Hard Rock Hotel® at Universal Orlando® Resort

For starters the location is A+, it is right in the middle of the Universal estate so you have CityWalk (where all the bars, restaurants and shops are) and the 3 theme parks all within easy reach. You can walk to Universal Studios (5 mins) and Islands of Adventure (8-10 mins) and Volcano Bay is a 5 minute shuttle bus away. The hotel is noisy, brash and rock n roll, but that’s what you sign up for. Our rooms (we had 2 adjoining suites) were great although the privacy between the master bedroom and the sofa bed is limited. Had a good view over the pool. The rooms have a small fridge so you can store water, milk etc. The water in the room is $7.50 a bottle so make sure you are properly dehydrated before you take a gulp! The food is OK (there is better over at CityWalk) and you pay a hotel premium. Drinks by the pool are $16-18 a go. The staff are pleasant, but no one goes out of their way to make your visit special, if you have ever visited Disney or stayed in one of their hotels you will understand. The team by the pool were the best and most friendly. They offer a free rental (you pay a security deposit) of guitars (choice of about 15) which is cool. Sadly for me they then charged me for it which was irritating. I’ll be generous and say it was a mistake. On checkout there was an item on my bill which was erroneous which needed to be corrected. Again I hope this was just poor admin rather than anything more sinister like sneaking in a line item at the end of a stay. Given the location, and with this early access to Universal Studios, it is still a good choice. It didn’t blow me away and whilst a 4* hotel, which I would agree on facilities, it is more like 3* for service.

We have stayed at several different hotels in Orlando over the years - but this is the best one ever! The staff were so friendly and helpful and there is a great vibe at this hotel. Fab music and great location. We came for the Halloween Horror Nights and it was great to be able to walk back to the hotel afterwards within 5 minutes of leaving.

Stayed at HRH for family holiday in May 2019; enjoyed it so much, came back for my birthday in October. They helped me celebrate my birthday with some freebies and Katie on the front desk was a star. It’s a fantastic location to Universal and means with a little over a five minute walk through beautiful gardens (or chilled out water taxi ride) you can’t beat it. When the weather turned we just walked back to hotel, then just went back when we fancied. Another great stay and dare say we will be back at some point in the future. My only regret at staying at the HRH is having to check out of it!

We stayed here for three nights and had a good time. Unfortunately the weather wasn’t great, so we never got much pool time during the day. Best points are the atmosphere at the hotel, the express passes for Universal and Islands of Adventure that come as part of the room, and the rooms themselves are nice and spacious enough for a family of four. All in all we had a good stay and found any staff we came into contact with very friendly and helpful. Would recommend, but would say only the express passes being included made it value for us as it’s not a cheap place to stay!

We stayed over for a night when we went to Orlando would highly recommend it! Will be returning in 3 years for the full 2 weeks. Lovely clean hotel with amazing friendly staff. Rooms are stunning food is amazing and pool is great!