family of 5 in a deluxe HRH room

[lolly]

Just wanted to say that the difference in size between the regular garden view room and the deluxe room meant the difference between cramped and squeezed, and SPREAD OUT for my family. Even though we weren't in the room a lot, from 7-9 in the morning, and 8-10 at night, plus dressing, showering, changing bathing suits, etc-- we would have been miserable in the smaller room-- with a rollaway wedged in. The deluxe had a nice sleeper sofa with 2 queen beds, and enough floor space to move and dance. I may just be an unorganized mom, but when my 3 kids start pulling out shoes, swimsuits, clothes, pajamas, stuffed animals, accessories, laser guns, ETC., every square inch becomes like GOLD. Our room was beautiful and the pool was fabulous-- my 6 yr old would have spent the entire week coming down the slide if we had let him. Service at the HR was spotty (no maid service at all one day, numerous errors on the bills at checkout), I think they are still working out the kinks, although it is hard to have complete confidence in the staff and crew when you are checked in by a 20 yr old with purple hair. Maybe I am just getting OLD. the weather was perfect and the FOTL perk worked great, although the lines were minimal. flying pteranodons-- REALLY FUN!!!!!!!!!

 

[Peterd]

Lolly, glad to hear your stay was great. We are checking in on Wed. with two pool view rooms and one deluxe room. We have 5 kids, and wanted to know what you reccomended for a quick bite at the Hard Rock for the little ones. They range from 19 to 4. Did you use the Front of the line option? How was the workout room? Do you know if it was an extra charge? Thanks Pete

 

[minijeanie]

Lolly,

Also staying in a deluxe room in August. Hope the kinks are worked out by then. What floor did you stay on. Any suggestions. Also interested in eating at HRH for kids

minijeanie

 

[Tigger]

I don't know why they won't allow 5 people plus a crib in their deluxe rooms. We had that many at the Polynesian and the room was 100sf smaller. Also, since the HRH deluxe room has a sleeper sofa, there would be a lot more daytime space when the sofa was folded up. Bottom line is that we have to get two deluxe rooms since the only rooms that connect are king rooms (to a queen room) and the "non-deluxe" rooms are sold out for our visit. I will continue to call and see if a regular size king room opens up. Still, though, I know that our family would fit nicely in one deluxe room...

Linda

 

[lolly]

ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS:
1) as far as we could tell, no such thing as a quick (or cheap) bite at the HRH-- Our first morning there, we had breakfast at the sunset grill, and the check was $80 for 5 kids, 5 adults (pancakes and eggs, basically) and the service was slow-- kids were antsy to get to the parks. I think it would be alright for grownups, not in a hurry, with big appetites. Two years ago we stayed at the Contemporary at Disney, which had a great little cafe/snack bar/sandwich place-- the HRH could sure use one. It is faster, cheaper, and easier to go to the parks, which have pastry/coffee/bagel spots at the entrances.
2) FOTL worked great-- flash your room key at the ride people, most of them don't even look at it, and they direct you thru the exit of the ride, where you get loaded on immediately. We used it a lot, even though the lines were short. Kids (and husband)loved the no waiting. More time to do them over and over. My little guy (6) and I rode the pteranodon flyers 4 times without getting off because there was NO ONE in line.
3) Didn't try the workout room-- just chased the kids and called it exercise.
4) We stayed on the 2nd floor; the set up is kind of weird, because you enter the lobby on the 3rd floor, and go down to floors 1 and 2, because you are on a hill, and the first floor opens to the pool, behind the building at ground level.
5) 2 tips for staying there with kids-- there is a fully stocked minibar, where we spent $50 before we could STOP OURSELVES-- full of snacks, sodas, juice boxes ($2.25 each), milk , water, cereal, candy, liquor, wine,etc, everything outrageously priced-- I would take some of that stuff with you, and fit it in-esp. juice and water for the kids-- there is enough room if you move contents around. Also, our floor had a guest laundry, with washer and dryer, which we didn't use, but comes in very handy with little ones.

have fun; let me know if you have other questions.

 

[Peterd]

Lolly, Thanks for the info. Four days to go, and can't wait.

 

[thefoyboy]

Lolly,

Thanks for the info on the Deluxe Room. There are going to be 6 of us in our party when we go from March 9 - 15. My wife and myself, my parents, and our two children ages 3 and 10.

First off, we know about the room restriction to 5, but I have done something rather unorthodox. I called the reservation system first and talked to the lady both 'officially and unofficially' about the situation. She said 'officially' cannot have more than 5 and would need a second room costing me an additional $500. Unofficially, she said they don't do room inspections and they aren't going to check you as you go in though she did say she had heard of some guests being forced to get a second room. Ultimately, she did say it probably wouldn't be a problem to do all 6 of us in the Deluxe.

She then asked me maybe if I'd like to talk to the manager at the HRH and see what they would say. So she transferred me over. The lady I talked to was very friendly. At the time I was talking to her I had a Pool Room View reserved before changing to Deluxe on my reservation about 2 weeks ago. Anyway, I told her my situation and she indicated, unofficially of course, that she and the hotel could work with me and probably might even be able to get me another roll-away. She said they don't inspect rooms and they aren't going to stop and count as we walk in so it won't be a problem.

So Lolly, now that you have confirmed there is a sleeper sofa in the Deluxe, I won't need a roll-away of any kind and problem solved.

I don't know how much trouble must people will go to in a situation like this, but for me I'll press it to the limit when it comes to saving $500. Talking to people and getting names as I did will pay dividends in the end. Obviously, I will not officially be able to hold this lady to this, but since I won't need roll-aways and they won't be 'frisking' us as we go in and out each time we should be fine.

I'll have to let you all know how it goes in a rather different situation like this.

Thanks again Lolly. I might have more questions for you in the coming days if you don't mind.

Travel Junkie

 

[paisleypi]

Was there a separate shower in the deluxe bathroom at HRH? Is there a website with HRH floor plans for deluxe and other rooms?

 

[lolly]

Just wanted to say the sleeper sofa in our room was a loveseat/twin size mattress, so travel junkie, you may still need the rollaway-- I must tell you I admire THREE GENERATIONS!!! in the same room-- after a couple nights, I can hardly deal with my own kids, let alone parents too!! more power to you. The bathroom (for the other writer) was small, one tub/shower unit, nothing separate, except the extra sink outside the bathroom.Also, only a 6 drawer dresser, so we had to leave a lot in the suitcases.

have fun!!