My son and I enjoyed a marvelous father-son vacation at the Universal Studios complex in Orlando in early February 2013. We stayed on the grounds at the Hard Rock Hotel. From the moment of our arrival to our departure five days later I experienced possibly the most friendly and helpful hotel service in my lifetime.

The hotel building itself is a pleasure to look at. The huge lobby is magnificent and welcoming with rock and roll memorabilia adorning same. The room was comfortable and exceptionally clean. The view from the room was an overlook of the huge pool with partial sand beach with
scenic palm trees on the fringes.

The breakfast buffet served in the hotel's The Kitchen restaurant offered a great variety of breakfast foods along with several varieties of fruit juices. Hotel guests use free shuttle boat rides
from the hotel dock along a scenic canal to the parks entrances. A magnificent perk of staying at
the hotel is the express pass you receive which puts you at the head of the line for various choice rides . You also go to the head of the line at most of the restaurants on CityWalk. It,s wonderful to walk onto a ride without a wait. Everyting you buy anywhere at the Universal complex can be charged to your room by just showing your magnetic room key. Every souvenir you purchase dous not have to be lugged around but can be delivered to your room the next day.

Well, I'm sure I haven't covered everting I liked about the wonderful hotel; but I am sure if you decide to stay here you'll love it.

We made a reservation 6 months ahead for a kind bed and a room with two beds. We were told by a CSR and a front desk manager that no king beds were available. A 30 minute discussion ensued with 5 people in our party listening to an explanation that "there was nothing they could do". We asked to be upgraded since the hotel was not honoring our original king bed request...the answer was no. After requesting to speak with the front desk's manager's supervisor we waited another 10 minutes...the front desk manager appeared and stated the supervisor was not available but he somehow "found" a king bed/room for us to use. An hour after the inital front desk discussion we were on way to the correct room.

The Hard Rock is a clean hotel. All other hotel services were as expected. It is adjacent to the Universal Parks and allows one hour early entrance to them along with free express passes to most rides. The food and drink prices at the hotel are exceptionally high. They claim they treat you like rock stars...expected to pay rock star prices.

This hotel was very convenient for visiting Universal Studios. We were able to walk to the park in less than 5 minutes. Also if you stay on ground you can go to certain rides in Islands of Adventure an hour early and you get Express Passes which allow you shorter lines. The hotel does have loud music playing late at night and early in the morning so bring ear plugs. Also, the walls are thin so you can often hear people in the halls. The hotel alarm went off around 7am one morning which was unfortunate. The pool area was gorgeous and the pool is heated.

Room was nice and clean, pool was great, nice restaurant, and service was helpful. We went to the park and with express passes there was no wait and the location was perfect. I would highly recommend.