Pam,
First let me say what an excellent choice of hotel. The HRH is simply amazing and has to be one of Orlandos best hotels. We have stayed at the HRH 3 times now and plan to go back there next year at some stage. Each time we hired a sebring convertible from Dollar. Our first stay was in Sept '01 (honeymoon). We originally had 14nts booked in Barbados, but as a surprise I booked 5 nts to Orlando aswell. The hotels I chose for the 5nts were the Wyndham Palace resort at Downtown Disney and then the HRH. We enjoyed the stay at the Wyndham, but the Hard Rock was that good we didn't wan't to leave the place to go back to Barbados! As soon as we got back home I made plans to get back to the Hard Rock. We went in March '02 and had another excellent stay. We also did Discovery Cove on this trip ,which was fantastic. On our most recent trip to the HRH (27/09-11/10) my wife was pregnant, so we spent quite a lot of the time around the pool during the day relaxing and then headed over to City Walk & Halloween Horror nights in the evenings. I also booked a couple of nights at Disneys Yacht Club (concierge lagoon view) for this stay because I thought we might get bored lying around the HRH pool for two weeks . Well this couldn't be further from the truth. We checked out of the YC early (after the 1st night) , because again we couldnt wait to get back to to the HRH ! The HRH was running 20-30% occupancy weekdays and 95-100% weekends during this stay.
Pam you asked about dining options. We ate at every restaraunt in the Hotel and City Walk apart from Emerils. Our favourites at City Walk had to be the Hard Rock Cafe and Margaritille. The Sunset grill in the hotel is really nice aswell. For lunch around the pool there is the "beach club". You can either eat around the bar, in your own cabana or ask one of the servers to take your order from your deckchair, poolside. The Hotel has a Palm restaurant (pricey), and a Starbucks that serves some great ice creams aswell. If you are going to IOA, i would highly reccommend "Mythos" restaurant (the chef posts on the Universal board under the user name "the second cook")
The Pool - One of Orlandos largest pools. Underwater sound system ! 240ft slide. Sand beach. Walk-in zero entry. 2 hydrospas. Shufflebaord. Volleyball. As many towels as you require. Cabana rental for half day, full day and birthday package available. You can also rent/buy flotation devices. Friday nights is Dive in movies night. They take some of the deckchairs off the beach and erect a massive screen. Waynes World and Bill and Teds excellent adventure was playing whilst we was there( Fantastic for kids) They also play a concert on the screen on Saturday nights and if the weather is bad they move the whole set up into the lobby. The pool area also has 2 walkways to the parks (IOA &USF) and City Walk. The side gate to the left is more of a scenic route which takes around 5-10 mins to get to the entrance of USF, the back gate, by the beach club is a bit quicker and take about 3-5mins to get to USF/City Walk and 5-10mins to IOA. You can also take the complimentary Boat straight into the middle of City Walk, but it can be upto a 15 minute wait.
Check-in - If you are using Valet ($12.00 per night) to park just pull the car right up to the front and the staff will take care of everthing. If you wan't to self park go to your right half way up the drive and press the button for a ticket to open the barrier. Take the ticket to check-in and let them know you are self parking. Self parking is $6.00 per night, but we the charge didn't go on the bill on our last two trips, just the first. Once at check-in you have to provide photo ID and they will ask you for a credit card imprint (optional) for On-site purchses. You can have a limit of $100,250,350 per day. But BEWARE , a hold for that amount will be placed on your card times the amount of nights you are staying at the HRH e.g. 16nts at $100 = $1600. If you have a loews card you can present it at check-in and you will receive complimentary newspaper every morning and other things such as wine, milk and cookies and a fruit bowl. I think you get free use of the gym aswell. If you ask about a room upgrade they will usually give you a complimentary upgrade to pool from garden view, depending on room availability. You can usually upgrade to concierge for $50.00 per night aswell. You will receive a complimentarty HRH CD at check-in.
Rooms - Just ask anyone who has stayed at the HRH about the beds and pillows. They are exceptionally comfortable. I think the pillows are goose/duck down and the beds have triple cotton sheeting. Anyway the rooms are amazing and the styling is fantastic. You will get either 2 queens or 1 King Bed (we have stayed in both, The King room had a couch). You also get a mini bar, iron & ironing board, hairdryer, bathroom scales,2 sinks, CD player, 2 phones (1 cordless), electronic safe, elecrtronic air-con, Nintendo/Playstation and all the major TV channels including Pay TV and Internet access. On our last trip (1 King bed room number 6042) we had a great view of the pool and you could see the entrance to USF and IOA. You could also see Sea World in the distance. The laundry rooms are on the 2nd and 4th floors, but they also do a dry cleaning service.
For something extra special during your stay I would reccommend doing a tour of the Hard Rock Cafe (Yes it is that big!). I think the tour runs half hourly and the guide will take you into the Hard Rock Live and show you around the Lennon room and other places. The is no charge for the tour and the guide is really freindly. I would also reccommend you check on ticketmaster.com for any concerts that may be on during your stay. We went to see Nelly Furtado in March at the Hard Rock Live (she was staying at the HRH aswell).
Hope this helps and if you are interested I also have about 300 digital photos of every part of the Hard Rock Hotel (rooms, lobby, pool, entrance etc etc)and some of City Walk, USF and IOA. Please feel free to ask any other questions you may have.
Have a great time
Regards
Paul
!
) really is great.
