Universal's Aventura Hotel in Orlando, FL

Excellent hotel and location for universal. We were on the 16th floor (top) with theme park view and it was stunning. Room was perfect beds comfortable and good sized shower. Food in hotel is also good, especially the wok station. The hotel does have free transportation for universal and epic, however the garden walk to city walk is an easy 15 minute stroll and quicker as you miss the long queues at city walk security. There is also the water taxi at the hotel,over the road (sapphire falls) which is also free and another alternative option. You can also use the pool at sapphire falls which has a water slide. If we return to Orlando and universal in the future then we wouldn’t hesitate to return to this hotel.

For my sons 13th birthday we went to Orlando, a place I've always loved and wanted him to experience the same. We stayed at 3 hotels for our two week vacation, and Aventura was by far our favourite. First impressions are being very open spaced, floor to ceiling windows with lots of light in both lobby and the rooms. There are 6 lifts, so you won't have to wait long for one becoming available, all operated inside by a touchscreen keypad. A very helpful lady named "Genesis" checked us in, perfectly well explained to us about the hotel and the shuttle transfers etc. We were a little early for checking in, but safely left our bags with the attendant and was updated perfectly well via text message when the room was ready. The food options at their named "urban pantry" are great, we had breakfast there every morning, be it an all American breakfast, or simply croissants and cereal. When ordering freshly cooked food, you're given both a receipt and a buzzer which will go off once your food is ready to collect (place the tracker with it's silver pins face down on the table so you can see/hear it buzz more easily). The main dinner meals were excellent, so much so that one evening after enjoying the "Steak plate" I had to walk back to the cashier desk, and give compliments to the team of chefs. Absolutely delicious. Note that there are 2 drink stations available, either for your purchased soda cups, or simply free water. These same machines can be found inside the Universal theme parks with water available all the time. I would suggest bringing an insulated flask with you, as that's one thing I missed not having to keep water cold and would have been extremely useful, instead of re-using standard plastic bottles which obviously got warm in no time. Late evenings when coming back from the theme parks we sometimes opted for one of their pizzas from their flamed grill, again really nice, and sometimes used their gelato (ice cream). Note when you ask for one scoop, it's the UK version of getting two scoops. Portions are nice and big! We had two scoops each the first time, and took a while to finish it but of course we weren't complaining. The rooms all have a tablet which operates the lighting and TV, amongst other useful information provided to you. Which takes a day to get used to but still works well, pressing "BRIGHT" to turn all lights on, and pressing again to turn them all off. The A/C can also be controlled using the tablet, but just use the standard wall controller above it for quicker use. We had an issue with 2 lights not working, when reported they were fixed that same day when we came back from the parks. On the roof on the top floor 17, is a bar named "bar 17 bistro", we never are or drank there but did take in the night time views one evening where you can see all the firework displays in the distance of Disney. There are a few shuttles going to City walk for universal and islands of adventure, and also a shuttle to epic. We used the epic shuttle, which was perfectly fine. We opted to either walk along the garden walk which takes around 15mins, or you can walk across to Sapphire Falls which is what we did the majority of the time using their water taxi service. It takes 5mins from Aventuras hotel doors to reaching the water taxi station, which is literally turning right out of Aventura, following one of two paths over to Sapphire Falls, walking down this grand staircase to the ground floor, straight passed their restaurant and out some doors where you'll then find the water taxi station on your left. It's not exclusive for hotel guests, it's pretty much used by anyone who needs to go to/from citywalk and whichever hotel you want to be dropped off to on the return. This was by far the best way to travel into citywalk for universal and islands of adventure, the drop off/collection point is opposite the NBC sports bar and grill. If you use the bus shuttle, it'll drop you off at the car park at the far end of the walkway into citywalk. Note that if there's a thunderstorm within 5 miles I think it was, then the water taxi service shuts down for safety precautions. Checking out on the day as sad as it was after such a great time, was extremely easy with an email sent to us enabling you to checkout online. The only one negative thing I can think of to improve is the outdoor games near the pool. There is a free table tennis game with bats and balls, but everything else has a card payment machine. However we had no idea how much those games cost with no prices on them, so didn't bother swiping a card for an unknown fee. Overall, I have no doubt we will check the room prices for Aventura first before any other hotel in the universal Orlando area. There isn't much of a theme at this hotel, if any, it's simply a modern clean feel with little robots cleaning floors which can even deliver items to your room (which we never did), and thinking about it there was not many families with children staying here at all from what we saw because of this perhaps modern clean feel. Some people may moan about these facts and want to be in imagination land, but for me this was perfect after being out all day. I loved how chilled and calm the whole place was after a busy day at the parks, there were plenty of dining tables available at all times. If you have no interest in colourful vibrant theming, and are pretty much using this simply as a sleepover to get to places, this is the perfect location, and taxi services are way cheaper than London (tip ensure you have LYFT also downloaded along with the UBER app, as I found both have differing prices, with moreso LYFT being cheaper). Volcano Bay is literally a few minutes walk away also which is extremely convenient, where busses are dropping off guests you can see from the dining area, with a tunnel that goes underneath and into the entrance of Volcano. Maybe we came at a perfect time, or our floor was great with other guests as there was ZERO NOISE during our 7 days here. Therefore we absolutely loved our stay and miss it already, hope to be back soon.

