Disclosure: My visit to Cabana Bay Beach Resort was hosted but all thoughts and opinions are my own.
A Stay at Cabana Bay Beach Resort – Universal Orlando Resort
If you were following along my Orlando trip on my Instagram, you may have seen that I stayed at the beautiful Cabana Bay Beach Resort, one of the hotels on Universal Orlando Resort property. It was my first time visiting Universal Orlando Resort and staying on property, and it completely exceeded my expectations. I’ll give you a rundown of what it was like, the amenities they have to offer, and what you need to know about transportation.
The Hotel Design and Hotel Rooms
Cabana Bay Beach Resort is modeled after the beach resorts of the 50’s and 60’s. This doesn’t feel like a bad retro knock-off. Being on this property truly feels like you’ve been transported back in time. The signage, walls, furniture, the rooms themselves…every little detail has 50’s and 60’s architecture. I was completely blown away! As soon as you pull up, you see the large neon Cabana Bay sign:
Then you walk inside and you see even more of the amazing retro design!
We took a red eye coming in, which we gave the hotel a heads up about. If they have the room availability and you call to let them know ahead of time, they can have your room ready early! Or if it’s not quite ready, you can leave your luggage at bell services in the lobby and enjoy the hotel or head to one of the Universal parks or CityWalk!
They offer a variety of room types, we stayed in a 2 queen bed family suite. The suite included a kitchenette with refrigerator, sink, and microwave. There was also a living room with TV, a 2-bed bedroom (which has a sliding door between the living room and bedroom). The bedroom comes complete with another TV and a walk-in closet. There is also a bathroom which has 2 sinks, separate room with shower and one for the toilet. It makes it super easy for a family to get ready in the morning!
The beds were incredibly comfortable! And I love that they offer separated sections of the bathrooms, 2 TVs and the partition between the bedroom and living room. If you’re traveling with people getting ready or going to bed at different times it allows for ease of getting ready and sleeping without disturbing others!
Pools, Lazy River, and Water Play Area
If you stay in a family suite like we did, which is the Castaway, Starlight, or Thunderbird buildings, you will be nearest the pool in the Cabana Courtyard, which was my personal favorite pool.
The pool is MASSIVE! And it comes complete with a water slide, alone with plenty of lounge chairs (enough for everyone even on a busy day), a jacuzzi, and splash pad areas for the kids. Something else I loved about this pool, aside from how large it is, was it had plenty of amenities around it to make a full day of having fun in the sun!
You can grab a snack at the Atomic Grill, or get a cocktail poolside at Atomic Tonic. At night, you can buy skewers to roast marshmallows, as well as all the makings for s’mores to roast marshmallows at one of the poolside fire pits.
You can also find lawn games, as well as a San covered area where you can play ping pong!
With so much to do for all ages and with plenty of space for everyone to have a leisurely experience, I absolutely loved the Cabana Courtyard!
Over by the Continental and Americana hotel towers, there is the Lazy River Courtyard with a second pool. This pool is surrounded by lounge chairs that sit in the sand for the ultimate beach feel! They also have a kids splash pad, as well as a lazy river! They have a shack with affordable floats for sale to use in the lazy river, or for kids to use in the regular pools. They also have a fire pit in this courtyard, as well as The Hideaway Bar & Grill.
Dining
Cabana Bay Beach Resort is truly a hotel you can stay at all day! There’s also plenty of dining offerings. As mentioned in the pool section of this post, you can dine poolside at The Atomic Grill and The Hideaway Bar & Grill. Inside, you can find a Starbucks Coffee, which is open until 10pm.
At nighttime, you can enjoy cocktails in the lobby lounge called Swizzle Lounge. There is also food and drink inside the Resort’s bowling alley, Galaxy Bowl.
The dining option open the longest is Bayliner Diner. They offer food you can order from the grill, treats like Icees, frozen yogurt and ice cream, and a huge variety of snacks and drinks. This is where you can find the items for s’mores, as well as a variety of sweet and salt snacks, and healthy snacks like fruit, cheese, veggies and many more. They also sell sodas, waters, and bottles of wine and beer.
Other Amenities at Cabana Bay
At Cabana Bay, they have a bowling alley on property, and an arcade! They are both located on the upper level above the Starbucks. Also on the upper level is their Jack Lalanne Physical Fitness Studio. There is also a massive gift shop, where you can find Cabana Bay themed souvenirs as well as gift items from the Universal Orlando Resort parks!
Transportation
There is a complimentary shuttle bus that takes hotel guests to the entrance of Universal Orlando Resort, which goes to CityWalk, and both Islands of Adventure and Universal Orlando Park. The bus comes every 10 minutes, and it’s just about a 10 minute drive to the parks’ entrance. It’s super convenient!
For an additional fee, you can book a shuttle to take you to and from the airport, as well as shuttles to go to Walt Disney World parks if you’re also stopping there on your Orlando trips. You can visit this page here to learn more about booking shuttles for the airport and other Orlando attractions.And of course, there’s always the option to do Uber or Lyft, which there are plenty of in Orlando.
If you’re wanting to visit Universal Orlando Resort’s third park, their water park called Universal’s Volcano Bay, you can actually walk there from Cabana Bay! Cabana Bay Beach Resort guests have a walkway and private entrance into Volcano Bay.
I just checked out yesterday, and I already miss Cabana Bay Beach Resort! I was so impressed with the design, the offerings, and all the fun it had to offer! You can learn more and book your stay by visiting their site here.
Pin for later:
