Hi all,
I have a stay coming up at this hotel next week booked through Amex FHR. Does anyone happen to know what the "dinner for 2" amenity on FHR bookings at this hotel consists of? (e.g., is it only valid at certain restaurant(s), is is a set menu vs. just a general $ credit, etc.? Would be nice if it was just a $ credit though usually the Amex website would just say "$100 F&B credit" rather than "dinner for 2" if that were the case.) Just trying to plan out our meals accordingly. Thanks!
I hope you enjoyed your stay! Did you find out the answer to this? We’ve got an Amex FHR stay booked there in 2022 so any experiences you have to share would be really interesting. We know the hotel well but have never booked it through Amex before.
Just to follow up on my own question earlier after our stay last week -- the dinner benefit was listed on the welcome letter as "one complimentary dinner for 2, per room ($100 value). Excluding alcoholic beverages, taxes, and gratuities. Please note, the dinner is not applicable at our third-party vendor, Bice."
We ended up eating at Trattoria del Porto, the same restaurant where breakfast is served, as there were no last-minute reservations available at Mamma Della's, the other non-Bice sit-down option. We ordered 2 appetizers and 2 mains, totalling about $90 before tax and tip, as well as 2 drinks, and the total with tax and tip came to about $150, and to my surprise the entire amount was removed from the bill automatically. So, I don't know what the exact rules are, but we were happy with it, and the dinner food at Trattoria was surprisingly good, quite a bit better than the good-but-not-great breakfast buffet. (We also ate at Bice the second night, which was very good.)
In terms of the other FHR benefits, everything was handled well. 4pm late checkout was proactively included at check-in. We were upgraded from a no-view room to a bay view room on the 5th floor. Breakfast buffet at Trattoria was included daily, and was removed from the bill automatically including the tip that I left on the check signed at the restaurant. We also received a fruit plate and welcome note in our room shortly after check-in.
Overall we had a very good stay. In terms of access to Universal, it's pretty hard to beat -- we took the water taxi both ways which was very easy and convenient, and the express passes allowed us to do all the rides we wanted to do with minimal hassle. (We did not bother to get up for early hours, and skipped the non-express-pass Hagrid and Velicocoaster rides, but if you want to do either or both of those then early hours is probably the way to go.)
Between the FHR on-property benefits, the $200 annual Amex Platinum FHR credit, and the express passes, we arguably netted out to minimal cost for the stay despite a $400 nightly rate, so would happily recommend staying here to anyone else in similar circumstances.
Did you ever get any clarification on this? I had a friend who booked through Universal and got the
perks but that was quite a while ago. I called Amex and they said you have to book through their portal.
You definitely have to book through Amex (at the rate they are charging, which may be more than you can get through other channels) to get FHR benefits.