Adding at day at Universal to Disney trip?

[rewok]

My DBF and I are going to Disney for 2 weeks in September for the first time. We are both thrilled, but my DBF is a thriller rides fan, and is a bit disappointed that Disney offers little in that regard. I know he'll enjoy the parks nonetheless, but I'd like to add a day in Universal for him. Since it will be only one day (and costly!), I want to make sure I do this right. From the look of it, we should go to Island of Adventures for the thrills? I wouldn't do Hulk or Dueling Dragons (chicken here!), he doesn't mind riding alone, I usually wait in line with him, but Spiderman looks so fun, and water rides are a favourite with me.

Is is worth it just for one day (tickets and shuttle from Disney are almost 200$)? Park is open 9AM-6PM, would it be enough to do everything? Would it be better to buy the ExpressPass (15$ each, ouch!) if we're going a Tuesday (September 11th)? And finally, is the Mears shuttle from Disney dependable to pick up at the exact time? I know it can take up to an hour of travel time tough.

I've researched the Disney portion of this trip to death, what parks what day, ADRs, touring plan, ..., but this latest add-on makes me nervous when I look at it as a 200$ day (it's better if I look at the total amount increase, but it's hard not to rationalize the day's total!). Thanks!

 

[robvia]

One day at IOA would work if you arrive early at 8am.

There have been many threads of Disney people wanting to add ONE day to visit Universal. They usually ask about visiting both parks, which isn't a good idea. In your case, you're only asking about IOA, so your plan will work.

With 2 weeks, I'm surprised you're not renting a car. Then you could drive up a couple times, and also visit Sea World of Florida. That one is already easy to do if you want to take the Lynx Bus. You take the #50 from the TTC to the corner of the SWF parking lot. The bus doesn't go directly to IOA, you'd have to take 3 and that would take too long. So it's either a taxi, limo, or rental car.

You'd enjoy Universal even more if you take a few days off your Disney portion, and add 2 nights at an onsite hotel. Why do you need 2 weeks at Disney? That's overkill if you ask me. Put the Universal stay at the end of your trip because if you stay onsite, you'll be spoiled with FOTL.

 

[Anthony1971]

Your best options are to either rent a car or atay on site or offsite with a a car and go a few days as the pass in general is the same price or not much more as Uneversal is always running specials... I knwo they were running a 5 or 7 day pass for the price of one day for a while....
I would suppose you do not want to do this because of free dinning in Sept but I am sure if crunch the numbers and stay offsite for a few days with a car you will do OK and by far will enjoy universal more than a one day trip.... you have two weeks that is a long time to be at the same place but still enjoyable.....

 

[rewok]

Funny, I should have expected answers that Universal is better than Disney and that 14 days is way too much there! No hard feelings On the other Disney boards, I had people telling me that their 10 days weren't enough...

Bear in mind that neither of us have been to Orlando before, so we don't know exactly what we're in for. The closest we experienced is Busch Gardens Europe, and we liked it a lot. Now this is our vacation time, so we also have to rest, so I have planned for 2 days in each park, 3 in Magic Kingdom, time to explore leisurely, because it's very large and I expect lots of walking. I also have 3 days at water parks (non negotiable, I'm a real fish!), so here we are at 12 days, day 1 and 15 don't count because of travel time, so I had 1 day left to redo our favorite park or just do nothing, which I now want to use for Universal. With this plan, we didn't want a rental, since we can use Magical Express and Disney bus. And I can't add more days, since plane is booked, and more, we have to go back to work! And free dining sure impacts the decision to stay on property, 82$ a day for lodging and food, hard to beat!

If I try and add more days to Universal (and Universal Studios does look very nice, I admit, I'm not sold Disney only...), I fear we'll stress out (well, I will ) trying to do everything, and this is supposed to be fun and relaxing, I have enough stress at work! But I'll still look at rentals prices maybe for our second week, and think about the 7 days 86$ ticket, it sure is tempting, just 20$ more!

 

[damo]

I think you are going to get Disney'd out with 14 days there. Having to take transportation everytime you want to go anywhere gets really unnerving after a while. 7 days would be lots. In 14 days I would add in Seaworld and both Universal parks and there would still be lots of leftover time for relaxation.

The Disney parks are large but they aren't larger than Busch Gardens Williamsburg. I would plan as much time in each Disney park as you would for Busch Gardens.

 

[Planogirl]

I've been to WDW often and I agree that 14 days is a lot! You might want to escape the crowds occasionally but then again maybe with a real relaxed schedule, they won't bother you much.

