splitting disney & universal

I came back from a ten day solo trip in which I spent two days at universal. I stayed on Disney property the entire time (Pop Century) and thought for me it would of been a pain in the butt to have to pack up my clothes and luggage and then re do it all after a few days. While I am sure the universal hotels are nice I thought this was much easier for me to do. I took a taxi both time form Pop to Universal. About 70 dollars round trip. I visited both parks on a Friday and Sunday. I think doing them was a lot of fun since it was my first time visiting them as well. I also think since I was staying for a long time it was a nice break from the Disney parks and would highly recommend this to anyone. They have much better coasters and the theming at Harry Potter alone is amazing to check out. I would say 2 days at both parks was enough for me, if I had done a third I probe would have done some of my favorite rides and been gone by 1 or so. I would tell you to go for it and do it. Any future trip to Disney for me will have to include a trip to Universal from now on. It's totally worth it.
 
My husband and myself just booked 4 nights at Royal Pacific with a 3 day park to park pass, then we are going to Port Orleans French Qtr at Disney for 6 nights. We do not want to rent a car and will be flying in. I have a couple of questions:
1. How much will it cost to take a cab from MCO to Royal Pacific?
2. Does anyone know if there is transportation from Sanford airport to Royal Pacific and how much it would cost and how long it would take ?
3. Is the early entry for both parks at Universal or just one of them for resort guests?
4. Any other tips would be welcome. This is only our second time visiting Universal.
Thanks

1. Roughly $50
2.Not sure, sorry
3.I believe both, now that Diagon Alley is open

Tips:
-If you are looking for burger and fries for lunch, its faster to leave the park and go to Burger King on Citywalk rather than lineup for a Krusty Burger/other fast food place.
-If the line is too long, do single rider for Gringotts and Forbidden Journey, as you CANNOT use your Express Pass for these attractions. My husband and I did this and we were able to ride right next to each other, as if we entered the regular line together. That is not a guarantee of course, and we may have lucked in, but you shouldn't be far behind each other. Plus, in Forbidden Journey at least, its not the type of ride where you can see the person next to you anyway.
-Check out the Animal Actors show, its REALLY cute :) You can meet a few of the stars at 10:45 each morning-we met an owl from Harry Potter, Marley from Marley and Me, and Rosa the Chihuahua from Beverly Hills Chihuahua 3 haha. Also if you want to get picked as a volunteer who has $1 during the show, sit in the center of the audience.
-Ask to wait for the front row of the Simpsons and ESPECIALLY the Transformers ride (in the front row, I really felt like I was IN the movie...third row with the heads in front of you kinda take away a little, but still awesome rides!)
-You can get a taxi/car service round trip to the Premium Outlets on International Drive for $40 return, just ask the concierge and they will arrange it and also give you a coupon book for the mall.
 
1. Roughly $50
2.Not sure, sorry
3.I believe both, now that Diagon Alley is open

Tips:
-If you are looking for burger and fries for lunch, its faster to leave the park and go to Burger King on Citywalk rather than lineup for a Krusty Burger/other fast food place.
-If the line is too long, do single rider for Gringotts and Forbidden Journey, as you CANNOT use your Express Pass for these attractions. My husband and I did this and we were able to ride right next to each other, as if we entered the regular line together. That is not a guarantee of course, and we may have lucked in, but you shouldn't be far behind each other. Plus, in Forbidden Journey at least, its not the type of ride where you can see the person next to you anyway.
-Check out the Animal Actors show, its REALLY cute :) You can meet a few of the stars at 10:45 each morning-we met an owl from Harry Potter, Marley from Marley and Me, and Rosa the Chihuahua from Beverly Hills Chihuahua 3 haha. Also if you want to get picked as a volunteer who has $1 during the show, sit in the center of the audience.
-Ask to wait for the front row of the Simpsons and ESPECIALLY the Transformers ride (in the front row, I really felt like I was IN the movie...third row with the heads in front of you kinda take away a little, but still awesome rides!)
-You can get a taxi/car service round trip to the Premium Outlets on International Drive for $40 return, just ask the concierge and they will arrange it and also give you a coupon book for the mall.
Thanks! That helps a lot.
 
Do all of you feel it is better to stay at a WDW property and transfer over to universal for the two days of fun, or is it better to leave WDW and go to a universal hotel? We just love magical express and I would hate to pay to get back to MCO
 


i do split stays so i can immerse myself in both theme parks.
once i leave the motherland, i go to the darkside resorts to stay.
i can take in all they have to offer me.
no rushing, no schedule for getting somewhere, enjoying everything that UO has to offer me while i stay onsite there.

it's well worth it for me to spend the money for the transportation to move from one hotel site to another.
and, i don't waste time having to catch the ME hours in advance which doesn't necessarily go straight to the airport once i would board it.
i can use a taxi or private car service or the sedans at the UO hotels to get back to MCO.
 
