just back from pbh

[hannymom]

wow, did we get a great room at pbh. i got 5th floor, balcony, west wing, everything you guys said to ask for.
we ate at trattoria del porto one night, excellent food. ordered off the menu, didn't get the $29.95 buffet.
hotel staff was friendly and helpful.
the parks didn't seem crowded to us but the wait times for all the good rides were always around 60 minutes. (which is why we would never go to universal without staying on property)
i ended up riding mummy 3 times. not as bad as i thought it would be. if i can do it, anyone can......
the boats are slow, it seemed like there was only one boat running the whole time we were there. and with a thunderstorm every afternoon, the boats ran even less because of lightening. that i can understand, but why only run one boat in good weather??? we ended up walking alot of the time. took the bus one night, and even took the bike ride once. had no idea what to tip them though. we gave them $5 for 2 of us, probably not enough, right????
we have stayed at rp twice now so thats why i wanted to try pbh. as much as i loved pbh, i think we might try hard rock next time, if nothing else, because it is closer. it looked like if we got a room on the side closest to the parks, we could walk there in no time.
thanks to all who answered my questions prior to the trip, from room assignments to shampoo!

 

[robvia]

Great report. $5 tip for the bike riders is fine. We did this once at the Hard Rock here in Hollywood Florida, and that's the minimum. If you're buzzed and give more, fine. Also just returned from the PBH. Now I've been to all 3 and the PBH is the best. Huge bathrooms (you could literally put an air mattress in them), beautiful resort, nice pool with slide, and the people are very friendly.

I took the walking path one morning. The time from the PBH boat dock to the HRH boat dock is 8 minutes. And from the HRH boat dock to USF is 5 minutes. So it's about 13-15 minutes to walk. Nice to do in the morning, then take the boat back in the afternoon.

Yes, there were thunderstorms which usually happened around 4pm. We drove over to the parking garage instead of waiting for the bus. Went to Margaritaville one night, food was great, saw the volcano go off. Not much to see there, just some colored water, but the crowd gets into it, and then live music videos of Jimmy Buffett play. Even with our room key, we had to wait 30 minutes, but this was at peak time.

Yes, the HRH is closer, but the bathroom is smaller, and the staff can have a "snooty" attitude at times. The HRH is louder, with rock music playing everywhere. Go ahead and try it, then you can say you've been to all 3. You'll love the short 5 minute walk to the parks. Just understand the atmosphere is different and the hotel (walls, carpet) can look beat up at times. It's not as pretty as the PBH.

 

[goNDmay9]

Completely agree with robvia. We just came back from PBH (when were you there? I was there last week - left on saturday). we love the hotel, the atmosphere and everything.

After this past stay, now we can say we have been to all three. It is kind of a cool feeling. We had a bad incident surrouding the security staff at PBH this last time, so we are a little tainted with PBH. Hopefully, i will get a good response from them and it will no longer be an issue.

I totally agree with you hannymom about the boats! It was crazy. We typically walk -but we had two strollers and a two year old this time making it a different trek alltogether. Waiting for the boats was frustrating. Literally, there were times that two RPR and one HRH boat would come by before the PBH one. Several times we just took a deep breath and walked back - it was so much quicker, but we were exhausted. (I just kept telling myself - cardio, deanna, cardio - you need the cardio)

Once, two RPR boats came and left, HRH came by and left, and then they filled the PBH halfway (of course we were not in the first half) and then filled the second half with the HRH people! LOL. My parents are not big fans of hardrock (different atmosphere - just too busy for them) but they said that they missed that quick walk!

I always wondered what to tip the bike folks. I would have gladly done that on one of those days we were trying to make it back for happy hour!

 

[hannymom]

we were there from the 24-28th. i absolutely loved the pbh, but with all the times we had to end up walking for reasons mentioned above (like every boat but ours seemed to come and go) we kept saying 'if we stayed at hrh, we'd be home by now!! i asked about the boats and they said that universal as a whole is understaffed and until people started complaining, they probably wouldn't do anything about it. did anyone else notice how many times attractions were down do to 'technical difficulties?'. it happened to us on mummy, hulk, et, ripsaw falls and spiderman. maybe that has something to do with being understaffed.......
and you are right goNDmay9, it would be neat to say we've stayed at all 3. that makes us experts, right???

 

[IMGONNABE40!]

I am happy to see you enjoyed PBH. If all goes according to plan, I will be there this time next week! I love PBH! HRH had been my fav, but no longer. It is a toss up between the lower cost of RPR or the luxury of PBH. HRH does have the "close" factor--but that is not enough to make me want to return.

 

[goNDmay9]

we were there from the 24-28th. i absolutely loved the pbh, but with all the times we had to end up walking for reasons mentioned above (like every boat but ours seemed to come and go) we kept saying 'if we stayed at hrh, we'd be home by now!! i asked about the boats and they said that universal as a whole is understaffed and until people started complaining, they probably wouldn't do anything about it. did anyone else notice how many times attractions were down do to 'technical difficulties?'. it happened to us on mummy, hulk, et, ripsaw falls and spiderman. maybe that has something to do with being understaffed.......
and you are right goNDmay9, it would be neat to say we've stayed at all 3. that makes us experts, right???

We were there at the same time! We were there June 27 ,28 and 29! We also had the mechanical difficulties on those rides! On those walks back we would just look at HRH longingly as we passed on - flip flops pounding the sidewalk in unison! Cardio is great! Cardio is great! Gotta walk off that turkey leg and funnel cake.

 

[Spongemage]

I'm going to UO next week, but I'm not staying on-site Oh well, at least I'm going!

 

[robvia]

We were there the 25th, 26th, and the morning of the 27th. We didn't spend much time in the parks. The kids wanted to go to the pool and get a sun tan. And we went to Margaritaville one night. I didn't notice any breakdowns of the rides, but we were there early each mornng.

On the evening of the 26th, we went to Margaritaville and the boat was not running because of the weather. The thunderstorms usually happen at 4pm, and that stops the boats. We went to the bus station, and the line was about 50 people. I knew everyone would not fit on the bus, so we drove our truck over to the parking garage, and things worked out fine.