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Sapphire Falls Resort

Any idea if the $150 dining credit can be used for the Magical Dining? I figure the credit is just loaded on your room card, so I would think so, but if it's on some special gift card, I guess there could be exclusions.
 
Any idea if the $150 dining credit can be used for the Magical Dining? I figure the credit is just loaded on your room card, so I would think so, but if it's on some special gift card, I guess there could be exclusions.

The credit is on your room card so I had the same thought and it looks like you can use it for MDM. At least that is what I am planning on. I only have two non HHN nights that I don't have something else planned to do MDM so I hope I can get a couple of meals.
 
Any idea if the $150 dining credit can be used for the Magical Dining? I figure the credit is just loaded on your room card, so I would think so, but if it's on some special gift card, I guess there could be exclusions.

As long as you bill it to your room, it should come off. The only way it wouldn't is if they post it differently than a regular restaurant charge, but I don't see why they would do that.
 

Any idea if the $150 dining credit can be used for the Magical Dining? I figure the credit is just loaded on your room card, so I would think so, but if it's on some special gift card, I guess there could be exclusions.

You can.

One item of note- Amatista, being so new, doesn't have "unique" items on this menu (similar to Tchoup Chop). All the items on the pre-fixe are also on the dinner menu.
If you get the Soup, Chicken, and Dessert- it is $34 worth of food (similar to the $33 price)
If you get the Pineapple Salad, Snapper, and Dessert- It is $48 worth.

Point being- it's "saves" money, but only if you would order a more expensive dish or an appetizer normally.
 
Heard a rumor that Sapphire Falls raised its rates. Is it true?
Well, I just did some checks on Sapphire for the same 5 night combination lagoon view (Sat. - Thurs. departure) that I had end of Sept. First of all, it was tough to find something available for 5 nights. Everything I tried was filled, only a couple of suites available. Finally, a 5 night in early December opened. The rates were exactly the same as I paid for Sept. 24-29, which I booked in early April.
 
Well, I just did some checks on Sapphire for the same 5 night combination lagoon view (Sat. - Thurs. departure) that I had end of Sept. First of all, it was tough to find something available for 5 nights. Everything I tried was filled, only a couple of suites available. Finally, a 5 night in early December opened. The rates were exactly the same as I paid for Sept. 24-29.
Thanks for checking.
 
I'm hearing many people saying they like Cabana Bay overall compared to SF. The exterior looks more luxurious at SF but is that all?
 
I'm hearing many people saying they like Cabana Bay overall compared to SF. The exterior looks more luxurious at SF but is that all?

I can give you my personal opinion, since I stayed at Cabana Bay a couple weeks ago:). A lot of what I"m going to say is going to sound critical, but I don't mean it that way. Before I left, I had heard so many great things about Cabana Bay from this site, but when I stayed at Cabana Bay we spent most of our time over at Sapphire Falls. Riding the boat from Sapphire Falls is a lot easier than riding the bus (this was a big one for us). When you get off the bus from Cabana it lets you off near the same area of the parking garage where regular off site guests park, and its a pretty busy area. You have to walk a pretty good distance through Citiwalk to get to the parks. Also, the lines for checking your bags when getting off the bus were pretty long. At Sapphire, they check your bag before you load the boat and it was just an overall much easier and quicker experience. The buses were many times crowded and sometimes you had to stand.

The overall theme at Sapphire is much more beautiful and relaxing. The pool area had a better water slide too. And in my experience, the staff treated you much better at Sapphire (maybe because its newer?). The people at the Starbucks at Cabana Bay were just plain rude. I'm talking about "I hate tourist" type of rude. Also, at Cabana Bay they REALLY wanted you to use the valet parking. I've never used valet parking before in my life (I'm just a country boy from North Carolina). So I kept telling them no, mainly because I wasn't sure how it worked. But pretty much they don't take no for an answer because they keep telling you over and over that its the same price so you should use it. And even when you tell them no they keep on about it until you give in. I didn't like using it, because every time we wanted to leave the hotel we had to wait 10 to 15 minutes for them to pull our car around. There was a lady out front who worked the valet and she could be rude at times as well. They had guys who would run out and grab the cars and the lady up front would tell the guys which car to get in what order and give them your keys. I"m not sure how the parking works at Sapphire Falls.

The tipping point for us was at the end of the night, after a long day at the parks (when your body is sore and tired), would you rather get on a boat straight to your hotel in a relaxing ride on water with beautiful lights everywhere you look? (Not to mention those gorgeous waterfalls) Or do you want to walk all the way through Citiwalk and the parking garages to get to a line with hundreds of other people waiting in another line, wondering to yourself "Are we going to make this bus or are we going to have to wait for the 2nd or 3rd one?" Waiting for the buses at the end of the night was like waiting on the Monorail at Disney World, which was pretty bad. Normally the buses at Cabana you never have to wait during the day. Its only at night coming back to your hotel is when it gets bad. We finally started just riding the boat back to Sapphire Falls, and then crossing the street by the stop light to get back to Cabana Bay. A lot of other Cabana Bay folks were doing the same thing. That felt dangerous because you were always having to cross traffic. I would not recommend doing it with kids. There is a walkway from Cabana Bay that you can get to Sapphire Falls, but its way out of the way and its much quicker to just cross the street by the stop light. That's why a lot of people were doing it. I'm thinking it might be a THING, because near the end of our trip, one of the boat ladies asked everyone on the boat to please raise their hand who is riding from Cabana Bay. Nobody raised their hand, even though probably half the people on the boat were from Cabana Bay. We were afraid to raise our hands because the boat lady seemed like she was going to kick anyone from Cabana Bay off the boat. This was during the middle of the day so I didn't think she could do it, but I still didn't take any chances.

