Adding in some Universal. Which plan to go with?

[Jetku]

My wife and I are planning a 3 day weekend to celebrate our 5th anniversary. We are leaving DD with her grandparents for our first nights away from her since she was born.

We go to Disney quite often (1 regular and 2 weekend trips planned this year) but want an "adults" trip for this special anniversary. We came on our honeymoon 5 years ago.

However! We are both big Harry Potter fans and haven't been to either Wizarding World park. My wife has never even been to Universal. We'd want to wait 4 or 5 more years before taking DD to UO, so this may be our only shot! She won't be very interested in the non-HP sections of Universal, but I must see Simpsons, Transformers, etc. Coasters can be skipped. She would never even consider HHN.

Which plan below do you think would work best? Any suggestions would be appreciated. If we do a Disney hotel, it would be Boardwalk (already booked). If we do a Universal hotel, it would be Royal Pacific.

We have APs to Disney, so tickets there are no problem.

Travel dates: Oct 27-29

Trip Option 1: Disney only

Friday:
Hotel Arrival: ~10am
Epcot Food and Wine
Le Cellier (3:30) OR
Afternoon tea? 4:15pm latest OR
'Ohana, Citricos, Chef Mickey's, or California Grill (5:00pm)
Mickey's Not So Scary

Saturday:
Disney Springs
Homecoming
Epcot
Le Cellier or Monorail Dine around

Sunday:
Magic Kingdom early morning magic?
Signature brunch (California grill?)
Depart at 1:30pm


Trip Option 2: Disney w/ 1 day HP

Friday:
Hotel Arrival: ~10am
Epcot Food and Wine
Le Cellier (3:30) OR
Afternoon tea? 4:15pm latest OR
'Ohana, Citricos, Chef Mickey's, or California Grill (5:00pm)
Mickey's Not So Scary

Saturday:
Universal with Hopper and Express Pass
Toothsome evening?

Sunday:
Magic Kingdom early morning magic
Epcot Food and Wine OR brunch
Depart at 1:30pm

Trip Option 3: Universal w/ Disney and express pass unlimited

Friday:
Hotel Arrival: ~10am
Universal rides with express pass
'Ohana, Citricos, Chef Mickey's, or California Grill (5:15pm)
Mickey's Not So Scary

Saturday:
Harry Potter park one hour early
HP rides and some universal
Le Cellier (4:30pm)
Epcot food and wine

Sunday:
Harry Potter one hour early?
Toothsome (11:30am)?
Depart at 1:30pm

 

[agavegirl1]

Wow, that is a really quick trip. I love both parks and love food and wine, I like option 2 but you may get many opinions.

 

[bumbershoot]

Option 3 is my choice, but I wouldn't leave to dine at Disney that much. Have you looked into Mythos at islands of adventure? I've heard very good things about it.

When I'm at uni I want to just be there having a real vacation. Parks with express pass, eating there, swimming, just relaxing.

Though if I do have to split my time I'd rather be at uni and commute to wdw rather than the other way around.

 

[hiroMYhero]

I'm choosing Option 3 with Toothsome on Friday for a late lunch and then off to MNSSHP. You can enter MNSSHP as early as 4:00p.

Toothsome as a late lunch rather than an early lunch on Sunday so you can enjoy a signature shake, appetizer, entree, and then dessert. The food is very good there - in general, we thought the food, especially the ice cream, was better at Universal and we had fun seeing all the different shakes getting delivered to everyone in Toothsome.

 

[AngelDisney]

I would go with option 3 as well. You need definitely at least two mornings to take in the Harry Potter stuff plus a few repeats on your favourite rides. You would visit Disney more often with a younger child in the near future. This is the chance to experience Harry Potter fully kid free. The experience would be quite different with a child. Get a magic wizard wand as a souvenir!

 

[kniquy]

I would do RP for the express pass for sure -- you are going around Halloween and my guess is that both parks will be quite busy.

I'm going to suggest a slightly different plan to help decrease a lot of back and forth travel.

