Universal's at Cabana Bay Beach Resort

Cabana Bay Beach Resort replays the American beach motel of the 1950s and 1960s, with neon signs, rounded mid-century furniture, striped cabanas and period music in the courtyards. It opened in 2014, gained four hundred rooms in a 2017 tower expansion, and now totals 2,200 units, making it the largest hotel at Universal Orlando Resort. It is also the one designed from the start for larger families.

Rooms and family suites

A standard room runs about 28 m² with two queen beds and sleeps four. The family suite, at roughly 40 m², adds a sofa bed behind a divider and a kitchenette with microwave, small refrigerator and coffee maker, which lets six people sleep and lets you eat breakfast in the room before the parks open. The property holds 920 of these suites.

Around twenty two-bedroom suites, at about 72 m², sleep up to eight. Depending on the wing, entry is by interior corridor or exterior walkway, a distinction that matters to a family with a stroller. Some rooms look out over Volcano Bay.

What your room key gives you

Early Park Admission, up to one hour before official opening, at whichever park Universal designates for that date. Added to that are free transport, delivery of in-park purchases back to the hotel and charging privileges across the resort.

Free Universal Express Unlimited stays limited to Loews Portofino Bay, Hard Rock and Loews Royal Pacific. Cabana Bay belongs to the Value Inns and Suites category and does not qualify. Express access can be purchased separately, and it covers neither Epic Universe nor Volcano Bay in any case, whatever the hotel.

Two pools, a lazy river and a bowling alley

The Cabana Courtyard is built around a decorative diving tower, with a zero-entry edge, a sand beach and a slide of about thirty metres. The Lazy River Courtyard holds the lazy river and its waterfalls, the first of its kind at the resort, with its own sand beach.

Galaxy Bowl lines up ten bowling lanes upstairs, with a full-service restaurant in the same room. Add a playground, an arcade, the Jack LaLanne fitness studio and a self-service laundry, which earns its keep on a week-long stay with children. There is no spa here.

Eating and drinking on site

Bayliner Diner is a six-hundred-seat food court with several counters and three meals a day; it is the hotel's engine room at peak hours. Swizzle Lounge holds the lobby in full retro dress, with live music at weekends. Atomic Tonic and The Hideaway Bar and Grill each serve one of the two pool courtyards, Shakes Malt Shoppe handles milkshakes, and a full Starbucks counter covers rushed mornings. Pizza delivery to the room runs on limited hours.

Getting to the parks

Dedicated buses leave for the parks and CityWalk roughly every fifteen minutes, on a five to eight minute run, from an hour before early entry until the middle of the night. Expect a wait on the return at closing time; that is the most common complaint about this hotel. The garden path also lets you walk to CityWalk in fifteen to twenty-five minutes depending where your room is. Epic Universe is served by a dedicated shuttle bus.

Cabana Bay has its own private pedestrian entrance to Volcano Bay in the south courtyard, opened on presentation of each guest's room key. Note that Volcano Bay closes on 26 October 2026 for infrastructure work, with reopening announced for spring 2027. That entrance stays unavailable throughout the closure, which is worth confirming with your advisor before booking for the winter.

Who this hotel suits

It suits families of five or six who want a single room, a kitchenette and two serious pools, and travellers willing to queue for rides because the budget is going elsewhere. Children take to the setting, the lazy river and the bowling alley, and most have no interest in leaving before mid-morning.

It suits you less if you want included express access, if you travel with a pet, since the hotel does not accept them, or if you would rather reach the parks on foot or by boat than by bus. Parking is charged. Your Voyages AquaTerra advisor can help you pick the right suite at 1-866-628-6241.