Are the parks better than the hotels?

[macraven]

Hey
I love bubba Gumps

 

[cruisingtwins]

Hmm... Well, services may very well be better at Loews hotels, and I certainly agree the Disney hotels are not cleaned like they should be. Many times the rooms are downright filthy.

I'm talking the grandeur of walking into an incredible lobby like the Disney deluxes. When we walked into PBH the little trickling fountain screamed moderate level hotel. I admit, that set the tone.

MG

Hotels are way more than their lobby. Rooms and amenities are way more important and Portofino Ba kicks the gland floridian butt on both counts.

 

[cruisingtwins]

We did drinks at two bars along with pizza at the second bar, the Thirsty Fish. On a side note the pizza was fantastic...

We will visit hrh and the others soon. I have visited the hrh in Vegas and enjoyed it.

The reason for the post is I'm trying to figure out if we should spend the bucks for a trial visit. Checking out the flagship hotel was kind of a first step to visiting UO to see if we liked it. That's why I was hoping to hear the parks were more impressive than the hotel resorts.

MG

See just right there pizza and fantastic is not something you ever hear in the same sentence related to a Disney restaurant.

 

[schumigirl]

Hey
I love bubba Gumps

Lol........yep.....plenty enjoy it........our meals were truly awful.........

Did have a nice cocktail though......but can get them anywhere.......

 

[Maistre Gracey]

It feels impossible to answer, though.

A themepark is a themepark. A hotel is a hotel.

The hotels and services at Uni make it possible for a themepark visit to feel like a vacation rather than a Basic Training march. The themeparks make you ready to enjoy the pools (and you can pool hop).

To me, it's all fabulous. And all impressive.


But all I can say about GF is that the lobby sure is big. It really intimidates my cousin's family. Should a Disney hotel do that??? Doesn't make me want to stay there.

You have to tell us what parts of PBH you saw.

If you walked in the lobby and turned around and left, ok. I get that.

I've visited GF. It's big and impressive looking. It has a giant lobby to absorb all the park-goers. There are weird shops where you're ignored. Basin is very smelly upstairs. We had one nice experience with the band playing and my little cousin was loving the music (her parents and grandparents and her great grandmother (my grandmother) are and were musicians) and they invited her to stand with them. Used to love tea there but they made the offerings boring and jacked the cost up aatronically so we won't go there now.

But ultimately it's just a giant lobby to a visitor.

PBH is a smaller lobby.

But did you see all the pools? Did you know they have free water and sunscreen as well? Were you in the piazza at sunset? It's lovely. Did you eat anything?

Since you didn't stay there you don't know how nice it is. Club is terrific there, too.

No, I didn't see the pools. I admit that I walked into the lobby directly to the first bar I saw (Anerican??) and ordered a drink. After a spell I went out back to the Thirsty Fish and checked out that area.
Did not see Club.. Is that a bar?

MG

 

[pcstang]

HRH is underwhelming to me. Cool memorabilia and pool area. Otherwise, the hotel itself is rather bland imho. If you are looking for the wow factor check out Royal. Beautiful entrance, lobby and excellent staff. We like bubba gumps also but I go in there with expectations of getting chain food. Living on the gulf coast for a long time, I know what a real fresh seafood restaurant is. It's different when you can watch the fleet unload and pick what you want fresh from the gulf. I can definitely see why Schumi doesn't like it. Oceannaire is definitely a great restaurant but, with 5 mouths to feed it gets a little pricey.

 

[Maistre Gracey]

Figured it was the lobby.

I don't see the need to feel it's a "flagship". So the comparison is off to me. GF is Disney. The hotels at Uni are Loews. They are hotels, not showpieces for the resorts.

See... I DO think an impressive lobby is indeed the showplace for the resort.

Different perspectives I guess.

MG

 

[schumigirl]

Did not see Club.. Is that a bar?

MG

You've never heard the expression Club Level?

 

[schumigirl]

HRH is underwhelming to me. Cool memorabilia and pool area. Otherwise, the hotel itself is rather bland imho. If you are looking for the wow factor check out Royal. Beautiful entrance, lobby and excellent staff. We like bubba gumps also but I go in there with expectations of getting chain food. Living on the gulf coast for a long time, I know what a real fresh seafood restaurant is. It's different when you can watch the fleet unload and pick what you want fresh from the gulf. I can definitely see why Schumi doesn't like it. Oceannaire is definitely a great restaurant but, with 5 mouths to feed it gets a little pricey.

Lol, I agree....heck Oceannaire is pricey for 2 folks.........but so worth it!

 

[Poohbug]

Well if you are comparing to Disney price wise, you really should compare Portifino to a moderate. Just looked at the prices for Grand Floridian and they are about three times as much as what I am paying for my stay at PBR next week.

I have not stayed at PBR yet, it will be my first time next week. (So excited to check it out!) But the lobby at the Grand Floridian is beautiful. I would never stay at GF because it is not my style or in my price range. I think GF rooms are a dismal value for your money, but I would stop by the lobby and listen to the pianist or have a drink.


As far as Bubba Gumps goes, I have found that YMMV. I have had great meals and service there and then not so good. Honestly, I have had the same experience at Margaritaville. I will gladly eat at either one again because the good outweighs the bad.

 

[kbelle8995]

The parks are actually great. I love them because I don't have reserve my ride on Gringotts months ahead. My last trips to Disney parks have been stressful and not much fun. Watch videos of Universal parks online you might see a difference. As other have stated comparing them to Disney is going to affect your experience and not for the positive. The hotels (I am not sure about Cabana bay) are run by Loew's not Universal from what I understand

I think Universal parks have upped their game. Friendly team members, Not need to schedule your day unless you really want to. No Universal is not Disney and that has it pluses and minuses. You want to go back to the hotel and have pool time, you can do this without taking hours to get there. And I also think that Universal is more appreciative of its AP users.

