Loews Sapphire Falls Resort at Universal Orlando — Hotel in Orlando

You really need to read this review before considering this hotel and Universal. We were traveling and wanted to treat our teenagers with a nice trip to Universal, so we thought we would buy a package where we could easily get to Universal. Of course cost is a consideration, but it really came down to what they offer.

So we called and we were told about Sapphire Falls. We were told its a casual hotel. We were told we would get early access to the park and the rooms were nice and there were multiple ways to get to the parks early.

My wife checked us in and they told us the room keys would get us in the parks early. There is an immediate influx of little "gratuities", but I have been to Vegas and understand how it works: You pay more but you get a better experience. So I was used to it.

Anyway, the wheels came off the bus pretty quickly. First, they keep an additional $100 and say based on what you use, they will deduct from it. They were very vague about what was included and what was not. Again, we don't mind paying if we know what's included and what's not.

Well, the room was not quite as good as a nice Holiday Inn Express. Granted we like Holiday Inn Express (when they are managed well), but for about $400 bucks a night, we figured we were paying for early access and being able to hit the "easy button."

Before I move on, I want to let you know a few things about me. First, if I buy something based on information I receive, I expect what I was sold. Secondly, I can't stand the word "misinformation." This is modern term to replace the word "lie" by some people and the managers at Sapphire Falls definitely use the word "misinformation" a lot.

The room key card didn't work. They pushed us to another line and completely embarrassed us. Once in, most of the park was not functioning, but conveniently the stores we 100% up and running, The good rides didn't start until 10am and you ended up being in the same long lines fighting people that stayed a little further out, paid a fraction of what we paid and got the same experience.

To top it all off, the park is really looking bad and kind of silly. Oh, and one of the Harry Potter rides broke down after we waited about an hour and no one bothered telling us. My youngest daughter who has some health challenges got really overheated and the temperature in the room slowly increased like a frog in boiling water.

So what we were told:

1. Nice hotel
2. One keycard for everything
3. Park early access - with the indication, we can ride before it gets busy

What we got:

1. An average Holiday Inn & Suites Room
2. Fighting multiple lines to get access
3. Only one park was open
4. Once inside hardly anything was functioning except for stores.
5. We got stuck with management, smiles and no help. Oh, and a phone number and case number that didn't work.

This is a bait and switch scam.

If you want to go to Universal, here is what to do:

1. Stay offsite and avoid hotels like this.
2. Buy normal tickets or look for discounts.
3. Get there about 10am unless you want to be stuck in stores with nothing to do but buy stuff.
4. Avoid anything Jurassic Park and most of the Harry Potter rides (HP rides are really jerky)
5. Be prepared, the park is looking bad. It was pretty comical at times...

Okay, so I issued my complaint and they refuse to refund our money. They tried to comp us a little at the hotel (its not a resort). They do this because they have huge markups and its costs them nothing. I told them I was lied to. Ultimately they refunded one night and $50 in parking fees (yes, $50 for parking). When we discussed adding the comp fees to the refund, I got "misinformation" with the "misinformation" to coerce us into buying the package.

I plan on filing a complaint with the State of Florida. These big company scams have to stop.

Update: We have been bombarded with calls from the hotel after they refused help and this review was posted. and they claim we were told only one part of that park was available. They also claimed we accepted comped tickets as a settlement...

We booked through a 3rd party (British Airways) who are actually very good at giving accurate information. Their website too only presents suitable rooms for your selected party which in our case was 5 people. Since this hotel came up on a 5 party search with all ages disclosed and other hotels were screened out saying 'party exceeds what the room can accommodate we absolutely thought it could easily accommodate us. We were very wrong to make that assumption and should have, as they say, checked the small print!

Despite a very welcome check in and a promise to email when our rooms were ready as they were not at the time of check in (didn't happen and we had to queue at reception again to get our room information) - when we finally got our room information and got to our room; imagine our confusion and surprise to find just 2 Queen Beds. We speak to reception about our confusion and ask where is the 5th person supposed to sleep? When we have been presented a room to book and being told it's suitable for 5 people we expect there to be a sofa bed or something.

