I want to say a quick thank you to everyone who answered my questions regarding Portofino Bay!!! We stayed 7 nights from August 24-31 in a club level room.
I would definitely recommend the club rooms. We enjoyed eating in the lounge every day!!
Breakfast: There was a really nice variety at breakfast and everyone(myself, husband and children ages 14 and 17)was able to find something they enjoyed eating. If you did not want the hot offerings there was yogurt, bagels, fruit or cereal every day.
Lunch: We took lunchtime breaks from the parks everyday because it was very hot. We were surprised that the lounge also worked for us at lunch time. It alternated daily from warm breadsticks with marinara sauce to warm pretzels with a mustard dip. They also had veggies, dip, chips, pita bread and cookies/pastries
Dinner: Dinner was also enjoyable. We checked it out each evening to see if it was something we were interested in and surprisingly it worked great for our family. I am not a huge fan of pork so the night they offered that I ate the veggies and had a salad.
Dessert from 8:00-9:00pm was ok. Nothing worth going out of your way for but still nice if you were in the area.
The club lounge saved us a lot of money because we never wanted to eat in the restaurants. The kids grabbed snacks in the parks(ice cream, butter beer, fudge, Cinnabon, icees and voodoo donuts) but we didn't step foot inside a restaurant. The one thing I will say is that the club lounge was pretty busy and the employees work hard. They were constantly cleaning and replenishing food. They seemed very patient and kind but maybe a bit over worked. Some of the families in the club lounge were "needy" but the staff always put a smile on their face and helped. Some families perhaps should have been reminded to use the serving tongs and not stick their hands in the cookies, dinner rolls or other dishes. I was a bit out of my comfort zone since we have not eaten out much in the last couple years but I quickly got over it and enjoyed the experience.
I would highly recommend Portofino Bay. We loved the extra space in the room and we didn't feel like we were on top of each other like you do in smaller hotel rooms. I requested a high floor and we were placed on the 5th floor overlooking the Villa pool. It took about 3-4 minutes to get to the club lounge. We also spent a couple afternoons at the villa pool. It was nice and relaxing. The boat service was quick and one day we decided to walk because there was a pretty big line up. Thank you for the tip to walk through the Hard Rock parking lot. We couldn't believe how quickly we got to city walk. We walked by an employee in the Hard Rock parking lot and he smiled and said "you found the secret short cut"
All in all it was a great trip and we all agree that we prefer Portofino Bay over Royal Pacific where we stayed about 5 years ago. Hoping to be able to return next year for another week long trip!
