We paid $580 for one night at Universal's Hard Rock Hotel, and it was worth it for the perks and prime location
- My friend and I recently spent a night at Universal Orlando's Hard Rock Hotel for $580.
- Our standard, two-queen room had a beautiful pool view alongside other theme-park perks.
- During our stay, we rented a cabana, dined at the steakhouse, and enjoyed the wonderful location.
As an annual passholder at Universal Orlando and a theme-park journalist, I've learned the value of staying in a hotel on the property.
I live about 90 minutes from the parks, so it's not uncommon for me to grab a hotel room if I plan to spend back-to-back days at the parks.
Recently, a friend and I stayed at Universal Orlando's Hard Rock Hotel for the first time. Even though it cost about $860 with all the bells and whistles, we were pretty impressed.
Here's what it was like to spend the night at the Hard Rock.
Universal Orlando offers four tiers of hotels on its property: value, prime value, preferred, and premier. Hard Rock Hotel is one of the premier resorts, along with Portofino Bay Hotel and Royal Pacific Resort.
Premier resorts are the most expensive, but these properties come with great perks — like close proximity to the parks and access to line-skipping passes — that I think make the price tag worth it.
The rock-and-roll memorabilia throughout the hotel really makes the Hard Rock stand out.
Walking around the property is like visiting a museum dedicated to the art of rock music. We saw everything from performance outfits worn by greats like James Brown to guitars played by stars like Melissa Etheridge.
It's easy to feel like a rock star while strolling through the hotel.
In addition to costumes and instruments, there are special touches throughout the property, like artwork, statues, and live music events.
Guests can also visit the front desk to borrow a Fender guitar that they can play in their hotel room (with headphones to keep things quiet for other guests).
I used my Universal annual pass to secure a passholder rate of $520 at Hard Rock Hotel. Without a discount, one-night stays can cost over $1,000 depending on the date.
Our room, a standard two-queen with a pool view, ended up costing $580 by the time occupancy and state sales taxes were applied.
There was also a $30-a-night charge for self-parking, making the total about $610 for a single night.
From our room, we had a view of the hotel's pool area as well as Universal's theme parks.
We could even spot big attractions like the Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit at Universal Studios Florida and the Jurassic World VelociCoaster at Universal Islands of Adventure.
Seeing these popular attractions from our hotel room reminded me how close the Hard Rock Hotel is to the theme parks.
The Hard Rock Hotel has one of my favorite pool areas at Universal Orlando. The area itself is beautiful and relaxing, and it has an amazing water slide, hot tubs, and a pool bar and restaurant.
Since guests staying at Universal's prime value, preferred, and premier properties can pool-hop between resorts, I've visited the pool before. But having it be our home base was a special perk on this particular trip.
We also rented a cabana at the Hard Rock pool so we could spend a day relaxing outside of the busy theme parks.
The private cabana came with a ceiling fan, an HD TV, a fridge filled with sodas and water, free Wi-Fi, and a dedicated server who took our food and drink orders throughout the day.
The daily rentals can range between $200 and $250 depending on their location — ours was located closest to the pool and cost $250.
But it felt well worth the price to have a home base to return to during our pool day.
I'm tempted to keep it a secret, but one of my favorite quiet spots to grab a meal at Universal Orlando is The Palm.
It's a steak-house chain with locations everywhere from Atlantic City to Washington, DC. The one at Universal is tucked away inside the Hard Rock Hotel and is a great spot to cool off and enjoy some incredible food and drinks.
During our visit, we sat at the restaurant's bar and enjoyed a couple of dirty martinis and some of the best fries around.
There are easy-to-find walking paths that lead straight to the Universal theme parks from the hotel.
If you don't want to walk, there's also a shuttle boat to the Universal CityWalk entertainment district. From there, it's a short walk into each theme park.
The location is a huge perk of staying at Hard Rock Hotel. Since many Universal hotels rely on bus transportation, staying at such an easily accessible, walkable property made our entire trip run more smoothly.
Guests staying at premier resorts receive complimentary Universal Express Unlimited, a pass that allows you to skip the lines for participating attractions.
The pass starts at $110 a person (and can be more depending on the time of year), so this perk quickly makes the resort a better value.
For families of four or more hoping to get on as many rides as possible, the hotel room almost pays for itself.
Our $580 room at the Hard Rock Hotel felt like an incredible value considering all of the perks that came along with our stay.
From complimentary Unlimited Express and short walks to the theme parks to easy access to our favorite restaurant, we truly felt like we were receiving the rock-star treatment.
Based on what we received for the price we paid, I'd definitely book a room again, especially if I was traveling with my family of four.
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