The Hard Rock was a real treat. My husband and I were traveling with two teenagers. We booked the 2 bedroom King Suite (6th floor). The staff was friendly and helpful at check-in, although there was a line it moved fairly quickly. The rooms were very clean and decorated nicely. It was great to return to a turned-down bed every evening. We were celebrating a high school graduation, the hotel provided a complimentary cake and drinks to help us celebrate. Also, the free "fast pass" access to the Universal theme parks was invaluable...only spent about 10 mins in line (max) for any ride. I would definitely visit again!

Just returned with family and friends from one week stay at the Hard Rock hotel from 7th July until 14th july 2008. Fantastic. Also stayed the previous week at the Disney Swan (also fantastic)
We didnt like our first room in the Hard Rock as it was overlooking the pool which is very, very noisy until 11pm at night. But Tom and Garston were extremely helpful and made our holiday special by moving us to the seventh floor overlooking the gardens which was beautiful and relaxing. Room was clean and beautifully furnished with dvd player and cd system but did have a little damp under the window which we could smell faintly.
Location is fantastic for the universal parks, seaworld, discovery cove, wet and wild and shopping. The bypassing of queues at the universal parks with your room key is worth its weight in gold. We never had to wait in a single line...aah...sheer bliss.
Every member of staff we met was full of fun and our 12 year old son and his 12 year old friend thought they were 'way cool'.
The hotel is also ultra cool with a lively, jumping, buzzing pool. The boys loved it. There were games, music, dancing, a great slide and lots of fun. It was hard to drag them out of the pool.
Food was delicious and all included in the club level 7 floor. Which is definitely the way to do it at this hotel. You wont be disappointed.
We will definitely stay here again or any Leows hotel if it is anything like this one.

Good points:

fabulous lobby
attentive staff (all cool and dressed in black, some with black nail varnish ...and that was the men :) )
proximity to the parks, 5 mins walk
fast pass to rides with hotel key card
fast pass to Citywalk restaurant queues
velvet lounge full of hard rocky people :)
icrecream palour on the ground floor
free ice dispensers
nice pod coffee machine with plenty of pods for tea and coffee in the room.
lovely boat ride (5 minutes) to parks
It's interesting to spend some time looking at the Rock memorabolia on framed hangings all over the place.
the Kitchen was nice for breakfast, although a little pricey..
lots of american food, like Grits and breakfast potatoes and sausage and egg pizzas, but plenty of more familar food too!



Bad points:
I had assumed park entry was included with the Virgin holiday package..I assumed wrong!.. had to buy 14 day flexi ticket.
(universal parks entry was included with the hotel at portaventura in salou in spain on our holiday last year)

$9.95 for tv internet, which had to be navigated by arrows on a keyboard (v. difficult)
$7.95 for 15 mins internet in the lobby
wifi wireless at $27.95 for 3 days was a very poor one bar connection.
fridge and microwave for hire at $10 -$15 a day
bed a bit hard with hard dampish linen
500ml of water for $6
pool a bit crowded and was quite shallow at a max of 4'6', so it got quite warm by the afternoon.

We have been going to Hard Rock for the last 5 years on average of 4 times a year, and it has been falling every since. The first couplr of years it was great the last couple nothing short of terrible.

The room service not what you would expect from a good Hotel, They charge for POOL views in which you never get as this last trip our view was a back of a tent. Charging $15.00 to park your car every night over the higher rates then other Hotels seem pretty petty. Overall not a good experience at the higher end pricing. There web site in which is to comment to them diretly is always down and never working.