Universal Port Hotel – The Best Hotel When Visiting Universal Studios Japan!

Universal Port Hotel is located in Osaka, across the road from Universal Studios Japan (USJ) and close to the Osaka Aquarium. There is also a small shopping mall across the road (City Walk) which had a heap of restaurants, take away eateries, souvenir shops, a “Lawson”, which is a small supermarket and of course a Starbucks for those who cant go without their favourite coffee. There is a train station across the road near city walk, making it easy to take a trip into the city or going to and from the airport.

I stayed at the Universal Port Hotel for 2 nights in September during my trip to USJ. The customer service is excellent, the staff are very attentive and ensured an early check in for me of 12 noon (usual check in is 3pm) as I was really tired after a very long flight with little sleep. Check in was quick and easy and you can watch the fish in the giant fish tank behind the counter while you wait for them to do their checks.

I sat in the Minion themed lobby (even the elevators had minions in them!) waiting for my room to be ready and enjoyed hotel’s free Wi-Fi to watch Netflix while I waited, when my room was ready, one of the bell-women took me up to the room and explained the features of the room and functions of the air conditions as well as providing me some information about the surrounding areas of the hotel.

Standard Twin Room

I stayed in a Standard Twin room (2 single beds) which had offered a beautiful view over Universal Studio Japan and City walk with the city in the background. USJ and City Walk really light up at night, it was so pretty!

The room was very spacious, it was much larger than I expected when I was going to Japan, I read that a lot of reviews that hotel rooms are fairly small but it was fairly large compared to the very small hotel room I had in Soho in London!

The beds were fairly comfortable although I’m not personally a fan of the pillows which are the type of pillows that have beads on the top and pillow cushioning on the bottom, it took some time to get used to. I’m not sure if the hotel offers a pillow menu, I wasn’t able to find anything about this service in the room.

The hotel does also offer themed rooms such as Minion Rooms (the kids would love it!) or Ocean rooms on the Port Deep Ocean Floor, which are ocean/underwater themed.

The Bathroom

The shower was wonderful, most hotels have very average shows but the water pressure was great and the shower head was a decent size. You’re provided with a decent amount of shampoo and conditioner in pump bottles in the shower (not the crappy little bottles) and the hair dryer… oh my goodness!!!! It is one of the best hair dryers I have used especially in a hotel! It dried my hair in 3-4 mins from dripping wet!!! (It’s better than my hair dryer at home). I did find the power in the bathroom (and bedroom) to be a little weak for my hair straightener, which I don’t think is something the hotel can control I assume the voltage is lower in Japan than in Australia.

The toilet (yes I’m going there…), it was the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen (yes a bit of an exaggeration!). The lid opens itself, when you walk in the room and there were different buttons to ensure you are “squeaky clean” – I won’t really go into too much detail – however I wasn’t game enough to give it a whirl (haha!). The toilet seat is also heated – it was heaven!

The bathroom amenities were great, if you forgot something at home, chances are they had it! They offered hair ties and hair brushes, as well as tooth brushes and tooth paste, heat packs/relaxing gel patches, shower sponge thing, razors, a shower cap, cleaner, face wash and cream (which was wonderful on my sunburn!)

The Spa

After a long day walking around Universal Studios I booked myself for a (10pm!) massage, it did initially take some time to make the booking over the phone with the spa as I assume they were having difficultly understanding me but we got there in the end.

When I arrived at the spa I was asked to go through a check list to see where my problem areas were and then I was taken into the treatment room and asked to change and lay down.

The massage therapist was very polite and professional and I thoroughly enjoyed the massage, I left feeling great! My body was no longer sore from a long day at the park.

The cost of the massage was around $70-$80AUD which is a little expensive but on par with most of the hotels we have stayed at before.

Facilities of the hotel

The hotel has 2 restaurants (one on the ground floor and 1 on the second level), a small café where you are able to get breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks, a gift shop and a spa. They also have a ticket booking counter so you can book your tickets to USJ or the aquarium without having to stand in long lines at the parks.

I did arrange an airport transfer as I knew I’d be too tried after my flight to work out the train system. I was collected from the airport and brought straight to the hotel for about $60AUD.

They also have coined laundry, Its a self service laundry and has vending machine for laundry detergent. The washing machine also had a timer so you can set the time and know when your laundry would be done.

The hotel had vending machines on every room and an ice machine as well as a large area of vending machines on the bottom floor next to the smoking room (for smokers).

There is also coin operated lockers which cost 100 yen (which you get back) for smaller bags, I used these the day I checked out when I went out to city walk for lunch – I didn’t want to take my laptop bag with me.

A few things I think that the hotel could improve on

·         The food at the buffet (at the level 2 restaurant) was a bit cold at breakfast and it was not very well signed, however there was a massive amount of food to choose from – no shortage of choice!

·         I found that communication with staff could be a little difficult at times however I was impressed with how they tried to understand and accommodate my questions or requests and at the end of the day, I wasn’t travelling in an English based country.

·         The “room service” isn’t really room service, its room delivery where you food is brought to your room in a paper bag from the Café downstairs and is only available from 6pm to 2pm. I found it easier to go down to the café and order something and come back to my room to eat.

Overall I had a great stay and would highly recommend this hotel for people travelling to Osaka especially those who want to go to Universal Studios Japan.

Disclosure

This trip was made possible by Universal Studios Japan and Hotel Universal Port Japan. I was guests of USJ. They invited bloggers/media from different countries to promote Universal Studios Japan. As always, opinions expressed in this post are mine and mine alone.