It would be a shame to miss the Universal Studios. I bet that DBF would enjoy the Mummy and there'd be a lot there that I imagine you'd both like. But maybe IOA will just whet your appetite and you'll want to come back.

 

[SusanDK]

I'm assuming you're a young couple and have no kids. My husband and I have been vacationing in the Orlando area since 1993, with no kids. We enjoy both Disney and Universal, so no debate here over which is better.

But if you are in Orlando for 14 days, I also think that 1 day for Universal and the rest for Disney would be unbalanced for you.

If the 7-day ticket for $85 is only $20 more than what you were planning on, I think it would be too good a deal to pass up. Even if you only decided to do one more visit to Universal/IOA during that time, it's a savings. You also can do half-days and not feel like you're wasting money when you have a ticket that is so inexpensive.

We also like relaxing vacations and never do commando style. Spread your 14 days out over both Disney & Universal.

You mentioned 3 days in water parks. You *might* find that a half day on one or two of those days is enough, and then you can head to Universal/IOA for the afternoon. Again, with the $85 tickets for 7 days, even if you only spend 2-3 hours there a couple times, it's a bargain.

In September you shouldn't need Express Pass at Universal. The crowds should be reasonable and you should not have any trouble getting seating for shows just as they are starting.

I wouldn't bother with SeaWorld for this trip, as suggested by others, because I do think Disney and Universal/IOA will be more than enough for 14 days. But the variety of a few more days than just one day at Universal/IOA would be my choice.

And I would also suggest renting a car, at least for the week that you have the Universal tickets, just for ease of transportation.

Susan

 

[calgarygary]

If you really want to get the most out of your trip, maybe consider switching over to Universal for the final 2 nights. Given the time you are going, you will probably be able to get a very reasonable rate at the RPR and you would have fotl for 3 days. We have always visited both WDW and Universal on our trips to Orlando and I can not accurately describe what a change of pace staying onsite at Universal is.

 

[sha_lyn]

14 days is a lot of time for WDW without kids
My suggestion would be 1.5 days in each park, except 2 days for Epcot (maybe even 2.5 day there). 1 day for each of the water parks would put you at 10 days at WDW. Allow 1 day for DTD and DQ perhaps. That leaves you 3 days to explore Universal.

I also like susanDK's idea, although I would head to US/IOA first, then do a WDW waterpark or DTD in the evening. Arrive at USO at 8:00, then by lunch time you could head to WDW to use your dining plan for lunch, then head to a water park DTD etc. If you did this for 3 days you should be able to cover most everything in USO

Normally I would suggest as others have, to stay onstie at USO for a few days. However considering you are getting free dining and relying on WDW transportation to the airport, I think one of the above plans would work. You won't get the full feeling of USO by not staying onsite, but perhaps you'll get a good taste and decide to stay onsite in the future.

 

[rewok]

Yes, we are a young (not so, turning 30 this fall!) couple with sadly no kids yet, so we are very flexible and we can get around pretty fast.

The analogy of Disney with Bush Gardens Europe is welcomed, because in 1 day not full day last year we did most of the park, but we could have used maybe another half day there to see all. I really have no scale to judge Disney or Universal, but friends that have been to Disney never seem to get enough time there .

The water parks are a favourite of mine, and believe me, it's not a relaxing day. I really prefer to go there on overcast or slightly raining days, so it's not for lounging. We go up and down all day, and leave when we are too tired to climb the stairs. But going to Universal say 9-1, then getting to the water park (or even a theme park, but I'm scared of long lines in the afternoon) for a half day sounds good. We'd need a rental car then, but I can budget for that and rationalize it as a time saving thing . The ticket price isn't so bad if we do 1 full day and 2-3 half days, and we could eat at Disney most of the time with our credits.

I'd really like to add 1-2 days on site at Universal with Express privilege, but I can't pay 200$ a night this time plus food cost, it's supposed to be a budget trip... And I'm cheap, we usually go camping at 30$ a night and make our own food to have great balanced and healthy meals at fast food prices. I'd consider it for another time if we fall in love with Universal. Won't do SeaWorld either, more budget busting tickets to add, and then I'll stress out to cram everything in.

Anyway, thanks for everyone input, now I'm convinced to do at least IOA, and will probably do Universal Studios as well, unless DBF doesn't want, which I doubt. Sounds like a plan! I'll report on the Disney vs Universal afterwards...