Hard Rock or Portofino Bay or Royal Pacific

[Guest]

Hi, I'm thinking of booking one night at one of the Universal hotels for me and my family so that we can make use of the unlimited express passes, but I haven't got a clue which one to book. There will be 6 us, 2 55 year olds, 2 30 year olds, and 2 15 year olds. I just wondered what the positives and negatives for each one were? For people that have stayed at all three, which one did you like the most? I'm not particularly worried about the cost as it will only be for one night. Thanks.

[Pink_Fairy_Dust]

We're planning to stay one night to take advantage of the unlimited express pass/early access to HP too. We're just planning to stay in whichever is cheapest when it comes times to book, which should be the Royal Pacific if we manage to get the best price. It looks like a nice resort, reminds me of the poly a little. I think if your only staying one night you won't spend a vast amount of time at the resort anyway, and having spent quite a bit of time looking at them I don't think you could go wrong with any of them, they all look really good, rooms look quite similar in all of them just with a slightly different colour scheme, and they all seem well themed, and although you say cost doesn't matter unless you have a strong leaning towards one, I think cheapest one at the time makes sense.

[Gill H]

RPR is cheapest and looks nearest to walk. We stayed at Portofino Bay though, because after watching some videos of all three, we fell in love with the theming. We actually did two nights there in the middle of our stay, and found that we did spend a few hours enjoying the theming. A late lunch sitting outside with a pizza and looking out at the bay is one of my favourite memories of the holiday.

Having said that, we also had lunch in RPR at the jaw-droppingly beautiful Tchoup Chop, and RPR looked gorgeous too.

Hard Rock theming didn't appeal to us old fogies but I'm sure it's a great place too.

Because you can get back on the water taxi so quickly, and because there is less to do at Universal than Disney (and of course FOTL means you skip the queues) we found that we had time to enjoy the resorts too.

[adamtoonarmy]

I've stayed at RPR and HRH and like them both. HRH is by far the shortest walk to the parks/CityWalk

[dan123]

Standard room sizes;

RPR 335 sq ft
HRH. 375sq ft
Portofino. 450sq ft


So you do get more for your money!

We're a family of 5 and have stayed at the RPR twice, it was fine and yes you don't spend much time in the room but we've treated ourself to a night at the Portofino this time, mainly for the extra space.

Dan

[21nipp]

We love the Portofino. I have just booked our 4th stay today. Our kids will be 18 and 21 ( adults now) and we have enjoyed staying there since our youngest was 11.

We love the overall feel of the place. All the staff are great, the pools, especially the villa pool are fab.

If the kids want to visit the hard rock they can walk there in 5 minutes and have as much fun as they want! Meanwhile, we can sit in the square having a nice glass of wine enjoying the peace, and in the evening listen to the opera singers

[Louiseanne]

I've booked RPR for one night in Feb half term as it was the cheapest. We haven't done this before and as there's only two of us its probably less cost effective but its nice to think we can wander back to hotel at the end of the evening and we get FOLP. Just need to decide whether to eat in city walk or at the hotel - decisions decisions!

[TigerMom]

We've stayed at Rpr and Portofino. We prefer Portofino especially as it is very quiet there as the pools are away from the bay. However RPR is beautiful too. Thing is though you spend very little time in the room so any of yhe hotels would be good.

[Reereef]

We stayed at Loews Royal Pacific. We chose it because all we wanted was one night for the express passes and it was the cheapest of the three hotels. We spend so little time there, I was glad we hadn't spent the extra. We did spend an hour by the pool one afternoon and the pool was lovely. The rooms were clean and quite large. The decoration in the rooms was lovely and the beds were really comfy.
The walk to the parks was quite quick and very pleasant. We got to see the beach and the seaplane on the way. There was a boat to take you to the parks, but the queue was long so we bypassed it.
We would definitely stay at Loews Royal Pacific again for the Universal benefits.

[Guest]

Hi, Ive just posted a q re the check in at RPR. We are planning to stay 1 night to qualify for early entry & priority. Can we check in at 6,30am & gain 2 days advantage?
Thanks Sue