Club level at HRH vs. RPR

[Mirabelle]

Hello. I am hoping to get some opinions on the food offerings at HRH and RPR club level lounges. I found an older thread with photos of the food at RPR's lounge which looked awesome. Has anyone stayed at HRH or RPR recently that could comment on the food at the club lounges? We have already booked a standard room at HRH but may check availability of club level rooms or possibly switch resorts to RPR. I will be traveling with four hungry boys and am hoping to save some money in my food budget.

Thank you for any help that you can provide!

 

[SharkyGoddess]

I'm curious about this too.

 

[SmallWorld71]

I don't know about RPR, but we just got back a little over a week ago from an 8 night stay at HRH club level and this is what there was:

Breakfast: Their best offerings IMO. Cinnamon rolls, muffins, plain croissants, hard boiled eggs, fruit, bagels, oatmeal and bread for toast. Things to go with these like jelly, peanut butter, cream cheese, brown sugar, granola, raisins etc. There was also yogurt and cereal. Milk, juice, coffee, tea, water, soda.

Afternoon snacks: chips, granola bars, yogurt covered pretzels and the beverage offerings minus the milk.

Evening: veggie tray (very good), fruit, cheese and crackers were always out. In addition there were two hot appetizers and one cold. Some of the choices were chicken wings, mini corn dogs, meatballs, eggplant, cole slaw, pasta salad, Texas Caviar. All the drinks were out and it was free beer and wine during this time as well.

Desserts: milk and cookies out every night; usually one other thing such as mini apple crisps

Bottled water was also available, you just had to ask

It was $90 extra for the club level room. There were 5 of us and we got our $ back and then some. HTH

 

[Mirabelle]

Thank you so much for your reply. This is just the info that I needed. If I could ask one more question---do you think that the club lounge food would suffice for a meal? It sounds to me like there is enough food to make a decent breakfast but is there enough food in the evening to satisfy as a supper?

Thanks for your help!

 

[SmallWorld71]

Thank you so much for your reply. This is just the info that I needed. If I could ask one more question---do you think that the club lounge food would suffice for a meal? It sounds to me like there is enough food to make a decent breakfast but is there enough food in the evening to satisfy as a supper?

Thanks for your help!

It often worked as a meal for us. On a typical day we would have breakfast in the room, buy lunch at a park or city walk and then we would have the evening apps. and the desserts later. That said, if you didn't have a good lunch or didn't like the offerings, it probably wouldn't work. Two other thngs, perhaps it was the summer heat, but we didn't find ourselves hungry enough in the evenings to warrant going to dinner somewhere. Also, we did have some food in our room such as yogurts and cold cuts for sandwiches in case someone did feel the need for more.

 

[Mirabelle]

SmallWorld71---Thank you! My husband thought of one more question, if you wouldn't mind answering (if you can.) Do you know if the staff at the lounge will allow one adult to collect breakfast for the rest of the family and bring it back to the room? Are there restrictions, like you have to eat the food in the lounge? I would imagine that they want to be sure that only club level guests are eating the food so I didn't know if it would be a problem for one adult to grab bagels or whatever for the family and take them back to the room.

Thank you again for all of your help!

 

[SmallWorld71]

SmallWorld71---Thank you! My husband thought of one more question, if you wouldn't mind answering (if you can.) Do you know if the staff at the lounge will allow one adult to collect breakfast for the rest of the family and bring it back to the room? Are there restrictions, like you have to eat the food in the lounge? I would imagine that they want to be sure that only club level guests are eating the food so I didn't know if it would be a problem for one adult to grab bagels or whatever for the family and take them back to the room.

Thank you again for all of your help!

Yes, you can bring food back to the room. We saw people using metal trays to help them with this. (The plates are small.) We also took cereal (in individual containers) and whole fruit to go sometimes. DH is not a big breakfast eater and he would eat the fruit after being up for a couple hours. DD sometimes had the cereal with milk for lunch; we would buy her milk from a CS place. She preferred this over a lot of the fast food meals that were available. I also saw a lot of people bring apps. back to their room. There were a couple nights it was pretty crowded in the lounge; I know things were pretty much booked solid while we were there.

We also grabbed drinks and cookies one night to eat out by the pool. (We didn't bring the plates; used a napkin.)

You need a room key to get to the 7th floor and to enter the lounge so that is how they know you can be there.

The lounge TM's were fine with the kids coming on their own (they just needed their keys) so I was able to send DS11 with DD7 in the morning to get started on eating. DH would then join them while I worked on getting the teenager moving. It was easier than everyone trying to get ready at the same time and tripping over each other. I don't know how old your boys are; it obviously wouldn't work with real little ones. I will also add that while my kids loved HRH, I didn't see many toddlers/ preschoolers there. There were a ton of tweens and teens which worked out great for my kids. Might be overstimulating for those under 5, IMO.

 

[SharkyGoddess]

Thank you so much Smallworld71! You may have just helped us make the decision to request an upgrade

 

[Mirabelle]

Thank you for the great info! I called HRH and they have club level available for $70/night more than the amount that I was paying for a standard room. I think that it will be a good deal for us.

