Universal Stella Nova Resort

Customer Ratings & Reviews

TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

75 reviews

• 

  Sleepless Night vs. Early Entry Perk

  We picked this hotel because it came with an hour early entry into Epic Universe and we loved the idea of getting into the park early before everyone else was let in. However, we had the worst time getting a good night’s sleep due to noise. The night before our Epic visit we were woken up overnight by people in an adjacent room who came in around 1am and were loud. Once they settled in, we could still hear their conversations clearly through 3am. Add to that, once we were up, it was impossible to ignore the smoke detector light above the bed blinking constantly along with bright green lights coming off the light switches. (We couldn’t figure out how to turn them off) when I reached for an extra pillow to put over my eyes, I realized there were only one per person in our room of four. We were exhausted from a sleepless night when we got to the park and our day wasn't as epic as it could have been had we gotten a restful sleep. The one time we were able to sleep through the night, we were woken up early by new guest checking in on one side, and the banging of a cleaning crew vacuum on the other. Basically, we could hear almost everything that went on around us at all times of the day and night, similar to what other reviewers said. The staff was friendly and accommodating, the design and aesthetic of the hotel was fun to experience and the pathway to Epic was convenient. If I had to do it again, I would make sure to bring noise canceling headphones and a sleeping mask for everyone in my party and request a room without a connecting door located at the end of a the hallway to minimize the number of people around you.

  Dec 09, 2025
• 

  Great hotel for Epic Universe

  We stayed here for one night prior to going into Epic Universe. It was a great hotel for Epic, it took us less than 10 minutes to walk to the park and a lot of that was waiting to cross at the busy intersection (there was a bus too). We did take the bus across to City Walk on the night we arrived and that probably took about 10 minutes too, but I wouldn't want to be making that journey a lot as it is quite a distance. The hotel has a good theme and being new everything was working as it should. It was quite a walk from the lift to the room, the corridors are long. The room itself was large but felt a bit sparse. We may have been given an accessible room so perhaps that had something to do with it, but it felt like we had a lot of space without a lot in it. There was a bit of noise from the corridor too but nothing too major.

  Dec 07, 2025
• 

  close to Epic, clean, decent sized beds were good

  fun looks like a space ship, windows are cool. it was clean, pretty quiet, transportation convenient (shuttle bus to universal) we were surprised our room wasn’t cleaned, didn’t know we didn’t have service

  Nov 22, 2025
• 

  First and last stay

  As an older couple we weren’t impressed with the hotel accommodations. It is a brand new hotel but it lacked personality. It seemed sterile to both of us. The rooms were average sized and clean. We had an ADA compliant room and so I’m not sure that every room has the same amenities. Our room came with a refrigerator, coffee maker, iron, hairdryer, and other expected conveniences. Our particular refrigerator never seemed to get cold although we didn’t plan on really using it and the coffee maker was a Cuisinart single pod unit. We didn’t use that either. We’ve found in the past that similar units brew terrible coffee, one cup at a time, and the pods themselves are worthless. The hotel offers two tiers of Wi-Fi reception. The slow free version and the faster $9.95 version. We normally take with us a Firestick so that we can watch what we want to however with the free Wi-Fi being so slow we didn’t set up the Firestick because of the expected buffering issues. Sleeping in this room was a challenge. The AC was a bit noisy and of course at night seemed to blow right on top of us. The smoke detector at night was like a lighthouse beacon blinking constantly. The phone always seemed to be blinking various red lights. The worst light in the room though was the bathroom light. The switch for it was motion activated. Imagine getting up at 3am to use the facilities and walking with your eyes accommodated the dark into the bathroom and the light going on as you enter and blinding you! The first night that is exactly what happened to my wife. She was truly blinded by the light and when she returned to bed she ran into the wall of the hallway, staggered to the bed, and stubbed her toe on the furniture. The other guests on near our room added to the challenges. I don’t lay blame on the hotel for these guests and their bad behavior but it did add to the decision not to ever stay there again. Parents allowing their kids to run around the halls and adjacent rooms after 10pm is just a lack of parenting. Guests using the icemaker at all hours of the night was very annoying. One night there was a party going on in our hallway with guests laughing and talking loudly. Again, these are issues that the hotel is not responsible for but it seemed as though this was the sort of clientele the hotel attracted. A little hotel social etiquette would go a long way toward making everyone’s experience better. On a positive note, the restaurant was a pleasant surprise. We were not expecting good food and decent portions. It is a cafeteria where you order at one counter and then are called up to another counter to pick up your food. We had most of our breakfast meals there and found the food was good tasting, hot and well portioned. We found out that they serve Starbucks coffee and rather than use the in room coffee maker we would just wait and get a decent cup in the cafeteria. They can accommodate gluten sensitive options and will customize the order to a degree for your personal preferences.

  Nov 17, 2025
• 

  Ok, but not great!

  Our stay was ok, but I certainly wouldn't stay again. I kept mixing up Stella Luna and Terra Nova in my head. I'm not sure why they thought it would be a good idea to have two similarly named hotels near each other. All week I had to keep thinking about where I was staying because I kept calling them Stella Nova and Terra Luna. The hotel was clean, but no one was out front to help with luggage. Then I learned that housekeeping was every other day. While I can get behind the environmentalism of reusing my towelsy, coming back to a dirty room with overflowing garbage after walking 20,000 steps was a bit of a disappointment. Plus, we ate breakfast in the room and my son spilled a bit of pancake syrup on the table so everything seemed to be sticky for two days. There seemed to be a couple large groups or conventions during our stay. Loud kids running through the halls and playing on the elevators. Getting breakfast was challenging. I never got to order from the cafe and get my morning latte because the line was so long every morning. I tried to get around that by mobile ordering breakfast once. I placed the order at 6:30am and it said it would be ready at 7am. I go down at 7am only to learn that they open at 7am and my food will take 20 minutes to make. Not sure why the app didn't just tell me to come down at 7:20. Also, if the early entry to the IOA for hotel guests is 8am then having breakfast start at 7am isn't very helpful since you still have to take the bus over there. I was told by my travel agent that Stella was the best one for Epic because it has a direct walkway. But it is a 10-minute walk and you have to cross a major highway. The buses to Epic seemed to be on a loop to/from Stella and only took 2-3 minutes. So, I'm not really sure why the walkway is a selling point when the bus is far more convenient and safer. Also, the Stella Luna buses is the last terminal at city walk where you get the buses back to the hotel after leaving IOA, USF, or City Walk. Not only are they last, but two nights in a row, we watched as Terra had 3 buses come and go while Stella didn't have one. Both nights we had to wait at least 30 minutes for a bus to show up to take us back to the hotel. I don't know if this was a fluke, but all the other hotels seemed to have at least two or three buses show up in that time. On the bright side, the front desk staff were very upbeat, helpful, and kind during check-in and check-out.

  Nov 12, 2025