Transportation Options from Disney to Universal/IOA

[miatamel]

Trying to figure this out...

We come into Orlando the day before our Disney cruise. We have a HP fanatic and thought it would be silly not to see TWWoHP while we were so class. Trying to figure it out logistically. We get into Orlando and 11 am and will get to our Disney resort around 12-12:30 (guessing). We were going to get one day, one park tickets and go the friday afternoon of 12/17. I had my TA give me a price on tickets and transportation (Mears)and she told me $469. One day one park online for the four of us would be $341. So that is $120 for transporting to/from which sounds kind of high. But the big problem is the "not between 10-3" since we would probably want to go around 1-3.


Does this, in fact, seem high? Or would taxi be more RT for the 4 of us? Or should I try another mode of transport? Or, even more basically, is the HP park even doable in that afternoon/evening time frame? (Not interested in any other part of the park)

any advice would be most appreciated.

 

[miatamel]

I'm just going to respond in the other thread. No sense having two going.

Ha! Thanks. Just didn't want to get in trouble over there since technically we aren't discussing "crowds."

 

[Irish9697]

Can someone help me decide what to do? I want the cheapest option that is also convenient (aka no 2 hours on a bus system). It is not important that we see 2 parks in one day. We did Universal Studios a few years ag go and are wanting to go this time only for Harry Potter, so that's IOA. We are staying at Pop Century. Seems to me that buying 1 park tickets from AAA (1 adult, 2 kids) and taking a cab is our cheapest option (by about $50 compared to the DU 2 park/transport deal) or am I understanding things wrong? I hate the idea of having to make all those phone calls to Mears when I could simply walk out of my hotel (can I do this at Pop?) or park (IOA) and get a cab fairly quickly.

Thoughts?

 

[Cdn Friends of Pooh]

Can someone help me decide what to do? I want the cheapest option that is also convenient (aka no 2 hours on a bus system). It is not important that we see 2 parks in one day. We did Universal Studios a few years ag go and are wanting to go this time only for Harry Potter, so that's IOA. We are staying at Pop Century. Seems to me that buying 1 park tickets from AAA (1 adult, 2 kids) and taking a cab is our cheapest option (by about $50 compared to the DU 2 park/transport deal) or am I understanding things wrong? I hate the idea of having to make all those phone calls to Mears when I could simply walk out of my hotel (can I do this at Pop?) or park (IOA) and get a cab fairly quickly.

Thoughts?

If you want convenience, then yes, taxi/cab is the way to go. If there are no cabs outside of Pop, you can always get the concierge desk to call one for you. There are tons of cabs waiting outside of Universal.

 

[Jenny Wren]

Is the Lynx public transportation really that bad? We are leaving in 6 days for Disney, and my pap just told us that he wanted to buy us US tickets for our Christmas gift. Now I am stuck planning more. It would be so much easier taking the Lynx system. Does it really take forever to get there?

 

[jenseib]

Is the Lynx public transportation really that bad? We are leaving in 6 days for Disney, and my pap just told us that he wanted to buy us US tickets for our Christmas gift. Now I am stuck planning more. It would be so much easier taking the Lynx system. Does it really take forever to get there?

From everything I have read, yes, it does take a long time to go each way.

 

[damo]

Is the Lynx public transportation really that bad? We are leaving in 6 days for Disney, and my pap just told us that he wanted to buy us US tickets for our Christmas gift. Now I am stuck planning more. It would be so much easier taking the Lynx system. Does it really take forever to get there?

I've heard 1.5 - 2 hours each way.

 

[weber1188]

Not sure if anyone is still watching this board but this is the game plan I came up with for my mom and I (dad and brother will be golfing)

Arrange for Mears to pick us up at 7:30 a.m. from CSR to IOA/WWOHP to allow for extra time if they pick up other people after us

Ask for a 2:00 or 3:00 pick up time from IOA to either CSR or DTD we have no dining reservations anywhere so don't have to worry about that

Does this sound ok, I'm mostly wondering if 7:30 is too early for the 9:00 opening?

 

[Irish9697]

I ended up making a Mears reservation for Friday. Pick up times at Disney Resorts are hourly starting at 6:25am through 2:25pm.

Return times are hourly from 3:15pm through 2:15 am.

I chose the 7:25am pick up time for this Friday the 17th and they told me I could call 2 hours in advance for a pick up time since I am not sure when we'll want to leave. IOA park hours Friday are 9-7...we'll probably eat at CityWalk before we head back.

 

[TruBlu]

We did the Dreams Unlimited package. It was FANTASTIC!

 

[lgj5136]

Greetings All!

This is my very first post! Arriving in Orlando on 1/27/11. We land around 9:45 a.m. and will be taking DME to Wildnerness Lodge for 5 days. We only have the remainder of that day to go to Universal for the first time, the other days are already booked up with Disney Parks. Not knowing exactly how long it will take to get off plane, walk to get on the DME bus and actually arrive at our resort....I'm concerned about scheduling the Mears bus to pick us up at the resort for the ride to Universal. If I schedule it to soon and the ride from the airport takes too long, I'll miss the bus. If I schedule it later, we may be missing valuable Universal time. I believe Universal closes at 6:00 that day, so we really will have only a few hours. From anyone's experience, should I stick with Mears and have a planned pick up and return time or should I bite the bullet and have a greater expense by taking a cab which would give us the flexibility, and maybe even a faster way to get there? I should note that we do already have our tickets to Universal, they are 2-park 1 day tickets and there will be 2 adults only in our party. Any help would be appreciated! Thanks!

