Universal’s Cabana Bay Hotel Goes Into Lockdown, Police Start Interviewing Guests

A late-night stay at Universal Orlando Resort took an unexpected turn this week.

Universal’s Cabana Bay Beach Resort is one of the resort’s more affordable onsite hotels. Known for its retro design inspired by Florida beach resorts of the 1950s and 1960s, the sprawling property contains 2,200 rooms.

Guests also have access to two large pools, a lazy river, a waterslide, and the 10-lane Galaxy Bowl bowling alley. Cabana Bay offers complimentary buses around Universal Orlando Resort, while a dedicated walking path connects the hotel directly with Universal Volcano Bay.

The hotel is particularly popular during Halloween Horror Nights, when guests can use Universal transportation between their resort and the parks late into the night.

This week, however, guests returning to Cabana Bay encountered a notably different scene.

Police Reportedly Interview Guests at Universal’s Cabana Bay Beach Resort

Multiple police vehicles were spotted outside Cabana Bay on Friday night (September 11), with one guest claiming officers remained around the property for several hours.

Posting on Reddit, the guest said police were “in the lobby interviewing folks, walking the grounds and inspecting some rooms” in the Thunderbird building between roughly 8 p.m. and midnight.

The guest added that crime scene investigators later arrived and established what they described as “a whole set up.” A photo shared alongside the post appears to show multiple law enforcement vehicles outside the resort.

Exactly what prompted the police response remains unclear. No confirmed explanation for the activity had been publicly released at the time of publication.

However, another person in the thread claimed their wife and other guests were temporarily prevented from leaving Cabana Bay on Saturday.

“Police and security had the resort on lockdown,” they wrote, adding that they wanted to know who officers were looking for and what had prompted the response.

When another commenter asked whether the lockdown was still in place, the same user replied, “No, it was only for a brief moment.” Another commenter separately disputed the claim that a lockdown occurred.

There are also claims that the police activity may have begun before Friday night.

One Cabana Bay guest said police were questioning people at the hotel late Thursday after they returned from Halloween Horror Nights. According to the guest, officers asked their family where they had been earlier that evening before moving on.

The same Reddit user later claimed it was the third day of police activity at the resort, although that timeline has not been independently confirmed.

Despite the visible police presence, the hotel does not appear to have experienced a wider operational shutdown. One guest who arrived Friday said they saw officers but did not know what had happened. Asked about current operations, they described Saturday as a “normal average day.”

Inside the Magic has not independently verified the circumstances behind the police response or the reported brief lockdown. Claims circulating online linking the activity to other incidents around Universal Orlando also remain speculation.

Previous Incidents at Cabana Bay

This is not the first time law enforcement has responded to an incident at Universal’s Cabana Bay Beach Resort.

In August 2024, Orlando police responded after receiving reports of a trespasser allegedly threatening guests and Team Members around a Cabana Bay pool. The man – who had already been asked to leave another Universal property earlier that same day – was ultimately arrested and charged with resisting without violence and assault on a law enforcement officer.

Another police response followed in February 2025. According to an arrest report, officers were called after Universal Security reported a disturbance involving a woman who allegedly attempted to flee when security approached her.

Officers later found the woman near a vehicle and documented signs of alcohol impairment. The incident also involved two children and two adult men, one of whom police described as extremely intoxicated while being trespassed from Universal property.

Cabana Bay also drew attention in December 2022 following reports of multiple altercations around its pool area. One incident reportedly led to the pool and lazy river closing early, while a separate confrontation allegedly left a hotel security guard with a broken nose.

Have you ever experienced an unexpected incident at a Universal or Disney hotel?