gopherit
I'm not in the book, you know.
- Joined
- Sep 21, 2003
- Messages
- 1,327
Just wanted to post a quick shout-out to RPH. We have stayed at HRH and PBH and certainly have enjoyed aspects of both, but this trip we ended up at RPH and frankly, it will remain our preference of the 3! Like Goldilocks checking out the oatmeal in the Bear house... this one's too hot... this one is too cold.... this one is juuuuuust riiiiight! Reasons: lovely hotel. THe theming agress with us. I won't get into what "dis"agreed with us about the other resorts because to each his own, but the tropical atmosphere had just enough feeling of "pampered" without ever feeling austere or stuffy. Also gotta love the location - such a pleasant, easy walk to IOA and City walk. And the pool - my toddler adored the water play area, and my older kids (and DH!) spent hours playing volleyball in the pool. THe desk clerks were extremely helpful and friendly, and rooms were well-cleaned. Even oUr view (we had rooms 1618 and 1620) was excellent of the pool area. As I told the clerk - RPH has become our "juuussst riiiight" for any future stay in US/IOA area!
As I said - everyone has their own idea of comfort! I will say the RPH desk did ask me, upon check-in, if I needed baggage assistance, along with park passes, dining ressies, directions, etc. so perhaps it's not a resort-wide issue and you just had an unlucky experience with your check-in. Conceirge was very helpful there as well, and at check-out, I had a different person, equally as helpful (there was an incorrect charge to my room we had to reconcile, plus I had lost my key - all handled deftly and with great courtesy!) In contrast - when we checked-in at HRH, we were greeted rather stiffly - as if the desk were the "rock stars" and we were the peons. The resort in general was nice but felt cold to us, and as a family, a little too "adult". (Pictures of a sweaty Jimi or Jim Morrison in all his glory just weren't what we were looking for in room ambiance at the end of a day...) But I figure maybe we hit the staff on an off-day there, too - their conceirge staff was top-notch. I do think that RPH, being a conference hotel, is probably more used to people like my DH, such as folks traveling on business or groups traveling on tight budgets, etc. that wanna do their own thing their own way (and let's call it for what it is... cheap, LOL!) So it might not have that same pampering degree to it that say, PBH would have? FWIW - and again, my experience only, so take with grain of salt and a margarita to go with it - for what you describe in customer service, PBH has HRH beat hands-down. They define that "luxurious" pampered feel of the 3 resorts. They work hard to give ya that "sweet life" feeling. Unfortunately, we gophers just aren't (always) the pampering sort (at least not til my kids get older. Makes me too nervous we are going to screw something up somehow... like a scene from "The Clampetts Visit Rome", LOL...)
That really made me smile as we are exactly the same. When we stayed at the WL in WDW, there seemed to be someone for everything when we checked in - in fact couldnt get unpacking done in peace without someone knocking at the door to check things were OK -we half expected someone popping out from under the bed - just checking the 'under the bed area' - rather like the episode in Michael Palin's (of Monty Python fame) Rippin Yarns - do you know that one in the US?
! It is the only place we've stayed in our numerous trips to Universal. I keep saying we'll try the others, but I just haven't been able to get myself to do it. I like RPR that much! The themeing, the laid back atmosphere, the great wait staff, the lush grounds and the perfect pool keep us coming back. I keep thinking my kids will outgrow the RPR pool since we've been going since they were young and are now teenagers. They haven't though, and I doubt I'll ever get tired of the palm trees and Pacific Sunset drink brought to me on my lounge chair (I'm not a drinker, but I've got to have one of these frozen babies every trip)!
