Universal ‘deluxe’ hotels?

[cornishfrogboy]

When we arrive in the evening, we invariably get a taxi into IDrive and stay in a budget hotel close to Sandlake road for the 1st night. There is absolutely no point in paying for facilities we will not use when all we want is something to eat and then a sleep before getting a taxi to the Universal hotel as soon as possible next morning. We use taxis because we see little point in hiring a car for the first 3 days and also paying for parking. I pick up the hire car at the end of our second Universal Park day after 1800 from Holiday Inn (Universal) before moving back to the by now free Universal parking and rejoining my family in one of the parks.

I have just recapped and can state that I have stayed at HRH x 5 and RPR x 3. One of those RPR visits (this summer) was at Club level which cost an extra £70 between the four of us. On one of the HRH visits, we were upgraded to a 2 bedroom kids suite at no extra cost.. fantastic and at the time well over twice the price of the room we had booked.

I very much prefer RPR. I like the atrium, the club level lounge, the pool and think that club level for us was an absolutely awesome bargain with two x breakfasts which were more than adequate, loads of nibbles and cold drinks, many of which we then took into the parks, evening snacks, wine etc etc.. plus a room on the top floor with really good views. Yes the room was rather ‘modern’, but it was clean, very spacious and with a large bathroom. The club level staff were both helpful and courteous. We most certainly got our money’s worth and then some whilst not in any way over indulging.

Should we return to Orlando in the future and should the price again be reasonable with the same perks, then it would be inevitable that we would book RPR at Club level again.

As for Portofino, I haven’t been so cannot comment. The extra cost of the Hotel over the other two is a major factor as I am mainly booking into one of these hotels for the FOTL and other ‘goodies’. They are identical, whichever I choose.