Universal's Aventura Hotel in Orlando, FL

The hotel was nice, and we had a great view of the park from our room, but we had one hiccup that brought my experience down. Unfortunately it was after our stay so there was no way to bring it to someone's attention and it was the water taxi. My family stayed for a week, and we kept talking about and seeing the water taxi and how fun it would be to ride if we could(not to mention not having to go through park security and the walk to the parks). We had no idea that we could have if we just walked right across the street. During check in we were told about the busses that ran, but no mention ever of the water taxi. When we were checking out the attendant asked how we liked it and we told her we never got to ride it since we didn't have the opportunity. That's when we started chatting about it and she informed us that Sapphire Falls was a boarding location for it. She apologized that we weren't told, but there was nothing that could be done. On our way out we even looked for signs that indicated as such, but nothing.

We just spent a week at this hotel and we loved many things about it. The room was spacious, modern, comfortable and the beds were fantastic. You can use the in room tablet to control the lights, TV and air-con, and the room gets lovely and cool after a hot day in the parks. The resort buses are frequent and easy to use - we also did the 5 minute walk to Sapphire Falls to use the water taxi, which is a huge plus. The food at the hotel was good (if a little pricey). A few things that could be improved: the vanity area needs a towel hook or rail, bedside tables needed for all sides of the beds. The water pressure for the shower wasn’t amazing but it did the job & the toiletries provided were good. Room service excellent but downstairs we did encounter a surly/borderline rude employee serving the gelato. Lastly, and something we found odd - we received housekeeping only once in 7 days. On one occasion, we came back after a long day at the parks to find nobody had been again, and so we started to bag up and clear out our room ourselves and someone appeared in the corridor to remove the rubbish. We hadn’t finished and explained we were still clearing out and then would have called down to reception - we explained we’d had no housekeeping. The next morning someone did come, but that was it. We believed it to be bi-daily but it just didn’t happen. All in all, this is a great resort but the lack of some services let it down a little.

I only stayed at the Aventura for one night when I came down for Halloween Horror Nights, but I had such a wonderful experience and plan to stay again if I come back for the event next year. Every staff member I interacted with was so lovely and kind, I only wish I could remember more of their names (shout out to bartender Tabitha)! My room was so clean and comfortable, and the tablet that controlled all of the lights, TV, etc allowed me to stream content from YouTube. Aventura also has a super convenient shuttle that runs to/from Universal every 10 or so minutes all the way up to like 1AM (pretty sure I caught it to go back to the hotel at 1:10AM). So glad I stayed here and look forward to returning.

Pros: Strikes a nice balance between staying close to the action and not costing as much as other Universal properties; pleasant modern vibe; geared toward adults Cons: Parking costs, ever-increasing room costs, a multitude of room issues made recent stays stressful and frustrating, overall lapse in maintenance Once (not too long ago) one of my favorite places to stay because of its closeness to the Universal parks and affordability, costs continue rising while quality slides, slides, and slides some more. I am questioning whether or not I'll return for future reservations I booked long ago- a decision that will pain me because I love being able to walk across to Sapphire Falls, hop on a water taxi, and be at City Walk in ten minutes. On the plus side, Aventura is aimed at adults, meaning this place is quiet at night. Across many stays, I have never been woken up by doors slamming and children running up and down the halls. However, the small and minimalist rooms force compromises, such as painfully tiny refrigerators and very few drawers for clothing. A couple spending more than a few days here will likely struggle with storage limitations. For the second time in a row, I was given a room with a television that kept shutting off without warning. Unlike last time when I allowed engineering to spend four days attempting to fix the problem, this time I requested a different room. Unfortunately, the new room had an HVAC system that wasn't functioning properly, so I had to change rooms a second time. This got in the way of me going to one of the parks on my first day because I spent three hours dealing with engineering while unpacking, packing, unpacking, packing, and unpacking again. The fact that the property only refunded me $100 for this major inconvenience says much of its desire to provide exceptional customer service. The Aventura really needs to re-think its in-room technology- most of which is controlled by a bedside tablet. The system of controlling the television (when it works) and most of the room's lighting from a touch screen is unnecessarily complicated and fussy (and I am not one who typically struggles with technology). The lack of a customer-focused approach permeates most of the Aventura experience these days, from outrageous parking costs (even Disney hotels no longer change for parking), to engineering calls taking upwards of 30 minutes for a response, to a front desk that is minimally staffed (one person to check in guests), to broken lobby lighting that hasn't been repaired in years, to housekeeping reduced to once every two days. This property is a perfect example of something that used to be special, ruined by an endless desire to make more money by cutting to the bone while still raising prices.

This was the 2nd time we’ve stayed at this resort and both times have been fabulous. I didn’t get a chance to write a review on the conclusion of my first visit but I wanted to write one after this trip. The hotel is beautiful and being an onsite hotel you access to the Universal Transportation for all of the parks including Epic. The Volcano Bay walk way is only a 2 min walk, the distance is very minimal. Check-in was very easy and were given an upgrade to a corner room which is slightly larger than your standard room. The tablet in the room controls everything we loved it! The room had a good view of the parks and wonderful Sapphire Falls resort. Rooms were serviced every other day, which was great for us. Everything was clean and immaculate. The food offerings are great and every time we had something from the Urban Pantry it was very tasty. The robots are a great and novel addition to the overall aesthetic of the resorts. Very pleased we got to stay here a 2nd time. Very nice resort highly recommend!