DVC v. Hard Rock

[mrebuck]

I am a DVC member and love everything about Disney. For our summer trip, however, we decided to take a break from Disney and try out Universal. We'll be at the Universal parks for all of our 6 day stay except for the one day we will visit Hollywood Studios (with our Give a Day, Get a Day free tickets). I have a 1 bedroom savannah view booked at Animal Kingdom, but am considering cancelling that reservation and booking a kids suite at the Hard Rock hotel instead.

My husband thinks I'm crazy to want to stay on-site at Universal. He reminded me how much I love having a full kitchen at DVC, and just how much I hated the Nick Hotel when we stayed there for a night last year. I think the FOTL access and being within walking distance of the parks is more than enough to compensate for losing a full kitchen, and that the Hard Rock kids suite looks just as nice as a DVC villa.

Will I be disappointed with the Hard Rock?

 

[donaldduck352]

Youre gonna love HRH.Its closest to the parks out of the three.Sure they have no kitchens but the food is so resonably priced thruout Universal.

The greatest part of staying on-site in my eyes is you will not have to plan nothing.Its A true vacation on your vacation!!

 

[PatMcDuck]

it is nice at Hard Rock, really nice. But you WILL miss the access to a kitchen. We compensate on most trips and book a concierge room.

We have combined both resorts several times. 2-3 nights at Universal, Fri and Sat for sure (DVC high point nights) and 4-5 nights at DVC (between Sun=Thur). 2-3 days at Universal, IF you have the FOTL access, is plenty.

But we have 7 day passes to Universal, and also plan to do a longer trip there next year. Lots to do!

 

[keishashadow]

jmho HRH is amazing, just be prepared for a whole different vibe than DVC/deluxe disney resorts. The HRH staff was very hip/laid back my last visit. Fine by us, but not everybody's cuppa tea. if you're looking for a bit more traditional experience; you might want to check out Portofino or Royal Pacific.

it's sure nice to easily walk to the parks, but w/FOTL the urgency to commando disappears hip, hip, hooray& i enjoy the decompression time on the boats back to the resort. Im a slug on vacation, yet even I have walked back to Royal Pacific once.

I don't cook on vacation so a full kitchen holds absolutely no allure for me other than having a refrigerator to keep drinks cold

Good luck planning your trip!

 

[mysparky]

We've visited WDW 4 times and always stayed in a 2 bd suite at one of the DVC sites (WL, BW, BC) so I can truly appreciate the convenience of having a kitchen! We always had breakfast in our room and sometimes had lunch as well.

Last year, we spent a few days at HRH and stayed on the concierge level. Since we were used to having a kitchen and not having to go to a restaurant for breakfast, we felt that this upgrade would be important to us. It was definitely worth it for us. Sometimes our kids were pokey in the morning so we'd end up going down to the lounge earlier then them to eat and then we'd bring back cereal, fruit, muffins/cinnamon rolls and juice back to the room for them. They also loved having access to the lounge in the afternoon for fruit, chips and drinks. The concierge level was definitely a very good fit for us.

Besides the actual hotel, we found the Universal visit to be so much more relaxing than our usual "get up early, bus to the parks, manage the fastpasses, etc" Disney-type vacations. It is wonderful to be able to walk to the parks! And there really is nothing like the FOTL. We were there in early August and crowds still hadn't thinned out too much, but we did every ride we wanted to multiple times. No strategy, no hustle!

As someone else has mentioned, I also found the food to be more reasonably priced at Universal. With the exception of Mythos (excellent) we ate outside of the parks at the various restaurants in Citywalk. By staying on the concierge level and taking advantage of breakfast, drinks (including bottled water) and afternoon/evening snacks, we spent approximately $20/pp per day on meals (and note - we have 4 boys aged 13-17!).

Our daily routine went something like this: We'd get up in the morning around 8, grab a light breakfast in the lounge, grab some bottles of water, and then walk over to the park around 9. We left the park each day around 12:30, ate at Citywalk, and then hung out by the pool in the afternoon (we pool-hopped once over to Portofino). After resting, reading, swimming, playing ping-pong, etc, we usually had dinner around 6 and then went over to one of the parks for a few hours. Once out of the parks, we'd often get in night-time swim.

We love each park at Disney and truly appreciate what a WDW vacation offers. While Universal doesn't have the tremendous variety that Disney has, it can truly offer the one thing that we haven't yet found at Disney ---a relaxing, easy vacation!

 

[mrebuck]

Sounds like concierge access may be the way to go. When I look at rates online, I don't see an option for a kids suite with concierge access (although I do see it for other room types). Does that mean I am out of luck? Or is that something that can be added to any room? If so, anyone know the cost?