Location: The best part of Helios is hands-down the location. You’re just a 1–2 minute walk into Epic Universe, which is amazing after a long park day. Helios guests enter the park through a separate entrance on the opposite side of most other guests. This has pros and cons—while you're super close to Dark Universe and Ministry of Magic portals, the main gift shops and Nintendo World are actually closer to the other entrance. Also during Early Park Admission, all hotel guests can enter, but guests from the other hotels are better positioned to reach Nintendo first so actually puts you at a disadvantage as those rides have opened first during early entry.

Important tip if you're using Uber or Lyft: The roads around Helios are so new that GPS often can’t find the hotel. I scheduled a pickup and the app kept canceling the rides after drivers arrived—because it couldn’t register the location properly. Drivers can find you if you message them directly, so I highly recommend skipping scheduled rides and instead requesting a regular ride, then coordinating directly with the driver. Definitely build in extra time for pickups.

Room: I stayed in a 2-Queen Park View and the view alone was worth it—truly stunning. If you're planning to spend any time in your room, I highly recommend upgrading for the view. I have a future stay booked in a Club Level room (which aren’t all park view btw) and I definitely think I will just go with regular park view room instead

Pool: The pool is gorgeous with great service. The bar had some really tasty drinks (I didn’t try the food, but it looked solid). They also had fun activities like scavenger hunts, hula hoop contests, and even movies in the pool at night—great for kids or childlike adults like me.

Dining: Flora Taverna had wonderful service. I ate both breakfast and lunch there. It’s brand new, and the kitchen was still finding its rhythm, so wait times were noticeable. Prices were on the higher side, but everything I tried was delicious. Bar Helios is worth visiting just for the view. I had a drink and a small bite there—pricey, yes, but the quality and staff were excellent.

Club Lounge: I didn’t stay Club this time but got a peek inside. Honestly, it looked underwhelming, especially compared to the park-view rooms. I wouldn’t go out of my way to spend time in the lounge if I had club access.

I'm planning a trip to Epic Universe and considering staying at one of Universal's Signature Grade resorts. Are there any exclusive perks, like early park entry, express passes, or transportation benefits?

Just booked a 7 day stay at Stella Nova in late summer 2025. Only about $150 per night. That's almost endless summer prices, for a new hotel next to epic universe. What's the catch here?

Atmosphere, Location: 5 out of 5
Food, Dining: 2 out of 5
Room Quality (Pool View): 1 out of 5
Customer Service: 0 out of 5

Summary: We booked 2 nights in a Pool View room along with a 1-day ticket and VIP tour to Epic Universe, both of which were flawless and worth every penny. But, sadly, our experience at Helios Grand fell very short of an "epic" experience. As it currently stands, this resort is nowhere near worthy of the rate we paid as Florida residents; just shy of $650 a night. This was a one-and-done for us, and we really wish we had spent the money at Sapphire Falls and just took the bus to Epic Universe.

The Good:

• The atmosphere and location of this resort is stunning. Walking back to the room after an entire day in Epic Universe was great. The artwork, color choices, and overall design are top-notch. The view from Bar Helios at night was jaw-dropping.

• Breakfast at Flora Taverna was fantastic... the food was delicious, and our server was very attentive.

• There's a parking garage.

The Bad:

• This resort has the worst customer service I've experienced at any resort I've stayed at, not only at Universal, but Disney, too. It truly pains me to say that, because I've never had a bad experience with Universal/Loews Team Members. This was unusually awful.

• Extremely poor build quality. Our room had a ceiling leaking water. Other families were in the lobby with the same issue as us with leaking windows/ceilings. More to follow below.

• Quick Service options are extremely limited. The grab-and-go in the lobby has a small selection of over-priced sandwiches and coffee. We had to go to the pool bar to grab lunch... there are no rain shutters, so when it started downpouring (because, Florida), we had to move tables to not get soaked.

• The resort is not wheelchair/ECV friendly. Very few (if any?) of the doors are automatic with a button to open them. And, because of the design choices made, most of the doors are very heavy and difficult to open.

The Unusually Awful, and Why We Will Likely Never Return:

At around 8 PM, we noticed our room had a leaking ceiling. It rained at 5 PM that day, but only for a few minutes. We went downstairs and told the front desk, and they said "we will send somebody up right away". At 10:30 PM, after waiting 2.5 hours, maintenance never showed up. So, we made a second visit to the front desk. We politely explained that our ceiling was leaking water, and we had to put cups on the floor to catch the water and prevent water damage. The front desk Team Member told me they can't track maintenance, and we have no choice but to wait. She made no effort to give us any sort of status update. At that point, I asked to speak to a Hotel Manager, and she told me there will be a 15-20 minute wait to do that, so I was forced to take a seat in the lobby. Meanwhile, our ceiling is dripping water for nearly 3 hours. Oof.

I started conversing with other Guests in the lobby who were having the same issue as us; one man I spoke to was in a King Suite and his windows AND ceiling were leaking water... they moved him to a Standard View 2 Queen Room since that was all that's available, and gave him a $100 gift card for the inconvenience.

Finally, at 11 PM, the Hotel Manager came out from the back room to speak to me. The lack of sympathy was truly shocking. He genuinely seemed like he didn't care, and offered a whopping $100 gift card. I kindly explained to him that all we needed was an update on how much longer it will take maintenance to come and fix the leak. He could not provide an update. Because it was after 11 PM and we desperately needed to sleep after being in Epic Universe all day, the "solution" was to cancel the maintenance request and make a note on our reservation that we are not responsible for water damage to the carpet/floors. Listening to the "drip, drip, drip, drip" all night was painful, because we knew it was going to cause mold and mildew on the floors and carpet in our room.

We had really high hopes for this resort, but in its current state, I urge anyone to book elsewhere on Universal property (I recommend Sapphire Falls) until they have time to fix all the issues currently plaguing the resort. Perhaps the customer service will improve as well, once those issues are resolved.