Antonia
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- May 25, 2000
- Messages
- 2,205
We arrived at the Portofino Bay around 2:15 p.m. I had reserved a garden view with the APH rate. Our room was not ready. We had lunch at Sal's Deli - the brick oven pizza was very good as was the dessert. Our meal was good and really not all that expensive. We then waited around in the lobby a little while, but then decided to go to a park. We took the boat over to Universal Studios and rode the Mummy a couple of times. We received a message on our cell phone about 5:00 p.m. that said we would need to bring our key cards back to the front desk as they had found us a room with a step out balcony!! I was very excited about that. We returned to the hotel and went to check out our room. It was a room in the West wing with a double step out balcony facing the harbor! The balcony adjoined the room next door, but we never saw any activity from that room. I think it was empty. Our balcony was large enough for putting out chairs to sit on - we found the chairs in our closet. I sat out each morning and evening and it was heavenly. Our beds were very comfortable as were the pillows. I have stayed at RPR twice and even though I loved RPR each trip, the room just does not compare. The bathroom was huge. We loved the speaker in the bathroom. You could listen to the t.v. while in the bathroom. We made coffee one evening and loved having it off to itself on the table by the door. It was convenient, but out of the way. I believe our safe was larger than those we have had before - I know it was larger than the ones we have had at WDW. We recieved turndown service each night without even asking. We did not eat at any of the restaurants at the hotel other than Sal's. We did partake of the coffee service provided free in the hotel lobby in the mornings. We have used the pools at PB before and once again enjoyed both the beach pool and the villa pool. We did have tuna salad by the villa pool one afternoon. It was from Sal's and it was delicious. The hot tub by the villa pool was roped off and the water was dirty. It was out of service. We tried to use the hot tub by the beach pool. One was nice and hot, but would not bubble. The other would bubble, but was not hot. That was my only disappointment with the hotel. The boats came every seven minutes while we were there. Once a long line built up at CityWalk to catch a boat back to PB, so they radioed for another boat to back up the first one. It came right away. We did eat at Jimmy Buffets and it was very good. We also ate at The Oak Tavern. The food there is always delicious and very plentiful and the price is good. We had breakfast at The Croissant Moon Bakery. Always good with a good price. One afternoon I stopped back by the bakery on my way back to the hotel and ordered a slice of strawberry cheesecake. The employee said "Weren't you here earlier today?" I said, "yes i had breakfast here" and she said "I'm going to give you two pieces and only charge you for one." How often does that happen? We were there two nights and three days. On our second night we were trying to ride Jaws and Back to the Future before the park closed. We knew we weren't going to make it. The guy at the front of Back to the Future radioed another guy and they took us in a secret door and right onto the Delorean. Thanks to him we made it to Jaws after that and still had time to catch the final ride of the night on E.T.!!!! All three rides in under 30 minutes! Once we left Universal, we went to Naples, FL and then the Everglades and came back up through St. Augustine. It was a very fun trip!!!
What a GREAT review! Thanks so much! 
