Why Universal?

[celluloid]

I'm considering Hard Rock for 2 nights so I have 3 days of front of the line access, then I'd go over to my DVC in WDW for 4 days and that is is... So 3 in Uni, 4 in WDW... and heck, if I can get a deal for SeaWorld area hotel with SeaWorld tickets, Disney will lose another day from me...

The Hard Rock is great and usually has the middle of the price deals when it comes to the three onsite Universal ones. I really like The Portofino the best. That has some of the best atmosphere I have ever seen in a hotel. Walking around and going to the boats to the parks just blew me away.

The Hard Rock is a close second though. You have a fairly nice pool(although shallow for safety reasons) but the slide is neat and something to show some friends or someone with you...tell them to dunk their head under the water if they had not already. You can hear the same music being pumped in the outside atmosphere speakers under water thanks to some underwater speakers in the pool. Another perk to the hard rock besides the obvious ones is it is a very close walk to the Studios. The closest of the three to the parks in general in my walking experience. I don't even usually wait for the boat whenever I stay at the Hard Rock and am just headed to the studios.

 

[Captain Chaos]

The Hard Rock is great and usually has the middle of the price deals when it comes to the three onsite Universal ones. I really like The Portofino the best. That has some of the best atmosphere I have ever seen in a hotel. Walking around and going to the boats to the parks just blew me away.

The Hard Rock is a close second though. You have a fairly nice pool(although shallow for safety reasons) but the slide is neat and something to show some friends or someone with you...tell them to dunk their head under the water if they had not already. You can hear the same music being pumped in the outside atmosphere speakers under water thanks to some underwater speakers in the pool. Another perk to the hard rock besides the obvious ones is it is a very close walk to the Studios. The closest of the three to the parks in general in my walking experience. I don't even usually wait for the boat whenever I stay at the Hard Rock and am just headed to the studios.

Thanks for the info Cell... I am leaning toward Hard Rock, when I make my next visit to Orlando, no idea when that will be right now... I have heard great things about the three on site hotels... I rarely use the pools, but if I do, I'll make sure to check out the under water music...

I know about the walk already... I actually did the walk once, from Hard Rock to Universal... We parked there one day (I know, we probably shouldn't have but that's my Orlando friends for ya) and walked... I'm sure they got more strict with parking now though as we did this many years ago LOL...

 

[dave&di]

I'll be honest again too. The level of service at the Universal hotels is incredible, and much better than anything I've experienced at the Disney hotels.

And again, the Team Members at the hotels seem to be genuinely happy, not forced. I feel like I'm talking to a real person, not a puppet, which is what I have felt at Disney unfortunately.

This, and the fact that you get front of the line access, and early entry makes it totally worth it. The best part is that everything is in walking distance. There is no need to take a bus or monorail (what I call Transportation Hell). It truly feels like you're away from the rest of the world (in most areas).

Actually I hadn't thought about this before but you're right. We always stay on site at both WDW and Universal. The Universal staff are more natural and human. We stay at the Portofino and always get outstanding service. We stay at the GF and the Poly at WDW but the Portofino wins hands down!