The SATURDAY SIX Checks Into Universal’s HELIOS GRAND HOTEL

Longtime readers of this fine blog series know how much we love staying at onsite resorts that are close to the theme parks (in fact, we did a whole article looking at the Disney and Universal ones which are the closest) and we’ve always been a little jealous of the parks out on the West Coast because they have a hotel with a dedicated entrance straight into Disney California Adventure. However, after over 50 years of being the theme park capital of the world, Orlando finally got it’s first onsite hotel where guests can walk straight into a theme park…Universal’s HELIOS GRAND HOTEL.

The SAT SIX family recently spent a weekend staying onsite at Helios Grand, and we’re back to let you know what we thought of the experience. Let’s kick it off with…

# 6 – Location, Location, Location

They say a picture says 1,000 words, but the picture below by blogger-in-the-sky @bioreconstruct says at least 20,000 because it shows the relationship between Helios Grand and Universal’s newest theme park, Epic Universe.

A look at the other side of Helios Grand shows the walking path from the hotel straight into Epic Universe. The building in the lower left of the picture below is the Blue Dragon restaurant in Epic Universe’s Celestial Park.

Once walking into the lobby of Helios Grand, you get the incredible view of the foyer that looks out into Epic Universe and it is stunning.

Helios guests can walk outside from the lobby and get close to the statue of Apollo ready to fire his arrow.

A couple steps from the lobby is the actual entrance into Epic Universe. Just like ticket holders going through the Chronos Portal at the front of the park, you will go through security and get your park ticket scanned in a small room. After you leave the room though, you are in Epic Universe! It was wild and like nothing we had experienced before.

Directly across the Epic Universe park entrance is the Helios Grand elevator bank. There are six total elevators. The operations aspect of the elevators was efficient, because over the course of the four days I was at Helios (during a very busy time of Spring Break crowds mixed with Universal Mardi Gras) we never had to wait long for an elevator. Even during peak times when people were returning from Epic after it had closed.

I need to point out the wonderful digital display that runs while you are waiting for an elevator.

It’s a very small detail in the grand scheme of things, but it was so nice to see every time I was going back to my room.

Speaking of which, let’s hop onto an elevator to the third floor and check out our rooms!

# 5 – Rooms

We stayed in two adjoining rooms, both were Theme Park View.

Each room had two queen beds that were extremely comfortable.

Each bed had small light that you could use for reading.

In between the beds was a small table that included a variety of outlets next to each bed and a tablet.

As soon as you touched the tablet, the screen would turn on.

The amount of things you can do on the tablet is pretty incredible. The tablet made it very easy to order extra towels (which arrived approximately 10 minutes after we sent in the request.)

You could control  pretty much every aspect of the room via the tablet. This includes turning on/off all the lighting fixtures (either individually or as a whole) and opening/closing the curtains (which went over pretty big with the kiddos.) You can also adjust the temperature of the room as well. All of these things could be done manually the old fashioned way if you happen to enjoy the luddite way of life.

You could check out all the TV stations available, see the menus for all the onsite restaurants, and even see what the seasonal offerings were at Helios Grand. We used the tablet to connect to my Amazon Prime account so that we could rent How To Train Your Dragon (live action.)

The TV was located above a large dresser with four drawers for clothes. On top of the dresser was a coffee maker and ice bucket.

When I walked down to the room with the ice machine on our floor, I saw that there was a water bottle refill station directly next to it.

One of our rooms had a tub that also doubled as a shower.

The other had a walk in shower.

The vanity area of each bathroom was exactly the same.

The high powered magnifying mirror in each bathroom was appreciated by several in our party.

Each room also had a small chair, table, and this globe lighting feature.

# 4 – THE VIEW!!

Let’s head back to when we first entered the rooms. The view of Epic Universe is stunning from when you first walk into the room.

Both rooms had a view of Epic Universe that was jaw dropping.

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!!!!!!

The kiddos being able to see Gothi’s hut (at the highest point in the Isle of Berk) was mesmerizing to them.

They even set up their toys to have this E-Ticket view when we left the room.

From our rooms we got a fantastic view of the nightly fountain show in Celestial Park. This was not only fun to watch, but ended up being our only way to see the show because when we were at our park day inside Epic Universe, we didn’t get out of Super Mario Kart until after the fountain show had already ended.

Watching the fountain show from our rooms became one of the best parts of our entire trip (and if you saw our review of our time at Discovery Cove in last week’s SAT SIX,  you know we had a pretty great weekend.) This was truly magical, and while seeing Epic Universe during the day was fantastic, the colorful nighttime takes everything to another level.

The kiddos fell asleep looking out onto Epic Universe each night.

