Surfside 2 Bedroom Suite or Portofino Bay 2 Queen Room at the end of August?

[Jiminyfan2020]

Hello everyone. I’m planning our first trip to Universal for a 5 day stay the week of August 22. ( family of 4) I like the Surfside Suite due to the second bedroom. I currently have a reservation at Portofino for the Express passes. Would appreciate your insight. Is express pass needed at the end of August? Would love to hear the reason why you love either of these resorts. Thank you

 

[wdwrule]

As we loved the 2 bedroom suite at Dockside (also a family of four… kids are 17 & 20), I would recommend Portofino especially for your first trip. We first visited this past August (mid August) and we appreciated the express pass with trying to newly navigate the parks for the first time. We also loved the ability to walk or take a boat to and from the parks at Portofino. Taking the walking paths and/or boats results in a nice, small security checkpoint to get into Citywalk/parks whereas with Dockside/Surfside you have to take a bus which empties you out in the main, busy security checkpoint. Bus system at UO is wonderfully efficient though. This past August we had a split stay and stayed our first night at Dockside and the rest of the time at Portofino.

Either way, both resorts are nice and have their perks but if I had to choose for you, I’d choose Portofino due to transportation convenience and overall feel/atmosphere (& unlimited express passes which makes a first time visit more relaxing to take it all in).

 

[DizKids2]

We visited this past August and had express passes and were very happy we had them. While the parks were not crazy busy, I would still recommend selecting a hotel that includes them if it is in your budget.

 

[AJA]

For a first visit, like the previous posters have said, I recommend one of the deluxe hotels with Express Pass.

Besides all the obvious surface comparisons between the resorts, the biggest decision maker for us was the age of the children going.

We have visited approximately 1-3 times per year (except 2020) since our daughter was 6 years old. We almost always have annual passes.


If you are traveling with 14ish and younger I 100% recommend the deluxe hotels with Express.

If you are traveling with older teenagers (our daughter is 17 now) and staying longer than 3 days, the family suites at the value hotels are an amazing deal and everyone is happier with more separation, and two TV’s!

Older teens can come and go by themselves, use single rider lines to the fullest, etc.

 

[hhoope01]

It is interesting to note that a 2-bedroom suite at Dockside is 440 sqft in size. A base room at PBR is 450 sqft and a Deluxe room is 490 sqft. Yes, you won't get that wall separation between the beds at PBR, but from what I've read here on the Disboards, the walls at Dockside are very thin. I've never had a noise issue when staying at PBR.

 

[DizneyFamof4]

It is interesting to note that a 2-bedroom suite at Dockside is 440 sqft in size. A base room at PBR is 450 sqft and a Deluxe room is 490 sqft. Yes, you won't get that wall separation between the beds at PBR, but from what I've read here on the Disboards, the walls at Dockside are very thin. I've never had a noise issue when staying at PBR.

We have stayed at Surfside twice (3rd time next week) and never had any noise issue. Plus, you are missing a very big difference in the rooms and that is the 3rd bed at Dockside especially with 2 adult kids. The BIG plus for PBR are the free EPs, but if you are doing more than 2 park days and since schools are back in session at the end of August, it may not be that big of a deal not to have EPs. What about a split stay, staying just 1 night at PBR gets you 2 days of EP's.

 

[cfoxga]

While we did like the separate room, it really is no contest between the two from a quality perspective. PBH gets you ferry access (also walkable if you like), and much nicer rooms (comfy bedding, thicker walls, etc). Taking the ferry back at night is an amazing view after a long day in the parks. If you can get a APH rate at PBH, then it makes the price difference between the two more reasonable.