I stayed at PB the first time we stayed onsite, and it’s my families favourite universal hotel. We have since tried all the deluxe hotels, and Aventura. We did not eat at the restaurants, just the pizza from Sals. My teenage boys were not that into the pool, as they thought there were too many small kids, but it looked like a lot of fun if your little ones are that age. They really enjoyed the quiet pools though. The rooms are amazing, clean and spacious. My boys didn’t want to leave the room. They do have camp portofino ( a kids babysitting service).
We are trying SF this upcoming trip. We have express after 4 with our AP, and booked a 2 park tour. Other than the tour, we are not going to be in the parks for a full day. We are also going to
HHN. I think how we planned this trip affects why we chose SF this time.
We walked through SF on our last stay a lot. It looked great, the staff we talked to were pleasant. This pool looks amazing. They don’t seem to have great restaurant reviews though.
Neither hotel has a character meal, but Sapphire Falls has the Caribbean carnival Dinner show. Portofino Bay has an opera singer that sung in the piazza when we walked through on some evenings.
At the water taxi at both hotels, I didn’t notice a huge difference in how long it took to one hotel over the other. Probably because you had to wait until a boat came in for both. I waited up to 15 min for either boat to come in. It was still much more relaxing than going to a parkade or feeling ‘herded’ onto a bus.
If I was going with just regular park tickets, PH would be my choice. It’s a very relaxing hotel. If you have been to universal enough that rides are not the primary focus, than sapphire falls would be an excellent choice too. You will have a great vacation either way.
-- it was actually a bit cheaper!!!
