Disney Hotel or Universal hard Rock Hotel?

[ashchall95]

Hoping 3rd time lucky going back to Orlando next year, wanting to splash out a bit more after our last holidays being cancelled so many times!

Whats the benefit of stopping with Disney compared to Universals Hard Rock Hotel or universal hotels in general?

What do people prefer?

Do you get free parking for the universal parks with hard Rock etc?

Any help with pros and cons between the two.

Thanks in advance veryone! Hoping we can all go back very soon xxx

[kiwiinabd]

No free parking for either. Although I understand once you have paid the parking fee at Disney hotels there is no extra fee to pay each day to park at any of the Disney Parks.

The major advantage of the HRH is you get the Fast Pass for both Universal parks for the duration of your stay which is a massive advantage

Also with HRH its a short walk (or boat ride if you prefer) to the parks making it easier to take a break back at the hotel.

Disney has the advantage of early Morning Hours & early evening hours.

You could consider doing a split stay and staying a both Universal and Disney hotels over your trip

[Lostbrain]

HRH looks lovely, we've booked for August. We did Surfside last year and it was really nice, huge room and not too expensive, didn't have fast passes though.

I think it really comes down to transport and whether Disney brings back FP with early access for onsite.

We're doing both next year and onsite at Disney because we want to be able to get to the Parks easily without having to drive.
We're doing 2 nights at HRH for fast pass access and because it looks cool.

[Dr.JumbaJookiba]

Originally Posted by kiwiinabd

You could consider doing a split stay and staying a both Universal and Disney hotels over your trip

See more...

We think split stays are best, we regularly do MK resort, HRH and then Epcot resort.

[amy56]

We own DVC, so are used to staying at the WDW deluxe hotels, but we all say that Hard Rock is our favourite hotel in Orlando👍

As others have mentioned, you can’t beat the early entry and included express pass (not sure I’d want to do universal parks without that now!)

I also love the gentle walk to the parks and city walk from there, the kitchen buffet breakfast, Emack and Bolios counter service/ice cream bar, and the great pool - would definitely recommend it👍

[sha9]

I don’t really know if you can compare. For me it depends where you would spend the most time. Having an express pass for Universal every day isn’t a benefit if you spend 12 out of 14 days at Disney. Conversely, proximity to Disney parks isn’t a benefit if you spend those 12 days at Universal.
We either stay at Disney or do a split stay with a few nights at Universal. Next year we’ll do the first 2 nights at Universal and the rest at Disney because we spend the majority of the holiday at Disney.

[DonkeyCentreArf]

If all goes to plan, we will spend out first 5 nights at HRH so we can go to the three Universal parks and also so wife and daughter can go to Millenia and Premium outlets. I like to ease into an Orlando holiday so would also take time to enjoy the hotel itself given the cost.

We will then move down to WDW hotel for the rest of our holiday for the parks and also to head into Celebration and enjoy some of the other restaurants around.

[Guest]

I am not sure I really understand what you mean by pros and cons. Whether you stay at HRH or a Disney hotel would come down to which parks you want to go to.

In normal times, both have advantages for onsite guests. Both have early opening and Universal has the express pass whilst Disney resort guests have the 60 day fast pass booking. At the moment the Disney benefits are suspended but hopefully will be reintroduced sometime next year.

I think the Universal express pass is a bigger advantage than the Disney 60 day FPs, but it isn't something that comes into decision making over where to stay. We have in the past done all Universal trip, all Disney trip and we have also split it. Next time, December 2021 hopefully, we will split it.