Stay at Disney or combine a day or two at Universal?

Also, I don't know if this is a popular opinion, but I feel like US is going down hill. The theming of both Harry Potter areas are fantastic (as a huge potter fan), but all the new rides they put in are using the same 3D and motion simulation technology. It feels like you're riding the same ride over and over and over again, just with a different video playing. I felt sick all day and I never struggled with motion sickness before. It was a breath of fresh air to return to Disney and go on an actual ride again.

I'm with you on this one. The Spider-Man ride was very very cool when it was the only ride like it, but now it seems like all their new rides are the same technology and style. It's still fun, but it's just all a bit...same-y. Also, I miss the Jaws ride.

Oh, I didn’t realize that you could take Magical Express one way? I thought you had to use it to be picked up and brought home, unless you just give up the option to be picked up since you were going to Universal first? Is it better to start at Universal or Disney?

When you book you can set up Magical Express to take you both ways to/from or only one way -- I'm driving in from Miami after my cruise next week, so I only have the ME taking me to the airport at the end of my stay. No problem setting that up at all. And to answer your other question (as well as your original question), if I were going to do both in a trip again I'd do a split stay and do Universal first. That was my original plan on our 2015 trip, but instead we ended up staying in a WDW resort for the entire trip and daytripping out to Universal twice by taxi. It's doable that way, but it's too much transit time for my taste and you lose the ability to go back to your room for a rest during the day or to change clothes if you get drenched on a water ride (there's always changing in a bathroom stall, buuut....). Also, I say Universal first because I like Disney better and I'd want to end on a strong note. Please note that I'm not saying not to go to Universal -- despite my comments above, I really do enjoy their parks, and their HP areas are particularly well crafted. I just found myself less enchanted by our Universal days than our Disney days.

Another thought I'd had on that last trip, though: if we'd wanted to stick with the daytrip model, it would have been the same cost to go to Universal for one day with their express pass option as going two days without. Now, we'd been there a couple times before, so ymmv, but I felt like I could have had my fill of Universal in one day if we'd had the pass to skip some of the lines.
 
They’ve all watched the Harry Potter movies and love them. Two of our boys are really ready for thrill rides, and one is not ready to give up Mickey or Disney at all, and really doesn’t like anything scary, loud or dark. He started to cry waiting to get on the milder version at Mission Space. His brothers (they are triplets) went with my husband and loved the extreme version. We YouTubed some of the rides and the Mummy and Jurassic Park were not big hits with him.

Maybe wait then if you will be back. Age 10-13 is a great age to start going to Universal.
 
We are planning a return Disney trip next January, 2019, and plan to stay again at the Polynesian. It will be me, DH, and our triplet boys who are 8. On our trip last year, we thought the boys were still a bit young for Universal and, since they had never been to Disney, we wanted to focus on that. We paid a lot of money for the deluxe dining, resort and park hopper tickets, and doing Universal for a day would have added $700-$800. This time, I started out excited to try both, but am finding I have reservations again, but for different reasons. Our Disney trip felt so easy and relaxed and we had pretty much paid for everything up front. We really want a repeat of that experience, and we’re looking forward to doing things we didn’t do on our last trip—like enjoy our resort more, visit the Boardwalk, etc. If we try to add a day or two at Universal, it will be hard to repeat that relaxed experience. We will be paying for a dining plan we won’t use for 1-2 days. Also, we are not the split stay type. We prefer to get where we are going and stay there, and, I don’t know, it’s starting to feel like we are just trying to cram too much into one trip. Does anyone else struggle with this? Just looking for thoughts and suggestions? For those who did both in a week, which is how long we will be there, did you find it was too much?

We just did 5 nights at Disney over Christmas and then moved over to Universal for 2 nights at one of their resorts. I thought it was a nice balance and personally I felt 2 nights was enough at Universal. If you were doing the water park (we did not) maybe add a day. I thought it was pretty relaxed still, we had ExpressPass at Universal so nothing was too stressful even at Christmas. Happy planning!
 
