OK, I'm going to get all of the Portofino stuff out of the way.
I am also posting this on the Universal Trip Reports board, and if you want more of my details about the resort, follow this link:
http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=41890438&postcount=7
The Portofino Bay Hotel is a beautiful, quiet, romantic hotel based on a luxurious resort in Italy.
Confession time: I have never longed to visit Italy.
Maybe that's weird, but my husband and I are beach folk at heart and we will take the tropics over Europe any day of the week.
For those of you who have followed me over from the Beach/Yacht Club forum and are wondering if I have a new favorite resort in Orlando...
No Way! This was a very nice resort, and the theme park perks are amazing, but my heart still belongs to the Beach Club.
To be honest, I think one of the other Universal resorts (The Hard Rock Hotel or the Royal Pacific) would have been a better match for our family. The Portofino was not exactly our style- we don't do fancy! But I think this was the only place that had club level rooms available when we booked.
One of the decorative features of the Portofino are a number of Trompe l’oeil (trick of the eye) paintings throughout the resort. Here are a few:
Pools:
I tried two of the three pools. The main pool was fun. Temperature was refreshing, cool but not cold. There is a sandy beach, lots of afternoon activity, a fun pool slide in the fort, music in the evening. I never had trouble finding seats.
The villa pool is quieter and I found the water to be a little warmer than I care for.
Kids areas:
Other activities- Bocce and pool:
I loved that they had water coolers and cups at the pools and all over the resort. They also had a basket of sunscreen where you pick up your towels. I think it is complimentary, but we didn’t need to check.
Transportation:- see the link above
Concierge
Here is a link to my post I on the Universal Resorts sub-forum with lots of pictures from the Concierge Lounge.
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2760502
Our stays at the Beach Club have hooked us on Concierge. Especially in the mornings. Unfortunately, the Portofino Club Lounge does not start serving breakfast until 7 am, which was when you can (and should) enter the Wizarding World. We were able to ask for a couple of boxes of cereal and bananas the afternoon before we had early park days. We also purchased pastry from Sal’s Deli and Marketplace. We were able to enjoy the CL breakfast offerings on our Magic Kingdom and Sea World mornings.
The food selections were great, and everything seemed to be plentiful and replenished when it got low, but the service in the lounge does not compare to the service we have experienced at Disney’s BC Club Level. The couple of times we had an issue, the Concierge Staff was not able to resolve the problem so we had to go to the front desk.
The first issue we had was trying to convert our Universal admission vouchers, which were printed on regular 8 1/2 by 11 paper , to a durable ticket that would not be destroyed if it got wet. Which is a very real possibility with some of the rides at Islands of Adventure. They couldn’t do that at CL, but to be fair, the ticketing desk couldn’t do it either. We needed to go to Guest Services at the park to get this done.
The other thing that happened was strange. On our first afternoon at Universal Studios, our room key, which I thought was linked to our credit card to make purchases in the park, was rejected. We had already used it a couple of times for lunch and some souvenirs but the third time we presented it, it was denied. The CL staff was not able to help with this. When we checked with the front desk, they told us we had a $100/day limit on our room charges. Wait, What??? Do these people (who work at a resort) not realize that $100 does not go very far in a theme park? The woman at the desk told us they would increase our daily limit, but she wouldn’t tell us by how much. She said “It will be enough”
Next up: The Adventure Begins at Universal Studios: 3-D 4-D OD D’OH!
Sorry folks, it's not Harry Potter yet!
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