just back from hrh--my review

[stwyatt]

just got back from a great uo vacation--i always use these boards and get great info, so i always try to give my impressions of our stay for others. i'll post a trip reporrt with more info on restaurants, attractions, etc.

the hrh is just what these boards describe--the best location, fun and boisterous(i never found the music to be that loud). it was clean and had the look of a resort. ---on the downside, as everyone also mentions, i could do without the parking fee, it would be nice if the rooms had microwaves(for leftovers and quick breakfasts), although the snack bar on the 1st floor has micros. and prices on water, pop, etc was as expected on the gouging side--but we expected that. we had no trouble with check-in/check-out. our final bill had no errors, so it was a great stay.

i know that lots of posts describe any and every flaw that a hotel rm might have(flecking paint, scratched trim) and yeah, there were some signs of use at the hotel-but we found none that detracted from our stay.

finally, for those folks debating to stay onsite or off. we stayed at the crowne plaza universal for the last 2nts of our trip. we got the room for 59/nt on hotwire--compared to 202/nt at the hrh. i will always recommend onsite if you can swing it. our last day there was an hour wait for spiderman, we walked on with fotl--enough said. the fotl pays for the extra cost of an onsite room because you can have so much more park time. walking to citiwalk, grabbing bfast before the parks open and the wonderful look of the resorts make it much more special of a stay--but if you are just looking at a hotel room, the crowne plaza is every bit as nice as the hrh, rpr(i haven't stayed at pfb) the rooms are spacious, clean, and very nice. they don't have granite counters or marble floors in the bathrms but they are very nice rooms. we went to sw/dc our last 2 days, so we didn't need fotl, that is why we moved to the crowne plaza.---and as i said before, i recommend onsite, but realize, you can stay almost a whole week at a great hotel for the price of one nite at the onsites, which might fit someone else's budget. i don't know if i gave any new info, but hopefully this will help someone in there planning.

 

[rpbert1]

Yeah ,fotl is worth the price of staying onsite, as like you say you can get much more out of a day in the park , and is more relaxing rather than standing in long queues,

 

[bubba's mom]

i will always recommend onsite if you can swing it. our last day there was an hour wait for spiderman, we walked on with fotl--enough said. the fotl pays for the extra cost of an onsite room because you can have so much more park time. walking to citiwalk, grabbing bfast before the parks open and the wonderful look of the resorts make it much more special of a stay--

Couldn't agree more....why pay all that money for a vacation where all you seem to do is 'stand in line'

Thanks for your report and I'm glad you had a great time!

 

[marvel]

thanks for the report. its good to hear all the positives about HRH.

 

[tiggerguy2000]

Glad you had a good time

Some people think it's just a room and with money or not they would rather stay as cheap as possible and im sure thats why I dont have mad money.I guess you did it right by staying on-site for the nights at universal and the Crown on the nights doing things outside of universal.
I have learned for myself that staying on-site is the only way when we go to universal after that first trip while staying on international drive and taking that walk from the parking lot into universal.I have been staying at the HRH since the first week it opened and I now only stay on the club level for the reason of the good food,beer and the snacks and drinks.The $100.00 you pay over the cost of the other rooms are worth every penny.

tiggerguy

 

[ky07]

Glad you had a good time

Some people think it's just a room and with money or not they would rather stay as cheap as possible and im sure thats why I dont have mad money.I guess you did it right by staying on-site for the nights at universal and the Crown on the nights doing things outside of universal.
I have learned for myself that staying on-site is the only way when we go to universal after that first trip while staying on international drive and taking that walk from the parking lot into universal.I have been staying at the HRH since the first week it opened and I now only stay on the club level for the reason of the good food,beer and the snacks and drinks.The $100.00 you pay over the cost of he other rooms are worth every penny.

tiggerguy

to be honest I would love to stay onsite because yes its worth it just for the fotl but some people are unable to due to the fact of being on a budget.
like I am cause there are 4 of us and only one of us working and so we have so little money we wait until we file our taxes and depending on what we get back we try to work it out to take the vacation we can afford and most times it has to be offsite and this year we want to stay onsite but we have to wait and see cause prices on everything are so high and we already have to cut it from 7 to 5 days.

 

[aarontedrow]

Thanks

 

[stwyatt]

there is no doubt that only having 1 child makes it much easier to afford a vacation where you can stay onsite. but you can still have a great time staying offsite. i remember in 2000 we came to orlando for the first time. our son was 5 so wdw was the main focus of our vacation. we decided to do univ. for 1 day, stayed offsite before going to wdw onsite. univ blew us away, we ended up staying onsite at wdw but driving to univ. now 7yrs later our vacations are planned around uo. but the best time we ever had was that very first time and we stayed offsite(hrh was only in bldg stage. pbh was new and there was no fotl)

 

[bubba's mom]

Thanks

yes...it's called a mini-bar and it's pretty expensive

 

[ky07]

there is no doubt that only having 1 child makes it much easier to afford a vacation where you can stay onsite. but you can still have a great time staying offsite. i remember in 2000 we came to orlando for the first time. our son was 5 so wdw was the main focus of our vacation. we decided to do univ. for 1 day, stayed offsite before going to wdw onsite. univ blew us away, we ended up staying onsite at wdw but driving to univ. now 7yrs later our vacations are planned around uo. but the best time we ever had was that very first time and we stayed offsite(hrh was only in bldg stage. pbh was new and there was no fotl)[/QUOTE


I agree with you first time I ever went to Orlando was when my father-in-law wanted to take us to wdw cause he wanted to take my dw and ds's for what he said his first and last vacation with them in which he never told us how sick he was cause that was a june and he passed away in december that year but while there we were only going one day to wdw and one day universal and too make a long story short we loved it soo much we just had to do ioa.
ever since we try to do a vacation to universal for us and also in memory of him and with any luck we are going to try to stay onsite this year.