HRH or Royal Pacific

[rcraw45425]

First time onsite, family of four kids are 8 & 10 now, two girls, we (parents) are in our 40's. Which hotel for us? We normally stay Deluxe at Disney, YC, CR, GF, WL, Poly. Kids are leaning toward the Hard Rock, is it geared more toward singles or couples without kids? Planning on June if that helps. TIA!

 

[Beezle2]

We stayed at the RPR last year and liked it ok. Our standard room seemed small and dark, and we thought the walk over to the park was a bit long. Overall we did enjoy our stay but we chose HRH for this trip. Haven't stayed there yet but we are pretty excited. The HR seems to be right in the middle of the action.

Happy planning!
alisa

 

[UKDEB]

We've stayed at all three Universal resorts (twice at each). I don't think you'd be disappointed with either and both are family friendly, so you don't need to worry about that.

HRH is hip and happening and RPR is more relaxed. The pool at RPR tends to be quieter and it also has a nice beach area. Music plays everywhere (except your room) at HRH, even underwater!

Both are within easy walking distance of CityWalk. HRH is closer to the Studios (around 5 minutes) and RPR is closer to IoA (the path brings you out alongside Margaritaville). In my experience, it's quicker to walk than to get the water taxi (although that's a 'nice to do' occasionally).

I probably prefer the rooms at HRH, but that's a personal thing. RPR tends to be cheaper. If you're in to fine dining, both the Palm at HRH and Tchoup Chop at RPR are worth a visit. Of the regular restaurants, for me, Islands at RPR has the edge over the Kitchen at HRH. I like both Jake's Bar (RPR) and Velvet Lounge (HRH). I'm not being much help here, am I?

How long are you there for? Why not consider a split stay?

 

[macraven]

rph is 335 sq ft
hrh is 375 sq ft.
pbh, wait, that one is not on your list.....


i have always stayed at hrh. i love the neutral colors and theming in the rooms, love the park views and short walk to the parks from there.

this fall i am staying at rph for the experience. only thing i do know about rph is the rooms are smaller and rooms are done in dark colors.
you get two sinks at hrh while rph has only one.

don't let the pool be your deciding factor on hotel choice, you can pool hop to all three hotel pools.

i say go for hrh.
but then after my fall trip, i might say rph

 

[rcraw45425]

I don't think my family would go for a split stay. We did one at WDW in October '04, moved from WL to Poly on the day we had a Halloween Party booked, disaster city. Luckily we had our own vehicle, didn't get into our Poly room till almost 5 and had a 5:30 PS for Ohana. Rushed dinner to make the party on time. We'll be there for 4 nights probably, that's our normal DIsney stay time (we have Disney AP's). This will be our first US/IOA trip sinceFeb. of '02. THe girls are older now, and we do love Disney, just ready for something different. THey remember very little of the '02 trip, plus we stayed offsite, across Kirkman at a Hyatt I think, next to TGIFridays. Since then we have neumerous Disney trips racked up and love the onsite experience. The time we are looking at is actually arriving on DD10's birthday. I hate that Kong is gone, but am looking forward to the Mummy. How are the restaurants there, as I mentioned, we know Disney inside out, this is a totally new experience.

 

[rcraw45425]

Personally, my hubby and I love the look of the Portofino Bay, it's just that the kids think it looks too stuffy, this from kids that loved the GF, go figure. I think that the oldest is set on HRH because she has friends that have stayed there. PErsonally, the RPH reminds me of the Poly, of which we weren't that crazy about. Our room there, while it had a great view, was dark,musty and right by the elevator . I'll probably be checking the US boards more often now, since we are seriously concidering this June trip.

 

[UKDEB]

Onsite at Universal is every bit as good as onsite at WDW, IMO. The proximity of the parks/resorts/CityWalk makes for a special experience. FOTL is even more attractive now that Universal has officially done away with Express Pass (the only way you can join the Express line is by staying onsite, or by paying for Express Plus).

The restaurant choices at USF are great. With a few exceptions (V&A's, California Grill, bluezoo, et al), we've grown out of the WDW options. We find we only enjoy the resort eateries these days - we struggle to find anywhere we really want to eat at the WDW parks. Of course, your dining preferences could be totally different to ours. We're real foodies and our girls are grown up now (21 and 18). Mythos at IoA is way better than any WDW park restaurant (with the possible exception of Bistro de Paris which we've never got around to trying).

We always seem to eat at Hard Rock Cafe. The food is just OK - not great, not bad - but it's such a cool place. We've also enjoyed meals at Emeril's (CityWalk), Tchoup Chop (RPR) and the Palm (HRH). We love Margaritaville, but more as an adult evening venue (definitely not for the food, which is just OK). We've eaten once each at Nascar Cafe and NBA City and wouldn't bother going back.

If you've got time, you could wander over and check out PBH. Sal's Deli is a good spot for lunch and Mama Della's makes an unusual change for dinner. Bice is the new fine dining option there, but we haven't tried it yet - I can't believe it could live up to its forerunner, Delfino Riviera which was truly superb and the area's best kept secret (obviously too well kept, which is presumably why it didn't survive).

The Mummy is currently my favourite coaster, although I am a huge R'n'R fan (and I rode Expedition Everest at the AP preview last month). Your girls will also love Shrek 4D.

 

[rcraw45425]

Thanks for the info Debbie. Our girls, even though they are young, love to eat well and are very well behaved. We as a family, however, are not very adventurous, food wise. We enjoy a good steak, good seafood (something Disney doesn't really have) and good service. Presentation doesn't mean as much to us as flavor. We usually split our adult entrees with the girls, they are at the point where chicken nuggets just don't do it for them. THey love king crab legs and filet mignon! I'm not that familiar with Emerils, I love the show on Food Network, just not too big on the exotic. I'm trying to remember where we ate when we were there in '02, I think we just did the counter service in the parks, then ate at the chain restaurants on Kirkman. I think that our hotel is now the Doubletree, we were offsite then. I'm leaning more toward the HRH, it looks more appealling. Just waiting to hear back from our TA now. Can we make PS/AR's like at WDW?

 

[damo]

Both are very nice. We usually stay where we get the best price but my kids prefer HRH. They love to be able to go down and get ice cream.

 

[tinkerdorabelle]

We stayed at both and prefer HRH, but both are nice. I was actually surprised bc I thought I would prefer the RPR but HRH was nicer, if you're bringing kids that age, would definitely choose HRH. Seemed a closer walk also and more convenient to the parks. We've brought teenagers and have gone alone and either way prefer HRH. But you can't go wrong at either honestly. Go over to the one you don't choose and have lunch, I think you're allowed to pool hop also?? But we love visiting the resorts. HRH has a slide also!

 

[macraven]

pool hopping is allowed and encouraged.

pbh and hrh have slides. rph does not

 

[rcraw45425]

Thanks for all of the advice, looks like it's the HRH, which the girls are ecstatic about. Just waiting for my confirmation info.