Royal Pacific or Hard Rock

[maui2k5]

HRH comments are making he think maybe we made a mistake booking the Future Rock Star Suite for 7 nights in August...

1) Is 7 nights too much for UOR
2) Is HRH "second rate" compared to the other two UOR premier resorts.
3) Should we instead split our stay with WDW (3 or 4 nights at UOR and the remaining 3 or 4 at WDW)?

Our girls are 10 and 12 and have been to WDW many times, but never Universal. Our 10 year old does not ride coasters that go upside down (so no to HRRR, Hulk, Velocicoaster, Mummy would be a possible maybe, for her)

 

[disneyseniors]

We have only stayed at RPR and absolutely loved it, from the rooms to the tropical ambience. Their staff was friendly, helpful, and excellent in every way! But we love the tropical vibe, as we are from far North!!!
I guess it depends on what your family likes better? Are they rock and rollers, teenagers, or just like the pool? Either way, you will be at Universal which is great enough

 

[nkereina]

We've had great stays at both. We opt for RPR when budget is tight, but will choose HRH if the cost difference is negligible. As two adults, we spend the most time at Universal Orlando so having the shorter walk to Universal from HRH is a nice advantage.

In terms of amenities, again as two adults, we prefer the pool atmosphere at HRH. We also love the Kitchen and were not crazy about any of the TS restaurants at RPR. I think its a draw in terms of grab and go options.

In terms of theme, neither wow me. I could take or leave the hard rock theme, but one thing I like about the staff at HRH is their laidback (but still professional) demeanors. The employees have more casual uniforms, sometimes have multi-colored hair, visible tattoos and piercings. They talk and joke with you like a buddy rather than take a formal hospitality type of approach you'd typically see at a resort. Its hard to describe, but it aligns with the "rock" theme and something about it makes us feel very comfortable there. We've never felt uncomfortable at RPR, but it definitely has more of a traditional approach to providing service (i.e. suit style uniform, open palms instead of pointing, "my pleasure" type stuff) which feels a little more formal to me.

 

[nkereina]

1) Is 7 nights too much for UOR
2) Is HRH "second rate" compared to the other two UOR premier resorts.
3) Should we instead split our stay with WDW (3 or 4 nights at UOR and the remaining 3 or 4 at WDW)?

1) 7 nights would be too much for me, but I know many here would disagree. Universal has 2 main parks (3 if you include Volcano Bay), and it takes a full day to finish each for us. We often use a third day to re-visit what we like in each park. We always do Universal as a split stay with our Disney trip (5 days Disney, 3 days Universal for us). I think 7 nights at Universal is fine if you are also doing Volcano Bay and have other off-site plans, but I personally would get bored after day 3 or 4 of doing only Universal parks.

2) Absolutely not. In fact, HRH is often the highest priced of the three premier resorts. Royal Pacific is typically the least expensive of the three and would be the "budget" one of the three, but they are all comparable in terms of service and amenities.

3) With 7 nights, we would definitely do a split stay. Especially given your kids ages and the fact that one does not do big coasters. Another thing to keep in mind is height, as some of the height restrictions at Universal are greater than anything at Disney.

 

[disneydreamer1980]

If not having a slide at RPR is a turn off, you can always pool hop to whatever resort appeals to you. We hopped to cabana bay before for their lazy river.

 

[jolene63]

HRH comments are making he think maybe we made a mistake booking the Future Rock Star Suite for 7 nights in August...

1) Is 7 nights too much for UOR
2) Is HRH "second rate" compared to the other two UOR premier resorts.
3) Should we instead split our stay with WDW (3 or 4 nights at UOR and the remaining 3 or 4 at WDW)?

Our girls are 10 and 12 and have been to WDW many times, but never Universal. Our 10 year old does not ride coasters that go upside down (so no to HRRR, Hulk, Velocicoaster, Mummy would be a possible maybe, for her)

Don't second guess your decision. Everyone has different opinions. We are tied between HRH and PBR for first. We love them both and are staying at one in June and the other in July. For us, we really didn't like RPR. We would rather stay at Cabana Bay than there. We didn't have a bad experience at RPR, but we just didn't love anything about it.

 

[limace]

We just ended a stay at HRH-my kids all preferred it to Animal Kingdom 2 bedroom and Bonnet Creek 2 bedroom we’d stayed at earlier on the trip. It’s my 15 year old’s favorite hotel ever.

 

[maui2k5]

We just ended a stay at HRH-my kids all preferred it to Animal Kingdom 2 bedroom and Bonnet Creek 2 bedroom we’d stayed at earlier on the trip. It’s my 15 year old’s favorite hotel ever.

How long did you stay at HRH resort and what type of room at HRH?

 

[limace]

Three nights, 2 regular 2 queen rooms. We had one booked and when I got there I asked about upgrades as I just didn’t think we could handle all five of us (kids are 11-24) in one room-they gave me a connecting room at the AP rate which had showed as no longer available for the room. We liked the food in the little market at pool bar and ate at each twice. The pool and pool bar are great.

 

[olive]

My vote is for Royal Pacific. We have stayed there numerous times. I haven't been interested in staying at HRH yet, but I don't have anything negative to say about it! I just really like RP.

