RPR Club Level vs. Portifino Bay View

[Iheoma]

Hi Everyone,

My family (dh, dd (10) and I) will be traveling to USF/IOA in early May for vacation. We've got a great APH rate for a Bay view room at PBH. I've been thinking (a lot) about the trip and considering moving our ressie to RPR for a club level room. The club level in PBH is more than I'm interested in paying, but RPR is just right. We originally chose BPH because we prefer quieter hotels and the room size is a good fit for us. The distance to park is not a big deal to us - we're doing Universal for a couple of days and the Busch parks for a couple of days. Our hotel will be our home base. So, could anyone give advice that has stayed at both and/or has strong opinions and information? Thanks in advance.

 

[bumbershoot]

I have not stayed on both of those levels, BUT have a few thoughts.

To get the benefit of a Club level, it means being there in the Club. If you are avid park goers and do not wish to return to the hotel repeatedly throughout the day, your value will be lower. I found RPR's club (in Dec 2010) to open *just* too late to comfortably make it over to IOA for early entrance to the Wizarding World. The one morning it looked like we might make it (rushing down the hall to the club, grabbing stuff and coffee to go and rushing out to the elevators for a rush to the park), my son dropped his wand somewhere and we had to take time to look for it (half hour later we found out that a departing guest had found it in the Club and dropped it off with the front desk, yay for him!). The other days it was just too difficult to snag breakfast and be there for WWoHP early entrance.

I think we got to the drinks time once during our stay. We also don't eat everything, and they never made a hot "entree" that we could partake in.

Our value for Club level wasn't as high as what we paid. AND when they gave us bottles of water, they were warm! We had a fridge in our room (hubby has to refrigerate a drug he injects, so we have to have one) so we found ourselves getting waters one day to refrigerate for the next day, which was more than a little annoying.


So those are my thoughts on Club level there. If you eat anything, will be there in the Club enough, and will have a fridge for those waters (or don't mind warm water OR are willing to demand cold waters if that's even possible), you can get the value!


If not, I'd take the pretty view.

 

[RMulieri]

I originally book RPR and then moved the ressie to PBH and I was glad I did.I loved PBH.It was luxurious and quiet.I am not sure what the views are from club at RPR, but some of the rooms at RPR tend to look over the highway coming in.I noticed this as we came into the Universal area.PBH is set back further and feels more secluded .The only negative, and I don't think it is one, but you might, is that at PBH there is NO dedicated Club level floor.The lounge is located on the 3rd floor/lobby level.Rooms can be anwyhere in the resort, but generally they put you in the Villas wing or West wing.Depending where your room is it can be a hike.Again ,not an issue for us, and we made great use of the club lounge.The lounge opened at 7am everyday when we were there.I stayed at PBH club level in the villas wing room 2567..We had a view of the Main pool with a view of Unviersal Studios themepark in the distance( we could see Rip Ride Rocket and Men in Black in the distance).We used the club lounge at 7am for breakfast( early entry at WWoHP was 8am) and we still made it to the park in plenty of time.We did not generally stop in at lunch, but we were in for the hot entree and wine and beer at dinner and dessert in the evenings.We also stopped in for sodas and bottled water whenever we wanted to

 

[Iheoma]

Thanks so much for the replies. We really won't be really coming back to the room during the day and we're somewhat picky eaters (especially DD). I think that we would only really eat breakfast foods there. Whenever we've stayed "concierge" when we travelled it was for the extra service of the staff and/or drinks. I don't know if it will really be worth it for this trip... I'd love to hear more thoughts and opinions.

 

[nytimez]

I'd rather have a regular room in the PBH than a club room in the RPR... as others have said, I just don't think the club levels are worth the price. If you're really into that "pampered feeling," sure... but I don't find the benefits really make it worthwhile overall.

 

[mjohnson96]

We have always stayed at RPR and never had a bad room, guess we have been lucky and usually get some type of pool/water view room.

This trip we are moving over to PBH. DD loves the pool over there and my parents appreciate the more quiet atmosphere. If you are wanting quiet then stay with PBH, RPR can get a little noisy from all the kids since more families tend to go there and of course HRH lives up to it's name with lots of noise

 

[macraven]

both hotels are winners..

club at rph is fantastic.
but, if you don't plan to be around the hotel much, it might not be worth it to you.

concierge desk in the lobby can provide basically the same assistance to you as concierge in the club lounge.


if you enjoy a 'large room' stay with pbh.