Maybe make your arrival day (Friday) a Disney day -- just spend one night at BW you can do Food and Wine and the MNSSHP -forgo dinner reservations.
Saturday - up early check into RP you could do most of your day at US then if you want - a late dinner at Le Cellier (8pm). Or check out some of the restaurants at US. We just started researching and there looks to be some amazing restaurants at the city walk. If you go to WDW often then i would want to make this a more US trip (especially because you might not be back there for a few years with DD). I think 4:30 reservation might cut your park time short at US and you will constantly watching your clock and not really enjoying your time at US, because my guess is a 4:30 reservation will actually have you leaving US at least by 3:00 with drive time and getting to the restaurant.

Sunday -with that early of a departure - just hit what US rides you want, a more leisurely morning. I am sure with a little one you don't get to many morning to relax.

 

[SPAM]

Option 3. Stay at universal and commute to Disney one day.

 

[rwdavis2]

Option 4.
Spend 2-3 nights at the Universal Hard Rock. Free express passes and early entry. Park to Park passes. Disney last day if you still feel like it.

IMHO, the Hard Rock is as nice as almost any WDW hotel and the service is excellent. You can walk or boat to either park and walk to City Walk. I I went to WDW so often the most I would do is make a trip to Disney Springs for this one trip.

 

[xjillianpaige]

I think that one day at Universal is plenty. But for me, Harry Potter is the only draw. I would make Disney the focus of my trip (but I also go less often) and spend one day just really exploring Harry Potter with a quick walk through Universal. When I was there recently, outside of Harry Potter was a ghost town. 10 minute waits for most rides. Short waits for characters. I was shocked.

 

[Owl X]

I would stay one night at a Universal Hotel.
That would get you Express Passes for the check in day and the check out day at the Universal Hotel.
You would also get early access to the Harry Potter section of one park on your check out day.
After you ride the Harry Potter ride in one park, take Hogwarts Express to the other park for the other ride.
So if Islands of Adventure is the early access park, ride the Forbidden Journey followed by Hogwarts Express so you can be in Universal Studios for the opening of Escape from Gringotts.

 

[BrianL]

If you haven't done the Harry Potter stuff yet, I'd go heavy on the Universal stuff. You have APs to Disney and it sounds like you go regularly. I like Disney more, but there's nothing wrong with changing it up. Hit that Uni! I also agree that Mythos is quite a good restaurant, so check that out while you're there. Have fun!

 

[CAS239]

Option 2 or 3. If she's only interested in HP stuff and you want to do Simpsons, Transformers, etc. You can do all that in one day with the express pass.

We went last year on Halloween day and nearly everything was a walk on. Crowds shouldn't be bad when you're there, and with the express pass you're golden.

Only thing would be if you're fine doing everything in one day, or if you'd want to go back a second day to check stuff out again.

The Harry Potter areas are AMAZING and the park hopper is key so you can ride the Hogwarts Express.

HHN will be going on every night of your trip so you'd just have to leave by 5pm.

 

[Surr]

We stayed at Portofino Bay Hotel in November for one night. We did check in very early and were able to take advantage of express passes both days as well as the extra morning HP hour. I believe the parks closed at 7PM the days we were there and were able to see everything we wanted to see at both parks including riding the Hogwarts Express both directions. We checked out of the hotel at Universal and into our Disney room and were touring EPCOT by 6pm the second day. The only things we did not ride were the three main rollercoasters, but we did do the other HP attractions multiple times. To me, the key to seeing the HP attractions is getting two mornings with the extra park hour.

My recommendation would be to stay at Universal and commute to Disney this way you can take advantage of two extra hour HP mornings and still dine and/or party at Disney in the evening.

 

[Mama Lo]

Stay at one of the 3 Universal hotels that give unlimited EP. Look into AP discounted rates for the hotels and do a bit of number crunching to see if upgrading from a regular ticket to an AP works out better. (Did for me, bought 2 day get one free tickets on Undercover Tourist and was only $10 to upgrade to an AP and then saved us $78 per night at the HRH over MLK President's weekend) The hotel discounts can be significant. Universal makes it easy to check the rates too, use promo code APH to see. They don't release the dates that early so you make want to book something you can live with and get the AP rate when it becomes available.

