Portofino Bay - Club Level worth it?

[uandmfan]

Hello

We are considering our first trip to US next January and I'm debating booking CL. We usually stay in time shares or somewhere with a kitchen so I'm not thrilled with the idea of having to buy 3 meals a day, especially in the parks. We want to stay here for the included express passes as we will probably only have 2-3 days in the parks.

I've looked at some recent discussion of the CL on here and it seems like maybe the food options aren't that great? We'd want breakfast for sure (eggs, cereals, toast) and hopefully at least some dinner for the adults. And maybe some desserts as well.

Is there enough food to make this plan viable? What kind of drinks are served in the evening?

Thank you!

 

[Dawn Peterson]

We love Portofino Bay Club level. Breakfast in June had potatoes, eggs every day along with pastries and cereal and fruit and yogurt. One day was make your own breakfast burritos. The dinner is really good too. Chicken bruschetta and pasta and vegetables one night with Mac and cheese for the kids. They also have a salad and soup option. They only reason we don’t always do it is because sometimes we don’t want to leave the parks to make the dinner time. Desserts are wonderful too. Plenty of room in the club room which is nice. Soda and water are available all day. Wine and beer are complimentary at night and you can pay for hard liquor drinks.

 

[kittylady1972]

We just booked our first Universal Resort club level room using APH rates for August. After searching reviews, it sounded like Portofino Bay was the best one.

Would love if anybody else here has recent PB Club Level experiences to share. We are only there for 2 nights, and it's just adults, so we hope to maximize our time enjoying the options.

It looks like the menu rotates each evening, so if anybody has a recent one that would be great!

 

[schumigirl]

We just booked our first Universal Resort club level room using APH rates for August. After searching reviews, it sounded like Portofino Bay was the best one.

Would love if anybody else here has recent PB Club Level experiences to share. We are only there for 2 nights, and it's just adults, so we hope to maximize our time enjoying the options.

It looks like the menu rotates each evening, so if anybody has a recent one that would be great!

The most recent menu posted is on Page 88 of the PB sticky and some pictures were posted around the second last page.

 

[kittylady1972]

The most recent menu posted is on Page 88 of the PB sticky and some pictures were posted around the second last page.

I did see that...but since it was from January I just wondered if there were any changes or more recent experiences. It looks pretty good though! Hoping this saves us from any bigger meals in the parks or elsewhere and gets us out of the heat too!

 

[SkyGuy]

You definitely can get a good breakfast, especially if you like eggs since they have an egg dish and hard-boiled eggs every morning. They had no meat options, though, when we were there in May, so I generally had a bagel or some cereal, which is more than enough for me. You may be able to make a meal of dinner, but I don’t think I would have been satisfied with only CL offerings. It just depends on your tastes (and your definition of dinner). You need to be there for desserts right when they open, before the vultures swoop in and clean out the place - I’ve stayed Portofino a few times, and that never changed. It’s def the best CL at Universal, imo. I think you’ll enjoy it. The room is very large with comfy seating options.

 

[kittylady1972]

The most recent menu posted is on Page 88 of the PB sticky and some pictures were posted around the second last page.

You definitely can get a good breakfast, especially if you like eggs since they have an egg dish and hard-boiled eggs every morning. They had no meat options, though, when we were there in May, so I generally had a bagel or some cereal, which is more than enough for me. You may be able to make a meal of dinner, but I don’t think I would have been satisfied with only CL offerings. It just depends on your tastes (and your definition of dinner). You need to be there for desserts right when they open, before the vultures swoop in and clean out the place - I’ve stayed Portofino a few times, and that never changed. It’s def the best CL at Universal, imo. I think you’ll enjoy it. The room is very large with comfy seating options.

Awesome...thanks for the additional info. Eggs and fruit are usually my go-tos for breakfast, but meat options would be nice. I was thinking we could consider dinner like small plates, and then have room for snacks in the park maybe later. However we will definitely try to make sure we show up for desserts...can't skip those for sure! There are 4 of us (2 adult couples) and it's only 2 nights so we are hoping to make the most of it, especially with the FL heat it sounds like a nice place to relax. We've done the parks plenty of times so no need to do it all there, just happy to enjoy the resort.