I don't think a week is too long at Universal. We have done a week. But we spend more downtime at the pools and enjoying the hotels when we do that. We have also done split stays to try out different hotels. We really like Cabana Bay (lazy river! and they have a bowling alley and family suites), Portofino (gelato, lovely pools, pizza at Sals) and Royal Pacific. We have stayed at Royal Pacific the most, followed by Cabana Bay I believe. I don't like single day visits to parks because it feels too pressure to rush through everything. We like to take our time. And if the weather turns or it becomes too crowded, we can switch to something else. We also like park-to-park tickets to we an switch between IOA and Universal, especially using Hogwarts Express. When we do longer stays, we usually do half days in the parks and a LOT of lounging. You can hang out at CityWalk, do the cool mini golf, and explore with zero pressure. If timing allows, going during HHN with teens might be fun.

Have a good trip!

 

[jimmymc]

I stayed at RP a few weeks ago. The rooms were nice but some of the furniture was pretty warn down and due to be replaced. The gardens and pool are beautiful. It does not feel like you're in central Florida, and I would definitely stay there again.

 

[Welsh_Dragon]

I stay at HRH but I don’t love it. In fact I had such a dreadful experience at CL that I vowed never to stay there again.... but their reward programme is quite generous (free nights etc) and I like knowing where everything is etc. Also, they make a mean Bloody Mary at the pool bar.

 

[jimmymc]

HRH comments are making he think maybe we made a mistake booking the Future Rock Star Suite for 7 nights in August...

1) Is 7 nights too much for UOR
2) Is HRH "second rate" compared to the other two UOR premier resorts.
3) Should we instead split our stay with WDW (3 or 4 nights at UOR and the remaining 3 or 4 at WDW)?

Our girls are 10 and 12 and have been to WDW many times, but never Universal. Our 10 year old does not ride coasters that go upside down (so no to HRRR, Hulk, Velocicoaster, Mummy would be a possible maybe, for her)

1. 7 nights with express pass is more than you need for just Universal, but you are close to everything else on International Drive and downtown Orlando. There are plenty of other attractions in the area. You could also do a day trip to the beach or Disney. Universal resort pools tend to be pretty empty in the middle of the day, and I think your kids would love that too. For a first Universal trip, 3 parks days is good, plus a 4th if you're doing volcano bay.
2. Not at all. The rooms are larger than Royal Pacific and it has the best location of any resort. The only complaint I see is that some people don't like the black, white, and pink color scheme.
3. If you're going to Disney more than one day, I would probably split it. The drive is at least 20 minutes and can be 40 to an hour with traffic.

 

[connorlevismom]

Thank you all so much for your advice. I am going to keep RP for now, but may switch to HRH if the AP rates are any good when they come out.

 

[Going to WDW]

We prefer HRH. My visit to RPR in Dec 2019 was very so-so (and that was probably a generous assessment.) My impresssion is the rooms/service were better at HRH (a substandard club level experience at RPR, but the room and the stay missed the mark overall --- we're not super fussy but the room cleaning was not great, we were charged for water we didn't use, super late service of room, etc..)

We always do a split stay between WDW and UO --- more days for WDW dsince there's more there --- usually about 7 days WDW with 4 at UO. I know you can do all the parks quicker than that but we don't do parks every day at either place.

One thing we found better at RPR was the boat service.... not empirical in any way but we found that we waited more for boats with HRH --- although it was a quick and easy walk to both parks and citywalk from HRH.

Overall I think we'd go back to HRH though before going to RPR...

 

[Belle83]

We've stayed at Royal Pacific but not recently. We were contemplating Hard Rock for our upcoming trip next January but decided to stay at Royal Pacific again. I think it was slightly cheaper. When I looked at maps of the walking paths from Hard Rock it didn't seem that much more convenient than getting on the boat at Royal Pacific, especially for Islands of Adventure.

 

[macraven]

If you stay at RP, you are closer to IOA
Stay at HR, closer to the studios

I enjoy both of them but usually stay at RP due to more dining options at the hotel
Jakes has the late dining hours

A good portion of my onsite stays are the hotel
eateries

 

[ColoradoMom!!]

We just ended a stay at HRH-my kids all preferred it to Animal Kingdom 2 bedroom and Bonnet Creek 2 bedroom we’d stayed at earlier on the trip. It’s my 15 year old’s favorite hotel ever.

We stayed at Bonnet Creek in 2017, 2 bedroom with our two older sons. I was planning to do that again in November, but the price of the EP's got me looking back at doing 2 hotel rooms instead. I am just worried about not having the extra space. What else about the hotel room appealed to your 15 year old vs Bonnet Creek?

 

[limace]

She looooves the vibe of the HRH-the more Modern style and the close walk to the park enables her to be more independent. (We all appreciated that by the end of our trip after hauling everyone around WDW for a week). They enjoy the pool and the food at the pool bar. It didn’t help that Bonnet Creek was full of cheer leaders and they were pretty unpleasant-screaming their cheer routines in the pool so we could hear them on our balcony across the lake, cheer moms refusing to wear masks and getting in elevator with us. My kids were pretty appalled by all that.

 

[kinkin201]

Are there any differences in the perks/amenities? We just stayed at Portofino and selected it mostly due to it's location (the walk was nice, mostly shaded and took around 15mins) and the express pass included our checkin and check out date. It also had a starbucks, which was great for my coffee addiction lol