We stayed at Universal’s Aventura Hotel in August (2 adults and one 11 year old child), sharing one room. We loved loved loved this hotel! The lovely lady on reception gave us a fabulous room really high up which ‘wrapped around’ and had the most amazing views of Volcano Bay! The hotel is clean, modern, with friendly and helpful staff, great food and in a perfect location. Loved the Starbucks there too! Lovely pool area (not massive but ideal for us and never felt overcrowded or crazy noisy). We could walk to Volcano Bay which was a bonus and it was only a few mins in the free shuttle bus to CityWalk and the Universal Parks (a little further to Epic but most of the hotels are unless you stay at one of the Epic hotels). Tip: if you walk across to the Loews Hotel next door, which is an easy, safe 3 minute walk, you can use their water taxi to get to CityWalk. It’s a lovely way to travel and the security check is easier and calmer than the main one at CityWalk. It’s takes you nearer to Universal Studios, so if you’re doing Islands of Adventure, you’d have to walk a little more once at CityWalk. We also had a car rental booked for the end of our stay, and they have an Avis at this hotel and the one next door, which is very convenient. Cannot fault this hotel at all and we would certainly stay here again! As a side note: after staying in Disney All Star’s Resort for a week before, we found the style, layout and atmosphere of this hotel to be very calming. It was nice coming from the colourful theming of Disney (with busy pool area and food courts), to this beautiful, sleek, minimalistic hotel. I think for anyone who has (or has children), with sensory issues and needs a break from the craziness of the theme parks, this hotel is perfect! I felt it so calming.

We are older (60s) and did not find this hotel comfortable. The staff seemed curt and rushed, and we got conflicting information from different staff members even though we went at a slow time. The bars were not crowded but service was very slow. Drinks were expensive and extremely watered down — I watched a bartender pour about a half ounce of bourbon, fill the cup with ice, and then top it off with water — for $15. Our room was just okay. There is no separate switch for the vanity light, so turning on the lights turns on all the lightsand wakes up anyone who is sleeping. The bathroom counter is extremely small and there is nowhere to hang a washcloth or face towel after using it. We did not want to drop them on the floor but there is no room on the small counter. With, linen service only once during our 5-day stay, it was inconvenient. The in-room tablet is an intersting idea but it only worked about half the time. It is large and heavy, and since the only place to sit and watch TV is on the bed, you either have to keep the tablet with you or keep getting up and going to the counter to change the channel. If you watch TV before going to sleep, you have to get out of bed to put the tablet back on the counter. Beds were comfortable and the elevators were fast, which were positives. Breakfast was odd. We ordered and were given a locator puck, it said to set it on our table, which we did. Fifteen minutes later it buzzed, but no one brought food. We eventually went back to the counter where we ordered and found our $50 breakfast sitting there on a tray. There are a couple of sitting areas to meet with others, but the lobby is mostly empty and not a good place to gather with friends or family. Besides cookies and chips, there is nothing you can buy for a snack — no granola bars or healthier options — and unless you want to Uber somewhere, you are stuck buying the hotel’s expensive food and drinks. They sent me a survey after our stay, and I did my best to give honest feedback. The only response I got was a typical form letter thanking me for my comments. :-(

It’s a very good hotel. Clean and modern and comfortable. We had connecting rooms which worked really well for us. The bathroom has allege double shower but no tub. The beds were really comfortable. The hotel - and pool - is smaller than the other Universal hotels, but the pool was plenty big enough for a good swim and my kids were very happy in it! Lobby has a place to eat - we didn’t go - and a Starbucks that was useful. It doesn’t have a ‘destination’ restaurant but the Sapphire falls hotel does and it’s only a five min walk. The bus to Epic Universe is right outside the hotel. We took the boat once from sapphire falls to city walk, but the other times we just walked along the waterside which was pleasant. The bar staff by the pool and on the rooftop terrace were really friendly and accommodating. reception staff friendliness was a little patchy. It’s a five minute walk to the water park. Don’t forget to grab towels as you walk through the pool area - the water park will charge you $7 per towel otherwise (unlike Disney) and they won’t care that you’re a hotel guest. It’s a really good place to stay - we were happy there. It doesn’t exude luxuriousness but that suited us well (we stayed one night at the Royal Pacific Universal to get express passes - nice hotel but busy).