TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

We stayed in Dockside a couple of years ago and loved it, so this year we decided to try Surfside. It’s a lot like Dockside but more relaxed and not as busy, which suited us perfectly. The staff are really friendly and welcoming, and they even gave us a free upgrade to a twin room ??. The food at the hotel is great, and for getting to the parks, the buses come every 10 minutes, which is brilliant. Staying here also gets you Early Park Admission, so you get an hour head start in the park, which is a great bonus. I was going to say we would definitely come back, but we’ve already booked to stay here again next February! We love this place ??

Traveled here with my husband who was attending a conference in Lake Mary. We also planned to attend the International Food and Wine Festival at Epcot and have season passes to Universal Theme Parks so, LOCATION was the prime reason for booking this resort. On arrival, we were upgraded to suite so this is my review of room 2800. The Surfside/Dockside resorts are sister resorts but be sure to check-in on the correct side as they are across Universal Blvd from each other and not connected. This location was about 20 mins from Epcot and 22/26 minutes from the seminar in Lake Mary. It also has a complimentary shuttle to all Universal theme parks and City Walk for dining and entertainment. There's also a Walgreens located directly across the street for anything you forgot! ROOM: The suite sleeps 6 and has privacy for 2 via a small bedroom with seperate closet and closing door. All beds are Queen and this resort does not offer a king option. It had a little kitchenette with mini fridge, coffee maker, refrigerator and was stocked with disposable bowls, plates, and silverware. There is a cute picnic style table and plenty of storage if you're needing to make or reheat food in the room. The bathroom mirror and sink are open to the room so someone can be using the shower while another is getting ready at the sink. The walls are thin and you can hear people above you or next to you. This room in particular must back up to a closet or maintenance access because all throughout the night there are random loud bangs and crashes that woke us up and scared the crap out of us. The toilet also cycles or runs about every 15 minutes. The beds were not comfortable at all. We did have a little trouble with the AC keeping the room at temperature and perhaps thats because it recognizes when no-one is in the room and goes into energy saving however, we did wake up several times in the night with it higher than the selected temperature for sleeping. I loved the surf themed decor and there are lot of perfectly placed hooks to hang bags and towels including a drying line in the shower for wet bathing suits. AMENITIES: This resort only has one pool but has plenty of seating and several life-guards on duty. There is a zero entry side and the other end was deeper. The pool has a full service bar that can be accessed by both pool and hotel patrons. There is no food service at the pool or the pool bar but the hotel offers several made to order dining options that can be taken to the pool and enjoyed. I enjoyed gluten-free pizza from the dining area and great care was taken to avoid any cross contamination which I was excited for. This hotel also has an on-site Starbucks with full menu! The gym was also well equipped and theres a small arcade type gameroom as well. Another convenience is onsite and secure parking garage using your keycard. Parking here daily is cheaper than parking at any of the theme parks and the shuttle is highly convenient. For the price, location, and benefits of early access to Universal theme parks, shuttle and family style resort, I would definitely stay here again! Marissa and Garrett at the Bar were awesome! I love meeting new people on vacation & work trips and I spent several days at the pool!

Great location for walking along I-Drive and not too far from the parks. Our room was clean, spacious and comfortable, and we got a really good deal, so overall we were impressed with our stay and felt it was good value for money. Unfortunately, our final morning completely changed our experience. We had visited the outlets and spent a fair amount of money on new clothes and food. Before checking out, we took our suitcases down to the car to load them up, leaving our shopping bags in the room while we did so. We were only gone for a matter of minutes. When we returned to the room to collect the bags, they had already been removed and thrown away. This was before checkout time, and we were left having to go through the bins to try to retrieve our belongings. Unfortunately, we were unable to recover everything and some items were missing. It was extremely disappointing that what had otherwise been a positive and good-value stay ended this way. The situation left a real sour taste and unfortunately overshadowed the rest of our experience. A positive experience is always appreciated, but a negative experience like this is much more likely to be what guests remember and share.

This was our second stay here for 8 nights, this time staying in a two bedroom suite in tower 2. The hotel is clean and welcoming and we were given a room on the seventh floor, two rooms up from the lifts. The room was a bit smaller than expected. I wanted the enclosed single bedroom for myself and boyfriend but he felt it was too small so we gave it to my teenage daughter who was very happy to have her own room, and we had one of the two beds in the main section. The beds are comfy but the pillows like last time are too plump and firm which really hurt my neck all week and they have no other options. There is a fridge and microwave but no sponge/cloth for cleaning and some paper plates and bowls with plastic cutlery and a single coffee maker with coffee pads provided. There is shampoo and conditioner and bars of body and face soaps in the bathroom, the shower pressure was pretty good. Lots of tv channels with a tv for both bedroom areas and a nice view down Idrive. Now for the bad bits - the NOISE! These rooms are not quiet. You can hear everything in all the rooms either side and above and the people talking and running up the hallway at all hours. It was so bad this time that we just won’t stay here or at Dockside (which was the same) again. They could at least put signs up asking for guests to be quiet late and early along the hallways. Our sheets were only changed on day 6/8 as well. There is also barely any storage considering it’s a family suit. 3 draws in the two bed area and one tiny wardrobe in the single bedroom. It’s a good cheap base but unless you’re lucky to have quiet neighbours or be on the top floor in the far corner you won’t get a good nights sleep.

We really enjoyed our stay here. We weren’t expecting to be wowed with it being the budget resort but it was great! We had a 2 bedroom suite which gave us great space - definitely a lack of storage space if the room was full. Was cleaned every day, towels and coffee topped up daily. Access to a fridge, coffee machine and microwave was a great addition. TVs in both rooms and air con worked great. We bought the refillable cups and made use of these every day. We also bought the cocktail cups to save money on cocktails! I also wasn’t expected much from the food but again was surprised! We had the waffles cooked fresh, gyros and pizzas and all were really good and were well priced. The buses to and from the resort were amazing really. Every 10 minutes - max 15 to and from the parks. The pool was great but didn’t get to spend too much time in it due to it being closed with the thunder and lightning storms. The only slight negative is you can hear some room noise if you’re a light sleeper (which I am!) but with earplugs, I slept well. We went over to dockside to see our other family members and used their pool one day too. Having the early access to the parks also made massive difference. It meant we were able to go straight onto the most popular rides first and cut out the queues! Wouldn’t hesitate to return really.