Universal's Cabana Bay Beach Resort — Hotel in Orlando

I am probably almost 20 grand into the trip and checked out today. I have done trips to Disney resorts, cruises with/without kids, Caribbean islands through independent hotels, and Airbnb‘s, and various states throughout the United States in specific areas for example, New York City. Of all my travels, this trip was by far the worst.

We stayed at cabana Bay Beach resort. And I did my research before choosing this resort which included YouTube reviews by the DFP guide and various reviews in articles. So safe to say, I was scammed by influencers.

The pools were absolutely disgusting. Pieces of dirt, pieces of paper towel, leaves, huge amount of sand at the bottom. And at some areas of the pool like the lazy river, the water was murky. The trees surrounding the lazy river are diseased. Patches of mold and green on all over them. The water feature has water stains all over the rocks and wasn’t on during our stay, but it looked really dilapidated. Rusted.

Areas of the resort itself look dilapidated and dirty. For example, the cafeteria area. The bathroom near the pool where the slide is was absolutely atrocious. And the plumbing in there was broken so you couldn’t shut off the water after washing your hands. It just kept coming out full force. Of course I let a staff member know and they gave me the Noncommittal nod that they would call somebody. The whole theme of the place was that nobody cared, there was no care put into the building, and it was very obvious.

The guest room we had was 3434 in starburst building, and I was mortified. I usually go into a room before my family does and start cleaning it. This is true of every vacation we’ve had and I know there are influencers who made that popular but I used to do it before YouTube made it cool. And let me tell you there was a booger on the wall, the doors where the handles are were absolutely disgusting with the yellow dripping substance dried on the wall. Dirt, the toilet holder was falling off the wall. I usually bring my own toilet paper because I don’t like to use 120 grit to wipe myself with and that’s what almost every hotel and cruise line uses. It was true here as well, and the towels are 80 grit so that was not a nice treat for my skin to be shaved off entirely. The mini fridge door opened and it creeped so loud that it woke one of our children up. We didn’t realize until we went to put something away before bed and literally woke our kid up. So that was awesome. The worst part of having small kids with you on a trip like this was the tub, there was clearly some adhesive on there at one point or a bathmat, and they lifted it and instead of using like goo-gone, and then cleaning it, they just lifted it and left the adhesive there which has now built up dirt and grime that has stuck to the bottom of the tub floor. So we had to shower children who had never been showered before. If anyone knows, that was a real “good time.” The bed sad so badly that it felt like when we laid down we were inverted with our feet up in our head back.

I would gladly spend more money for a moderate or even a luxury stay on a universal resort that it’s actually owned by universal, because this place is just affiliated with universal even though it says universal right in the name, The staff was vapid and fake. Everything was have a swell day and a smile on their face. But they didn’t actually resolve any issues. They didn’t actually help you. They didn’t actually manage anything. And I’m not talking crazy things like can I get a new bed in my hotel room or anything wild like that, I’m talking very basic things like why I stand in line for 10 to 15 minutes for a luggage cart and two people cut me in the line and get help before I do because there’s no line order in front of the luggage. Especially on a day during checkout time. You would think that’s an easy fix, just put up a rope. Have people stand in line in a semi-orderly way? I could go on and on, but there would be no more word count left on Google.

TLDR don’t stay here bring the actual bit of money to do a...

Stayed here 3 wks ago. I was between 2 and 3 stars. One of the most important things to me is how you treat those who chose to pay to be with you. I rounded down. I'll start there. I have stayed at all of the Loews Universal hotels except for the dockside hotels (this stay at their value hotel makes me want to skip any other value hotels). From start to finish, from front desk to poolside, they have the most disinterested and indifferent employees I have ever seen. Front desk, pool attendant, lifeguard, random employee I asked a question in a breezeway, front desk "MANAGER" (do she said) and the intertube sales girls (who were the worst. They definitely stared right through people the most and had the most dead look in their eyes. Like dealing with a burnt out, entitled burger king employee ). There is zero effort and every simple question or suggestion to overcome a situation they created (overbooking a room type and moving our group) was met with resistance and tone of nearly anger. Since a so called manager was involved for a simple question I asked (which sounded like a polite "hey. I have an idea, what if we did this......" which included something I was willing to concede) this means this is a poor culture and has a bad trickle down effect. Here is the strange part. EVERY OTHER LOEWS HOTEL HAS GONE OUT OF THEIR WAY TO MAKE THINGS RIGHT AND IF THEY COULDN'T THEY WOULD OFFER SOMETHING SMALL. Which brings me to my next point. The value hotel doesn't need to have value service and clearly each hotel has separate training and management. This hotel must have very poor leadership as that who creates a culture. They could use an overhaul and read a few Simon Sinek books. My other point which intertwines here and may offer an explanation; because this is a value hotel the clientele is that of a really rough walmart. So, perhaps this staff is tired of dealing with these types of people. If you have no issues on the cheapest rate Cruise then you will be fine. However, the behaviors of those here are enough to always have me go elsewhere. Even if the staff wasn't so indifferent. So, perhaps when I ask a polite "what if" question they hear the anger and low class behavior that I heard on day 4 from some guests at the front desk. It's a very crowded hotel. It has over 2000 rooms. So even with the vast grounds and 2 pools, it is always crowded everywhere. Everything has a wait and a line. Bowling, ice cream, cafe.....all lengthy waits and with frustration in their employees it makes the experience worse. A few warnings and not actually complaining.....the walks are long for a lot of things. If you want to go to the pool on the other side, it's not a quick trip. The shaded seats are very limited and with the 2000 rooms where it appeared many people doubled the capacity in their rooms, any decent seats are gone quickly. Another thing to realize, they do incidentals like a trashy red roof inn. I dont think I've ever stayed at a hotel that doesn't take a credit card and use that for any incidentals. Its easy to spend hundreds a day on food and drinks at these hotels but we chose not to. We were informed by one of the actual polite employees that front desk is supposed to inform me of this antiquated rule they have. They take a deposit like a commissary. I do imagine they deal with unpaid credit card and credit cards that hit limits really quick. So know that. If you plan to eat and drink poolside, then make sure you just bring your CC. Since the front desk employee didn't discuss this with me (because she was too upset that I said "what if we try this"....) I wasn't aware and didn't have anything but my room key, planning to charge the room. The grounds are OK. The price is very cheap. It's good if you want to save money on a Universal vacation and just need a place to sleep. The pools are OK other than the long walks and deck crowding. I do think better service would make everything reasonable and understandable. Especially if they could have a human moment and offer some explanations, but...

