I plan on doing a trip report at some point, but I did want to share one experience. We had about $530 in Universal gift cards (I have 3 kids, so it was on 8 cards because various people gave them as gifts). I asked at check in to Portofino (and mid point in our stay) and was told that I needed to wait until check out. When we went to check out, the clerk explained that it would take a while to run the cards. It was a good 30 minutes for him to run every card individually, then adjust our hotel charge and print a receipt. Fortunately, I did leave some time but we were rushing to get to our breakfast reservation.
I just wanted to warn people about how slow it is. Next time I won't bother with gift cards or just use them in the park to pay directly instead of charging to my room. (Unless someone knows a way to combine Universal gift cards.)
Also, as a side note, I had an issue using the Room Charge privilege at Guest Services at USF. It worked well everywhere else in the park, but would not go through with their system, so I ended up using a credit card (the transaction had to be voided and it took a long time as well).
I just wanted to warn people about how slow it is. Next time I won't bother with gift cards or just use them in the park to pay directly instead of charging to my room. (Unless someone knows a way to combine Universal gift cards.)
Also, as a side note, I had an issue using the Room Charge privilege at Guest Services at USF. It worked well everywhere else in the park, but would not go through with their system, so I ended up using a credit card (the transaction had to be voided and it took a long time as well).