Planning for my family of 5 to visit UO in January of 2022. The kids are 11, 13, and 16. Looking at a Deluxe Portofino room vs. a standard Hard Rock room. The deluxe has a pull out sofa, which would be nice for our son. But is PB a significantly longer walk to the parks? We stayed at RP 2 years ago and the room felt really cramped. Anyone have experience with both that can make a recommendation?
You could plan on taking the boats instead of walking. I love the boats.
2 Likes
The deluxe two queen rooms at HRH have a pullout sofa. From what I can tell looking at the UOR website, the only difference between deluxe rooms at PBH is an extra 40 square feet.
Regular 2 queen at RPR is 335 sq feet.
Regular 2 queen HRH rooms are 375 sq feet.
Deluxe 2 queen at HRH 500 sq feet.
Regular 2 queen at PBH 450 sq feet.
Deluxe 2 queen at PBH 490 sq feet.
Deluxe rooms at RPR and PBH seem to be about the same amount.
At my next trip, we’re planning to stay at HRH, and I’m looking forward to the short walk from park to hotel.
1 Like
We have stayed in those deluxe rooms at Portofino several times, they are huge. We have also stayed at HRH many times, those rooms are quite a bit smaller. The boats are great from Portofino, I would stay there! It is a beautiful resort.
4 Likes
I agree with @Wahoohokie. We have stayed at both as a family of 5 and the standard room at HRH is tight for 5. The walk from HRH is easy, but Portofino is beautiful and the boat ride is relaxing.
2 Likes
I felt that the rooms at HRH were great for 4 people in each room, though it would be tight for 5. The walk is the dealbreaker for me, though - I would only stay at Portofino if you are avid walkers (no complainers) or if you don’t mind taking a leisurely pace and wait for a boat or bus.
1 Like
Rooms and especially bathrooms are far superior in size at portofino and honestly I prefer the whole hotel but it is much farther. But your kids are older and can do the 15 min versus the 5 min easily. So I’d say what do you prefer a more adult theme, larger rooms, bathrooms, more sit down restaurants or a smaller hotel that’s more teen themed easier to get around and a much shorter walk. Both are fantastic options and both a mile above Royal Pacific imho. So just really comes down to what would make your vacation better for you. I’d choose portofino next time for myself cuz it’s been the longest since I’ve been there and my teens can definitely walk further now than when they were little. But I also have chosen hard rock in the past over portofino because I prefer a smaller hotel and a shorter walk.
We did always take the boat at Portofino except when we did early entry and wanted to be at the front. At the time the boats didn’t operate as early but now I think they start an hour before early entry based on my last time at RPR so you can always take the boat.
2 Likes
We had a huge Deluxe room at HRH with the pull out bed. It may have been an accessible room but I’m not sure.
1 Like
Yup I’ve had that before too with my parents at HRH. It was huge. They had the king bed and my kids the couch and DH and I shared a connecting room with his mom. I’ve also booked the kids suite before which is enormous and I loved the bathroom.
But comparing the regular rooms, Portofino wins and the grounds are nicer but I’ve really enjoyed the larger rooms/suites at HRH and it’s proximity. The fact that you can check out a guitar is neat too for people like my DS17 who plays.
Both have great pools and slides but portofino has more pools if you want a quiet one.
1 Like
We never did check out a guitar. Too tired every day. But that is definitely a cool feature!
My family of five stayed very comfortably at Portofino and loved the resort overall. The walk is nice and I enjoy it, but the boat was always a great option. I would definitely go with Portofino. My whole family, kids included, preferred it over HRH (which, admittedly, they only walked through and used the pool at, but I have actually stayed at in the past).
1 Like
One of the things I really loved about Portofino when we went is the gave my kids a toy at checkin…like not a McDonald’s toy but Little People or something more substantial. I thought it was a really nice touch. I liked the opera singing at night too and we loved walking through the whole resort and checking out the indoor and outdoors spaces. But choosing the larger rooms at HRH won out for me the next several trips for the proximity because I remember the only time my kids every threw a fit at Disney/Universal in all our trips was DS at Portofino going back there after a long day in the parks. However, now he is 17 I think the extra 10 minutes away is fine and I really want to go back. 
1 Like
When we stayed at Portofino, we were celebrating two of my sons’ birthdays. We mentioned that and they sent up a toy pail and shovel full of different snacks and candy. Truly amazing customer service!
2 Likes
I’ll be staying at the Portofino on our next trip. The longer walk was off-putting but reducing a walk by 10 minutes seemed not significant when you’re on your way to an entire day of walking around a theme park.
I figure we’ll boat back at the end of the day.
In the end it was theming: Hard Rock didn’t really resonate with us, but our last big trip was to Italy and Amalfi. DW loved that and it was a huge adventure for DD6, so Portofino should evoke some good memories I hope
6 Likes
We just stayed at Portofino for the first time, this past October. Loved it! We’ve stayed in HRH too, several times, and I love it there too. Great pool and so close to the parks, and nice rooms. BUT we really loved Portofino for space, and I want to stay here again on future trips. I was also worried about the walk, but it wasn’t that bad. But we also made great use of the boats, which we’d never done on stays at HRH or RP, since they were so close. This trip, used boats almost every time, and no big issues. I was surprised at how often they came, and very little waiting, but walking was a fine option too. I didn’t love the bathroom set up, nothing was separated, like tub/sinks/commode all in one big area, but not all the rooms are set up that way, and we were in a standard, not deluxe at Portofino. but SO much space! If you can get a room in the west wing, that’ll be so much closer to the boats, pools, etc. We were in east wing, a bit more walking than the west side. Hope you have a great trip, either place you choose!!!
2 Likes