Hi I did the same thing a Mysteryincorp with a split stay at Universal and Disney. We flew into MCO and had Tony Hinds pick us up at the air port and we drive us to US. We stayed there for three nights then had him pick us up from US and drive us to POR. We spent 4 nights there then took ME back to the airport. Tony is awesome and we use him every time we go to US. We found this really fun to have two vacations in one. We don't mind split stays and moving in between so it was fine for us.

We really enjoy US and find ourselves going there every year now instead of Disney. We just prefer the whole experience and rides more. We still like Disney and will go back once the new lands and attractions are completed. I think if your family is really into going then I would. US has it's own bubble feel to it staying on-site. The Express Pass can't be beat and everything is so close together.

Good luck on your choice.
 


You owe it to yourself to try the Harry Potter sections. They're really well done.

I'll echo the posters above and say you should do Universal only if split-staying. If you're staying at the Disney hotel the whole time just stay at Disney.

Someday. At this point I'll at least wait until they're done with the changes they announced last year.
 
I understand your concerns on the cost, I asked my family if they wanted Universal in June, they said no. Then my god daughter discovered Harry Potter and in 3 months her room has become a shrine to Harry. It is costing me $800 to send her parents, her and an aunt (and food plan) to Universal for a couple of days. I worry a bit because all they are planning on doing for 2 days is Harry Potter, nothing else in Universal.
 
We just did 5 nights at Disney over Christmas and then moved over to Universal for 2 nights at one of their resorts. I thought it was a nice balance and personally I felt 2 nights was enough at Universal. If you were doing the water park (we did not) maybe add a day. I thought it was pretty relaxed still, we had ExpressPass at Universal so nothing was too stressful even at Christmas. Happy planning!
Exactly what we did actually. Was excellent. The Express Pass is a lifesaver at Universal.
 


On our first trip we stayed offsite and had a car hire so getting between Disney and Universal (and Seaworld) was a breeze, this time around we did five off-site days (US, Islands, Volcano Bay, Aquatica and then on our penultimate day we did US and Islands again) and took an Uber there and back each time. In many ways it was actually more straightforward, picked us up either from our building at Riverside or outside the lobby, and took us right to CityWalk. No worrying about parking or anything like that, and about $25-30 each way.

However, I think a week is pushing it - especially if you'd like to have some rest time or do other things around the resorts too. You have to weigh up whether the extra expense and and extra time you'll be taking up would be worth it. It's certainly simple enough, but will definitely make your trip a lot busier.

Also, I don't know if this is a popular opinion, but I feel like US is going down hill. The theming of both Harry Potter areas are fantastic (as a huge potter fan), but all the new rides they put in are using the same 3D and motion simulation technology. It feels like you're riding the same ride over and over and over again, just with a different video playing. I felt sick all day and I never struggled with motion sickness before. It was a breath of fresh air to return to Disney and go on an actual ride again.

I echo this too. We started referring to it as 'Universal Simulators' towards the end of our holiday. Don't get me wrong, some of them are good - The Simpsons Ride was my favourite simulator in Orlando until I did Flight of Passage, but it is a little excessive. That said, Islands is a great park and their water rides are fantastic - better than all of the ones in Disney IMO, certainly in terms of thrill. The drop on Jurassic Park gets me every time.
 
We did a split stay. Stayed the first two nights at Portofino Bay hotel. I recommend their club level as food was plentiful and good. Boat service to the parks was nice and not crowded. We arrived around 1-2pm and went over to the parks for a few hours to get our bearings. The next day we were up early to do HP land. I had planned on doing more the next (third) day but my kids (college age) were ready to go to Disney so we left early that morning. It was easy to get a taxi to Disney right out front.
 
If we try to add a day or two at Universal, it will be hard to repeat that relaxed experience. We will be paying for a dining plan we won’t use for 1-2 days. Also, we are not the split stay type. We prefer to get where we are going and stay there, and, I don’t know, it’s starting to feel like we are just trying to cram too much into one trip.
We are doing universal for 3 days post a 7 day Disney trip. I think in order to make a universal trip to work you need to stay on property there at one of the resorts which has the express pass. Universal does have a "meal plan" but i honestly haven't looked into it much so i don't know the details.

