I notice a huge different in quality between 1-hour labs and the local lab (Photographic Works). The color rendition and edges are FAR better. They are good with white balance whereas I've had 1-hour photo labs botch the white balance pretty bad along with colors out of alignment (weird red or green edges). IF there is a problem with any of the prints (i.e. too dark, or contrast), a real printer will be able to help with it, whereas the 1-hour lab will not touch them.
I had Walgreens develop a set of company portraits I took last year (I was being uber cheap and wanted to get away with it). I made sure the images were totally perfect when I brought them in. Nonetheless, the white balance was horribly green on one set and overly red on another. On screen, they looked the same. I tried to overcompensate and re-print, they were still out of whack. I took them to the real printer and the originals came out perfect the first time.
Sorry, I'm getting off topic!
I haven't printed an HDR image since I trip I made to Mexico in 05 where they just didn't look very good on paper (noise, dithering). So my HDR printability info may be dated

I need to look into again if it's getting better nowdays, the HDR is good stuff