Thanks again!

 

[SmallWorld71]

You're welcome!
One bonus of the Club Level is that you get free access to the fitness center. Which traveling with kids, I never thought I would use. BUT, that means you also get access to their bathrooms/ showers. This was great for getting everyone rinsed/ showered after a swim in the pool. Much easier that trying to all take turns in the room with someone shivering in the AC. Every time DD and I went to use them, the showers were always available so I wasn't taking away from anyone working out.

 

[padams]

We stayed Club level at HRH this pasts Labor Day weekend. The above menu was what we experienced. The staff did limit kids to 2 cookies each during the dessert hour. If you want to make a dinner out of the evening food, then go in the first hour. We observed that the trays were pretty empty in the last 30 minutes and staff was not refilling them.

 

[dclfun]

Just like at the WDW Club level, the CL lounges at the Universal hotels are not meant to substitute for a family meal. That said, some people are light eaters and it might work for them. If you have a long stay planned, you might tire of cheese and crackers and a few small appys. If you just eat your breakfast there it's worth the extra cost. You'll save time too from having to stand in a queue line to buy food or do a TS breakfast. Most mornings my family wanted to get up and out to the parks asap and having the continental breakfast was perfect.---Kathy

 

[Debs Hill]

Can you tell me whether the soft drinks are in cans/bottles etc that you can take to the pool? Trying to work out whether it is worth the extra dollars!!

Also, do they have kids food in the evening?

Any photos of what is on offer?
Thanks
Debsx

 

[SmallWorld71]

Can you tell me whether the soft drinks are in cans/bottles etc that you can take to the pool? Trying to work out whether it is worth the extra dollars!!

Also, do they have kids food in the evening?

Any photos of what is on offer?
Thanks
Debsx

Cans of Coke/ Diet Coke/ Sprite/ Sprite Zero and maybe Coke Zero?
I wouldn't say that they have food specifically geared toward kids, although my kids always found something to munch on. But, they are not picky.

 

[Meredith]

BIG difference for us.. We stayed at RPR (club level) in 2008 and first thing, it was HUGE (club room)!! In the evenings they offered several pasta dishes, chicken wings, and several other "full meal" type foods. They also had bottled water all day with the fruit and extra cereal. They were so flippin' nice! There was nothing they wouldn't discuss with us as we had one heading off to college and they told us about their experiences with going off to college. Just could not say more about how great the staff was!

Flash forward to this year at the HRH.. I loved the theming of the hotel, our room was lovely and HUGE, however our club experience was not the same. The club room was SMALL, the tables were totally full during all the open times. There were little kids swarming every time they put new food out. I don't think we met anyone that worked in there except the bartender whom we tipped for each beer. Evening food was not good.. and it didn't last through the first round of "kids that engulfed the place".

Our impression.. HRH had fantastic theming.. room was SPECTACULAR.. Service was AWESOME... Club... not worth it..

RPR.. Didn't care one way or the other for the theming.. polinisian etc.. beautiful.. etc. Room.. normal.. not big or small.. Service, AMAZING, Club level A MUST DO!! FANTASTIC!! SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO a redo! We'll be back!!

HRH is closer to the parks and has bigger rooms, RPR has FANTASTIC service, awesome on-site activites etc.. We'll do RPR, next go around!

 

[SmallWorld71]

BIG difference for us.. We stayed at RPR (club level) in 2008 and first thing, it was HUGE (club room)!! In the evenings they offered several pasta dishes, chicken wings, and several other "full meal" type foods. They also had bottled water all day with the fruit and extra cereal. They were so flippin' nice! There was nothing they wouldn't discuss with us as we had one heading off to college and they told us about their experiences with going off to college. Just could not say more about how great the staff was!

Flash forward to this year at the HRH.. I loved the theming of the hotel, our room was lovely and HUGE, however our club experience was not the same. The club room was SMALL, the tables were totally full during all the open times. There were little kids swarming every time they put new food out. I don't think we met anyone that worked in there except the bartender whom we tipped for each beer. Evening food was not good.. and it didn't last through the first round of "kids that engulfed the place".

Our impression.. HRH had fantastic theming.. room was SPECTACULAR.. Service was AWESOME... Club... not worth it..

RPR.. Didn't care one way or the other for the theming.. polinisian etc.. beautiful.. etc. Room.. normal.. not big or small.. Service, AMAZING, Club level A MUST DO!! FANTASTIC!! SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO a redo! We'll be back!!

HRH is closer to the parks and has bigger rooms, RPR has FANTASTIC service, awesome on-site activites etc.. We'll do RPR, next go around!

I do agree that the room was small. There was one night (our first) when it was hard to find a table. The service we had was excellent though. There were always several TMs working the club lounge to help out. I haven't tried RPR to compare though.

 

[JessicaR]

We have stayed at both a few times. RPR blows away HRH in food selection. HRH blows RPR away in cooleness! Love them both but atmosphere goes to HRH for us.