Cramming too much in really depends on how much time you have. I feel for our plan 7 and 3 -(yes our kids will be missing 2 days of school)- we will have enough Disney time and 3 days at UO is enough. I am actually looking forward to the universal portion simply because i do not have to plan anything. With the unlimited express pass tied to our royal pacific reservation there is not planning on what rides to ride at a specific time, there is no making dining reservations 6 months in advance. I feel that i am doing something wrong because i don't have to plan anything and i am looking at it as a great, relaxing way to wrap up a almost too planned out (FP and ADR) WDW trip.

The only thing i really have to plan is our transportation to universal and then universal to the airport - but with a transportation company like MEARS it should be pretty simple.

I guess you need to look at - what of universal your boys will enjoy -- my twins will be 12 so they are tall enough and fearless enough to ride anything. It is nice to just get somewhere and settle in but if you are already in the Orlando area and you really want to do universal then go for it.
 
If the kids are in to HP, sure, do Universal. If they aren't, I'd wait until they were tall enough/old enough to want to do the big coasters, to get your money's worth. We do two half days at Universal, but we only go for the HP areas.

THIS is what I wanted to do. If my daughter ONLY wanted to see the HP stuff (which would be our main reason for going), could we do it in half a day?
 
I did my two Orlando-trips (travelling from Europe to USA is to expensive for Disney- or USF-only stays) with both parks. First time - Christmas 2015 - I stood whole time at WDW and used privat-transfer (arranged through my Disney-travel-agent) for my last two days to do IOA and US. Second time - December 2016 (almost 3 weeks and over Christmas again) - I first used Tony Hinds and were one week onside at Universal with Express-Pass, and also doing in this time Seaworld, Shopping, FunSpot and 2x Bush Gardens, before heading to WDW for 11-12 days.

So my experiences: Although without Express-Pass two days at Universal were plenty enough to experience all rides in both parks and ride multiple times the coasters - ans this at high-crowded season. With Express-Pass I could have managed all if it - again with multiple rides - in one day. So I was glad, that I only had 3.5 days at Universal, which was almost to much. But have to agree with PPs, I'm no fan of Simulation-Rides and these were one and done for me. The only thing, that convinced me was Harry Potter. But if your boys are only interested in this, One day would be enough - also without Express-Pass (and as the queues are to good, I never used it there).

I will be back to Orlando in March, this time with my 60years old mum. As she is no thrill-seaker like me and mainly is in HP, we just do one day at US/IOS without Express-Pass, using UBER and with doing all of HP, as well as JP, RoKK, ET, Mummy, Shrek, perhaps Spiderman, MiB and Jimmy Falon, as well as SRL for the two coasters for me. I'm sure that this is enough time for our plans...

PS: If split Stay, I just would recommend Disney at last and USF at first or between
 
Oh, I didn’t realize that you could take Magical Express one way? I thought you had to use it to be picked up and brought home, unless you just give up the option to be picked up since you were going to Universal first? Is it better to start at Universal or Disney?

If you do both and are staying at one of the universal express pass hotels, I would recommend doing Universal last. Express Pass spoils you so much, it would be hard to go back to FP+. We took our younger son at 4 and then at 8. Eight was so much fun for him and he's not even really a HP fan. He loved all of the Universal Meet and Greets (minions, transformers, spiderman and other marvel peeps) and the rides. He is 10 now and I think he would be way to cool to hang with Megatron now. Personally, I would plan a Universal trip now and think about adding on a few Disney days instead of the other way around. My kids would be happy with a couple of days at Disney with the park hopper to just hit the highlights on top of a Universal trip.
 
I wouldn't do both in the same trip unless I only ever wanted to do a single day at Universal, strictly because of the cost structure. Both Disney and Universal structure their ticket costs to reward longer visits, and I have a hard time justifying the cost of a single day (or two).

