Disney or Universal Hotel

[4boysandme]

You all have always been so helpful so I wanted to get your opinion on where to stay for this itinerary we have in April. We have triplet boys that will be 7.

Monday - arriving; Disney Springs/Lunch at Trex
Monday night - Dinner Ohana
Tuesday - MK
Wednesday - Islands of Adventure
Thursday - Disney Cruise

Would you recommend staying at Port Orleans or Cabana Bay? I have gone back and forth a million times. Cabana Bay has bigger suite style rooms and a better pool. But Port Orleans is going to be closer to our Monday and Tuesday activities plus give us fast pass 60 days out in a busy time of year.

 

[Owl X]

If you are Flying into Orlando and not renting a Car, I would stay at a WDW resort.
Magical Express is Free from the Airport to WDW resorts.
Disney offers transportation from their resorts to Port Canaveral ($35/person).
Dreams Unlimited offers Universal Tickets with Transportation to/from WDW resorts.
Disney also offers transportation from Port Canaveral to the Airport ($35/person).
Note that you may be able to find cheaper transportation options to/from Port Canaveral.

If you are driving to Orlando or renting a car, then either Hotel is viable.

I recommend getting a Park-to-Park ticket for Universal so that you can visit both parks and ride the Hogwarts Express train between the 2 parks. I believe 7 year olds would enjoy Harry Potter's Escape from Gringotts, Transformers 3-D, Men in Black Alien Attack, ET Adventure, Shrek 4-D, Terminator 2 3-D and the Simpsons Ride in Universal Studios. Islands of Adventures has Reign of Kong, Spiderman 3-D, Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey, Pteranodon Flyers, Dr Seuss rides and Water rides.

 

[DisneyWishes14]

Since you are basically doing 2 days at WDW and one at Universal, I would stay at Port Orleans. I would not want to drive back and forth from Uni to WDW two days in a row. I agree with Owl X, I would get the park-to-park pass at Uni so you can ride Hogwart's Express. It is absolutely amazing.

 

[mickeygirl78]

I agree with the others, stay in Disney. You have more days at Disney and it will be more convenient. If you do not have a car, we found a taxi to get to Universal was really inexpensive. There were 7 of us so we got a van taxi and it was around $40. I also recommend the park to park ticket at Universal. We did that and got both parks done with time to spare. The only ride we did not do was Kong as the wait was 2hrs. I could not believe how amazing the Hogwarts Express was!

 

[4boysandme]

Thank you all! I am so glad I posted because I would never have gotten the park to park ticket and now I will! My boys love Harry Potter so the Hogwarts Express sounds perfect! That and stay at WDW...thank you!!

 

[bumbershoot]

In case you don't know, if you stay one night at one of the three fancy resorts at Uni you get two days (assuming you have tickets) of early entrance to Wizarding world plus unlimited express pass. If you stay at cabana bay or sapphire falls you still get the early entrance to WW.

To me the perks onsite at universal outweigh the benefits of onsite at WDW. We have spent trips up at Uni where we occasionally go down to WDW. It's a few miles in the highway. Yes the highway can have traffic but I live in the Seattle area where we don't measure distance but *how long it takes* to get somewhere.

I would increase the tickets to two day park to parks and stay onsite at Uni for at least one day. Really do it right for them.

Although do check out height reqs for the rides. My friend with (identical!) triplets has relatively small kids due to them being born so early, so if your kids are like that and might not hit many of the ride heights it might be better to do it later on.

 

[hedberg1661]

I agree with PPs that if you are flying (no car) Disney is the way to go. I do however love Cabana Bay and I think their rooms are great. I have stayed at CB and driven to WDW many times and to be honest it becomes quite a hassle after the first few times.

 

[crazylady]

I would do both . DS and tRex/OHana are not worth wasting a day to me.

I would check in at one of the Univ hotels on Mon and do Univ on Mon & Tues with the park to park ticket. To save $, I'd check out Tues and move to a Disney hotel on Tues after a day at Univ. That way you'd be at Disney for the star of your day on Wed for the MK and cruise transportation on Thurs.

I would even consider a value resort for the such a short trip if I wasn't planning to spend much time there. I'd rather put the budget towards an extra Univ day than a moderate Disney hotel.

I might try for a late OHana dinner on Tues if you really wanted to go there but probably not.

But, I'd you don't need Disney transport to the cruise, I'd just stay at Universal and do one or two park days there. The front of the line access you get as a hotel guest there is great.

And not that you asked but my 8 yo loved the character interaction at Universal. Marvel, minions and transformers seem much more boy-appealing to me. Plus, you'll get to see the Disney characters on the ship.