What's the better club level; Portofino or Hard Rock?

Which hotel has the better club level?

  • Portofino Bay Hotel

    Votes: 5 71.4%
  • Hard Rock Hotel

    Votes: 2 28.6%

  • Total voters
    7

Dingdingding

Mouseketeer
Joined
Feb 12, 2017
I'm currently booking for my september 2019 vacation to WDW and URO. My vacation will start with a 5 night stay at Sapphire Falls (because we really like the theming) and will follow by a 10 night stay at Animal Kingdom Lodge. After that we want to have 7 nights at a deluxe Universal hotel in which we prefer to have club level. We have currently booked a stay at Royal Pacific, non-club because it would cost more than double the amount of a regular room. We can however pay 30 to 35 % more for a club room in Portofino Bay or Hard Rock hotel and I'm willing to pay that difference.

We don't really like the theming of RPR and personally like Portofino most on theming. Hard Rock hotel however would be convenient in it's location so close to the parks just like our current booking at RPR. With both hotels having it's advantages and disadvantages we decided to make the decision based on the club level in the two resorts. The price difference is less than 50 USD between them so I wonder which hotel has the better club level; Portofino Bay or Hard Rock Hotel?
 
Portofino Bay in a heartbeat is miles better!

HRH Club Lounge is very small........no doubt about it........sure food is good there and service is too, but Portofino is a step above with food and the actual space you have in the lounge to enjoy it.

With both you can request to be placed in a room close by the lounge.......
 
Yes, exactly, what schumigirl said. Portofino Bay has a way better club lounge. The food choices are better, particularly in the evening. It's more like a meal and less like hors d'oeuvres. We ate there every evening this past October.
 
Portofino Bay in a heartbeat is miles better!

HRH Club Lounge is very small........no doubt about it........sure food is good there and service is too, but Portofino is a step above with food and the actual space you have in the lounge to enjoy it.

With both you can request to be placed in a room close by the lounge.......
How does PB Club compare to RPR?
 


How does PB Club compare to RPR?

I think RP is slightly better.......room is more spacious and better laid out.......but there’s not much between them to be honest......I think you’d be happy if you chose PB.
 
Hi I can't comment on HRH club level but we just did PBH club level this summer and loved it. It has been the best one I have done yet.
 


We have stayed at all three many times and in fact, we are on our last night of our seven night stay at Royal Pacific club level right now. We agreed to go back to Hard Rock for our seven night stay in May with two of our grandsons.

The food at RP is predictable...same bags of bulk snacks opened every afternoon from under the counter. The breakfasts always consists of watermelon, pineapple and cantaloupe (good for me), processed meats and cheeses, and god awful lght and fit yogurt, along with breads and muffins. The evening appetizers follow a five day cycle alternating between different cuisines. Only coke, diet coke, sprite and tonic water for soft drinks. We always stay at the Kilimanjaro Club level at Animal Kingdom and appreciate the diversity of the food selections.

RP club level rooms are 335 square feet vs 375 square feet at Hard Rock. You have a pocket door on your restroom to conserve the very limited room space at RP. We love all three resorts but when staying at club level, we will avoid RP. We like the vibe of hard rock and acknowledge that the while actual lounge is smaller, the other amentities of the property more than compensate for this short coming.

We also enjoy Portofino but probably not best suited when we bring the grandkids.
 
We had to switch around some of the dates and because of the savings we can now stay longer (close to 4 weeks). We plan to to 5 nights at Cabana Bay, 10 nights at Animal Kingdom Lodge, 7 nights at Sapphire Falls and 6 nights at a deluxe Universal hotel with Club Level. I have now the option to to Royal Pacific for 1800, Hard Rock for 2000 and Portofino for 2100. I'm leaning to Royal Pacific due to the costs (and it's already costing a lot, all considered) but would the 200 or 300 be worth the upgrade in your opinion? Are the breakfast and beverage options much better? I heard they are refurbishing the club lounge of RPR at the moment but I can't find anything about how it will be after that (or when it's finished).
 
We had to switch around some of the dates and because of the savings we can now stay longer (close to 4 weeks). We plan to to 5 nights at Cabana Bay, 10 nights at Animal Kingdom Lodge, 7 nights at Sapphire Falls and 6 nights at a deluxe Universal hotel with Club Level. I have now the option to to Royal Pacific for 1800, Hard Rock for 2000 and Portofino for 2100. I'm leaning to Royal Pacific due to the costs (and it's already costing a lot, all considered) but would the 200 or 300 be worth the upgrade in your opinion? Are the breakfast and beverage options much better? I heard they are refurbishing the club lounge of RPR at the moment but I can't find anything about how it will be after that (or when it's finished).

As macraven said, the refurb is complete and new refurbished lounge opened first week of October.......there are some of the new pictures of the lounge on the first page of the RP sticky........

We’ve been to all club lounges during breakfast and dinner services, and to be honest they are all fairly similar......I wouldn’t say one was worth a few hundred dollars more that the other........

HRH Club Lounge we just find too small........it’s busy and feels busy whenever we visit. PB is larger and has a very nice selection of choices, but maybe not worth the price difference.

RP Lounge is the nicest of them all, in our opinion of course, but we don’t tend to eat a lot of the food options at evening appetiser time.......some folks can make dinner out of them as the choices are nice and go down well........we just prefer to be there to relax and chill out before heading out somewhere.........it is large and feels spacious......breakfast choices are ample for us as we aren’t huge breakfast eaters.......we prefer to enjoy a nicer lunch in the parks or outside somewhere.

But, whatever you choose I’m sure you’ll enjoy it......
 
Thank you! Based on this information I think I will stick to Royal Pacific! (due to price and theming)
 

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