Just returned from our Hard Rock/Portofino split stay - what an incredible trip!
LOVED PBH, the resort is simply beautiful and the service was excellent.
We sent an email a few days before our arrival to make sure they had our requests - upper floor, near the elevator, west wing. They did, and on check in we provided our YouFirst card; they said I was bumped down to "member" status, due to it being over a year since our last stay. I asked about paying for an upgrade to pool or bay view, since we didn't qualify for a free upgrade. The TM played with our reservation for a while, said there were no pool view or bay view rooms available with our requests, and we said that was fine. We chatted with the TM while she processed our card, etc. She then stated we were being given a complimentary upgrade to a deluxe room in the Villas section, overlooking the Villa pool, would that be OK?!
So exciting, we never get an upgrade at WDW and this was more than we expected, even with YouFirst.
Loved the room, it was spacious and beautiful. Nice view of the pool and grounds, and the room layout was nice - we loved having the arm chair and ottoman for stretching out while in the room.
The Villa pool is gorgeous and we liked that the pools were both deeper than the HRH pool. Our only slight disappointment was when we finally got a chance to hit the pool on our second full day - they closed the pool bar at 4 p.m.! When we asked, they stated it was due to low occupancy and even the pool activities were canceled. We swam and lounged for a bit, and while we were there, quite a few guests came to the themed pool area, looked around and left - I think many of them would have stayed had there been any activity. We moved to the Villa pool, and got to spend an hour or so before rain forced us indoors.
Oh - hard to say if the Villa pool has bar service, as neither pool had it at the time we were there.
Oddly, we found it difficult to get our rental car brought up ahead of our exit from the resort. We would text, as instructed on the valet card, yet when we got down there 1/2 hour or so later, our car was still in the valet lot. I'm not sure why they had us text ahead, when each time we had to explain that we wanted our car and have them get it while we waited. This did not happen at HRH, it was always waiting when we arrived at the front of the resort.
Another small problem was the last night of our stay; we wanted to eat at Mama Della's, and couldn't find a time available on Open Table. We called the concierge, and were told it was closed for the evening, though it was listed as open in the info provided in the room for that week. We ended up heading over to Hard Rock to eat at the Palm, as we had eaten at Bice the night before.
All in all, these were minor glitches and we had a great stay at PBH. We will likely return, but probably do a split with HRH again - with Hard Rock at the end. We like the vibe there better, even though we loved the decor at PBH the best of the three US hotels. We also liked having free wifi and health club access at HRH with our All Access membership although this may change when the All Access program morphs this fall.
Thanks for keeping the secret, although I'm pretty sure I've blabbed already.
. I am very excited. It sounds like a lovely place. I am glad to see others trying to reactivate this thread. I have been longing for some Portofino info, and it seems most people want to talk about the other two Universal hotels. Anyone been there recently and want to tell us about your stay?