As for how to plan your days, you will get the advantage of an hour early entry to HP which you can't use the EP on. So I'd head there early. You don't need to plan that much after that while at Universal.

Since Disney's hours are usually a bit longer you can head to WDW for late afternoon dinner/fun.

You may find that for this sans kid trip staying at Universal for the entire time will work for you. City walk has SO many restaurants to choose from. I see you want to go to Toothsome's, yum! I'd add Cowfish to the list.

Good luck whatever you do!

 

[Beer Me]

Personally, with only 3 days I would stay at Universal and not bother with Disney at all. Three days is really the perfect amount of time to see everything and have some relaxation time.

 

[GillianP1301]

I would go with Option 2 and with the 3:30 Le Cellier ADR so that you can maximize your time at MNSSHP. One day is plenty to experience all that Harry Potter world has to offer and you can probably squeeze in a few other non Harry Potter attractions. If you are wanting to do a lot more over and above Harry Potter at Universal, then Option 3 would be better.

 

[Jetku]

Thank you all for the feedback and tips!

I will tweak the options and run it by my wife and see what she would prefer! I'll also look into Mythos and APs. We have ~200k in southwest points and DD doesn't turn 3 until September 2018, so maybe we'll take a quick deviation from a future Disney trips.

All Universal is a no-go. We are going to relive bits of our honeymoon so MNSSHP and Le Cellier are a must. We are also trying to go with the in-laws for a 4 day weekend in November to thank them for watching DD daily (they've never been and would love it with her) so missing food and wine could be possible for this October weekend. Hotel is negotiable since we stayed GF for our honeymoon and are staying GF this August out of monorail convenience for my babygirl. We have no emotional attachment to Boardwalk other than it being a Disney resort we haven't yet stayed at.

Thanks for helping me get excited for a potential universal trip!

 

[Lisn2me]

Sorry, I didn't read the whole thread but remember that during that time of year weekends at Universal It will be Halloween Horror nights Park closes early and you need separate ticket, but very very fun if you like Halloween. I will echo Mythos as the best place to eat.

 

[bumbershoot]

Option 4.
Spend 2-3 nights at the Universal Hard Rock. Free express passes and early entry. Park to Park passes. Disney last day if you still feel like it.

IMHO, the Hard Rock is as nice as almost any WDW hotel and the service is excellent. You can walk or boat to either park and walk to City Walk. I I went to WDW so often the most I would do is make a trip to Disney Springs for this one trip.

And, see, I didn't much care for Hard Rock. For me it's Portofino. And others are Royal Pacific or Die! No bad choice there. (except for hard rock bwa ha ha ha ha.... )

When I was there recently, outside of Harry Potter was a ghost town. 10 minute waits for most rides. Short waits for characters. I was shocked.

Sounds like an excellent day to have tried those other rides! Wish I'd been there!

HHN will be going on every night of your trip so you'd just have to leave by 5pm.

But that's only at Studios, so finish up touring Studios early-ish.


OP, don't be freaked out if you LOVE Universal so so so much that you end up taking your bitty. If we had been going to Orlando (or Hollywood) when DS was that little (we were still west-coast-Disney-only then) I would have looooooved taking him. At Uni kids can go in all lines, so except for the superloud (Hulk) or superspooky (Mummy) lines we could have all stayed together until just before seating, then split up for the length of the ride, then the other adult rides, then we move on. Far different from the hour we spent just in the Space Mountain LINE at Disneyland on our first post-kid "date" while my brother and SIL watched kidlet in Tomorrowland. Far more humane IMO, how they do it at Uni.

But if you get a wand, keep it away from her; she'll likely break it. No fun!

 

[Bullseye]

I would do option 2. Stay at Boardwalk the whole time. That first day at Epcot is a great way to start an anniversary trip! Drive to US/IOA day two... if you do a full day you can get everything in you want to do. Day three you get a taste of MK right before you go home!