Disney fan about to convert.

[Dsnymouse]

Hi,
I am about to embark on some major board reading. I am a true Disney fanatic and am seriously considering a non-Disney trip with the testing of My Magic+. Can anyone advise on some quick tips for Universal and Islands of Adventure? We are not thrill riders, are these parks for us?? We will stay off site, do you advise park to park ticket with express pass (pros/cons)?
Any tips would be great. Thanks in advance!

 

[RMulieri]

The Universal parks are alot of fun and we are FULL converts now.My 9 yr old even prefers them .As for your plans, Alot depends on wWhen you are considering going.For us....We always stay onsite , whether low or high crowds..The 3 deluxe resorts are gorgoeus,all within walking distance and you get the resort guest express pass ( at all hotels except the new value/moderate Cabana Bay) with them.

 

[Dsnymouse]

The Universal parks are alot of fun and we are FULL converts now.My 9 yr old even prefers them .As for your plans, Alot depends on wWhen you are considering going.For us....We always stay onsite , whether low or high crowds..The 3 deluxe resorts are gorgoeus,all within walking distance and you get the resort guest express pass ( at all hotels except the new value/moderate Cabana Bay) with them.

Thanks RMulieri, will check out the onsite resorts. Have you stayed at Portifino? Tips? We are considering Thanksgiving next year (2014).

 

[damo]

Thanks RMulieri, will check out the onsite resorts. Have you stayed at Portifino? Tips? We are considering Thanksgiving next year (2014).

If you are staying during Thanksgiving, staying onsite will make your trip MUCH more enjoyable. The crowds will be high next year with the opening of the new Harry Potter section in the Studios. Thanksgiving will compound this. There is an entire board here, dedicated to the hotels. Check it out...there is lots of info and make sure you ask any questions you can think of!!! I've stayed at all three hotels and Portofino is my personal favourite.

 

[Metro West]

The Universal parks are alot of fun and we are FULL converts now.

I think the number of converts is going to slowly increase over time. Just reading some of the threads on the Disney side of the DIS makes me shake my head and sigh that Disney management caused all this mess. Oh well...you can't pay me to step foot on Disney property now.



Welcome to the Darkside....Dsnymouse!

 

[wiigirl]

The Universal parks are alot of fun and we are FULL converts now.My 9 yr old even prefers them .As for your plans, Alot depends on wWhen you are considering going.For us....We always stay onsite , whether low or high crowds..The 3 deluxe resorts are gorgoeus,all within walking distance and you get the resort guest express pass ( at all hotels except the new value/moderate Cabana Bay) with them.

 

[RMulieri]

I think the number of converts is going to slowly increase over time. Just reading some of the threads on the Disney side of the DIS makes me shake my head and sigh that Disney management caused all this mess. Oh well...you can't pay me to step foot on Disney property now.



Welcome to the Darkside....Dsnymouse!

IKR?? We were considering going back to Disney next summer and after reading all the threads on the other boards, I am not going back anytime soon.

 

[RMulieri]

Thanks RMulieri, will check out the onsite resorts. Have you stayed at Portifino? Tips? We are considering Thanksgiving next year (2014).

We stayed at Portofino all 3 trips and are staying there again next year..We love it and love the ambiance.If you are looking at Thanksgiving, absolutely look into onsite it is SOOOOO worth it.It makes busy times enjoyable since you get the early entry and the express passes.A trip to Universal feels like an actual vacation to us.We actually come home well-rested and happy.

 

[kohlby]

Though we often do both Disney and Universal, we did not do Disney for our more recent trip. We went last week and stayed at Royal Pacific Resort - which we've now stayed at 4 times I think. It's the cheapest of the three, so that's why we pick that one. Plus, you can use any of the pools so we did head over to Hard Rock and used their pool one day. We're planning on doing Disney next year and am really hoping the whole fast pass stuff is worked out. We didn't choose Universal over Disney for this reason. We used to do 10 day never-expires passes for Disney but then the price shot up drastically, making it really not a savings and we had found a great rate on 7 day US/IOA passes a few years ago and held onto those tickets until then.