If you have a family of 5 or more you may still want to try Cabana Bay due to the family suites. But in my opinion, that little extra room was not worth it overall. Especially because the rooms are divided by really super thin doors and one room can still see when the tv is on in the other room. As for the customer service at Cabana Bay, I tried to take it in stride. I know its not the norm. Maybe it was just a bad week. At one point I was tempted to go up front and complain, but I didn't want to be THAT GUY...so I just let it go.

At Cabana Bay they play 60's music everywhere, which is cool at first. But when coming from the beautiful ambience of Sapphire Falls, it makes Cabana Bay come off as not as luxurious. It makes you really feel like you are in a value resort. I know there will be people who will chime in saying that their stay at Cabana Bay was wonderful, and I think that is because they are comparing it to Disney value resorts, because at the time Sapphire Falls was not built yet. And yes, Cabana Bay is heads and tails above Disney all star resorts. I've read people say that Cabana Bay feels like a "moderate" resort. But to me, I think Sapphire Falls is like a Deluxe. And I think if Sapphire Falls was not the same price as a family suite at Cabana Bay....I wouldn't have been nearly as critical of Cabana Bay. But now that Sapphire is built right next door...you can tell the difference. Cabana Bay is not bad at all. But when you can see Sapphire Falls is just RIGHT THERE....for the same price....it really brings down Cabana Bay's appeal.

I hope I didn't upset anyone by saying these critical things. It was just my experience, but I know that everyone's experience is different. :)
 
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Sounds like I made the correct choice in picking SF over CBBR when I was offered the same rate for each. The water taxi was the deciding factor for me ( although I did forget that SF charges more for parking than CBBR does).

Your points are very valid @martymcflyy85! We have not been since SF opened so any opinion we had of CBBR was made without comparison. We tend to go in less crowded times. The buses always seemed to come quick and the only time we had lines leaving the park was when we stayed at CBBR for HHN and even then, the buses can quickly, but we still needed to wait for the 4th or so bus.

Last time we were up there was for Mardi Gras and it was the first time we experienced the metal detectors at the parking hub. One day was miserable where the line extended back further than the stairs you come up from where the bus drops you off. The next day we got there with no line at all...but that first day made us feel it was not worth it to leave the park in the afternoon to chill at the hotel for a while.

I still like the walking path, even at the end of a long day, but my family does not see this the same way I do. Since the walking path is to the side of Margaritaville, it is less of a walk to there (or the water taxi) when leaving IOA....so leaving one night, they went that way, and then made me pay for a lift over to the walkway bridge....but those folks stop working earlier than the buses/water taxis so it might not always be an option.

I still love CBBR and I am sure we will stay there again, but yes, it does add some additional pressures of trying to time arrival and departure methods.

Also, I'm not sure they always had valet, so never experienced that aspect, and we only went to that Starbucks once so maybe that helped as well with our opinion of CBBR.
 
Interesting that so many people from CBBR are using the SF boats. In the future they might start checking room keys at City Walk before loading on the boats at night. Of course all you have to say is your visiting SF or going to dinner there, but it might discourage many CBBR people from using them. I may very well be wrong.
 
I wonder if Universal ever considered having dedicated water taxi service for Cabana Bay guests running to and from the Sapphire Falls lagoon? Maybe a separate CB-only dock with a new path that leads directly to the CB walking path? I've not been to SF yet so I have no idea of the logistical feasibility, but if a large % of CB guests are "illegally" using the SF boats, maybe it would be a good idea? I imagine SF guests must be complaining if they are finding that their water taxi waits are longer than those of the other onsite hotels because of the CB guests?
 
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I wonder if Universal ever considered having dedicated water taxi service for Cabana Bay guests running to and from the Sapphire Falls lagoon? Maybe a separate CB-only dock with a new path that leads directly to the CB walking path? I've not been to SF yet so I have no idea of the logistical feasibility, but if a large % of CB guests are "illegally" using the SF boats, maybe it would be a good idea? I imagine SF guests must be complaining if they are finding that their water taxi waits are longer than those of the other onsite hotels because of the CB guests?
It's still early in the ballgame, so there might only be a small percentage of CBBR guests that are aware of the water taxi at Sapphire. But once word spreads, the Sapphire boats might get overwhelmed by the influx of CBBR guests (2200 rooms once the towers are completed, most of the rooms are suites, so there's probably more guests per room than the other resorts). That could be a hellava lot of people. Not counting the Adventura Hotel once it's completed. That could require a 'lot' of boats running constantly. And these hotels are all a long walk, as opposed to Royal Pacific which has a very short walk, so a good number of RP guests walk instead of ride a boat. Looking at the raw numbers, this could get crazy busy if they don't block CBBR access.
 
They should check hotel room keys. That boat ride is a perk you pay for by staying at Royal, Portofino, or Sapphire. No lie, I'd be bothered if I found out more than half of the people on the boat were Cabana guests and I had to wait for another boat. Does Sapphire Falls offer a shuttle service?
 
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They should check hotel room keys. That boat ride is a perk you pay for by staying at Royal, Portofino, or Sapphire. No lie, I'd be bothered if I found out more than half of the people on the boat were Cabana guests and I had to wait for another boat. Does Sapphire Falls offer a shuttle service?
They do when they need to. When lines form on either end they check for hotel keys so that a line isn't formed by people who aren't hotel guests. If you wanted to go to CBBR when the park closes by taking the Sapphire boat, you won't be allowed to.
 
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