Universal’s Loews Sapphire Falls Resort

I’m here now and after 7 days my overall impression is of a very average resort. The rooms and house keeping are good. The pool area table and chairs are dirty and not just after a days use, there are 3 used cocktail glasses on the pool side and as it is early morning and the bar is not yet open they are obviously from the day before. There aren’t any pool side staff to help such as putting up sun brollies etc. I can see 3 ladies struggling now ! The focus seems to be on non interacting life guards creating a military state style regime irritatingly blowing whistles for the most trivial “offences”

Hotel was very nice and comfortable. Though we were there for a company event there was plenty of space around to support various impromptu meetings along with organized events as well. Very clean property and very engaging staff. Was nice to have a pleasant walk path over to Universal. I would return to this property.

Overall this is a fabulous hotel and we wouldn’t stay anywhere else when visiting Universal. So many massive positives: -kids suite was perfect for our needs and the beds are so comfy (though a lock on the toilet door and some better quality loo paper wouldn’t go amiss. Also a few hooks for towels etc) - brilliant pool with excellent food and drinks service. This was probably our favourite place to eat -hotel is spotlessly clean and the lobby is a really welcoming and luxurious space. It also smells lovely! -we LOVED the water taxi and the ability to be on a ride within 20 minutes of leaving our room -New Dutch Trading Company really handy for breakfast, snacks and coffee -most staff really fantastic, especially front desk, luggage service , pool and Universal shop Some slight negatives (these shouldn’t put you off, nothing was a deal breaker) - food is very expensive in the hotel and the water in the room is not free (please re think this last point Sapphire Falls, it’s petty and unnecessary) -there was an unpleasant incident one morning that wasn’t resolved brilliantly-a shame as staff were overall so customer focused and capable -parking is ridiculously expensive. We only had a car for 2 days; each time we moved the car there was a $53 charge whether that was 45 minutes or overnight -coffee at breakfast in Amatista was terrible. We don’t go on holiday for hot drinks but generally the food and drink offering was high quality so poor coffee was disappointing. Maybe I’m just fussy though! Overall I can’t recommend this hotel highly enough. We visited a couple of other properties during our stay and each time we were thrilled to be returning to Sapphire Falls. We were so sad to check out.