Let me start by saying this was my first time to stay at the Portifino Bay and will be my last. The hotel portion of this trip did not meet my expectations.
Our vacation started with arrival at the Portifino at 1:30 PM. I requested early check in at 1:00 PM, and was informed that no early check in was possible. I also requested that we had adjoining rooms for my family (Me, my Wife and two boys 5 and 2) and my Mother and her husband. Not only did they not have us rooms that were together; they were in separate wings. They then stated that they could put us in the same wing just not on the same floor. So we then went to lunch and came back to check in at 3:00 PM. We again requested rooms at least on the same floor, the person that was helping us this time was dismayed that we were not on the same floor to begin with and got us rooms on the same floor, which we were assured only 1 1/2 hours before would not be possible. I kind of hate to complain about this but it seemed to me that everything I had requested on the phone at the time of making my reservations was a waste of time.
On to the rooms. The rooms were nice but not extravagant, although the bathroom was very nice. We got the room with the separate shower and bath. One gripe I had about the room was the fact that the mini-bar did not have a price list. I called the "Star Service" number and requested one and after an hour the list has still not shown up and we gave up and went to bed. The room that my Mother had, like all the others, came with feather pillows. I happen to love feather pillows but my mother is allergic, she requested foam pillows and after 1 1/2 hours a roll-a-way bed was delivered to her room, no foam pillows, just a bed that she had not requested.
The last thing on my list is a trip to the concierge to find out about the front of the line stuff (which in my book, even with all the problems, made the Portifino stay almost worth while). We were instructed to show our room keys to the attendant at the front of each ride. We were then instructed at the time of check out (we only stayed one night) to come back to the concierge and pick up special room keys due to the fact that we would have to turn in our room keys at check out. We found out the next morning that this was not true after all and they could not believe that some one there had told us that. The room keys were ours to keep, and we actually needed them to exit the parking garage.
All in all for $320 a night they did not seem to have their act together. I have stayed on premise at WDW (Dixie Landings and Wilderness Cabins) on two separate occasions as was far more impressed with the level of service and friendliness of the staff.
Next time I will stay at WDW and schedule maybe one day for IOA, which is the better of the two USF parks. I hope I didn't ramble on too long with my rant, I just wanted to vent in a forum where everyone might use this in conjunction with other trip stories to help them plan their next vacation.
Jorma
Our vacation started with arrival at the Portifino at 1:30 PM. I requested early check in at 1:00 PM, and was informed that no early check in was possible. I also requested that we had adjoining rooms for my family (Me, my Wife and two boys 5 and 2) and my Mother and her husband. Not only did they not have us rooms that were together; they were in separate wings. They then stated that they could put us in the same wing just not on the same floor. So we then went to lunch and came back to check in at 3:00 PM. We again requested rooms at least on the same floor, the person that was helping us this time was dismayed that we were not on the same floor to begin with and got us rooms on the same floor, which we were assured only 1 1/2 hours before would not be possible. I kind of hate to complain about this but it seemed to me that everything I had requested on the phone at the time of making my reservations was a waste of time.
On to the rooms. The rooms were nice but not extravagant, although the bathroom was very nice. We got the room with the separate shower and bath. One gripe I had about the room was the fact that the mini-bar did not have a price list. I called the "Star Service" number and requested one and after an hour the list has still not shown up and we gave up and went to bed. The room that my Mother had, like all the others, came with feather pillows. I happen to love feather pillows but my mother is allergic, she requested foam pillows and after 1 1/2 hours a roll-a-way bed was delivered to her room, no foam pillows, just a bed that she had not requested.
The last thing on my list is a trip to the concierge to find out about the front of the line stuff (which in my book, even with all the problems, made the Portifino stay almost worth while). We were instructed to show our room keys to the attendant at the front of each ride. We were then instructed at the time of check out (we only stayed one night) to come back to the concierge and pick up special room keys due to the fact that we would have to turn in our room keys at check out. We found out the next morning that this was not true after all and they could not believe that some one there had told us that. The room keys were ours to keep, and we actually needed them to exit the parking garage.
All in all for $320 a night they did not seem to have their act together. I have stayed on premise at WDW (Dixie Landings and Wilderness Cabins) on two separate occasions as was far more impressed with the level of service and friendliness of the staff.
Next time I will stay at WDW and schedule maybe one day for IOA, which is the better of the two USF parks. I hope I didn't ramble on too long with my rant, I just wanted to vent in a forum where everyone might use this in conjunction with other trip stories to help them plan their next vacation.
Jorma