 

[schumigirl]

I did see that...but since it was from January I just wondered if there were any changes or more recent experiences. It looks pretty good though! Hoping this saves us from any bigger meals in the parks or elsewhere and gets us out of the heat too!

I think you`ll like it there, Tracey the Concierge manager has worked to change the things that were being complained about and she is doing a good job. We went over to see it this past trip and were very impressed.

 

[uandmfan]

We just booked our first Universal Resort club level room using APH rates for August. After searching reviews, it sounded like Portofino Bay was the best one.

Would love if anybody else here has recent PB Club Level experiences to share. We are only there for 2 nights, and it's just adults, so we hope to maximize our time enjoying the options.

It looks like the menu rotates each evening, so if anybody has a recent one that would be great!

Can you let us know how you find it in August??

 

[disney k family]

Awesome...thanks for the additional info. Eggs and fruit are usually my go-tos for breakfast, but meat options would be nice. I was thinking we could consider dinner like small plates, and then have room for snacks in the park maybe later. However we will definitely try to make sure we show up for desserts...can't skip those for sure! There are 4 of us (2 adult couples) and it's only 2 nights so we are hoping to make the most of it, especially with the FL heat it sounds like a nice place to relax. We've done the parks plenty of times so no need to do it all there, just happy to enjoy the resort.

I think you will enjoy it. We spent 7 nights at Portofino in club level last August. We (2 adults and 2 teenagers) enjoyed the breakfast each day. We also found that the dinner offerings were more than enough for us. There was one night when they served a pork dish (not my favourite) so I had big salad instead. The food was pretty good. I don't know if I would want it for 7 nights again so we came up with a new plan this year. We are doing 3 nights of club in August at Portofino and then moving to Aventura for 4 nights. When we are at Portofino we plan to use the club for all of our meals (even lunch time when they offer fruit and breadsticks) and then we will explore other options for the days we are at Aventura.

I think for the price there is a lot of value in club level. For our family, using the APH rate it is approximately $80.00 more a night. There is no way we could eat breakfast and dinner for $80.00 a day. If you like coffee make sure you check out the machine in the far room. It make a decent coffee, probably comparable to Starbucks and this will save you additional money.

 

[kittylady1972]

Can you let us know how you find it in August??

Absolutely! I'll do my best to try to post a report of some kind here. I'm bad about remembering to update but with so many upcoming trips planned I'm around the boards more often these days.

I think you will enjoy it. We spent 7 nights at Portofino in club level last August. We (2 adults and 2 teenagers) enjoyed the breakfast each day. We also found that the dinner offerings were more than enough for us. There was one night when they served a pork dish (not my favourite) so I had big salad instead. The food was pretty good. I don't know if I would want it for 7 nights again so we came up with a new plan this year. We are doing 3 nights of club in August at Portofino and then moving to Aventura for 4 nights. When we are at Portofino we plan to use the club for all of our meals (even lunch time when they offer fruit and breadsticks) and then we will explore other options for the days we are at Aventura.

I think for the price there is a lot of value in club level. For our family, using the APH rate it is approximately $80.00 more a night. There is no way we could eat breakfast and dinner for $80.00 a day. If you like coffee make sure you check out the machine in the far room. It make a decent coffee, probably comparable to Starbucks and this will save you additional money.

GREAT to hear a good review. I think we will be okay with it for 2 nights as well. I'm not a huge fan of Italian food buy my husband IS Italian so I'm sure he'll love it. I think the value is pretty good also. I'm not a coffee drinker at all, but DH is so I'll let him know.

 

[kittylady1972]

Revisiting this...will report back when we arrive next week.

Question (apologies if it is in the entire PB thread but that's a lot to read):

How soon can we access the food in Club Level? We are already staying in Disney, and can move over to PB as early as we want to do so. If we arrive afternoonish, and our room isn't ready, can we still grab afternoon snacks at the club?

 

[CAPSLOCK]

You can access Club as soon as you check in and get your room keys, even if the room isn't ready yet. We checked in early and went to Club breakfast that morning.

 

[kittylady1972]

You can access Club as soon as you check in and get your room keys, even if the room isn't ready yet. We checked in early and went to Club breakfast that morning.

AWESOME! Thanks so much for the response!