Considering staying at RP. I've been reading through the posts but I still have a few questions.
It seems that Tower 1 or 3 are the best located, with 3 being closet to the bus service & the boat dock. Is that accurate?
For Club level, it seems that is in Tower 3, with all rooms being in tower 3 on floors 6 & 7. Is that accurate?
We were looking at a 2 Queen water view room, but were also considering club level. In the description of the club level rooms, it
doesn't say what the view is. It doesn't mention the view at all. Do you have any feedback on that?
Also, is it worth it to pay extra for club level?
Rooms: it seems that most rooms, including club level rooms are 335 sq ft. From looking at pictures, the rooms look small.
Are they very small? Is the one bed against the wall?
Pool: how deep is the pool? From what I could tell from the pictures, it looks like 3.5 ft deep. Are there deeper areas in the pool?
That is one thing I didn't care for at a previous stay at Hard Rock. The pool was so shallow.
Thanks for any feedback!
Yes, Tower 1 and 3 are best situated for transportation. That being said, we'd stayed in Tower 2, and didn't find the extra 3 minutes or so of walking to be onerous.
Club Level is in Tower 3. You don't get a say in your room view if you reserve Club Level, although you can always make a request at check-in (no guarantees).
In my opinion, Club Level is NOT WORTH IT if you have to pay for it. A few years ago, we received a complimentary upgrade to Club Level (for which we were very surprised and grateful), and we absolutely loved the convenience of the continental breakfast and the ability to grab a bag of chips or a cookie during our usual afternoon nap break. We never visited for dinner or late evening service, since we were back out of the room by 4pm each day, to enjoy a table service dinner and an evening in the parks or CityWalk. As a result, my family of four was really only getting about $10-$15 worth of value per person, per day, out of the lounge (e.g., a bagel and coffee in the morning, a bottle of water and a piece of fruit or bag of chips in the afternoon). Comparing that $40-$60 of daily value to the $250/night that Club Level would have cost, we would have lost $200/night, had we paid for that upgrade. (Indeed, our usual practice is to set up our own little breakfast/snack bar in our hotel room, stocked with cereal and pastries, fruit, bagged snacks and bottled water, at a cost of $50 in groceries, brought or delivered, sufficient to last an entire week.) Of course, if you are able and willing to be there for the "meal" and "drink" times daily, or would otherwise be consuming several fountain beverages every day that you can get from the lounge instead, the calculus may be different for you.
We DID see a family or two who appeared to be trying to get the most "bang for their buck" by relying on the club lounge for all of their meals, beverages, and snacks, taking huge quantities of everything (in one case, an entire tray of mini-quiches, which was snatched by a guest the moment it was brought out, and later emptied not-so-discreetly into a tupperware bowl, with the ones that wouldn't fit into the bowl wasted and abandoned on the table), stuffing it in bags, and bringing it back to hoard in their rooms -- but this is not what the club lounge is intended to do, and it was rather off-putting to behold.
The Club Level rooms are the same size as all non-club rooms of the same type. Although Royal Pacific's standard room aren't huge, our family of four (2 adults, 2 teens, each with a single carryon bag's worth of stuff) has always found them to be perfectly adequate, in terms of space and storage. While the standard (e.g. 2-queen) rooms all have pretty much the same layout, you should be aware that some have tub/shower combos and some just have stand-up showers. If you have a strong need for one or the other (e.g., if you need a bathtub to bathe small children), that's a request you'll want to append to your reservation, or voice at check-in.
Unfortunately, the pool is shallow, just like you found at Hard Rock. When we last visited, our daughter was just under 5' tall, and she could comfortably stand, with head and shoulders out of the water, anywhere in the pool -- which was nice for us as parents who wanted to keep an eye on our kids, but surely disappointing for anyone who wants to really SWIM in the pool instead of just mill around.
Royal Pacific has always been my favorite resort at Universal: relaxing and beautiful, with a nice array of dining options. I hope you enjoy your stay -- we're looking forward to returning there ourselves in 2 weeks!
