ride and so does my big strong hubby 6' 5" and he loves et. then we went to simpsons. used express pass, still waited quite a while outside, then the wait inside to get into the final room that you wait on till you get to the actual ride. the ride itself is hard to describe it was awesome. when the ride was over my husband and i couldn't stop laughing and shaking our heads saying what the hell just happened to us? next stop men in black. kind of ho hum especially after simpsons. were going to go on disaster, but it was to long a wait for next show even with express pass. went on mummy where i held on for dear life, i thought my neck was going to snap off. my hub was cracking up because we went on last year and i was the same way. i guess i forgot.
we went on twister. last year we thought it was pretty lame, but it looks like they added something to it because it was better. went to hard rock to get tshirts, then dipping dots then it was back to the boat. there was supposed to be italian ices in club lounge at 2:30 but there wasn't. went to room and took nap and then went to club lounge for appetizers - only problem, they weren't out yet (about 4:45) they were coming out very slowly. there were mushroom caps, some fluffy pastry dough with something inside ? and fried ravioli with marinara on side plus crackers & cheese, vegetable platter. we had amc movie tickets and went to see tropic thunder (i give it 3 out of 5 stars, some funny moments) walked around city walk and took the boat. the young captain started telling us everything that was wrong with universal. he didn't shut up. he said they had to go through all this training and they got paid $7.80 an hour. my husband and i kept looking at each other like he was crazy. went and had some gelato and went to bed. walking through the piazza to our west wing room was much faster than going through all the corridors. more later.

 

[Poohgirl]

YaY!! Thanks for the review so far. We will be leaving for Portofino next week, first time at that resort.

Question, did you already have club with the deluxe and just upgrade to the suite? How much for the upgrade? We are gold and have a deluxe (upgrade from standard) and want to add club when we get there.

Sound good so far, can't wait for more!

 

[grittyreid]

we had club and were upgraded to a portofino suite. i don't know what the cost was, to tell you the truth i haven't looked at bill yet. from what i've read on the boards, you can upgrade to club at check in - i don't know what the cost would be. the boards have different prices. i think club is worth it. the food is great and it can be a meal. we were so full, we only ate out a couple times.

 

[Poohgirl]

Thanks! I think we will have to try it.

 

[grittyreid]

day 3. we get up to go have breakfast at club lounge and we can barely walk. we have either walked to much or are getting to old for this ****!
today is going to be ioa day. we take the boat and head directly to spiderman which we ride 3 times in a row ( we keep sneaking under chain rope instead of going out and coming back in - i mean we have fotl pass so it seems kind of silly; if only we could figure out how to do it for simpsons ride.) hub and i giggle like schoolchildren every time we ride it - what a great ride!
this is going to be our water ride day so we walk to jurassic park since it is farthest away and we ride that twice and buy picture to add to our collection. next is bilge rat barges which is a riot; lots of laughing and we got absolutely soaked to the bone - soaked; thank god for lockers and crocs. we head to dudley and go to get in boat and absolutely can't fit. we rode this several times last year and have not gained any weight so we can't figure it out. i honestly have no idea if they put an extra seat in or what - anybody know? so we have to dry out so hub gets dagwood sandwich and i get dipping dots. then we ride spiderman again and take the boat back to portofino. hub is still hungry so we go to sals and order paninis on ciabatta bread - absolutely delicous! we were going to get a cabana at villa pool but when we get there, there is absolutely noone there. it is gorgeous. a couple more people came, and there was a waitress who brought us food and cocktails; very prompt and polite. then we decide to go to the hot tub to try and soothe our aching feet. oh my god, it is hot, hot, hot! 104 degrees. i know, i know it is a HOT tub. but then, they have a beautiful little cold pool right next to it with fountains that squirt. absolutely beautiful. we go to the club lounge around 5:30, they had the usual crackers, cheese, vegetable plate, ham and peppers in martini glasses and what looks like pierogis, hush puppies and some kind of beef on a stick. honestly, it looked like a turd. i didn't eat it; of course hub did, he'll eat anything. now i may be off on which night they served what, but they did serve everything in my report. we then hung out on the piazza at the thirsty fish. it was just so beautiful and perfect. i never wanted to leave. then limp back to our gorgeous suite and pass out immediately.

