Hi,
We've booked to stay at the Hard Rock Hotel in August 2005 but have recently read some pretty awful reviews on this hotel. We were looking forward to staying here and would like to here of any good or bad experiences you may have had at this hotel. We were considering changing to the Portofino Bay hotel otherwise....is this hotel a better option?

Any informaton would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

I have stayed at all three on-site hotels at Universal Orlando. They are all beautiful, but I prefer the Portofino Bay or Royal Pacific. PB is really lovely. We had a deluxe room with a terrace overlooking the Villa pool. This room is quite large (500 sf) with a fabulous bathroom. The hotel has a very relaxing atmosphere. The hotel can be full, but yet it feels quiet and calm.

The Royal Pacific hotel has a tropical theme and we've stayed there twice. The rooms are much smaller at RP, but still very nice.

The HRH is the closest to the parks - a five minute walk. Not quite as relaxing because of the music. We had a poolview room at HRH and it was very nice. We just liked the other two resorts better. I will say I had the best service at Royal Pacific.

We have reservations at PB for February, 2005. I look forward to it.

Go to disboards.com and click on Universal Resorts - lots of good info there.

I have stayed at the Hard Rock Hotel several times and recently stayed at the Royal Pacific. We enjoyed both hotels. It was more relaxing at the Royal Pacific's pool though. The Portofino is the most quiet of the three Universal on-site hotels. It is also further from the parks. It's an easy walk to the parks at City Walk from the Hard Rock and the Royal Pacific. It's a pretty long walk from Portofino, so people rely on the water taxi and the bus. The problem is, the water taxi doesn't run during a storm ( which occured every day of our visit). We will probably stick to the Royal Pacific for future visits.
I would definitely recommend making a reservation to dine at Emeril's Tchoup Chop at the Royal Pacific. I also love Mythos restaurant in Islands of Adventure--not at all what you'd expect in a theme park restaurant.

We LOVED the Hard Rock Hotel Orlando. It is beautiful inside and the room was incredible (huge bathroom, huge room, nicely decorated!). It was a SHORT walk to the parks and the front of the line pass was THE BEST PERK ever! We were there for our honeymoon, but we didn't mind the younger crowd that was at the hotel. They were all very nice! So..I don't know what you heard but if you love the parks, love clean, nice rooms..Hard rock is for you!

I've stayed at the Hard Rock twice in the last six months and the second stay was certainly not as nice as the first because it was full and as a result the service lacked somewhat. The standard rooms are small in all three hotels (HRH, PB,Portofino), but the deluxe rooms are very nice. If you want a large bathroom, ask for a handicapped room. You won't have a bathtub but you'll have a wonderful shower and enormous bathroom. Otherwise you'll have a bathroom so small you can barely close the door!

I think it's time to renovate the Portofino and HRH as both are getting a little worn. I also suggest you immediately ask to be moved if you don't like your room - we had a horrible smell in our room and the front desk said they were too full to move us. The head of housekeeping got us moved because his staff could not clean the air in the room. The front desk couldn't have cared less.