One Night Stay - Premiere Hotel (Universal 1st Time Questions)

[NVDISFamily]

Hello. For our first trip to Universal we'll be spending most of our two week trip in our DVC rooms at WDW but I was considering doing a splurge and booking one night at a Premiere hotel for the passes and also to just be in the madness/bubble for a bit. We'll leave a majority of our stuff at our DVC room and just pack light and hit the two universal parks hard for 48 hours and stay the night on property.

Which hotel would you pick? I think I like the theme of Royal Pacific the best but Hard Rock is #2 for me. No hate for Portofino Bay, but we have quite a bit of faux Italian here in Nevada. I don't hate it, but if I want that experience it's in my backyard...

We are going the week after the 4th of July and I'm guessing it will be busy and the passes will be worth the investment. We may also wish to go and relax at the hotel/pool for a few hours in the late afternoon if the day is going well and we are on pace to do what we want. We have a 4 day ticket so we don't have to cram everything into two days, but we want to make the most of it. This likely won't be our last trip to Universal Orlando.

Thanks for any advice/wisdom.

 

[NVDISFamily]

Forgot to add.... is a club level room worth it for the day?

 

[tony67]

I like the theme of RPR, but the location of HRH is a shorter walk to the parks.

Price wise RPR is typically less so that is a plus.

Going at a busy time I think I'd pick HRH as its a shorter walk to the boats are crowded.

 

[tony67]

Forgot to add.... is a club level room worth it for the day?

Probably not - with such a short stay you probably want to take advantage of early entry and don't want to rush back to the room at night.

I have heard people say they did not have time to do the breakfast because they were heading to the parks for early entry.

I've only done RPR and I did like it. Cant comment on HRH.

 

[mort1331]

One night pick the cheapest,,,,how much are you really going to be at the hotel...my 2cents

 

[lisam70]

RPR is a closer walk to IOA, HRH closer to US
I much prefer RP theming and pool, PB is my second favorite and HRH least favorite.
You can't really go wrong - I would choose RP esp if its cheapest!

 

[schumigirl]

For one night, Club Level isn`t worth it, spend all your time in the parks.

 

[Fallguy151]

One night stay - either hotel would be a good choice. I would probably go with the least expensive of the 2, which is usually RP. I would not do Club Level. I would put any club level money toward meals or drinks in the parks/Citywalk.

And yes, EPs will be a good investment. There will probably things you love and things you don't, but I can say with almost 100% certainty that you will LOVE having EPs.

 

[Schneewittchen37]

Another vote for Royal Pacific, whenever we do short trips to Universal, we stay there. The grounds are beautiful, the rooms are nice, the pool is pretty nice too. It's always cheaper than the other Premiere resorts and it's an easy walk to IOA and CityWalk. The atmosphere seems a lot more relaxed than the Hard Rock. The dining options are nice too, I really like Jake's for dinner. The walk to Universal Studios is fine too.

DH and I have spent some time hanging out for drinks, dinner, etc. at HRH and it's just too busy and LOUD. Portofino is a looooong walk.

 

[nighttowll]

Honestly, stayed in all 3, and I just go with whichever is cheapest for my dates. They all have their pros and cons.

I love the PB pool with it's memory foam loungers and pool attendants who bring you little cold towels and drinks. I always feel relaxed and pampered sunning there with a good book. We usually do this on long summer trips where we are going to spend more time lounging by the pool than in the parks.

Hard Rock I love for how incredibly close it is to Citywalk and how fast and convenient it is to return to the room to change clothes or take food or souvenirs back. I also love the Kitchen restaurant, and we tend to eat a lot of our meals there when we stay at Hard Rock.

Royal Pacific is usually the best value and next closest to Citywalk, so we've stayed there the most despite it probably being our least favorite, but we always have a great stay. The pool bar nachos are to die for, and it's closer to Sapphire and Cabana Bay if you want to resort hop which is allowed. It's in the fine print.

 

[NVDISFamily]

Thanks for all of the advice and wisdom. I am tempted to stay an extra night and I'm still torn/considering both options but my wife is saying Royal Pacific may be where we want to end up.

On our next trip we'll likely swap our DVC points through a broker and book a 5 night package for the savings and check out the other resorts. Right now the discount seems to be for PB. Do they ever do that package at RP or the HR?

 

[Duck143]

We did this exact plan and loved it. We were staying in a timeshare, so packed bags for one night and stayed at RP universal. We loved that resort so much and always wish we had more time. The included express passes made the high cost worth it and it was so easy to enjoy the parks skipping the long lines. The resort is lovely, smells so good and had a lot of food options. Its close to the parks and we enjoyed walking the path, but there is also boat transportation. We didn't stay club level, but like others said above, I don't think its worth the extra cost and there are so many things to eat at the parks, hotel and City walk.