Mini review of my 2-night stay:
For reference, I had only ever been to Dockside one time before, and it was literally for 5 hours (we got to the hotel at 1am, and checked out at 6 am because we were moving to Portifino for Express Passes). So, with that being said, I had no baseline for this resort aside from seeing the lobby, buying a bag of chips from a vending machine, and taking a shower. I booked a great $100 AP rate for a standard room, and did my mobile check-in before arriving. Almost every time I had done a mobile check-in, it seemed to be useless, as either I'd stand in the special line for so long that it didn't actually save me time, or I'd wind up having to give tons of information all over again. This time, it worked perfectly. I was the only mobile check-in, compared to about 20 people in the standard line, whom I got to bypass. Check-in TM was really efficient and friendly.
Room: I got a 1st-floor room in Tower 1 that I guess was a pseudo-pool view in the sense that it was nicer than looking at a parking lot, but if I had actually paid for a pool view room, then I would've felt jipped. The room was really clean and spacious, with lots of storage that I didn't need to use. The ceilings were super high, but that might've just been because it was the first floor. Beds are comfy, but are minimal in terms of sheets and pillows. Again, fine for me since I was the only one in my room.
Transportation: Takeoff to arrival is a really short ride; you won't really notice the difference if you're used to riding the bus from Cabana or Aventura. However, I do have a couple of gripes:
1. Dockside and Surfside ride back together from Citywalk, which is a little nuts given the number of people staying at these two hotels.
2. They do a poor job of delineating queues from Dockside to the various destinations (ie, Citywalk, Epic, and Volcano). I saw signs for Epic and Citywalk, but they were right next to each other, so it was hard for guests to really know which line each was pointing to. With there being 2 bus stops at Dockside, I would love to see them utilize one as the Citywalk, and the other as the Epic + Volcano.
Amenities: I'm pretty much only a Starbucks customer when I go to Universal, but man, I sure do appreciate these hotels having them in their main lobby. Stopped by around 7 am, and while the line was significantly smaller than Cabana Bay's, it probably took about the same time. CBBR's Starbucks team MOVES. Best Starbucks is still the quiet one at Portifino, but I'm not rich enough to stay there anymore now that they've finished their refurbishment pricing.
I did use the pool, which had good 9 am-11 pm hours. The U-Shape of the hotel made it really convenient to get to the pool, but I did think it was a little disappointing not to have a hot tub there. Grabbed a drink from the pool bar that was around $18, but came in a nice souvenir cup. Had no trouble finding a lounge chair either.
I sorta utilized the food court. Got room service pizza when I first arrived, and picked up another pizza during their late-night HHN hours when I got back. For being post-midnight pizzas, they did their job.
Final Thoughts: For what I paid, there were absolutely more positives than negatives about this resort. It's great if you want to stay on Universal property, but plan to spend most of your time at the parks. You get the free transportation, access to EPA, and the strong service that Universal provides across all of its hotels.
Can't fairly assess Portofino or Aventura since my stays at them were so brief, but of the others:
Sapphire (A)
Cabana Bay (B)
Dockside (B-)