Now, to be fair, there is a whole other half of the building that does NOT have a theme park view. For me personally, this is a bit like staying at Animal Kingdom Lodge and not springing for a Savanna View or taking a cruise and getting an indoor stateroom instead of one with a balcony. Yes, there is certainly value in the money you will save, but you are losing out on what I feel are some of the most memorable experiences you can have on a vacation. Memories that stay with you forever.

There is also the caveat that the onsite benefits you get from staying in a standard (non theme park view) room at Helios FAR outweigh what benefits you get at Animal Kingdom Lodge in a non Savanna View room, ESPECIALLY if you are going to Epic Universe. For example, being able to leave a packed Epic Universe in the middle of the day during its hottest point to enjoy the pool at Helios and being completely refreshed for a nighttime “round two” at the park was worth its weight in gold.

# 3 – Amenities

Speaking of the onsite benefits thatHelios Grand offers, lets take a look at the onsite dining. First up is the quick service Aurora market. This is located in the lobby area of Helios, directly next to the check-in desk.

Aurora Market is where you could get your Starbucks coffee, a variety of baked treats, salads, sandwiches, wraps, and more.

Big fan of the Coke Freestyle refillable cup. There was a machine in the Aurora Market and two more machines in the pool area.

Directly across from Aurora Market was the Flora Taverna table service restaurant.

There was a lot of seating at the bar area of Flora Taverna.

Rumors and Innuendo suggest that this espresso machine at Flora Taverna cost over $25,000. Hopefully they got an AP discount.  It does look pretty stunning in person.

The main dining area was filled with ambiance, along with a lot of seating. In fact there are also many tables with some great views of Epic Universe.

Flora Taverna is open for Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner. Breakfast includes a full buffet, while Lunch and Dinner are filled with Mediterranean inspired options including shawarma, kebobs, and lamb, but you’ll also find more traditional items such as burgers and woodstone oven fired pizzas.

The top floor of Helios Grand is the home of Bar Helios. Open daily at 4PM, Bar Helios also serves as a table service restaurant with some fantastic food options and the absolute best views you can get of Epic Universe.

Like Flora Taverna, every person I’ve talked to who has been to Bar Helios reports impeccable service, along with great food and drink options.

Bar Helios is also where you will find multiple “experiences” on the menu, including the 32 ounce Tomahawk steak that is cut and served to you tableside.

The dessert menu offers a “shattered rose experience” where a guest gets to crack a rose that has been frozen by liquid nitrogen. The shards of the rose fall onto the bread pudding dessert below. You can watch a demonstration of this by CLICKING HERE.

There is seating at the actual bar at Bar Helios, but the big draw to the venue is the incredible view you get of Epic Universe.

Like pretty much all of the Loews hotels at Universal, the fitness area at Helios Grand is quite large. It is located on the first floor of the hotel.

Multiple treadmills, stationary bikes, and elliptical machines face out towards Epic Universe (although the glass is frosted, preventing you from seeing much.)

There are free weights and along with various machines that will let you hit every body part.

With all due respect to the dedicated men and women who take advantage of the gyms at Universal’s hotels, my idea of fitness on vacation is heading over to Aurora Market and fitness donut in my mouth.

Anyway, the bathroom areas next to the Fitness Center are equipped with lockers and shower areas. These allow anyone who has already checked out but want to use the pool (or gym) before their flight home an opportunity to shower and change before they leave the hotel.

Also on the first floor is the Game Room.

The arcade isn’t huge, but it has a solid selection of games include several multiplayer options like Mario Grand Prix, a motorcycle game and basketball.

One of the rooms in the arcade had several claw machines and a whole bunch of Gashapon offerings.

For those that don’t know, Gashapon are stacked vending machines in which you get a plastic ball that contains a random item. They are very popular right now, and you can find them across Orlando including at the Ebisu store along with the Japan Pavilion in EPCOT.  The machines at Helios Grand had a bunch of options, including these “gourmet miniatures.”

Some of these flowers below would fit in perfectly in Pandora: The World of Avatar. If we had something like this at the hotels when I was growing up I’D BE COLLECTING ALL OF IT.

The staff at Helios Grand was off-the-charts across the board. We had a great interaction one evening with a Team Member in the lobby who was handing out fresh cookies. Housekeeping was on point throughout the weekend and every public area of the hotel was spotless.

# 2 – The Helios Pool

If your family is anything like ours, you spend a lot of time at the pool anytime you are at a hotel. I sometimes think the kiddos like going to the pool more than the theme parks. In this aerial photo below, you can see the entire pool area of Helios Grand. It is located directly next to the porte-cochère at the front of Helios.

When you enter the pool area, the first thing you’ll pass by is the Pool Services station. Here you can find sunscreen, something to drink, and load up on towels.

There is a whole bunch of seating throughout the pool area. Literally hundreds and hundreds of lounge chairs.

