walk from portofino or hard rock?

[wendlle]

I have a standard 2 queen booked at Hard Rock on an APH rate.
I noticed today I can get a bayview room at Portofino for around $100 less than my HR rate.

Should I swap?

Is the walk from Portofino a lot longer than Hard Rock? I don't really want to take the water taxi - I prefer to walk to the parks which Is why I picked Hard Rock.

I've stayed at Royal Pacific before and the walk was fine, oddly it is more expensive than both Hard Rock and Portofino for my dates.

 

[nherbert]

It’s walkable but it’s about 3 times as long as the walk to HRH. I do recommend the boat, but you can definitely walk it. If it’s a hot day and it’s been a long day in the park, you want the boat. If you really want to walk I would probably choose to stay at HRH, it’s really close.

 

[pinkxray]

The walk is definitely longer. Not sure when your dates are, but we stayed at Portofino in July and I was always wishing I was at Hard Rock when walking back. We don’t mind using the boats but in July there were multiple times where they were shut down because there was lightning in the area, so we had no choice but to walk back. Again, it’s not a bad walk, it’s very pretty and took us maybe 15 min? But when it was raining and hot, we definitely looked at HRH longingly as we walked by.

We are going to Universal again this July and are deciding ourselves. Portofino is also cheapest for our dates. We prefer Royal Pacific followed by HRH, with Portofino last but if it’s cheaper by a good amount we don’t mind PB to save some money.

 

[Minnie1222]

I would stick with Hard Rock if you want to avoid the boat.

 

[musika]

The walk is definitely do-able - we managed it with a 7 year old. It is longer than HRH (in fact you walk right by the HRH). If you hate water taxis, I'd stick with HRH. I'd say at a sedate pace it's around 15-20 min, but if you were pushing it you could do it in 10-15 (who wants to do that on vacay tho!). It's a pretty path.

 

[lisam70]

It's definitely longer but it depends how many days will you be there. If it's a shorter stay maybe stick with HR but a little longer and that $100 will add up quickly to a nice savings. Personally, I don't think the walk is too bad and I find the boats to PB to be less crowded than others and I don't like HR so I would always pick PB but that's just my two cents.

 

[reddog21]

From the Hard rock HRH boat dock to the Portafino water front its 7 minutes based on my years walking to Portifino. When they had the walkway closed due to construction the walk was like close to 15 minutes. We never take the boad at night, universal never runs enough boats so walking is much faster.

 

[barb969]

If you are doing club level PB is the better choice. The club lounge and food are great, much, much better than HR.

 

[georgina]

It’s been at least 5 years since I have stayed at PBR, are you no longer able to cut through the HR parking lot to shorten the walk by half? That’s how I always went - up to the entrance of HR, make a right around the back to the parking lot and straight on to the security on the path.

 

[wendlle]

It's definitely longer but it depends how many days will you be there. If it's a shorter stay maybe stick with HR but a little longer and that $100 will add up quickly to a nice savings. Personally, I don't think the walk is too bad and I find the boats to PB to be less crowded than others and I don't like HR so I would always pick PB but that's just my two cents.

It's $100 overall, not per night. If it was per night I'd pick it in a heartbeat but $100 overall we will at this stage stick with HR

If you are doing club level PB is the better choice. The club lounge and food are great, much, much better than HR.

no club level, we aren't at the hotel enough for that to be remotely worth it for us.

 

[Jarmo]

It's $100 overall, not per night. If it was per night I'd pick it in a heartbeat but $100 overall we will at this stage stick with HR

no club level, we aren't at the hotel enough for that to be remotely worth it for us.

It's a 6 minute walk from the Hard Rock pool gate to the entrance of the Studios park, whereas Portofino is a bit longer than the walk from Royal Pacific. As someone who also values the shorter walking distance, $100 total would be well worth it for Hard Rock.

 

[The Gatekeeper]

FYI - There are bad reviews on TA recently due to construction noise. You may want to request to be located away from where they are renovating.
This renovation is taking forever. We stayed there over two years ago and they were working on the exterior. I think they are going floor by floor for the interior now. That's good. Our room desperately needed an update. It may have been the most worn room I've ever stayed in and it was a King Suite we paid $$$$ for. Not impressed.

 

[musika]

It's $100 overall, not per night. If it was per night I'd pick it in a heartbeat but $100 overall we will at this stage stick with HR

no club level, we aren't at the hotel enough for that to be remotely worth it for us.

Oh yah for $100 total difference? I'd definitely stick with HRH!

 

[weather_lady]

The walk to Portofino is a good 8-10 minutes longer than the walk to Hard Rock, but it's by no means prohibitive. When we stayed at Portofino, we tended to take the boat from Citywalk: either directly to Portofino, or the one to Hard Rock and then walk from there - whichever boat came first.

The tradeoff is that Portofino is a step up in theming and amenities, with much larger rooms and better on-site dining.

The remaining construction scaffolding is limited to a few Club Level rooms, with the project supposedly wrapping up in 3 weeks.

 

[TyRy]

It’s been at least 5 years since I have stayed at PBR, are you no longer able to cut through the HR parking lot to shorten the walk by half? That’s how I always went - up to the entrance of HR, make a right around the back to the parking lot and straight on to the security on the path.

I was there two weeks ago and headed that way since I've used it before when staying at Portofino. Unfortunately, the entire middle of the HR parking lot is now blocked off with fencing. Guessing it has to do with the construction going on there that I read about.

 

[Jarmo]

I was there two weeks ago and headed that way since I've used it before when staying at Portofino. Unfortunately, the entire middle of the HR parking lot is now blocked off with fencing. Guessing it has to do with the construction going on there that I read about.

This doesn't help if you are coming from PB and don't have pool access, but there's another shortcut at HR... when you exit the back pool gate just immediately turn right into the grass. It's basically a wide open field that is a 2-3 minute walk to security. Not a good option after dark though as it's not lit.

 

[TyRy]

This doesn't help if you are coming from PB and don't have pool access, but there's another shortcut at HR... when you exit the back pool gate just immediately turn right into the grass. It's basically a wide open field that is a 2-3 minute walk to security. Not a good option after dark though as it's not lit.

We ended up doing that. We had to stop and get an amenities card first though so we could get into the pool. And we did not use it on the way back...much too dark.