We have stayed at Portofino Bay once before and at Hard Rock Hotel twice. We also spent 3 nights this last New Year at The Regency in New York.
In the past we have always been pleased with our Loews stays and I've always been a huge advocate of staying onsite at Universal, but we were a little disappointed with PBH this time. We had been assigned rooms on the ground floor of the East Wing. The rooms were very tired and dirty (stained carpets, filthy windows and doors) and, due to their location, very dark and depressing. We are used to walking into deluxe resort rooms and feeling wowed, but we actually felt a bit shell-shocked. Neither room had a resort directory, there was rubbish in the bushes outside both rooms and no chairs on the patio of the Bay View room. The hotel was clearly very busy the day we checked in, but needless to say, that should be indiscernable to guests.
We tried to convince ourselves that our disappointment was due to having had a deluxe room with a balcony during our previous stay, but there were just too many niggles. The location/darkness of the room would have been a problem even if the resort was brand new, but we would have accepted that someone has to be assigned to those rooms. It was the state of the rooms we found unacceptable - both the 'fresh' dirt and the wear and tear. Dh phoned to ask if we could be moved. It wasn't possible that day as the hotel was full, but he was told we could be moved to fifth floor rooms the following day, so we were satisfied with the willingness of management to rectify the situation.
These rooms were much better as they were light, but the cleanliness and shabbiness were still unacceptable for a deluxe resort. In one room, housekeeping had clearly forgotten to vacuum. The bathroom was spotlessly clean, but there were hairs all over the floor which we found particularly unsavory.
The resort still has a very nice feel, but we felt that it is starting to look jaded. The upholstery in both the lobby and the Bar American is quite badly stained in places. We probably won't stay onsite at Universal again until either the existing hotels are refurbished (we visited the Hard Rock for a meal this time and it seemed to be in a similar state of disrepair), or a new resort is opened.
Yep, we split our last two stays at a Disney Resort and then HRH for a couple of nights.
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