January 6-8, 2019
I had the opportunity to attend a training at Universal Orlando with several other agents from my agency and jumped on it! I consider myself somewhat of a Disney expert, but definitely needed to learn more about Universal Orlando and all they can offer to my clients.
I met up with some other agents at the Philadelphia Airport.
We had a quick uneventful flight on Southwest and actually arrived about a half hour early. Once we claimed our baggage, we headed outside and ordered Lyft XL since there were three of us with luggage. After two failed attempts (I think the person who accepted first twice was actually sleeping or something?? His car never moved…) we got a new driver. He safely got us to our destination! As a side note…I would say 95% of people who walked out of the Baggage Claim doors were calling Uber or Lyft. All ages! Couples, families, business people, etc. If you would like a link for $20 in Lyft credit, here is a code for you: https://www.lyft.com/invite/TARYNSTOTS
We finally made it to…
We were lucky enough to score a Club King Suite with a connecting Club 2 Queen and Club King Room! The maximum occupancy for this is 13 with a rollaway. It was essentially a 3 Room Suite! Here are the floor plans of two of the rooms:
This is the Club King Suite with Connecting Club 2 Queen Room. The Club King Room connected on the other side of the Club King Suite. We had SO MUCH SPACE!
All Club Rooms are located on the 7th Floor.
Club 2 Queen Room: Two queen beds that can accommodate 4 guests, full size bathroom, view overlooking the pool
King Suite: Two flat screen TVs, a sleeper sofa that can accommodate 2 guests, an armchair and a dining table that can seat six guests, a full bathroom featuring a stand up shower. A generous sized guest room that features a king bed that can accommodate 2 guests and has extra living space.
Club King Room: King bed that can accommodate 2 guests, a full size bathroom.
Views from our room!
The view from our room at sunset!
The total square footage for this 3-bedroom suite is 1400. We had plenty of room for 13 of us with rollaways.
My impression of the room(s): I LOVED THEM! I actually loved the vibe at this entire hotel. I loved the decor, our view, and it was super clean. The staff from the bellman to the maid were all very friendly and professional. I slept in the King Suite part. There was so much room that we could separate if we needed to. We loved having 3 full bathrooms for 13 women. And we loved having the table to sit at and eat snacks and do some work. I would definitely stay here again with my family.
Rock Royalty:
Because we were on Club Level, we had access to the Rock Royalty Lounge for complimentary continental breakfast and evening hors d’oeuvres, beer and wine, and desserts. We arrived and got settled right around 5:00 p.m. ish. So we headed directly to the lounge for “dinner!” To enter, you had to swipe your key.
This water/soda cooler was accessible from 7 a.m. until 10 p.m. daily.
As was this coffee/tea/hot chocolate station.
Alcoholic beverages were available with the 5-7 p.m. evening hors d’oeuvres. For this you had to show your room key which had a sticker on the back, and it was served by attendants…not a free for all. You could get one drink at a time, but there was not limit to how many times you could go back up.
All of this was actually very good! And the chicken wings…were amazing! This filled us up so we didn’t have to go anywhere else for dinner.
The attendant saw me taking pictures and asked if I wanted to see the menu for the week! Of course I did! 
After dinner, I went down to the lobby to take some pictures.
The check in desks.
Fun little themed details!
So here’s something cool for music lovers! They have a Sound of Your Stay program. You can put down $1000 security deposit and order one of these guitars with headphones to play in your room! There is a waiver to complete.
There were a bunch of artifacts around the entire lobby area.
I also stepped outside and caught some amazing views at night!
Here were the breakfast offerings in the Rock Royalty Lounge on January 7th. It was a really good variety!
A few other random shots from around the grounds during the day:
Random Thoughts:
- This is one of Univeral’s Premier hotels…which means guests staying here get FREE Universal Express Unlimited Pass to skip the regular lines at most attractions. Super important, especially dependent on the time of year you plan on going. If you are not staying at a Premier hotel, you can purchase the Unlimited Express Pass starting at $90 per day per person. This price does fluctuate by park and date. Consider this cost when choosing your hotel stay!
- Hard Rock Hotel is about a 5 minute walk to the front gates of Universal Orlando. Very convenient! You don’t have to worry about bus or boat transportation.
- The pool here is AMAZING! I didn’t get to partake in it, but I did walk through and it was huge! Tons of seating.
Here’s a direct link to the Universal Orlando website to check out the Hard Rock Hotel!
Taryn Travels 