Universal Helios Grand Hotel

My family of 5 travel to Orlando several times a year. We decided to stay at Helios Grand for three nights during the Epic Universe preview. We had been looking forward to this for so long! Unfortunately, this hotel did not meet our expectations and we probably will not stay here again. Here are the pros: *This hotel is directly attached to Epic Universe. You can go thru security right in the hotel and be in the park in minutes. Very convenient! *Everything is brand new! For me, this means the air quality in the rooms is good. *Beds are very comfortable. *The Flora Taverna restaurant is gorgeous and has delicious food for breakfast and dinner. *The pool is large, has great food and can accommodate many guests. *24-hour room service *Staff is pleasant, engaging and welcoming. Now to the many cons…. *The air conditioning in the room cools only the bedroom, not the bathroom or hallway. *Room service messed up our kids’ order pretty badly. Ordered soup and grilled chicken, then they called us back 20 min later to said they had no soup. So we ordered something else, and after 30 more minutes with no food we decided to cancel, but the food was on the way up. They did not give us the chicken we ordered but did give us the side of broccolini that came with the chicken, as well as two bowls of fruit. Confused. *Ordered soup the next day (my daughter’s favorite food) at 4:30 pm and they didn’t have soup because “it’s a very popular item.” *Family bathrooms on first floor don’t have a changing table. Keyword: FAMILY bathroom. *Speaking of family things - the game room only has four games (Mario Kart, basketball, a Jurassic Park shooting game and a VR game) and six claw machines. It’s super boring. *Not enough dining options. The market has very limited choices for snacks and food. I was told at 1:30 pm that they stopped making sandwiches at 11 am (???) and if I wanted one, to take a cold one from the cooler. Why are sandwiches on the menu if I can’t order a hot one? *Laundry rooms are hard to find. They are marked just as every other hotel room is, so if you aren’t looking at every single room as you walk down the hallway you can easily miss it. There are no signs and the hallways are LONG. *We had to wait 25 minutes to be seated for breakfast this morning at 10 am. There were 12 whole tables being waited on in a restaurant that is so big it can accommodate hundreds of customers. *We found the porte cochère to be underwhelming for such a hyped-up hotel. Overall, this hotel is a 6/10 and we would not stay here again for several nights. I’d *maybe* stay for one night just for the convenience of getting into Epic Universe, but for the price, I’d rather stay at a Universal hotel near CityWalk.

Front Desk staff was welcoming. Hailey checked us in and she was great! She was friendly, very helpful, and explained amenities/locations well. It was great to have park access directly from hotel. Hotel key is needed to enter park from hotel and to enter hotel from park. The hotel decor was very pretty and the park view was amazing! Hotel room was very clean and we were very pleasantly surprised to walk into a Park View room. Huge wow factor! Beds were very comfortable as were the pillows. Room was pretty quiet although could hear the music from outside. Nothing too annoying, but something to keep in mind if you’re a light sleeper. Dining options for late night eaters is at a minimum here. Room service is available and Bar Helios is open till late; however, reservations fill up quickly. We experienced a slight lack of communication when wanting to go and just sit at the bar or outside, which was an option we were given. We were quickly stopped by another Hostess who informed us we couldn’t. Was told if interested in dining, needed a reservation. Asked if we could then go and check out the bar area and was told no; “foot traffic was to be limited” in the restaurant. Text communication from earlier in the day said we could “try to walk in” Bar Helios, and I guess they weren’t kidding with the TRY. We were left with going to Aurora Market for pre-made sandwich options that were okay. Couldn’t use our Epic Universe refillable cups there so would have to buy another refillable cup from Helios to use. Over all, it was a pleasant stay and good experience. Not sure if we will stay here again seeing that we’re locals. The park entrance from hotel doesn’t seem to the nightly price for a stay here.

. Close to one hour waiting for the checkin. . 50 minutes waiting the hotel bus for the universal island of adventure. . The room is not done yet, so I have no idea about the room. So close to 2 hours losing our time, and we had express pass. Terrible experience.