Club Lounge at Loews Portofino Bay Resort | Universal Orlando
Club lounge at Loews Portofino Bay is the second Universal Orlando Resort lounge we got to check out.
This experience was quite different from the Loews Royal Pacific lounge we visited a few months prior to this trip.
Table of Contents
Loews Portofino Bay Resort Overview
Portofino Bay is a Premier resort and stay here comes with Universal Orlando Unlimited Express Pass, early theme park admission, priority restaurant seating, free resort transportation, and more.
As you can tell by the resort’s name, it was inspired by the seaside village of Portofino, Italy.
The resort is beautiful, and the rooms feel luxurious.
The Club Level room rate starts at $400, but it is usually in the $500-600 range.
The Club Lounge Overview
Unlike the Royal Pacific Resort, where the club level rooms and the lounge are located on the same floor, club rooms at Portofino Bay are spread out around the resort. The lounge is on the lobby floor, not far from the check-in desk. Convenient if you want to stop by for some refreshments on the way back from the parks, very inconvenient any other time.
You need a key card to access the lounge.
The lounge room is dark with tables on one side and large unutilized space on the other side. The lounge gets busy during the dinner service and open tables are sparse. I wish that empty space was used to add more seating options.
The lounge hours are 7am to 10pm.
Breakfast
Besides the usual toast, bagels, cereal, donuts etc, the lounge is serving more hearty options like breakfast sandwiches and burritos.
This was a great way to start the day.
Dinner
It’s Italian food for dinner! The options usually are pasta, protein, and vegetables. Plus mini-desserts like cheesecake and brownies for dessert.
Drinks & Snacks
Water and soft drinks are available all day. Alcohol is only available from 5pm to 8pm.
Complimentary wine & beer options are:
- Peroni
- Michelob Ultra
- Michelob Lite
- Bud Light
- Pinot Grigio
- Chardonnay
- White Zinfandel
- Cabernet
Spirits are $7.
Staff
Our experience with the lounge staff was disappointing. While employees during the dinner service were absolutely lovely, we found employees during the breakfast service less than friendly. They were standoffish, impatient, and the total opposite of employees we encountered at Royal Pacific.
One particular incident comes to mind:
Towards the end of the breakfast service, there were only two parties in the lounge – us and another family. Both of us happened to be waiting for our rooms to be ready. One of the staff members approached the other family and was going on and on about the resort, the lounge, asking if they need assistance with anything. She mentioned to them that the front desk can text them once the room is ready and offered to relay their phone number to the front desk. And then she walked away completely ignoring us like we were not even there.
I, obviously, overheard that conversation, and I actually did need to make sure the front desk knows my phone number. I approached her a few minutes later asking to give my new cell phone number (see my sad dead iPhone story at the beginning of the post) to the reception, and she assured me she would. She never did…
This is definitely not the end of the world, but it left a bad taste in my mouth. I just find it strange that someone would make a conscious choice to be super nice to one family and ignore another.
Final Thoughts
Having access to an exclusive lounge that serves breakfast, snacks, dinner, and drinks is always great even though this was not the best experience. I definitely think the extra you pay to stay at a club level room is worth it.
If I had to choose a club lounge, I’d go with the Royal Pacific over Portofino Bay. Mainly because of the convenience of the lounge location and outstanding staff.
Now we just need to stay at Hard Rock club level room, so we could properly rank the Universal Orlando Resort lounges. (Done! See the review of Rock Royalty lounge at Hard Rock Hotel here)
