A few weeks ago, I got to visit Universal Orlando Resort in Florida for the first time in a long time, almost 10 years! I also was able to stay at an on-property resort. In this article I’ll be reviewing my stay at Cabana Bay Resort in Orlando! Full Disclosure I was at Universal for an Agent Education Program with my company Academy Travel. I did have a fellow agent as a roommate. I did learn a lot about Universal as a vacation destination for your family or group! I’m so excited to help people achieve their vacation dreams! Now on to the review.
Cabana Bay Resort is a Prime Value resort at Universal Resort in Orlando, Florida. Universal has several resort categories: Value, Prime Value, Preferred and Premier hotels. Value and Prime Value hotels are great for guests and families on a budget and offer different room types to suit larger families. I was in a Family Suite, that had the ability to sleep 6 adults, but more on that later. Like at Disney, staying on property at Universal has its perks. The perks you get depend on which type of resort you stay at. At a Prime Value resort early admission was a perk along with complimentary transportation to Universal Studios, CityWalk and Islands of Adventure. Cabana Bay also has its own walkway right to Volcano Bay waterpark!
Cabana Bay Resort is a retro 50’s and 60’s beachy themed resort. This resort has multiple buildings in a square shape and a large pool area in the middle. The resort has 2 pools and a lazy river! This resort is great for families who love to take a dip in the afternoon, have dedicated pool days on their vacation, or just love to be pool side. One thing about the lazy river I thought was weird was you had to BUY your inner tube to float the river, the tubes cost about $15 each, now when you were done, they would give you a deflated new tube to take home, but you still had to purchase the tube, there are no rentals. There is sand play areas and beach entrances to some pools and traditional concrete pools as well so there is something for everyone.
The main building has multiple food options, and the pool area has a bar and simple grill to order food from as well. There are covered seating areas to enjoy food and drink and fake grass areas where things like corn hole are set up during the day and in the evening, they set up a screen and show outdoor movies on the lawns. These are included with your resort stay. If you’d like to stay dry and beat the heat this resort also has its own bowling alley!
This resort has several room types available. In the picture to the right is a photo of a building with exterior entry doors to the rooms but they do have rooms with an interior entry if that’s a preference you have.
Here is the entry to our Family Suite. The first room is divided away from the bedroom and bathroom by a sliding partition. The couch pulls out to a bed. I don’t think it’s a queen size pull out probably more of a full-size bed, great for an extra adult, kids and teens. The front room also has the kitchenette which has a sink, mini fridge and microwave. The surfboard style counter is great for prepping or portioning out meals and snacks. There is also a TV and storage in the draws under the TV for people’s items if they are staying in that part of the room.
There is plenty of seating in the front room and a great place to sit and relax without having to be in or on a bed. The sliding door is right by the kitchenette. These doors are not soundproof and are more of a visual barrier. The semi opaque material that allows for light to show through is not thick enough to completely block out sound so if someone wanted to say watch TV while others napped it would not completely block out the sound of the TV. That is something to keep in mind.
The bedroom has two Queen size beds each with 2 lamps on either side of the headboard and a nightstand in between. Ours had one drawer and an open cubby on the bottom. The nightstand does have outlets but no USB outlets, so be sure to bring your wall accessories for all your chargers. The bed near the partition wall has drawers for storage. In the wall across from the bed that’s father into the room there is a closet alcove with iron and ironing board and hangers. There is no door on the closet but it’s a good place to store suitcases. The closet alcove also has a safe for valuables.
Unfortunately, due to some technical issues pictures of the bathroom did not make it. These rooms feature a compartmentalized bathroom. In the photo above I’m standing in the bathroom entry to get that photo angle with my gimbal. In the center there is an open sink and countertop area that has space underneath to store toiletry bags and items, there are towels and a mirror over the sink. On one side of the sink area is a room with a door, this is the toilet room, there is no sink just the toilet, on the other side of the sink area is another room with a door this has a tub shower, and it has its own sink and no toilet. This configuration is great for larger families so multiple people can get ready at one time. I will post a walk-through video on my Instagram: @staceygoontravel where the bathroom configuration is visible. Click here to view the walk through video!
Now that we have seen the pools, and the room let’s take a look at the dining area. The main dining area for this resort is the Bayliner Diner and it has several hot food quick service options. There is a salad bar, sandwiches, pizza, international options, I believe it looked like a stir fry type option. Each little quick service counter has several options at each so there is something for everyone. They also have grab-n-go options as well. Pictured here is part of the dining room. Lots of seating options and just to the left in this photo is a lower level with even more seating. They have a lot of chairs and some padded booth type seats as well.
Here is the meal I had after I arrived at the resort and was all checked in. I got this from the sandwich quick serve counter. For me the sandwich a good size. It was a turkey pesto sandwich on a seasoned bread. The sandwiches are premade so I couldn’t modify it before purchase, so I had to take off the things I didn’t really care for, which was fine as it was a sandwich and easy to deconstruct for my tastes. My meal came with a drink and a side, I picked the pasta salad.