Their initial response was somewhat disappointing but it's the best they could say in the circumstances in that these ARE the biggest rooms that they do and other families don't have an issue with having 3 people share one bed! Although the first manager we spoke to tried to suggest it's not really a big deal, one of the reception team members disclosed they get this complaint a lot and it's a recurring issue. We have two adults, an 18 year old, a 16 year old & a 13 year old girl - please tell us exactly how 3 people are supposed to share a bed we exclaim to the first manager! 'I see your point, well would you like a rollaway bed if we can find one? The rollaway bed arrives and it's smaller than a standard single bed in England suitable for toddlers I would say and so no way suitable for an adult. It's also almost $40 extra per night. We were then told it was either this our pay almost $800 for an extra room because they can't magically make the rooms any bigger and they do allow up to 5 adults on those rooms and it's up to them how they make do. Ludicrous!

After a lot of back and forth - Clayton finally took on our issue and essentially we had to pay for another room but he helped us achieve some compromise with that. This is the best they could do as they stated these were the only room types they offered save cancelling our stay and giving us a refund and hope we found something else last minute which was his other offer. Happy Anniversary!

We did get acknowledgment from British Airways that the room option was not a suitable size for a party of 5 and their commercial team will review how this hotel is presented on their search options for parties of 5 moving forward. Even though the hotel maintain it is suitable because 'most families are happy to share one small queen bed with 3 people.

In hindsight we totally would not have booked to stay here and could have got a more family friendly room elsewhere. It was within the small print after we made the booking that the hotel only offered 2 bedroom rooms which they allow 5 guests and rollaway beds are limited and charged extra but we did not see this information until after this issue because since everything is digital now, you only get this addendum information if you click on the 'print hotel voucher page' which we physically didn't need to do.

Other than this issue which was a big issue for us and took us hours to resolve with the hotel on our actual wedding anniversary day, everything else is fine. The rooms are lovely and had it been just the 2 or 4 of us it would have still been a bit cramped but absolutely adequate. Loved our view from the room of the lagoon and the general theme, layout and feel of the hotel.

The hotel amenities and pool areas are great although sadly we couldn't enjoy the hot tub as it was always overran with young children treating it as a...

Stayed with my family. All really good week in a magical place until a dreadful experience on the last night. Returned to our room at 9:45pm after a day at the parks, so we were all hot and tired, to find that none of the 5 electronic room keys would not work in the door. Odd, I went down and explained to the concierge who issued two new room keys. (Our room was as far from reception as could be) So after 10 minutes I returned. Yet again both new keys would not work in the door. So I went back to the concierge, who looked confused and asked how many “orange flashes?” the keys made? I said all I know is that they are not green to open the door.

Confused the concierge checked with “the front desk” then informed me that there was a problem with my bill and I needed to speak to them.

So I queued while the clerk was checking in a couple in front of me. There was only one clerk on the desk. After another 15 minutes the clerk was eventually free.

I explained the above and he informed me that my charge card had been declined so they had locked my family out of our room intentionally so we did not leave without paying. He also then produced the room charge bill saying that this and the sundries would need paying in full before I could access the room!

I informed him that I had already prepaid the room charge bill in the U.K. around 6 weeks ago. His reply “that’s not our problem sir, you will have to take that up with your third party” at this time it was 3am with my “third party” in the U.K.

At this point my wife and three children had been sat outside our hotel room for more than 30 minutes.

I was disgusted with this situation so I asked to speak to the manager and after initially being told that he wasn’t available, he eventually came out. I explained the whole situation with him.

He tore up the room bill in front of me and confirmed that this had indeed been settled in advance, he then reprimanded the clerk for his confusion and said that I “shouldn’t see” this bill.

He did say that my card had been refused. Odd and I know I have no financial issues. I realised that I had collected a hire car that day and that had likely maxed out the daily allowance on the card. However l, as I was leaving in the morning when I would settle the $600 sundries account.

I explained that I thought that locking my family out of our room at 10pm was a ridiculous decision. Annoyed I cleared the sundries bill on another card and returned to my family who were now in the room after being sat outside in the corridor until 10:30pm. 45 minutes!

I thought this was disrespectful behaviour from the hotel and have since emailed them with my complaint.

Their response has been to claim that they emailed and tried to call me before locking my family out of our room. This is absolute nonsense. There are no emails, or calls missed on this date from Loews Hotels. I asked the hotel for evidence of this, none has been supplied. We even charged lunch to the room on the same day, so I would expect any payment issues to show on that day?!

This incident should have been dealt with so much more professionally by the hotel. Maybe a note left in my room or the concierge knowing what the issue was initially.

But to treat their customers as potential criminals without investigation, plus the utter confusion of the clerk telling me I had to double pay for the room left a real bitter taste and a sad end to what was a great week.

Do better Universal! For an entertainment company service should be your number one goal. This experience was...