What is the best Universal hotel?

[PRISSY3395]

Hi All!
I have never been to Universal, but I am considering it. What hotel is the best onsite?
Thanks!
Rachel

 

[damo]

There are three hotels and everybody seems to have a different favourite. Visit the Universal Resorts board for tons of information or go to www.usoinfo.com.

 

[Tigger&Belle]

What WDW hotels do you like? Do you have children? If, what are their ages? Do you want a hotel that is in the middle of the action or do you want to be able to get away from it all?

You can't go wrong with any of the places, but if you give us a little more info we can give you a better idea. I'm sure that all of us has our favorite. We've stayed at Hard Rock Hotel and Royal Pacific Resort. RPR was beautiful, HRH is an action place. The rooms are a little bigger at HRH and it's closer to the parks, especially to the Studios. It's usually a little more expensive. We're staying at HRH again this April.

We've never stayed at Portifino--it's more remote than I prefer, but maybe we'll stay there sometime.

T&B

 

[muntzfab4]

We have only stayed at he HRH and loved it. So did our 2DDs ages 8 and 5. It is very close to city walk and the studios. A really fun place - very hip!
We had dinner at Portofino Bay and it is very large and spreadout, furthest away from the parks, quiet, but very beautiful. I think you will be happy at any, depending on what you are looking for.

 

[kaygela]

All 3 are wonderful with very friendly and helpful staff. I'm sure you would find any of them enjoyable. It really depends on the theme and atmosphere that you would lilke. HRH is our favorite because it is the most convenient to Citywalk and the Studios and we love the pool with the underwater music. My DS8 and DS16 love the theme.

 

[ProvidencePete]

Portofino is the best. I have been to Hard Rock too, but Portofino gets my vote. Hard Rock was great too. I have not tried Royal Pacific, but I'm sure it is nice too, however, Portofino is definetely worth the extra few bucks if you're looking for a beautiful hotel.

 

[UKDEB]

We have stayed at HRH twice, PBH once (with another booked for this July) and have visited RPR several times. All three are beautiful hotels. We almost booked RPR for our upcoming trip, but the whole smaller rooms thing bothers me a bit. The great thing is, you can visit all three, use all the restaurants and, if you're a guest of one, you can use the pools of all three.

HRH is the best in terms of proximity to the parks. It's the only one where walking is a no-brainer. Walking from the other two is certainly possible, but you won't always feel like it. That means you'll need to take a water taxi (pleasant, but the waiting becomes a bit tedious after a while) or a bus. During thunder storms, the water taxis don't run.

Our teenage girls love HRH - it's really cool and they love being close to the parks and CityWalk. Having said that, staying onsite at any of the hotels allows them the freedom of coming and going as they please. We let them charge to the room and we hardly see them!

 

[damo]

Walking from RPR to IOA is about 10 minutes.
Walking from HRH to USF is about 6 minutes.
Walking from PBH to USF is about 20 minutes.