The way drinks work at Universal is new to me, as I’m a Disney girly so I had a learning curve here. The bottom of each cup you get has an RFID tag on it and is activated at purchase. The cup will be fillable for an amount of time, I believe I had like 2 hours. To fill the cup, you must set it on the drink dispenser, and it will scan it and then allow you to press the button to fill the cup with whatever drink you choose. These are not huge cups but not incredibly small either. I’d say it held a good 12oz of soda. I could have refilled my cup as many times as I wanted within that 2 hours.
In this dining area there are large TVs overhead playing retro adds from the 50s and 60s. It was fun to sit and eat my meal while watching the old school adds. Coca-Cola was shown along with Purina cat litter and just everyday things people would have seen on TV during those times. In the photo to the left here is a good idea of how large the drinks are.
I didn’t get to try a milk shake or malt at the Malt Shoppe just next to the Bayliner, but they did look yummy! This would be a great treat to enjoy while taking a break from the parks or from swimming in the pool, or if you just wanted a sweet treat because you’re on vacation and I say calories don’t count!
Here is a fun mural on the wall in the main building near the food court. It really shows that retro vibe the resort has.
So to end this review I’m going to give my personal opinions and thoughts on this resort. This resort is definitely a good option for families, especially if they are on a budget and if they plan on going to Volcano Bay for to the easy access to the water park. This resort is one of the older resorts at Universal and I will say my room was in need of an update. Please keep in mind that I am a bougie girl who likes things a certain way.
The toiletries in the room were very retro, they gave us VO5 shampoo and conditioner and Zest soap. In my opinion the toiletries were low quality. The doors leading into the room and the doors for the bathroom felt like a public school to me, it’s not a big deal just something that my bougie self-noticed.
I also had a few experiences at this resort that would definitely make me think twice about staying here again over a different Universal Resort. As a reminder these things just happened to happen to me and probably were not in anyone persons control but I’m going to tell you about them anyway. First, our door died on our last night. Yes, the door into our room died, the reader you put your room key up too to unlock your door failed. I had just come back from Halloween Horror Nights at Universal studios, and it had POURED rain for a couple hours, needless to say I was very soggy and tired, and it was later in the evening about 10pm or so. Because I was at the farthest building away from the front desk and I was soggy and tired I just called the hotel from my phone. They said they would send someone to come unlock my door and fix it. That took 45 minutes. First a security officer came to check my ID and room card, thank goodness I had those on me, and they weren’t locked in the room. Hot Tip: at Universal ALWAYS have your ID on you. Once the maintenance guys got there it was fairly simple open the door and change the battery. All in all, this took about an hour or so to fix. I personally felt that if it’s raining and late it should not have taken that long to get a guest into their room. I had a roommate on this trip, and she also had to wait outside the room for over 45 minutes while her food from the Bayliner went cold. So, with the time of night and weather this experience wasn’t great.
We also had two alarm issues while we were there. On our second night we had a loud, lights flashing alarm go off inside our room and in our building around 9:45pm. The loudspeaker said, “May I have your attention please, may I have your attention please, an emergency has been reported in the building, we are investigating the cause, please remain calm and wait for further instructions near the speakers.” This went on for a good 15 to 20 minutes. After about 5-10 minutes we got brave and peeked outside the curtains to see people still in the pool, so we knew we didn’t have like an active shooter situation. We never learned the cause but once things were ok a second message giving all clear sounded for about 5 minutes. This whole thing was about 30 minutes. Not too bad to deal with loud sirens and messages but then it happened again at 2:30am! That same evening luckily for us that only lasted about 10-15 minutes.
The last issue we had happened on the last night we were there. This is the same night as the door dying, our smoke alarm in our room decided it needed to go off for no reason. Props, to the hotel staff for running to our room quickly to ensure our safety and then clear there was no fire. The alarm however went off for about 45 minutes, it took them a long time figure out how to make it stop and ended up having to deep clean the alarm sensor and reset the building several times to make this stop. So, on top of having been locked out of our room for a while and finally getting into dry clothes and eating cold food we had to endure another gaggle of men in our room for almost another hour. Needless to say, we were tired.
My overall impression of this resort is that it’s good for a budget and larger families, the access to Volcano Bay is great but the resort is in need of some updates, like better charging stations in the rooms to include things like USB ports, the flooring and furniture are in need of updates as well. I personally felt that the bathrooms need better configuration or at least make the toilet room larger as the door opened in towards the toilet and had little clearance, so you had to straddle the toilet to open the door. I will admit that my room mishaps are probably clouding my opinion of the resort a bit, but I can only tell you what I have personally experienced. I would not exclude this resort for a client, but I do think Universal has better options out there.
