PORTOFINO BAY HOTEL INFO...FAQ`s and more.......



I posted some a couple of pages back when I found out we had had a renovated room and not realized it until after the fact!

I am wondering if the rooms with the new carpet, paint, etc are actually finished. I noticed in our bathroom the the furniture in the bathroom holding the towels, toiletries, and such were gone and the paint on the vanity was peeling. I am thinking that the renovations may be happening in stages. Also the carpet in the hallways looked to be the same as well. Will be interesting to see what the final presentation looks like.
 
I am wondering if the rooms with the new carpet, paint, etc are actually finished. I noticed in our bathroom the the furniture in the bathroom holding the towels, toiletries, and such were gone and the paint on the vanity was peeling. I am thinking that the renovations may be happening in stages. Also the carpet in the hallways looked to be the same as well. Will be interesting to see what the final presentation looks like.
Could be. I didn’t think the rooms or resort felt like a newly refurbished one, but it was my first time there. I liked it, just didn’t think it seemed newly updated. The bathrooms were huge but also didn’t feel new or fresh, and had so much wasted space! With the size it should have a nice separate shower and soaking tub, like a four seasons or equivalent.
 
I can’t say that we would have noticed the refurbishment had we not stayed there previously. We definitely stayed in a refurbed room, but nothing felt significantly updated, so I’m not sure how well this refurbishment is going to wear. Seems many people are in the “underwhelmed” camp.
 


We switched too with a FL resident rate from HRH and saved almost $600 since we had rack there. My kids really wanted to stay at HRH, but the savings were too great! Now I have to research the bay view rooms at Portofino 😊
 
We were booked at RPH but when I saw the cheaper AP rates today at PBH, I switched. I had only read reviews for PBH here on the DIS, and I felt good about the change. I knew there would be some construction noise during the day, but that didn't bother me. However, this evening I did some research on tripadvisor and found many negative reviews. Many mentioned having the water shut off in their rooms from 9:30/10:00 am until 6:00 pm. There were also many noting that electricity was also shut off, and that meant the elevators weren't running. That forced them to use the stairs or walk quite a long distance to an elevator in another area, and then walk back to their room. We have problems with stairs and wouldn't be able to do that.

These people said they didn't have any notice of the water situation until check-in. This worries me a lot. Having no water in your guest room is quite different from construction noise. Not only was the water shut off in guest rooms, but also in the fitness and conference rooms. This is just not acceptable! Then I come on here tonight and read some recent reviews saying their stay was OK. I'm thinking that the water situation must be happening in a certain area. I don't know whether to keep our reservations at PBH or switch again.

Having never stayed at PBH before, I'm wondering if I should request certain areas away from these construction problems. I'm also worried about what would be good location requests to be close to the pool, water taxi, lobby, restaurants, etc.

Are you able to ease my fears about the water and electricity shut offs? Help me out with location requests? I'm just at a loss here. While we've been to Universal several times before, we don't have any experience with PBH and would really appreciate your help with all of this.

Thank you!
 
First time I have ever read something like this in all the years I have stayed onsite
And I have been going since first hotel went up

trip advisor always list negative posts

Call the hotel to get the facts and don’t worry

You can’t believe everything that is written on message boards
 
If the negative comments had been made by people posting for the first time, I would be more skeptical. But most of these people had quite a few previous contributions, with at least one a very high number. Since I hadn't read anything like that here, I posted to see what experiences others here have had recently. I do plan to call the hotel today to inquire about this issue.
 
I can say that my most recent stay at PBR (late 2019) had no such issues. There was some room renovations and work going on, but no water issues that we noticed during our stay. And not too long ago we stayed at RPR when they were doing much more extensive renovations on whole floors, we didn't have any issues with water or other services while there.
 
From my understanding (we were there last week), a lot of the hotel is already done. I know the east wing was done. We were in the east wing in a refurbished room. We had not one problem. The only minor inconvenience was the main pool closure, which should be done by early March (we were still able to have a pool day, just was earlier than we originally planned).
You could request a refurbished room or east wing (east wing is at the far end of the resort, so not as convenient to pool, lobby, boat, walking path, but not a big deal at all)
 
We were booked at RPH but when I saw the cheaper AP rates today at PBH, I switched. I had only read reviews for PBH here on the DIS, and I felt good about the change. I knew there would be some construction noise during the day, but that didn't bother me. However, this evening I did some research on tripadvisor and found many negative reviews. Many mentioned having the water shut off in their rooms from 9:30/10:00 am until 6:00 pm. There were also many noting that electricity was also shut off, and that meant the elevators weren't running. That forced them to use the stairs or walk quite a long distance to an elevator in another area, and then walk back to their room. We have problems with stairs and wouldn't be able to do that.

These people said they didn't have any notice of the water situation until check-in. This worries me a lot. Having no water in your guest room is quite different from construction noise. Not only was the water shut off in guest rooms, but also in the fitness and conference rooms. This is just not acceptable! Then I come on here tonight and read some recent reviews saying their stay was OK. I'm thinking that the water situation must be happening in a certain area. I don't know whether to keep our reservations at PBH or switch again.

Having never stayed at PBH before, I'm wondering if I should request certain areas away from these construction problems. I'm also worried about what would be good location requests to be close to the pool, water taxi, lobby, restaurants, etc.

Are you able to ease my fears about the water and electricity shut offs? Help me out with location requests? I'm just at a loss here. While we've been to Universal several times before, we don't have any experience with PBH and would really appreciate your help with all of this.

Thank you!

Although RPH is our favorite hotel, we have no problem staying at PBH at a cheaper rate. In fact, I too switched our May RPH reservation to a PBH reservation because of the APH rate.
 
Does anyone know if they do the poolside movies at PBH? We stayed there last summer and I don't recall seeing any information about them, but when we stayed at RPR in November they had them at night. Just wondering for our May trip. Thanks.
 
Is the Express Pass you receive when staying at Portofino Bay valid at Volcano Bay as well? I am finding mixed answers.
 
Does anyone know if they do the poolside movies at PBH? We stayed there last summer and I don't recall seeing any information about them, but when we stayed at RPR in November they had them at night. Just wondering for our May trip. Thanks.

I definitely saw them doing movies at the pool when I was there, but I can’t remember which trip. I would contact PBH to see when they do these.
 
I definitely saw them doing movies at the pool when I was there, but I can’t remember which trip. I would contact PBH to see when they do these.

Thanks! Knowing they did them at one point is promising that they still have them. I'll double check at check in to see if they are running.
 

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