 

[bubba's mom]

Sounds like a great day.... they put lap bars in the Dudley ride earlier this year (or late last)...that is probably the difference. I agree...it's a tight fit

 

[grittyreid]

day 4 i am really sad that this is our last full day here at pb. we have breakfast in the club lounge and decide to ride all the rides we love as many times as we can. we hop on the boat and go to spiderman first. we ride it 4 times. we decide not to go on water rides because we don't want to get wet and our feet are killing us. we buy stuff to bring back to people including fudge for me. we say goodbye to ioa and we know we'll be back soon. we go back to portofino to unload stuff and have lunch at sals at portofino because we love their paninis. then it is off to boat for last trip to us. weather is going to be getting nasty - outer remnants of ike, i believe so we don't know how long we'll be there for but don't care if boat comes or not - we'll stay all night and drink margaritas until the boat can go back. first stop - simpsons, we go to get on ride and they have 2 parties of 3 in each row so my husband and i can't sit together. i get into a hissy fit because i want to sit with my husband so i sit with my hands folded the whole time. but i do manage to crack a smile because the ride is a riot. we go to et and ride it twice - we love it. we would have gone on simpsons again but the weather was turning ugly and the express line was outside at the top and i didn't want to get struck by lightning. hub wanted to see the horror makeup show so ok, we go in express line and the nice thing was they let express people in 10 minutes before they let other line in and the lady was talking to us and telling us they pick volunteers and my hub was dying for me to be a volunteer, but she said they try to pick people who don't speak a lot of english because it makes it more amusing. sure enough they picked a girl who looked chinese but she was from new york. cute show. when the show let out, the skies had opened up and the downpour from hell was coming down. just drenching. everyone just stood under awning as it was almost impossible to go into it. it slowed down a little and we ran to mels to get a shake or something but everyone else had the same idea and there was nowhere to sit. oh and i also birds (about a dozen) flying around inside mels. i wasn't eating there. we were talking to a girl outside mels who was from spain; there were tons of foreigners there because our dollar sucks and the exchange rate she got was $1.90 american for $1.00 euro. so they paid half price for the same stuff us americans got. we then saw a little cafe that had margaritas so we went inside and had margaritas while we waited for rain to stop. we do one more et and one more simpsons and call it a day. the boats are going back so we go back to portofino. the club lounge had mini burgers and pizza for appetizers. we go to villa pool and hot tub until we saw lightning again so we got out. when weather was ok, we took boat to hard rock for dinner and our waitress was fabulous. my husband always carries a $20 bill around with him and gives it to who he thinks went above and beyond. so we tipped her the regular tip and he gave her the $20. she was ecstatic. i have to say everyone at hard rock was great. our room card didn't go through and we have plenty of credit on the credit card so they called over to portofino and portofino put it through. last year, when we were staying at royal pacific we ate at nba cafe and they said it was declined; again there was plenty of credit, but we paid cash and went back to rp front desk and they said they had only given us a limit of $400. i said there is $20,000 on card; why on earth would they do that. so they upped it to $1000.00. i think that is absolutely ridiculous; it was embarassing and nba cafe could have called but didn't. anyway, we walked around city walk, went back to portofino bay and sat at thirsty fish and had to go pack . how sad we had a final breakfast at club lounge and car service picked us up promptly at 10 am and we went home to cleveland. i am already planning next trip - my husband says next summer, i'm looking at january or february and i can't wait. loved portofino will be hard to go anywhere else again. we stayed at grand floridian at disney 5 years ago and it doesn't even begin to compare to portofino. so ciao!

 

[Sleepy]

we were talking to a girl outside mels who was from spain; there were tons of foreigners there because our dollar sucks and the exchange rate she got was $1.90 american for $1.00 euro. so they paid half price for the same stuff us americans got.

Cheer up. She was lying. Spain uses the Euro. It has been hovering at $1.50 to the American Dollar for a while now. So, she was really only getting things about 25% off. Look at it this way. You live in America. Everything you buy costs exactly what the price tag does. When I buy things, I have to add 50%.

 

[grittyreid]

i wasn't complaining. i think it's great for them and hope we get to the point where it's the other way around but i don't see that happening for a while in this climate. i remember going to canada and getting $1.50 for my dollar. it was great

 

[crate1]

The Portofino is THE BEST! I'm like you, did not want to leave. Love coming back to my room at night with turn down service and radio playing soft jazz music. The parks still have a lot to learn from Disney in the way of service, but this hotel can not be beat!