Let me state that I used to think that Universal had a problem with theming. That's not an issue so much anymore. Look at Diagon Alley, the Kong area, or Cabana bay. It has improved greatly.

Judging the parks by a hotel that was built years ago seems a little unfair.

 

[macraven]

We live virtually next door so we went for drinks and pizza. Honestly, the pizza at the Thirsty Fish was incredibly delicious..


That said, pizza and drinks for two people (yes we were there almost six hours) were $375 after tip.

Yowza!!!

MG

Typo perhaps?

$375 for pizza and booze

Did you buy bottles?

 

[Maistre Gracey]

Typo perhaps?

$375 for pizza and booze

Did you buy bottles?

No typo. I couldn't believe it either. I guess we went a bit overboard...
Wife had three wines and a beer.
Me..?? Yowsa.

MG

 

[schumigirl]

It's easy done.............

 

[saskdw]

But now you're adding specific criteria.

If I was only concerned about price and don't care about looks of the resort (i.e. The lobby), than the Super 8 down the road would be the answer.

MG

You're going to find that most people are going to factor in the cost when deciding on value for the dollar. It isn't fair to expect Portofino to stack up to GF if it's half the cost.

 

[Maistre Gracey]

You've never heard the expression Club Level?

Yes, but you said "Club" upper case without the work level, not club level.

MG

 

[VacaPlanner2012]

I'll throw gas on the fire - I think you are being completely unfair. Comparing hotels based on lobbies alone, than make a comment that you spent $375 on pizza and booze. Uh, no you didn't, you spent $20 bucks on pizza, and $350+ on booze. Having been to both parks many times and only being a casual drinker, my guess if you bought the same alcohol at Disney, then do an apples to apples comparison, it would cost pretty much the same exact thing.

We have stayed at RPR and HRH, but last visit in June, we went over to PBH just to check it out. One point of agreement, pizza was excellent, we went back later in the week. We walked away saying that we will probably never stay at PBH, but not because of the lobby, but because we absolutely have fallen in love with RPR.

As for the parks, they are simply amazing. But, we as a family, adults and kids alike, enjoy the IPs at Universal over Disney. We like Mickey, we love Minions! We like Toy Story, we love Transformers! And there is this small little thing known as Harry Potter if you look hard enough...

My guess is you will hate it.

 

[kohlby]

I agree that you can't compare hotels just by their lobbies. For Disney Deluxe, we've only stayed at AKL. We've never stayed at Portofino. We haven't stayed at Hard Rock - though we've been there to use their pool. But without staying there, I can't really comment on how I like it there outside of their pool. I liked our Savanna View at AKL. But otherwise, I'd say our rooms were about equal at AKL vs Royal Pacific. We had terrible housekeeping issues while at AKL though during our 6 nights there. We've never had a single housekeeping issue at RPR and we've probably stayed about 30 nights there added up over the years. One huge perk of the Universal hotels is that the transportation is so easy too. And that it gets you unlimited express. So, it makes it even harder to make it fair to compare Disney to Universal since unlimited unscheduled fast passes aren't a part of Disney hotels.

Give the parks a try. We used to like the parks equally. They had different things that appealed to us. However, as time goes on, the planning involved for Disney has gone up and Universal keeps adding new attractions. For those reasons, I now prefer visiting Universal. We will be visiting Disney in October though I wonder if it will be our last visit for a while as our kids are starting to like Disney less and less.

 

[Maistre Gracey]

I'll throw gas on the fire - I think you are being completely unfair. Comparing hotels based on lobbies alone, than make a comment that you spent $375 on pizza and booze. Uh, no you didn't, you spent $20 bucks on pizza, and $350+ on booze. Having been to both parks many times and only being a casual drinker, my guess if you bought the same alcohol at Disney, then do an apples to apples comparison, it would cost pretty much the same exact thing.

We have stayed at RPR and HRH, but last visit in June, we went over to PBH just to check it out. One point of agreement, pizza was excellent, we went back later in the week. We walked away saying that we will probably never stay at PBH, but not because of the lobby, but because we absolutely have fallen in love with RPR.

As for the parks, they are simply amazing. But, we as a family, adults and kids alike, enjoy the IPs at Universal over Disney. We like Mickey, we love Minions! We like Toy Story, we love Transformers! And there is this small little thing known as Harry Potter if you look hard enough...

My guess is you will hate it.

Uhh... I'm not comparing hotels on lobby alone. Everything from the entrance, to the lobby, to the courtyard seemed less grand.

I don't get your point about pizza and booze. Maybe I'm missing something?
Because yes, indeed we spent $375 on pizza and drinks.

I think we may like the parks very much.
My point here was to ensure the parks wouldn't be lackluster as I found PB to be.

MG

 

[Mom2Stitch]

I don't think that the hotels or the parks are going to be anything like Disney and to compare them isn't fair. We are planning a quick Universal trip to try it out and give it a shot. We are planning to stay at Royal Pacific, has a Polynesian feel to it which is one of our favorites at WDW, but we know that it's not going to be the same. I quite excited about going over and trying something new. I don't want it to be like Disney, I want something different. And not having to worry about having dining reservations and rides lined up before I get there, that sounds relaxing to me. Getting an express pass for staying at RPR that will get me on just about every ride in the park without long waits and not just three, what an awesome perk that is!