9 days in October! First "split" vacation. Need help!!

[twanner]

We're taking our first "split" vacation this October. Split between Disney and Universal with a day of Kennedy Space Center thrown in for good measure. I'm at a complete loss as to how to plan this. In the past we've always stayed onsite (Disney resorts). We have 8 full days and probably about 4 hours on our last day. Has anyone done this? Would you recommend Disney first, or Universal? I really want to spend at least a portion of the vacation in a Disney resort. We've never had to rent a car because we've always used DME. Help! I'm also trying to keep this as budget friendly as possible. Any suggestions!

 

[ChrisandMeghann]

Well if you start with disney you can take the magical express in. However if you dont take the magical express from the airport you can not return to the air port on the magical express. For this reason i would start at disney if you are planning on staying on property. You could always take a taxi to the nearest car rental place for the second half of your vacation and pick up a car. This way you wont be paying for an unneeded rental car while your at disney but you can have one to get you to the space center and to universal/sea world. Other then that im not to knowlagable on Universal i dont know if they have any transportation to of from the air port. I know that a taxi costs about $60 from the air port to disney world just for a little bit of a refference. They will be asking for your return flight information but you can just lie and not show up its not like it costs anything. Just get online and pick a flight that leaves on your last day at disney and tell them thats the flight you will be on (even though you will be on your way to universal).

 

[emh1129]

We are planning our first split trip, too. We Pricelined a hotel room very close to Universal and will spend a few days at Universal (never been there before!) and probably one at the Space Center.
Then we will check in to POR (or maybe a different Disney hotel) and do Disney for a few days before driving home. I wanted to save Disney for last

 

[twanner]

My first impulse is to save Disney for last, too. That would mean we'd need to rent a car right away or take a taxi to our "Universal" hotel from the airport. How difficult is it to drive around Orlando? Worse than Toronto? Anyone?

 

[KLAIT]

We always split our stay..and always do Disney first as we have changed plans now that we have done it enough to know we prefer on site at Universal rather than Disney..and the front of the line perk that goes along with that is priceless...and if we had front of the line access first, we would never be able to stand in line at Disney...We usually go for 10 days....spend 6 days in the Disney Area, Drive over to the Space Center, spend a night in Cocoa and then check in on site Universal..which is also a pretty quick ride to the airport.