Hard Rock vs Royal Pacific?

[brich330]

For those who have been in the last two years, which one would you pick and why?

 

[davper]

Royal Pacific
I had expected more from the HRH. Found myself disappointed. And walking to the resort takes you to the far side of the resort, making it longer than it had to be. Save a buck and stay at RP.

 

[hhoope01]

First, the pools. Would you and your family prefer a slide or a water play area? The HRH pool has a slide, RPR's doesn't. But RPR's has an interactive water play area. When my kids were younger, they really liked that better than a slide. The HRH rooms will be a bit bigger than the RPR rooms (which can sometimes feel a bit cramped.) I prefer the selection of restaurants at the RPR (especially the Sushi.) In general, rooms at RPR will be slightly less expensive than HRH rooms (but on any give set of dates that may not always be true.) Would you prefer a South Pacific/Polynesian theme or a Rock Music/Party theme?

Personally, the walking distance from either hotel to either park isn't large enough to be an issue. So that has had little to no basis on our decision. We've stayed many more times at the RPR than we have at the HRH over the years as we just liked RPR better.

 

[DisneyLifePapioNe]

For those who have been in the last two years, which one would you pick and why?

We love both, although we have stayed many many more times at HR.

We feel that HR is just a casual relax don’t feel bad if you make some noise resort.

Royal Pacific does give a bit more of the escape to the South Pacific feel, but it’s not as much as like say Disney’s Polynesian.

IMO both are great environments, watch some vids to give you some visuals and some sounds of the resorts also.

We probably have stayed 7:1 ratio HR being preferred.

 

[schumigirl]

First, the pools. Would you and your family prefer a slide or a water play area? The HRH pool has a slide, RPR's doesn't. But RPR's has an interactive water play area. When my kids were younger, they really liked that better than a slide. The HRH rooms will be a bit bigger than the RPR rooms (which can sometimes feel a bit cramped.) I prefer the selection of restaurants at the RPR (especially the Sushi.) In general, rooms at RPR will be slightly less expensive than HRH rooms (but on any give set of dates that may not always be true.) Would you prefer a South Pacific/Polynesian theme or a Rock Music/Party theme?

Personally, the walking distance from either hotel to either park isn't large enough to be an issue. So that has had little to no basis on our decision. We've stayed many more times at the RPR than we have at the HRH over the years as we just liked RPR better.

Completely agree with you about the distance thing. All the hotels are easy to walk to, it isn`t a good enough reason to stay there.

OP.....we much prefer the RPR to any of the hotels, but HRH is our least favourite to visit, apart from The Palm which I can recommend thoroughly!! We do visit the HRH every trip for The Palm, but have never had the desire to stay there, it`s a little too cold for us. But, like all the hotels the staff are lovely.

HRH doesn`t have a resort feel to it the way RPR does, you do feel transported there and we love that.

You can also swim in the RP pool, something you can`t really do in the HRH pool. You can pool hop at Universal which some folks enjoy, we never bother now as the RP is our favourite pool along with Sapphire Falls pool, we do like that one too.

Like Hhoope01 we prefer the dining choices at RPR, although it is easy to get around all the other hotels to eat at any of them.

Good luck with your choice.......it really is personal preference as to which hotel you or your family would enjoy.

 

[easyas123]

We just had to choose between Portofino, Hard Rock and Royal Pacific. We went RP - we are two adults, no kids w/ us. We thought it would best fit our style, and what we wanted out of a vacation. We walked thru it when we stayed at Sapphire Falls this winter for a convention....It seemed comparable to the places we like to stay at WDW, mainly BC & BW - We will see! Looking forward to our stay in October - in fact we just added a 4th night since the prices were so good!
So far our only experience w/ Universal Hotels was 1 night at Cabana Bay at the recommendation of a family member that we were meeting. It was our first time ever at Universal. Didn't like Cabana at all. Then I had a convention at Sapphire, and it was nice, so we decided to check out some of the other hotels. Love how everything is within walking distance of Citywalk and the parks and the other hotels - it's just so convenient and easy to get from place to place.

 

[Flyg1rl]

My husband, myself, and my two teenagers prefer RPR to Hard Rock. Given the exact same cost between the two, we'd go RPR. We've never stayed at Portofino. Come close a time or two, but the prices on one of the other two always dropped in time to make the switch. HR seemed...colder. RPR seemed friendlier and more accommodating. Also, I think we just honestly like the theme better, and it's usually a bit cheaper.

 

[GabrielMom]

Do the hotels have life vest at the pools?

 

[easyas123]

I think they have Cabana rentals, but am not familiar with if they rent life vests-

 

[schumigirl]

Do the hotels have life vest at the pools?

Yes they do. At RP they have them beside the pool hut that gives out towels and there were some over the other side of the pool last year too.

 

[hhoope01]

And I don't think they charge for getting a life-vest, at least they didn't used to charge for their use. Not sure if that policy has changed, but I'd guess it hasn't.

 

[schumigirl]

No they don‘t charge for life vests.

 

[nkereina]

We have stayed at both several times, and enjoy both, but I always prefer Hard Rock Hotel. While I agree that the walk to the parks from either resort is not a huge difference, we find HRH to be close enough where we never even consider taking the water taxi. And because we spend more time at Universal than at IOA, it makes for an extra long walk back to RPR because of that.

I also enjoy the casual vibe of the staff at HRH. Its not your traditional "my pleasure" open palm pointing type of service you'd find at a higher end resorts, if that makes sense. Employees wear shorts, have visible tattoos/piercings, and talk to you like your buddy (in a respectful way), all while still providing top notch service. Its hard to explain, but its very comfortable and laid back which we like.