Hard Rock or Not?

Has anyone stayed at the Hard Rock Hotel in Orlando. We stayed on Disney last year and don't really want to do that again so I'm thinking of booking the HRH for our trip in October and would welcome any honest opinions.

Thanks

Miopyk[8D]

Originally posted by miopyk
Has anyone stayed at the Hard Rock Hotel in Orlando. We stayed on Disney last year and don't really want to do that again so I'm thinking of booking the HRH for our trip in October and would welcome any honest opinions.

Thanks

Miopyk[8D]

Hi - we stayed there for 3 nights about 3 years ago.

Not that memorable to be honest, though nothing bad as I recall. The pool area was good - on site restaurants OK.

The rooms were good and adjoining/interconnecting - which was a bonus.

Not a hotel I'd rave about - but equally there's nothing wrong with it - if the deal looks good I'm sure you'll have a good time.

I think the boat that takes you Universal stops at the HRH so that was handy.

I think we had to pay to park? Can't recall if this is the norm for Orlando.

A

[HighFlyer]

Originally posted by phantomtwin
[I think the boat that takes you Universal stops at the HRH so that was handy.

Yup, you can get the free boat from your hotel to CityWalk and the Universal parks. Certainly a nicer way to get to and from the parks as opposed to driving in the mornings,

Thanks,
Sarah

I have not stayed at HRH personally, but a few friends have. Their opinion seems to mirror that of phantomtwin above, i.e. nothing wrong with the place, but equally, nothing to rave about.

The big advantage of staying at on on-site Universal Hotel is that your room key-card gives you unlimited access to the rides via the Express line, so you get near walk-on access to the rides all day for the duration of your stay. That said, you are planning your trip in October when the parks will be pretty quiet anyway (hurricane season too).

The boat will take you from HRH to CityWalk - but if you are going to Universal Studios, it will be quicker to walk as there is a path from HRH to right next to the Studios entrance.

As to parking charges - the timeshare places I've stayed at in Orlando never charge (can highly recommend the Hilton Grand Vacation Club opposite SeaWorld). The Doubletree hotel opposite the entrance to Universal Orlando charged $5 a day for parking - but this was cheaper than Universal and CityWalk was a very easy 10min walk away, taking in nice views of the HRH on the way.

Originally posted by Kraken
The big advantage of staying at on on-site Universal Hotel is that your room key-card gives you unlimited access to the rides via the Express line, so you get near walk-on access to the rides all day for the duration of your stay. That said, you are planning your trip in October when the parks will be pretty quiet anyway (hurricane season too).

This is the main reason for wanting to stay here. We went last October and while the parks weren't packed the popular rides got quite busy in the afternoons. We quite fancy the idea of popping in for a few hours when we want without having to worry about wasting time in queues.

I also like the idea of saying close to City Walk because of the bars and clubs etc.

Miopyk[8D]

I've been to Orlando in the low season of early November for the past 5 years and apart from at the weekends, I've only generally encountered queues on Dueling Dragons. The staff on this ride have one speed - dead slow that makes US immigration look fast. Universal express is not a lot of help here either, as the merge point for the two queues is well outside the station before the 'turn left for Fire, right for Ice' bit. So even with Express access on this ride, you are looking at a good 15min wait per ride.

If you are prepared to forego the Express access to the rides (& the HRH), look at the Doubletree at the entrance to Universal on Kirkman Road. It's a 10min walk to Citywalk and we got rooms at a very good rate through Virgin Holidays [although I think they have since dropped the Doubletree, as it's not in their 2008-9 Florida brochure]. Sure, I had read some mixed reviews about the Doubletree on Tripadvisor.com, but we had no issues with the place. We got rooms in the South Tower that had just been refurbished to a high standard - OK, the 3 lifts in this tower were out of action when we checked-in, but they told us this & sent a porter up in the service lift with our heavy bags so all we had to take up the stairs was our hand baggage - they would have sent the porter with this too, but I prefer to keep my passport, laptop etc with me. The lifts were working again an hour later.

James