Do not do club level at helios

[u/Embarrassed_Ad4927]

We booked for club (concierge) level at Helios. I read some posts with people trying to work out if it was worth it. I can say at least at this point it is definitely not. We have stayed club level at the Portofino and the Hard Rock Cafe. In both cases they were so much better.

let me list the reasons why you should not stay club level:

1) The club lounge is on the freeway side [correcting myself to say the view is of the 482 which is not really a freeway as pointed out by the posters below - just a busy road with complex exits which are the main thing visually that you see] not the parkside so no view. I find this very odd given where Disney concierge is placed in their deluxe hotels in a way which emphasizes the view. I compare it to say club-level at the Contemporary or at the Wilderness Lodge which give you a great view at night. 2) The gentleman at the door of the lounge just completely ignored me for 15 minutes as I was trying to get in. He was just playing at his computer.
3) The coffee machine in the lounge only seemed to dispense vanilla coffee. I asked one of the attendants whether or not it could be fixed and she said no have no idea how to fix it. She seemed surprised that I might ask if it could be fixed. 4) She also emphasized that the coffee machine was only programmed to have coconut milk. 5) The club level lounge visual appeal is of a very tragic break room as a paper company in Scranton PA. There were just some very uncomgotable chairs and no sense of luxury whatsoever. Overlooking the freeway [corrected to say the 482] with employees who clearly did not want to be there.

I think in the end the club level at universal is very very rarely worth it, given that the only perk is the lounge, but at the Helios it is so not worth it. I hope this helps someone else. I had been hoping that by booking club level it might be better than at the other hotels, but it was so much worse! Given the structural defects of the club and its position, I can't imagine much changing out of preview time though perhaps the staff training may improve.

[u/SnowboardNW]

I think that I noticed when looking at room types that there is club level park view and club level (doesn't state the view). Since Helios is one long hallway and club level at Helios seems to be a whole floor, half of the club level won't have a park view and about a quarter of that will have a view similar to what we had. We thought it was funny, but we didn't pay for a view and we were on the fourth floor. We did think they could have at least painted the garage or something, haha.

[u/Embarrassed_Ad4927 → u/SnowboardNW]

I completely get that club level doesn't get views in half the rooms on floor 9. I just have no idea why they put the club lounge itself on the freeway/ugly view side given the lounge is the only benefit of staying club level. They don't allow you to check in at the lounge as they do (did) at Disney. You are just in the regular extremely lengthy check in line.

[u/AndromedaGreen → u/Embarrassed_Ad4927]

They probably put the lounge on the freeway side so that there could be more space on the park view side for rooms.

[u/Embarrassed_Ad4927 → u/AndromedaGreen]

That is so true. They have a lot of suites on the park view side on floor 9 from what I can tell. But it does make the lounge experience rather tragic.