Hard Rock again? or Try something new

[lejaf]

Last February, our family of 5 stayed at the Hard Rock for the first time and the entire family loved it (kids ages 9, 14, and 16). In Feb 2011, we are going back for 3 days. Do we go back to the Hard Rock where everyone was happy, or do we try one of the other hotels?
Things we espcially liked:
Walking to the parks
Spacious room (we had a deluxe room that included a pull out couch
We LOVED the hard rock theme everywhere.
Pool was nice, but we didn't spend a lot of time there.
The beds were SOOOOOO comfortable


So, how is the walk from the other two hotels? Do the other hotels have oversixed rooms for a family of 5 and how are teh beds?

Any thoughts/opinions would be apprciated.

 

[mjohnson96]

I would stay clear of RPH then if you liked the oversized rooms. The walk to IOA is about the same as that from HRH to US. The theme there is pretty nice but with a larger family I am thinking sticking with HRH is the way to go.

PBH has larger rooms, but I don't know if they have anything like the deluxe room wtih a pull out couch. The walk is also about 5-8 minutes longer since you will need to cut across the street to the HRH to shave off some walking time

 

[tfoster]

Personally, if we stayed somewhere and loved it, we'd go back to that same place. (We all tend to be creatures of habit though!) This December will be our first time at Universal so I don't have any first-hand experience with the hotels yet, but from what I can gather, if you guys LOVED the hard rock theme, I'm thinking you might be a little bored by the other hotels???

 

[Rahel]

If you loved the quick walk then the Royal Pacific would be comparable; however, as already mentioned the rooms at that hotel are smaller. The Portofino has the largest rooms of the 3 hotels and the beds are just as comfy (trust me!).

As for walking from the Portofino, it is the furthest walk, but not terrible in my opinion, maybe an extra 5-8 minutes as mjohnson said. Right now there is early admission at 8 am for guests staying at the hotels on property, not sure if that will still be going on in February, but if it is, you might want to consider the Hard Rock again for the walking proximity (and that it has bigger rooms than Royal Pacific) because you might not want to wait for the 7:30 boats.

I stayed at the Portofino and Hard Rock two different weekends for the early Harry Potter entrance and there were sometimes lines of hotel guests waiting to get into the park as early as 7:30. Those of us at the very front of the line got there as early as 7 am, which meant walking to IOA. Something you may want to consider if they still do early entrance in February.

 

[lejaf]

Thanks everyone. I like to try new places but my family all enjoyed the Hard Rock so much that I think it woiuld be hard to convince them to stay someplace else anyway! When we left there this past Feb., everyone wanted to know when we could come back...little did I know it would be a year later!

And that's a good point about the early hours for Harry Potter....although I guess we'll have to wait to see if they continue those early hours nex Feb.