 

[TruBlu]

Greetings All!

This is my very first post! Arriving in Orlando on 1/27/11. We land around 9:45 a.m. and will be taking DME to Wildnerness Lodge for 5 days. We only have the remainder of that day to go to Universal for the first time, the other days are already booked up with Disney Parks. Not knowing exactly how long it will take to get off plane, walk to get on the DME bus and actually arrive at our resort....I'm concerned about scheduling the Mears bus to pick us up at the resort for the ride to Universal. If I schedule it to soon and the ride from the airport takes too long, I'll miss the bus. If I schedule it later, we may be missing valuable Universal time. I believe Universal closes at 6:00 that day, so we really will have only a few hours. From anyone's experience, should I stick with Mears and have a planned pick up and return time or should I bite the bullet and have a greater expense by taking a cab which would give us the flexibility, and maybe even a faster way to get there? I should note that we do already have our tickets to Universal, they are 2-park 1 day tickets and there will be 2 adults only in our party. Any help would be appreciated! Thanks!

HI!

To the DIS!

If it were me, I'd go with a cab. Our Mears shuttle picked up guests from other resorts. It didn't take a huge amount of time, but it did slow us down some - especially on the return. I think it'd be worth the extra cost.

 

[alaskanabbott]

we have nine of us in our party, and our son uses a wheelchair. Do any of the taxi's fit that many? Also, which taxi service is the best?

 

[BrizMarc]

I ended up making a Mears reservation for Friday. Pick up times at Disney Resorts are hourly starting at 6:25am through 2:25pm.

Return times are hourly from 3:15pm through 2:15 am.

I chose the 7:25am pick up time for this Friday the 17th and they told me I could call 2 hours in advance for a pick up time since I am not sure when we'll want to leave. IOA park hours Friday are 9-7...we'll probably eat at CityWalk before we head back.

I have a question, do you make the Mears shuttle booking 24 hours in advance or can you make it further out? For example a week or month? Also do you need to pre tell them your return pick up time from Universal when you book your pick up time from Disney?

 

[TruBlu]

I have a question, do you make the Mears shuttle booking 24 hours in advance or can you make it further out? For example a week or month? Also do you need to pre tell them your return pick up time from Universal when you book your pick up time from Disney?

I didn't try to make our reservation early, so I can't answer that part of your question. My DH actually got sick the night before our planned 7 am pick-up. I was able to call the night before and change our pick-up from Tuesday to Friday morning.

For our return, they asked that we call 90 minutes before we wanted to be picked up. I called as we were getting on our last ride for the night. By the time we walked over to the pick-up site our shuttle was arriving.

 

[DisneyFan32WI]

Ed Korgan was our transportation provider this week. He was WONDERFUL! Thanks to the DIS for his name and number.

 

[goofy4tink]

Has anyone done the deal for $114 that is posted here? The one where you get the Universal ticket and shuttle from Disney? I was just wondering if it worked out okay?

I have. My dd and I did it last summer. It was wonderful. Just be sure to bring everything with you. Print out that confirmation..it makes it so much easier at the bus. You can call them the day before you want to head to US/IoA and they will give you some times to choose from.
Then you can either decide at that time when you want to return, or you can call from US/IoA a few hours before you are ready to leave. They will give you a pickup time then.

 

[TruBlu]

Has anyone done the deal for $114 that is posted here? The one where you get the Universal ticket and shuttle from Disney? I was just wondering if it worked out okay?

Are you talking about the one with Dreams Unlimited? If so, yes. It was great!!! I even accidentally got in the line for early entry to IOA (no clue what I was doing), and they let us in early!

 

[danicolie]

Hi!

I know that Mears picks you up at your hotel, but do you have to get dropped off at the same hotel at the end of the day?

We're staying at Coronado Springs, plan on spending 2 days at Universal and arranging transportation through Mears. We want to be picked up at our hotel in the morning but dropped off somewhere else at the end of the day. One night we have dinner reservations at a different resort hotel and the other night we're having dinner at Epcot.

Will Mears do this?
Or do we have to leave Universal earlier, get dropped off at our hotel, only to immediately hop on Disney transportation to get to our dinner location?

 

[TruBlu]

Hi!

I know that Mears picks you up at your hotel, but do you have to get dropped off at the same hotel at the end of the day?

Will Mears do this?
Or do we have to leave Universal earlier, get dropped off at our hotel, only to immediately hop on Disney transportation to get to our dinner location?

Ask them when you call to make your reservation. We asked the shuttle driver if he could drop us at Downtown Disney instead of AKL and he said NO. He said that they don't go to DTD. You may have better luck with another resort. We had to go to several hotels (not just Disney ones) to drop off other people. We were last out. It was sad to watch DTD pass us by not once but twice as we drove around to drop people off.