Since you're considering Thanksgiving week, I'd definitely try to stay onsite. We have gone the week before T-giving as well as the week after. We haven't really needed our express passes that much then, but it's been nice to have them. Plus, the extra hour in the Harry Potter area is wonderful! It was quite a switch from Disney this last trip with the kids constantly asking what we were doing next when I hadn't planned it all out. They're used to Disney commando and have always done great with it in the past so it was quite a switch for them to not have it planned out.

There are some thrill rides at US/IOA but there's so much more to the parks. They're definitely worth trying out! Though I love thrill rides, my kids aren't that into them. (My 7 year old may be a thrill rider but she's not super tall. My 10 year old likes the kiddie coasters but refuses to try Hulk and said that Mummy was a little too much of a roller coaster for him when he did it).

 

[goofy78]

We went for the first time this year. Had a fun day (8 day disney trip with 1 day at US/ IOA). Three out of five of us are thrill seekers. With that said if you ask any of us thrill seekers none of us are rushing to go back. Disney is much more our taste but to each their own. I haven't read a whole lot of the threads in the disney side in regards to the complaining but we didn't have any problems with Magic bands, FP+ or anything for that matter. Setting up all our FP+ before we left was super easy. The whole trip was fantastic and we can't wait to go back ( minus the day at US/ IOA).

 

[bumbershoot]

We were Disneyland fans wen we did our first orlando trip. Decided to give the parks a solid chance (so we weren't rushing, because rushing can ruin a trip IMO) and gave universal 4 days. We were crying for more at the end of that time and ended up checking back into a our wdw resort hours after we had planned because we just didn't want to leave universal.

I don't live thrill rides. DH does but his size doesn't work for them yet. DS does and he's now willing, but I can't handle him going alone yet so I have gone with him on them. DH sits out a lot now and I will in the future as DH it's the big rides and DS gets older. And we still ALL love the place.

I agree that when staying onsite it actually feels like a vacation vs the frantic pace of wdw. Though I have to admit that with the forced no need to run around caused by magicbands along with my exhaustion from a 10 mile race early in our wdw stay, October was our most relaxing wdw trip yet lol.

 

[Planogirl]

I'm a convert already. We are visiting the Disney parks next month because I am determined to see the Christmas decorations but I am looking at the Universal portion of our trip with more excitement and a bit of relief too.

By the way, we don't ride the big coasters and still find plenty to do at the Universal parks. Plus there are a ton of things to do in the central Florida area and even farther out.

We also don't usually stay onsite and yet don't find it particularly difficult to enjoy what we want to. Plus if the parks do get jammed, the express passes are available to purchase. You can't beat the Universal resorts though and we do plan to stay at one again.

 

[macraven]

i can not imagine going to orlando and not doing both parks.

for me, they each have a draw to them.

the motherland has me do the parks on a very busy schedule.
when i switch to the darkside hotels, i am totally relaxed there.
no need to rush to catch a bus, chose between shows, fight the crowds.....

i used to, some years back, stay longer at the motherland resorts than the darkside ones.

that changed for me about 8 year ago.

onsite hotels, ticket prices, city walk, restaurant and park food, park entertainment, new rides, etc at the darkside wowed me.
now i stay for a shorter time period at the motherland and extend my time at UO.
(i stay 11 days at the darkside and only 6 at the motherland.)


i'm never bored at universal.
i find it refreshing and exciting each trip.
the AP's for UO are a great bargain, renewals are discounted.

with the motherland's new fp + experience, i'm concerned which direction it really will go.
i'll have a better idea on that once i go there in january.
(which will again be a split stay)

if you do go to the darkside next Tday period, stay onsite.
the hotel perks are excellent!

you asked if park to park tickets and express tickets are worth it.
YES they are.
staying onsite one night would give you two days of unlimited usage of the express lines and early entry to the parks.
no charge for those as they are free due to hotel perks of staying onsite.

anytime you go during a holiday period to disney or universal, staying onsite is the way to do it.
you save time by not having to rush in the morning to get to the parks, can take breaks during the day at your hotel, and get totally immersed with mummy dust.