0/10 -DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY! AC is designed to NOT RUN while you're not in your room, so expect a SUPER HOT ROOM! NO Luggage service. NO Room Service. NO consistently running AC. NO luggage cart service.

NO LOCKERS AT POOL AREA... which makes this resort completely COUPLE UNFRIENDLY! (How are you supposed to enjoy the pool & lazy river area as a couple? They have food options as well as a full service bar, yet you're expected to simply leave your wallet, cell phones, and all personal belongings out in the open all day?!) FOOD all tastes the same; it's the same faster food options throughout the entire resort as well as the parks. (Burgers, chicken tenders, fries, fried foods and all the processed/packaged crap you can imagine!)

MOLD & MILDEW throughout hotel, especially within the rooms. Once the AC stops running, the stench gets worse. (I'm an asthmatic, so I actually had to start using my inhaler this entire trip!) TISSUES (and tp) WERE WET!!! The tissue box was so saturated with liquids (who knows if it was cleaning chemicals from housekeeping or nastiness from previous guests!?) MOLD on shower heads, RUST all over the bathroom. PHOTOS ATTACHED.

A/C (Air Conditioning) IS DESIGNED TO NOT RUN, if you're not in the room! After we returned from an extremely hot day at the parks, we returned to a room that was ABOVE 80 DEGREES! We contacted the hotel and they explained that this was by design! Yet the tech that came (I have a video recording) he explained that this was basically all he does... he had SIX more rooms to go visit after hours, all because the hotel chooses to turn OFF THE AC, without motion in the rooms! Yet not one person could tell me the temp that the hotel chose to have the air conditioning kick back ON. It's obviously above 80 degrees though, as nobody stated that it doesn't go that high.

STAFF as a whole, was not very friendly. Bartenders were, but that's about it. Just seemed as though most staff members were working their very 1st job... unknowledgeable and unfriendly. (Also, MANY spoke broken English.) They allowed TEAMS of underage children roam around the resort with their own personal speakers playing obnoxiously loud music down the hallways, at all hours of day/night. They were running, shouting, yelling all day and throughout the NIGHT. To the point that we had to step out of the room and yell at them directly because the hotel was doing NOTHING. When I spoke to Amanda about our visit, she gave me a smirk and a slight roll of her eyes in agreeable about this group of boys...as if she KNEW they were being rude & disrupting guests!?

CHECK-OUT process was ridiculous to say the least. I got a text message the morning of check-out, specifically stating to come talk to them, should there be any issues with our stay. Around 8:30am, I went down to the lobby to talk with someone about all of these issues. I had to wait in line for at least 20 minutes. After waiting a while, I finally spoke w/ AMANDA. Still in line, she asked me to explain the issues, so I did. She started taking notes, then abruptly stopped. I was mid-sentence when asked if I would come to the end of the counter, she was going to get a manager. Another 15 minutes go by and my partner had already met me in the lobby area. She finally comes back (without any manager) and apologized for the issues and said "We've removed the parking charges for you, have a nice day." Parking was $73 total. That was an insult to me! (I didn't ask for anything to be credited; just for them to LISTEN & take my issues to heart bc it was enough to make us NEVER BOOK A ROOM ON ANY UNIVERSAL PROPERTY AGAIN!) Amanda's demeanor was that of an unbothered employee. As if she hears the same issues day in and day out. Not fully comprehending ANYTHING I said. Terrible service all around! After that, THEY DISABLED OUR ROOM KEYS!!! All of our belongings were still in room! It was only 9am! We had to go back to the lobby, wait for new room keys, just to get...