For our April trip we stayed at Cabana Bay Beach Resort in Orlando, one of Universal's mid-tier resorts. I wanted to give it a try because it was close to Volcano Bay water park, and I thought it would be fun to stay in a "volcano view" room (much more on that in a minute). I was also trying to save money because this was going to be an expensive trip, and our money situation isn't what it used to be because of the divorce. I would have preferred staying at Sapphire Falls again, where we stayed on our 2019 trip. But I decided to give Cabana Bay a try. It was a nice resort, but I could definitely see the difference between mid-tier and premium, so it fell a little short for me in comparison to the more upscale and finely appointed Sapphire Falls. But it was fine, and it was fun.
This is the main lobby. The resort is HUGE and accommodates a ton of people (which I personally don't love). Our building was quite a hike from here, but we got used to the walk (even though I grumbled about it more than once. I had my Karen moments on this trip and they mostly happened at the resort!). 
There were ping-pong tables set up in the sand outside of our building that we enjoyed, especially Sam, who's gotten really into ping-pong lately.
Okay, here comes Karen! One of the main reasons I picked this resort was to get an awesome volcano view room. That way I could pretend we were in Hawaii (just kidding--kind of. I love you Florida!). I really like to have a good view in the places I stay if there's a good view to be had. This is what I envisioned, thanks in part to Universal's effective marketing:
But THIS is what we got!!! THIS was the view from our volcano view room!
Do you see the volcano? Because I barely do! The top of it can be glimpsed through the trees. That's it. What a gyp! But there's a really fantastic view of the utility area to make up for it. 🙄
More utilitarian views, this one when you look down. Ugh.
If we hadn't been so far from the lobby I might have seen if they had a room available with a better view, but it had been a long day of travel and the boys didn't care so I just let it go, although I continued to fume about it on a daily basis!
Our was the building at the end, to the right of the volcano. You know, the volcano that we could barely see from our "volcano view" room. 😠
We didn't use the pool at all (it wasn't that hot the week we were there), but we did use the hot tub a few times, which felt great after long days full of walking.
That's our building on the right, viewed from inside Volcano Bay on our last evening of the trip. Obviously it has a lot of rooms with a great view of the volcano. But ours was not one of them. 😒
On our last night there, I snapped pictures of the room itself.
Sam and I shared a bed, and John had his own, as you can see.
The bathroom area
It was a nice enough resort, and I liked its dining area and some of its other amenities, and I would stay there again, but overall, I'd definitely go with Sapphire Falls or one of the other premium resorts if I were to do it again (which hopefully I will at some point in the future). After all, it's not like you can actually see a volcano from your "volcano view" room or anything. {Had to get one last dig in! 😜}
