@Tall_Paul1 you were typing earlier and never posted. Do you have a suggestion?
1 Like
Yeah, as I typed and retyped thoughts, I ended up realizing I was saying basically the same things as Jeff did already. 
Are you still thinking of one night onsite? Which resort? AP became my only option once family decided EP’s were a must. They’re spoiled from having them last time and now won’t go without them. 
2 Likes
We want a night at Cabana Bay for the retro stuff.
Saturday - Check in. Explore. Go to Toothsome. Explore. Hopefully bowl 10PM.
Sleep.
Sunday - Breakfast and pools. Checkout and stay at pool(?) til dinner. Leave and get dinner and pick up groceries. Check into rental house 7PMish
Monday first park day. No pass benefits.
It was just about enjoying a hotel which is something we’ve never done.
I can add a night at the rental for $203. Hotel will likely be about $400. DH thinks $200 more for hotel is reasonable given the goal “enjoy the resort” is not high stakes and I will likely find the ROI met. (Not like “I spent $2500 on park tickets and never rode SDD, etc.”)
4 Likes
Good plan. We ended up choosing that as well (to complete a split with Portofino) due to the decent value of AP rate, pool, slide, lazy river, location. Have only heard good things.
1 Like
You know you can and should book in advance, right?
I hope you stick with your one day on site resort plan. Sounds fun! FYI the exterior entry family suites at the Castaway or Thunderbird buildings are closer to the Garden Walk path to Citywalk. I think all the interior entry suites are at the other end of the property. Cabana Bay has fire pits, smores kits are available to buy.
Here are a couple of other things to do if interested:
Get the free Vibe (secret) Tour of music memorabilia at the Hard Rock Café.
https://www.thesocialintrovert.co/vibe-tour-at-universal-orlandos-hard-rock-cafe/
Visit the Bar 17 Bistro for a snack/drink. It’s a rooftop bar at Aventura hotel with great views.
Take a water taxi to visit Portofino Bay to walk the streets and enjoy the area.
Make sure to visit the Universal Studios Legacy store at CityWalk.
Hollywood Drive in Mini Golf if you are interested also at CW.
1 Like
For us it is 100% the theming. DH and DS19 love that kind of thing.
This was one of the things I needed to look into, so thank you for saving me the inquiry!! Have you eaten there?
I believe these were recommended upthread for other reasons as well. I will look for that. I may end up doing rhree regular rooms, though, depending on pricing as it gets us a third bathroom and we don’t really need the “kitchen…”
This is cool. I wonder if my sister knows about that. She is very into music memorabilia. I will suggest this to my boys!
Right now the sale is for a three-day ticket with two days free. I can’t imagine using five days, but it gives us a little wiggle room I guess? Maybe we could pop in early on our hotel day and do something headliney and then resume our pool plan?
I wonder if vacation fire pits and smore taste better than backyard fire pits and smores. I may have to do a comparison.
2 Likes
Yes. Last week. Ahem.
1 Like
A meal or just dessert?
I’d like to go for a meal. The menu looks decent.
1 Like
We have eaten meals there twice and been very pleased. Appetizers were good too.
I have heard others say the food isn’t great, but i guess some people have very high expectations.
2 Likes
Yeah. We will mostly be there for the theming so food expectations will be moderate.
1 Like
I’ve done a few posts on UOAP savings on the blog.
1 Like
Thank you.
What is that in the third & fourth photos?
Dessert looks amazing. I love mint chocolate chip!
I think if need to stay for than a night to really get a decent ROI…
I was briefly considering upgrading to Cabana Bay, even for a couple nights, but the family suites are just a no go. The Endless Summer Family suites are so much better…not sure why the value resort is the only resort with a decent family suite!
Regardless, the reason I was looking at Cabana Bay was because of their pool hopping policy. For at resorts other than Endless Summer, you are allowed to hop to the pools at the other resorts, and Cabana Bay has that lazy river. But since we are planning to stay at Endless Summer, we can’t resort pool hop.
2 Likes
Agreed. I like the layout of the ES ones much better too and we would have been just fine there, but found another option that worked. I could only have gotten AP rate for CB family suite on one of the two nights we need. So for about the same price as one night AP rate/one night rack rate in a CB family suite, we could get all AP rate on 2 standard (connecting-requested) rooms for 2 nights. A bit more than ES suite, but being able to relax and spread out more and have the 2nd bathroom on the last leg of the trip will be a nice bonus.
1 Like
That is kind of a back up option. I won’t know AP discounts for a year, so hard to plan. Booked ES now to lock in current rates in case of any increases, but once AP discounts come out, we will have to reevaluate! Doing two connecting standard rooms is definitely a possibility… especially since it would get us access to the CB pool and lazy river. Might just do it as a split stay kind of thing…six nights at ES, and then 3 at CB. We’ll see!
1 Like
Lack of proper suites for families drives me nuts. I’d love to see them refurb some Aventura or CBBR rooms into suites with kitchen and separate bedrooms.
4 Likes