Question about Portofino rooms. Seeking opinions...

[socaintexas]

We are looking at Portofino Bay in August. For the week we are looking at there are SMSM discounts. A Garden room is $375/night, a Bay room is $407 a night, a Deluxe is $441 per night and a club level room is $500 a night. (It's interesting if you tweek the days a little the Garden room is more expensive). I was going to book now and keep checking about the AP discount but am interested in opinions on the different rooms.

Initially we were thinking club level but when I put the numbers on paper I'm not sure it would be worth it. I'm not a breakfast eater and my kids usually just eat cereal, so my husband would be the main one taking advantage of the breakfast. We enjoy wine in the evenings but usually have it in the room and we plan on going to a sit down dinner at a nice restaurant each evening so I'm not sure how much of the evening fare we would take advantage of.

Please help me decide...

 

[damo]

Sounds like club isn't for you. If you want to try different restaurants at the resort and aren't big breakfast eaters, you certainly won't get your money's worth.

There is not much difference between deluxe and non deluxe other than a separate shower in the bathroom instead of the one in the tub.

The bay view is definitely nice if that is important to you. We like it also because you can watch for the boats.

 

[Suprachica79]

That rate seems super high but maybe it’s just August is a rough time. If you are not big breakfast eaters, it really depends on your dinner plans. The club level dinner choices options can be made into full meals. So if you don’t mind missing out on some restaurants on site, that could save you a lot of money. The breakfast options are awesome too. I would say though that if you plan to enjoy all the restaurants on site, club level is probably not worth it.

 

[socaintexas]

Thanks Damo and Supra chica. That kind of confirms what I was thinking. I was playing around with it and it looks like the APH rates are out now! They weren’t earlier in the week. The choices for the week we are looking at are a Bay room for $313 a night and a Deluxe room for $353 per night. The week before they have club level for $423 a night, which we could do it we thought we needed to but I’m still not convinced. Does this sway the opinion any way?

 

[damo]

Thanks Damo and Supra chica. That kind of confirms what I was thinking. I was playing around with it and it looks like the APH rates are out now! They weren’t earlier in the week. The choices for the week we are looking at are a Bay room for $313 a night and a Deluxe room for $353 per night. The week before they have club level for $423 a night, which we could do it we thought we needed to but I’m still not convinced. Does this sway the opinion any way?

Sounds like you'd be paying over $100 for breakfast if you picked club since you don't plan on eating dinner there. For some families, that is still a good deal. Personally, I would do the bay room.

 

[jolene63]

I would choose the bay view room and keep looking for prices to drop. We had a bay view room booked for last June. I kept looking at the prices and ended up getting a garden view room closer to our trip for cheaper. We overlooked the main pool and were super close to the boat dock. We loved the location and were happy to save some money too!

 

[tnd]

If it helps on the breakfast issue, there is a Starbucks in the hotel's harbor area where you can grab relatively affordable light breakfast items (and coffee which was my main concern).

 

[Sue M]

Doesn’t sound like the extra cost of club is worth it for you. I’d go with the Bay View. We had a Bay View in the West Wing. Great location.

 

[smiths02]

FWIW, we had about the same situation as you. We could really bring our breakfast and snacks with us (or even wine if we wanted to) and we planned on eating dinner at the restaurants. I was just going to add that we originally booked SMSM with Garden View then APH with Bay View and then snagged a Garden View APH less than a month out from our date, so you might be able to even save more. So the difference to go to club level from Garden was nearly $170/night with taxes!

 

[anierodzik]

This is how we make club work for us: eat breakfast at club level, parks, eat an amazing meal for a late lunch at Citywalk or in the parks, more parks, have snacks in the evening for "dinner filler", then head back to the parks. This works for us because we have 2 adults and 3 teenagers. We actually save money. Not sure if you would, eating just breakfast there.

We have stayed club at PH twice- the rooms were both deluxe, by default. I would choose either the cheapest (Garden view) and spend the saved money on treats/food/fun, or I would go club. Really can't go wrong either way.