The pool itself is quite large, and I was pleasantly surprised to find out that its one of the only pools at Universal Orlando that plays music under water. I’ve experienced this at the Hard Rock Hotel and Cabana Bay in previous trips, but Helios Grand perfected it as it’s almost shocking how clear the sound is under water.

There is a zero entry area to walk into the pool.

There is one hot tub in the pool area.

There were several ping pong tables, along with corn hole and the larger-than-life Connect 4 gimmicks.

There are a total of 18 cabanas available to rent. These can be reserved at the Pool Services station.

15 of the cabanas line the outside of the pool area.

The remaining three cabanas are “grand cabanas” and are located directly next to the pool and the nearby Lotus Lagoon pool bar.

After years of mistakes, I’ve finally realized that the best way to truly enjoy an Orlando theme park vacation is to relax on your check-in and your check-out days. That way your entire trip starts – and ends – in the most stress free way possible. We arrived at the Helios Grand early on our check-in day and headed straight to the pool while waiting for our rooms to be ready. On our check-out day, we also rented a cabana and then stayed there for the entire day until heading home. You have full use of the cabana from 9AM-10PM.

On our check-in day we had one of the standard cabanas that line the pool area, and it was a great experience. However on our check-out day we had a grand cabana and it was out of this world.

All cabanas come with a fruit plate. Servers in the pool area begin their shifts at 11AM and will bring the fruit plate whenever you would like. The servers will also check in regularly to see if you want to order any food and drinks from the Lotus Lagoon pool bar. Important to note that the servers cover the entire Helios Grand pool area, so you don’t need to rent a cabana to get a drink brought straight to your lounge chair as you take in the Florida sun.

Each cabana has a fridge stocked with water bottles and Coke products.

There is also a safe…

…along with a phone where you can directly call the Pool Services team with any requests. During both of our pool days, the Pool Services team was constantly walking around the pool deck checking on people, so there was no need to ever call them directly.

There is a TV in cabana with access to almost 100 channels. Various episodes of Paw Patrol, Spongebob and Peppa Pig were in heavy rotation for our captive viewing audience.

All cabanas come with two dedicated lounge chairs. The expression “what a life” comes to mind.

On one occasion the pool services team came by the cabana (and were walking around the entire pool area) with a tray of frozen grapes and blueberries. These were actually fantastic and certainly hit the spot.

As you can imagine, the entire pool area is lit up at night. During the day there were Team Member led games for the kiddos (including trivia) and there are poolside movies each night with a large screen being brought out.

# 1 – Lotus Lagoon

Universal’s onsite hotels – including Royal Pacific, Cabana Bay, and Hard Rock Hotel – have set a pretty high standard when it comes to poolside dining, but Helios Grand’s Lotus Lagoon may be the best of them all.

Lotus Lagoon has a full food and drink menu.

Over the course of two days enjoying the pool area, we were able to try a lot of the options and  – food wise – the Lotus Lagoon would easily fit into my top ten restaurants at the Universal Orlando Resort. That’s no faint praise, because Universal is now home to a lot of fantastic dining options at the parks and resorts including Toothsome, Cowfish, Bigfire American Fare, Antojitos and The Kitchen.  The honey garlic glaze chicken wings were my favorite wings on property.

The traditional “chips and guac” appetizer had a unique presentation and also tasted great.

Any time I order something related to chips and dip at a pool bar I have a PTSD flashback to the time I ordered “nachos” at the pool bar for Disney’s Contemporary Resort. Seeing it also reminds me that many theme park vacationers don’t understand the level of quality that Universal’s pool bars bring to the table when it comes to dining. Stuff like the picture below is the level of what we’ve just come to expect from years on staying onsite at Disney.

Lotus Lagoon is on the other side of the food spectrum offering turkey club sandwiches like this. Not only can you get it served with fries, you can also get sweet potato fries!

Not that long ago we did a special investigation on the Best Chicken Sandwiches at Disney Springs. The chicken sandwiches at those venues varied from very good to some of the best we’ve ever had. Well, the crispy chicken sandwich at Lotus Lagoon was better than all of them. It’s just mindblowing something like this is at a pool bar.

I think our next special investigation is going to be on the best burgers at Universal Orlando. Lotus Lagoon’s Goddess Burger is already near the tippy top of that list.

Of course the Lotus Lagoon is a full service bar, with a full lineup of cocktails and draft beers.

The Prosecco Popsicle drink pictured above was great, and you can get it served with a variety of popsicle flavors. These popsicles can also be ordered seperately as a dessert.

We ordered the mango, strawberry, Nutella, pineapple cilantro, and raspberry basil versions.