I am staying in Universal Hotels when I am there, and Disney hotels for our Disney days (2 days each). I just don't want to give up the valuable time driving between the two places; and I like having the option of getting back to my hotel for a mid day break. We like to totally maximize our in-park time; it would be different if you have a longer vacation with more park days. After checking prices at both places, I feel like Disney value hotels are cheaper than the Cabana Bay. Depending on your group size transportation from Universal to the hotel isn't too expensive.
 
We just did a combo trip in December (Two days Uni / Two days Disney). Stayed at POP the whole time and just cabbed over each day ($35 each way, give or take a dollar). Because we went during the first week of December, we found that an express pass wasn't necessary at all. The crowds were all centered on Hogsmeade & Diagon, but even Gringotts was only a 15 minute wait on both days and it didn't really seem to matter about Early Entry.

We had considered a split stay at Cabana & Pop, but the pros & cons didn't add up for us. The fact that our time was limited and it was a slow(ish) time of the year made us choose to stick to one resort and just pay for the cab back and forth. We chose to stay at Disney over Uni because of Magical Express vs an airport cab and the time savings of not having to do a resort switch midway. Uni's parks closed pretty early that week (6pm) while the Disney parks stayed open much later, so we wanted to make it easier to enjoy those longer hours over at Disney. If Cabana Bay offered Express passes automatically like their other hotels or if Uni offered free airport transportation, or if their parks had stayed open later that particular week, that could have tipped the scales in Uni's favor to do a split. It's really a personal choice as to what you want to do and what you prefer, for us, sticking with Disney property that particular week just made more sense.

- Cabbing was super easy and less stressful than doing the shuttle routine because we didn't have to decide in advance when we wanted to leave. We were able to stop and eat at Citywalk (Cowfish is amazing!). There was no wait either at POP or Uni for a cab to show up, there was always one already sitting and waiting.

- We really needed a third day for Universal. Even with the slow crowds, we spent so much time enjoying the HP & Jurassic Park areas and should have taken a third day just to explore and enjoy the shows & other lands we skimped on.
 


I just have a question for those who have been doing both WDW and Uni. I was thinking of just staying at Disney so we can use ME and not mess with luggage to and from. But we want to do 2 days at Uni. We were just going to get a cab for 2 days and try and get there early. But now I'm wondering if we booked one night at Uni, and just left Disney for that one nights stay only, and then came back to our main reservation at Disney??? Is there a problem with that on Disney's side? We wouldn't tell them, just pack a small bag, leave do not disturb sign on door, and come back later the next day? Has anyone done it that way? If we did, we could stay onsite at Uni too and not lose our Disney ME, room. We would also be able to use the EP and early open at Uni. Sounds like a win/win situation to me, but it also sounds too good too??????
 
i have read of many doing that.
keep their room at the motherland while staying one night at the darkside resorts.

like you said, put the do not disturb sign up.
let the front desk know you do not want housekeeping to leave a bag with towels in it.
i have had that happen to me at the motherland resorts when my sign was up.
came back after midnight and the bag was hanging on the outside doorknob.
 
I just have a question for those who have been doing both WDW and Uni. I was thinking of just staying at Disney so we can use ME and not mess with luggage to and from. But we want to do 2 days at Uni. We were just going to get a cab for 2 days and try and get there early. But now I'm wondering if we booked one night at Uni, and just left Disney for that one nights stay only, and then came back to our main reservation at Disney??? Is there a problem with that on Disney's side? We wouldn't tell them, just pack a small bag, leave do not disturb sign on door, and come back later the next day? Has anyone done it that way? If we did, we could stay onsite at Uni too and not lose our Disney ME, room. We would also be able to use the EP and early open at Uni. Sounds like a win/win situation to me, but it also sounds too good too??????
We did this in 2011. We had a 6 night vacation pkg at POFQ. We took a cab to Royal Pacific and stayed one night while keeping our room at POFQ. The Royal Pacific included the Express Pass free for the day we checked in and the day we checked out. We arrived at Royal Pacific around 8am and they let us store our overnight bag with them. We arrived at Universal Studios before park opening. The next day we went to IOA for early opening. It worked out great. We did the math and it was cheaper to pay for one night at Royal Pacific than it was to purchase the express pass and the extra round trip cab ride. When we left POFQ for the night we did not notify Disney and we did not put the do not disturb sign on the door. We just left. Everything was in perfect order when we returned.
 

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