 

[schumigirl]

I think the number of converts is going to slowly increase over time. Just reading some of the threads on the Disney side of the DIS makes me shake my head and sigh that Disney management caused all this mess. Oh well...you can't pay me to step foot on Disney property now.

Ain`t that the truth!!!!

The amount of people we spoke to this trip who were "Disney" people but were loving what Universal has on offer was more than we have ever encountered before. Most were saying they wished they had visited before and some still felt they were cheating on Disney.....what is that all about??

We haven't been to Disney in years and have no plans to go back either Todd.......yep I`ve been reading those threads as well and it`s horrible to read those people who haven't enjoyed their much looked forward to trips.

Nope you couldn`t pay me to go there either as I don`t like planning to put one foot in front of the other on our trips......so it`s definitely not for us.


To OP......go and have a wonderful trip. As others have said If you can stay onsite even for one night it will be worth it for Unlimited EP. The hotels are all beautiful and I`m sure you would love any of them.

There`s so much more to Universal than thrill rides.......take your time and enjoy what both parks have to offer.....they are lovely......we could never get bored with them

 

[Seeker615]

Universal resort is amazing. We recently stayed at the Royal Pacific and loved it. It has an island theme and everyone there was so nice and helpful.

The express passes alone are worth the price of staying there. We used them even when the line was ten minutes long. We got so spoiled that I think we will forever have a hard time standing in line now.

The rides and shows and theming are just amazing. You can really get immersed in the areas. Character meet and greets are easy. We never had to wait very long to meet them and they were all fun!

staying onsite was so nice because we could walk to the parks and City Walk. It was nice to just exit the park whenever we wanted and go to City Walk for lunch or back to our rooms to relax for a bit.

There is really a lot to see and do.

 

[wdw4rfam]

As you can see from the signature and ticker, I am a recent Disney jumper. I quit. all of the mess over there chased our family away after this year. We went over to universal for 2 days, staying at POR for 11 nights. My kids begged to use the third day free and not go back to Disney and we did!! We just got fed up with Disney. Every year the took away another thing that made Disney special. This year was our breaking point, we just wanted to leave. Just booked our entire trip at RPR, going to do the flex ticket with Busch gardens, sea world and water parks, as well as universal parks and city walk. We are looking forward to doing vacation again, no ADRs, no reserving ride times, etc. Just relaxed like it used to be at Disney.

 

[Florida Bill]

My Wife, 18yr old Stepson and I had annual passes to Disney last year, we let them expire and now have Premier Annual Passes for Universal, best move we could've made! It got to the point where we didn't even want to make the 100 mile drive to go to Disney, just got kind of bored with it. I've been to Disney MANY times over the years, starting when I was like 9 yrs old (I'm 49 now) Disney has just changed so much, plus it was just getting to be a hassle with even just getting into the parks and all, we had some fun there but it'll probably be quite awhile before we go back!

 

[Metro West]

My Wife, 17yr old Stepson and I had annual passes to Disney last year, we let them expire and now have Premier Annual Passes for Universal, best move we could've made! It got to the point where we didn't even want to make the 100 mile drive to go to Disney, just got kind of bored with it. I've been to Disney MANY times over the years, starting when I was like 9 yrs old (I'm 49 now) Disney has just changed so much, plus it was just getting to be a hassle with even just getting into the parks and all, we had some fun there but it'll probably be quite awhile before we go back!

Yeah...I feel the same way. I used to have an AP to Disney and went a lot in the four years I had one but like you said...too much hassle now.

 

[disneydawg10]

We converted a couple years ago. We had many reasons for our change, but mostly because the children are getting older (along with the parents). We find uni is so easy and everything is so close. We walk everywhere (we may take the boat back to portofino after a long day). No finding a seat on a bus, waiting forever for transportation, etc... UO also provides variety for the thrill seekers and the ride chickens in the family. We just have so much more freedom doing UO. We love the resorts, and the AP renewal is such a deal. I do love disney, but I really miss the old days of not planning my day to the minute. Even though my princess is a bit older now, we would still like to go back for a short visit (of course OU will be our focus). I am a theme park junkie, but UO is my special place.

 

[Todd H]

We converted as well. This whole MM+ nonsense has pretty much turned us off of WDW.