The menu advertised “seasonal cheesecake” and as soon as I found out the season was “Oreo” I immediately ordered it. That’s my favorite season of the entire calendar year. Was not expecting how it was served though.

This was terrific.

There was another great presentation for the Ice Cream Cookie Sandwich.

If that wasn’t enough food, I also brought down some Pizza Moon leftovers from the room. I’m not 100% sure what Heaven is like, but enjoying Pizza Moon in a Helios Grand poolside cabana has to be pretty close.

 

Honorable Mention – The SUITES

There are three Universal hotels that are close to Epic Universe. The first two, Terra Luna and Stella Nova, are value resorts and only offer one type of standard room. Helios Grand has several room types available, including ones that have been growing in popularity in the hotel world: suites.

Helios Grand has two Presidential Suites located on the floor right below Bar Helios. Each of these suites is 1500 square feet in size, which is not that far away from the square footage of the house I live in. Blogger-the-sky @bioreconstruct had an opportunity to stay in these suites and the pictures are “wow.”

These suites contain a large dining table along with a good sized living room space.

 

The Presidential Suites include a king size bed, and look at that tub in the background!

Each of these suites has its own private work out room, including a Peloton.

Years ago we stayed in a kid’s suite at Portofino Bay and it was themed to the minions. The kiddos still remember that experience to this day. Today they are currently obsessed with the How to Train Your Dragon franchise, and guess which hotel has kid’s suites themed to How to Train Your Dragon? That’s right, Helios Grand.

While we stayed in the theme park view rooms, ThrillGeek‘s own Clint Gamache stayed in one of these suites with his kiddos and these beds look incredible.

Like all of the kid’s suite at Universal hotels, the door to the kid’s room only connects to the adult’s room of the suite. It does not have a door leading to the hallway.

The park views from these rooms are, of course, “epic.”

Here’s a video of Clint’s kiddos discovering they are staying in a How To Train Your Dragon Kid’s Suite and them losing their minds. These are the special moments that you take with you forever. Unbridled enthusiasm!

Another option that Helios Grand offers is suites with Club Access. This is a room which has dining options throughout the day along with a large seating area to hang out in.

When I’ve stayed Club Level at Disney hotels, they generally have the best views in the entire building. The Club Levels you’ll find on the properties at Universal (including Royal Pacific, Hard Rock Hotel, and Portofino Bay) are located on the opposite side of the hotel, saving the “great views” for guests in their rooms.

DOUBLE SECRET HONORABLE MENTION – The Merch

On the first level of Helios Grand you’ll also find a Universal Studios Store.

I was happy to find that there was a good amount of items for Helios Grand itself, including ornaments and magnets…

…commemorative pens..

…shirts…

…and hats.

There was a large variety of Epic Universe branded products, and there was also a section in the store for all the worlds of Epic (including Dark Universe, Isle of Berk, Ministry of Magic and Super Nintendo.) You could buy everything from chocolate frogs to Nintendo Powerbands.

Even the adorable Captain Cacao plush from Celestial Park was in the store.

So there you have it: The SAT SIX Checks Out Universal’s HELIOS GRAND HOTEL! See you next weekend for the latest installment of the SATURDAY SIX, where we’ll look at something fun from the world of Disney and Universal. If you enjoyed yourself, be sure to check out the THEME PARK ENJOYMENT INDEX, giving a monthly recap of all the theme park news you need to know (and a lot more you don’t need to know, but we’re gonna tell you anyway). You can also follow Your Humble Author on BlueSky (@derekburgan).

If you enjoyed this article, you will surely like the following: 

Theme Park Turkeys of the Year Archives

The SATURDAY SIX Celebrates 10 Years of @bioreconstruct

SATURDAY SIX Tribute to Josh easyWDW

SATURDAY SIX Tribute to Ian Barritt

TPEI Tribute to Bret Taggart (AKA @Schmoofy)

Special Thanks to The Elite Brandon Glover, Digital Maestro Scott Walker, the bio-est of all reconstructs @bioreconstruct, Captain Cruiseline Scott Sanders of the world famous Disney Cruise Line Blog, my personal protege Hunter “Elvey” Underwood, artist @SonderQuest, the mighty maven of merchandise Hedgehog’s Corner, the SAT SIX Fun Squad of Parkscope Joe and “the Dadalorian” Nick, hot shot Michael Carelli, charter member of the Universal Four @Nitro230, the permit princess Alicia Stella, master cartographer Tommy Hawkins, and Hermione Granger’s tutor Megan Thickey for their invaluable assistance with this article. Absolutely no help was added by SeaWorld Influencer @SuperWeenieHtJr. The SAT SIX is inspired each week by goofballs Aengus Mackenzie and LitemAndHide and you Potterheads will enjoy Meg’s other blog work over at the Central Florida Slug Club.