Universal's Loews Portofino Bay Hotel, Orlando

I am appalled to learn about Loews' inhumane trapping, starving, torturing and removal of their controlled (spayed/neutered/vaccinated) cat colony. It you are a pet owner, animal lover, or if you merely have any common sense of decency, you will boycott Loews Hotels until they agree to change their policy. There are plenty hotels in the area that do not destroy the lives of innocent animals (and ones without filthy floors and unmentionable stains on the sheets too). Loews is disgusting!

I visited two years ago after reading reviews of Loews supposed 'pet-friendly' beliefs. I was travelling with my dog and thought it would be great. While my visit at the time was uneventful, I will never return after learning that they are removing their feral cat population from the property in such a vile and cruel way. The have hired Critter Control and are starving and trapping these former residents. It's horrific and Loews has lost my business forever. I will never stay there or any other Loews hotel again!

This hotel is over priced, filthy rooms, terrible staff. Beware our room was broken into ransacked and we were robbed of over $10,000 in personal items. And for our trouble this hotel charged us for our stay. Would never, never stay at another Loews hotel again!! What a disgrace

I loved the Portofino Bay Hotel, the way everyone greeted you in Italian, all the Italian shops and restaurants, the little Vespas arranged around the "harbor," the very comfortable beds, the huge bathroom, the large, soft towels, the pool that looked like a tropical beach, the helpful operators, concierge staff and front desk people. We never talked to anyone who wasn't nice to us. I found the tall bed hard to get into, but someone brought me a little step stool within ten minutes of my phone call. While outside waiting for our minibus to the airport, one of the porters brought us bottles of ice, cold water! Wonderful hotel! Yes, it's a bit expensive, but it's really the only way to see Universal's theme parks.

Initially we were very impressed by the hotel and the staff. We stayed in a deluxe room, a"villa" on the fourth floor. We ( my husband, myself and our 7 year old daughter) woke up on the last day with large red welts on our bodies. When we called to report this, the hotel admitted they had a recent bedbug problem " but not in this room" is what they said !! They did not apologize or offer any recompsensation but advised us that they would start a file and we could submit any bills for cleaning or loss of luggage due to the bedbugs !!! We have traveled extensively all around the world and have never had an issue like this. We are shocked and appalled that a bedbug infestation was taken so lightly by the management . Don't stay here, it is not worth the trouble or expense to have to contend with the bedbugs afterwards!!

On two occasions - after late nights - we missed having our morning 'housekeeping' and ended up doing it ourselves. Maybe not such a big deal - but one management may want to keep an eye on. Okay, now for the good stuff: Attentive, considerate waiters/barstaff and pool people. Excellent 'front-of-house' staff, porters and water-taxi employees. Amiable, fit and helpful cycle-taxi guys (I promise to lose weight for my next trip - honest). Good food, good drinks and very reasonable prices. And close to the parks - RESULT! Apart for my initial gripe, I would (still) recommend this hotel experience to family and friends here in the UK - and will. Thank you, everyone. (We still tipped the housekeeper/cleaner, btw, well, we all have 'off' days.)

overall it is a nice place, the view is nice. has two pools.my room was good, the bath room was big, it had a his/her sink.has restaurants at the hotel,a bar, ice sream shop, also had stores.There is a spa ithat is nice.The staff there is very friendly.While you stay there you can ride there boat that takes you to citi walk where both the parks are located that starts at like 8 or 9 am and dont ends until 2 am.Some down falls would be that they but a mini bar in your room that is filled with drinks and alcohol that are expensive.also if you like the gym, its $10 a day, or if you need a refrigerator its $15 a day.also parking is $15 a day. i wanted a picture drawn by their artist and he was only there one day that i was there and i asked if another one was coming soon and i was told they usually there on holidays and weekends unlike the hard rock were they are there every day. But overall its a nice place.

We paid extra for a bigger room called the villa. It was small. The shower in the bathroom was a corner shower and the door would not stay shut and the shower head of course was directed towards the door and it poured out every time someone needed to shower because the plastic stripping was partially missing from the bottom of the door. So we had to limit the shower to 5 minutes before the rolled up towels were saturated that were placed on the floor to keep the water contained. The shower had no grab rails and you needed them once you applied soap or shampoo to your body because it became a slippery ice ring. The bathroom had no exhaust so the walls sweat within minutes and you need to keep the bath room open. Not good when you have teen age boys. The temperature in the room would not adjust lower then 74. You sweat your butt off at night when you have a family of five in a small villa room that your paying 430.00 a night for. Why don't hotels have ceiling fans? The villa they gave us was so far from the elevator. It was like walking four city blocks to get there. My daughter stepped off the boat wearing a dress and ended up falling on the wood dock spread eagle. Embarrassing and a real show for all the people waiting to board the boat. It was raining and there are no safty strips or mats. She scraped her knee and sprained her ankle. The hotel told us it's not their problem call security. We did and was told they would look at it then twenty minutes later they said no one was available. We had to seek medical attention after flying home. It's been three days and no call after filling out accident report. The boat rides are not on a schedule. One time we waited 45 minutes for it at City Walk (no benches either). We have stayed at Hard Rock three times and Royal Pacific twice and never had any issues. Portofino is more expensive and say "The Sweet Life" Well.... that's crap.

My wife and I tried to spend our vacation at Portofino 10/25 to 10/31, but were very disappointed. We are both disabled and wanted to spend time in the pool. If the pool was going to be broken you should of told us this and gave us another room closer to a pool. The ice machine opposite our room was broken and it was broken the last time we stayed there. We are both disabled and had to walk tens of rooms away to get ice. If the ice machine was going to be broken you should of told us this and gave us another room closer to a working ice machine. The TV in our room was broken. If the TV was going to be broken you should of told us this and gave us another room with a working TV. The shower in our room was broken. If the shower was going to be broken you should of told us this and gave us another room with a working shower. You ruined our vacation, had us pay full price for everything, and we are very upset with LOEWS. You probably won't respond to this letter, so I am seeking other means of restitution.

great value, found the staff very friendly staff, safe pool for the kids, nice place to relax after a day the theme park. nice to have a choice of water taxi or shuttle to the parks. food and service also very good. would definitely stay at again with the family. only negative found was there was no luandry room at this hotel and with three kids in the family it would have may things easier