We visited Universal a few years ago, and bought 14 day "unlimited" passes that included (at the time) Wet and Wild. Once you got past a single day ticket, the prices at Universal didn't change much with the addition of extra days. I will say that by the fourth day at Universal (which was planned as our final day), we had run out of things to do and were happy to leave early. That said, our kids were 5 and 8 at the time, and I felt they were really too young to fully enjoy the park. We only went because our 8-year-old was Harry Potter obsessed at the time (far beyond watching and loving the movies!), and we wanted to take her while she was still in that phase. Plus she begged us to go. I do remember sitting with my 5-year-old for long periods in an area where they had soft foam balls that you could vacuum up and fire out of little cannons (amongst other things), and thinking "this is what we paid $600 for?". He did really love that foam ball area though, so I guess that was all that mattered.

My kids are 9 and 12 now, and nobody is asking to go back. We might try again in a couple of years, but then likely we would again skip Disney entirely. I just can't see buying tickets and getting reasonable value out of both on the same trip.
 
THIS is what I wanted to do. If my daughter ONLY wanted to see the HP stuff (which would be our main reason for going), could we do it in half a day?

From the standpoint of whether you could get on all the HP rides and at least glance at most of the shops in those areas? Yeah, probably. You'd need their equivalent of a park hopper since HP is split across both parks and you can't ride the Hogwarts Express unless your ticket is good for both.

From the standpoint of whether I think a half day in US is realistic? Probably not. Both HP areas are in the far back corners of their respective parks, so you'll be walking past aaaallll the other attractions to get in and out. While I'm less into US than Disney, I can't imagine completely ignoring every attraction outside of the Wizarding World under those circumstances. Something is going to catch her (or your) eye. If you're reasonably sure HP is all you want to do, I'd still schedule a full day so you're not going at a frantic pace and can stop and enjoy other things that might come up. If you wanted to do everything (or at least closer to "everything") I'd either go two days or go one day with ExpressPass (as I mentioned above, the cost of a two day ticket was the same as a cost of a one day ticket with ExpressPass back in 2015, so cost-wise it's six of one, half a dozen of the other).
 
THIS is what I wanted to do. If my daughter ONLY wanted to see the HP stuff (which would be our main reason for going), could we do it in half a day?
Could you ride Forbidden Journey, Hogwart's Express, and Gringott's in a half day? Yes, if you were there at rope drop and started at the non-early-entry park. But if you've got such a big HP fan that you would shell out for 1 day, 2 park tickets, you probably will want to spend at least morning through dinnertime there. You'll want to do Ollivanders, eat at the Leaky Cauldron, ride Hogwart's both ways because it's different each day, and just spend some time exploring. My kids had a blast doing the interactive wands (three kids shared one wand) and that took quite a while.
 
THIS is what I wanted to do. If my daughter ONLY wanted to see the HP stuff (which would be our main reason for going), could we do it in half a day?



A half day doesn't do it justice. If she's a big HP fan she will need more time, as other posters have said. Just to sit and eat an ice cream from Florean Fortescue's and watch Diagon Alley is a treat in itself. We spent 2 days at Universal with most of that time being spent in HP. I could have spent more.
 
I wouldn't do both in the same trip unless I only ever wanted to do a single day at Universal, strictly because of the cost structure. Both Disney and Universal structure their ticket costs to reward longer visits, and I have a hard time justifying the cost of a single day (or two).

This is exactly what we are struggling with! We really want to try it, but it’s a big expense for just one day.
 
We did a split stay. Stayed the first two nights at Portofino Bay hotel. I recommend their club level as food was plentiful and good. Boat service to the parks was nice and not crowded. We arrived around 1-2pm and went over to the parks for a few hours to get our bearings. The next day we were up early to do HP land. I had planned on doing more the next (third) day but my kids (college age) were ready to go to Disney so we left early that morning. It was easy to get a taxi to Disney right out front.

I’m curious about the club level? We looked into at Disney, but there it seemed as though sticking with a dining plan works out better, but I haven’t heard great things about the UO dining plan. Have you ever done club level at Disney? I’m just curious how the two compare? I did not hear great reviews about club level at the Polynesian, at least not for the price.

If I can convince DH to give up Magical Express, I could see us staying here for a night or two. It would be nice to try to do 9 days total, so we would have 7 at Disney, but then that’s even more of an expense. I’m starting to see why so many people alternate the trips.
 

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