Cheapest way to add Universal to WDW trip?

[ceecee]

We want to do Harry Potter at Universal, what's the cheapest way to add this to our Disney trip (two days we're thinking)? Is it a good idea to stay at a Universal Hotel, we are planning for the end of January.

 

[Chelley00]

I'm a huge fan of saving money when you can, but staying onsite at Universal is well worth the extra costs. You get an extra hour in the parks, express pass for both check in and check out day and those in between (which gets you basically front of the line or at least close to it) You can walk/boat/rickshaw to the parks (as long as you aren't at Cabana Bay) If you have AAA sometime they have discounts for the resorts.

 

[ceecee]

Thanks, can you recommend a resort?? Close by/walk would be great.

 

[Chelley00]

Royal Pacific is usually cheaper and it's the closest. We've stayed at Portofino Bay too and even thought it's the farthest away, it was still a quick boat ride to the parks.

 

[davper]

Hard Rock is closest to Universal Studios and Royal Pacific is closets to Islands of Adventure. Of the 2, I think HRH is closest overall if you consider the farthest room.

I did what you are planning to do. I added a couple days onto my trip to try Universal for the first time. I went cheap and stayed at Cabana Bay. Never again. It was only a 20 minute brisk walk for me. But my issue is in the room size. For just 2 of us, we felt cramped.

We also expected we wouldn't need the express pass because crowd levels were expected to be 2/3 out 10. Wrong! On our last day, so we could get on all the rides we had missed, we ponied up for the express pass which would have been free if we stayed at the other hotels. BTW, Express Pass won't work for Harry Potter.

Next time I will definitely stay at HRH or RP.

 

[cvjw]

We prefer the Hard Rock hotel when we stay at Universal. It is a very quick walk to the parks.

We always stay on site to get the FOTL access. It does not work on the best HP attractions, but it can really cut down your waits on everything else.

 

[Narnia_girl]

I agree, that the onsite perks are worth it. Last time we stayed at Royal Pacific and used an AAA discount. The folks on the Universal forum have a lot of good information.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

Another vote here for staying onsite at a Universal hotel. Also, I would stay there the last 2 nights of your trip so you can get 2 full days in the parks without stressing that you have a flight to catch later. It's really hard to go from Uni to WDW because that unlimited express really spoils you quickly.
It's so nice to not have to worry about FP times or availability. So for that reason we do WDW first. jmho.

I have found if you stay 3 nights at a time when they're offering an AP discount on hotel rooms, buying the AP simply for the hotel discount will pay for itself. It knocks about $100/night off the hotel price and not all guests in the room need an AP; just 1 guest.
To see if your dates have AP rates, use promo code APH. Like Disney hotels, Fri/Sat nights are more expensive.
AFAIK, there is no benefit to booking as a package, so I usually just search hotels on Uni's website. For tix we buy at Undercover Tourist.
If you sign up for email alerts, they'll send you discount offers. We stayed at HRH in Sept with a coupon for 35% off but it had to be a 4 nt stay. Not sure if that would wreak havoc on your Disney plans.
Over the years we find it's hard to do both so we now do separate shorter trips.

 

[kathy884]

When are you going? We went slow season and were able to easily tour the Universal parks without an express pass or the onsite perks with minimal waits. Eight of us bunked up in an offsite condo that was an owner timeshare rental, meaning a great resort at a great price.

 

[ceecee]

We are going the last week of January. I am leaning toward renting a car, because we know nothing about the transportation at Universal. Disney has spoiled us with the Magical Express and not handling our luggage!!! I am considering skipping Disney and just doing Univ and beach. I know I will miss WDW being that close to the Mouse and not going!

 

[momof2gr8kids]

Your title says cheapest way...so I am going to agree with an above poster that suggested that you may not need express passes for your visit at end of January. If you look at the website Orlando informer they have a crowd calendar and says its slow that time. We went at a slow time as well and had no issues doing all the rides we wanted many times. You can get buy two get one day free tickets from Undercover Tourist. Also, unless you want to hop between parks or ride the Hogwarts express, you can save money by not getting the park to park tickets.

 

[mrsabbott]

Yeah, when we went it was the very end of March. We went to Universal on a Sunday and it wasn't super crowded, but it was busy. We went again on a Tuesday (I think??) and it was amazingly uncrowded! Many of the rides were walk on or a very, very short wait. We were off site and didn't have express passes nor did we get early entry. The end of January is a very slow time, so I think you would be okay without the express passes.

 

[DawnM]

End of Jan shouldn't be bad. We had APs this year. We went last Dec., then again in Aug and then in Oct. We stayed off-site, never had express passes, and were fine.

How old are the kids if there are kids? There are more single rider lines at Universal than at Disney. We utilized them as much as we could.

Even in Aug the longest wait was 35 min.