Disney or Universal Studios/IoA, which to do first?

[Happyjen27]

I have been WAITING and waiting for this day, so please pardon my excitement.

My children are finally old enough to have the Harry Potter Books read to them. Upon completion, clearly there is only one way to celebrate, in The Wizarding World of Harry Potter!

SIL mentioned we should go to Disney also, as long as we're in the area. I agree!!

We are heading down for February break President's Day week 2016 to enjoy other Florida attractions and stay with MIL/FIL. Then, the week AFTER break, when most people have gone home, we'll invade the parks.

There are 3 potential plans before us, and I'm really struggling. One option is to stay off site in one place all week, the other is to stay on-site at both places through the week. While money IS an object, I hate to make decisions based on money, I'd rather pick the option that is best, and then make the money work. So, here are the 3 options:

Staying off site (no FotLA and only 30 day window for FP+):

Sat and Sun Disney: The parks will be busy, but we will just be soaking up the atmosphere and chilling out, knowing that we will hit the big rides later in the week when the parks are more empty.

Monday and Tuesday: Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure. Harry Potter land and other rides. The crowd levels are projected to be 3s and 4s, Most rides will be walk on rides. Take our time and enjoy Harry Potter and the rest of the attractions.

Wednesday, Thursday,: Back to Disney to do our serious park touring.

Friday: One last day at Universal Studios with Harry Potter

Saturday: Goodbye tour of Disney fitting in all of our favorites.

Sunday Fly home.


Staying on site; Universal First

Saturday drive to Orlando, visit Disney to say hello to the mouse. Check into Hard Rock Hotel at Universal in evening time after a few hours with the Mouse.

Sunday morning: Up and at ‘em Gryffindors!

Monday and Tuesday also spend time at Universal Studios

Wednesday: Pack up and move to Grand Floridian and enjoy afternoon in parks

Thursday, Friday, Saturday: Disney

Sunday: Check out and fly home.


Staying on site; Disney First

Arrive Orlando Saturday morning, check into Grand Floridian, head to parks

Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday enjoy Disney

Wednesday night check into Hard Rock Hotel

Thursday, Friday, Saturday enjoy Universal Studios

Sunday check out and fly home.


Thank you in advance for any and all help you can offer in making the decision. I know there are 2 decisions here, actually. Staying off site and if staying on, which place to enjoy first.

 

[disnutz]

personally? I have done both, and it largely depends on whether you are staying on site at universal. When we did Universal before Disney, we all got irritated at having to wait. So, if staying on site, do Univ after Disney. you will not regret it.

 

[macraven]

stay onsite.
mardi gras concerts held on saturdays at the studios in february.
see website for 2015 date this event began.

weekends can be crowded.
weekdays can be better.

 

[schumigirl]

Onsite.

Disney first.....then Universal.

 

[johde]

Your heart is saying Disney first. Even in your "Universal First" trip, your doing at least 1 Disney day first. I would go ahead and plan on Disney first then Universal. To the Onsite/Offsite question. For Universal, if you can do a deluxe resort, I would definitely do Onsite. Most of the posts above are assuming staying at one of the deluxe resorts. For Disney, I'd stay onsite unless you're looking at staying at one of the all-stars (assuming A&E aren't a must do). If you were looking at the all-stars, I'd at least price out some of the offsite hotels. You could probably get better accommodations and 30 days out on FP+ would not be that terrible.

 

[saskdw]

IMO you can't beat the onsite experience.

I would goto Disney first. Reason being you will get spoiled by the Unlimited Express Pass staying at Universal, making the lines at Disney more of a frustration.

 

[RMulieri]

Stay onsite

DISNEY FIRST..after experiencing onsite at Universal and the express pass, standing in lines will drive you nuts

 

[disneydawn71]

I agree with everyone above who suggest Disney first then Universal and staying onsite. Did a Universal/Disney trip (first time to Universal, ever) in November 2014. We stayed onsite at the Royal Pacific, so we had Express Passes, this is where I feel Universal really takes care of their guests, the Express Pass truly spoiled us. Fast forward to our WDW experience... Fast Pass, while good, in no way compares to how stellar Express Pass is. I wish we had done Universal on the back end of our trip instead. While not trying to be negative nellies while at WDW, we often found ourselves slightly peeved at wait times and reminisced about how wonderful EP was....

SIDEBAR: I will just throw this out there... I think Disney needs to revamp their Fast Pass system or do something a little more for guests staying at a Deluxe property, IMO, where is the incentive to stay at Deluxe vs. a Moderate when the perks for Fast Pass are the same? I am not the Disney nut I used to be (I guess I can thank the Darkside for that!! :O) so maybe I am missing something, but again, this is where I think Universal hits the mark and also the reason why I returned in February, became a APH and have another trip in a couple of weeks... 3 visits to Universal in 7 months? They are definitely doing something right in my book. I just felt my business was a bit more appreciated there. Not trying to stir the pot, just an opinion. I will always love Disney and will return, but think more of my time and money will spent at Universal.

 

[Happyjen27]

OP here.

I posted this over on the "Orlando Hotels and Attractions" board, and even THEY said to stay on site. I guess that makes it utterly unanimous. We were unfortunate to not be able to do any air travel for the whole of last year, and, because of this, we have the funding to stay on site both places. G-Flo might be replaced with Wilderness Lodge (the kids are crazy for bunk beds right now, who knew?) but, I thank everyone for the excellent advice.

We will be staying on site, and we will be doing Disney first, Universal second.

 

[buzzrelly]

We JUST did this...literally. We went to Universal 4/9 and stayed at RPR then went to BLT from 4/12-4/20. Although many people recommend doing Disney first then UO, I just couldn't because we just love WDW too much. And I am sooooo happy that we did it this way. RPR was great and the parks were fun. The HP areas were amazing, but the rest of the rides seemed repetitive and definitely not as fun for us as the rides at WDW. So while the express pass is a nice perk, after we did most of the rides, we weren't dying to do any of them a second or third time, like we do at WDW. We ended up going to the parks til around 1 and then hanging back at the pool for the day and then eating at City Place at night. And can I say that City Place was crazy crowded and filled with a lot of smokers/partiers. That's just not our style, though I'm not condemning people who like that sort of thing. We just don't. We are much bigger fans of the family atmosphere at WDW and DTD...we are just more G-rated people, I guess.

So that's just my two cents. Have fun with whatever you decide!

 

[junebug21981]

We always start and end with Disney..... It starts are trip off with a great mood and ends satisfied!

 

[damo]

We've done it both ways and are most satisfied doing Universal last. We tend to nitpick WDW to death when we do it last. We don't have the patience for the waits for rides or transportation once we've done onsite at Uni first.

 

[Jarmo]

Typically we do Universal first, but to me the most important thing would be timing the dates to get the best use of express passes. We try to hit Disney during the weekdays, and Universal on Friday-Sunday since the weekend crowds don't matter too much when you can skip most of the lines.

 

[cxr]

sounds fun... but you know 4 days for disney is not alot. there are 4 parks MK, HS, Epcot and Animal kingdom
Magic Kingdom and Epcott can take 2 days to explore themselves without doing everything.

just throwing that out there we have done dinsey in the past 7-10 days. and this year in June we are doing just 3 days for US-IoA
just dont want you to feel rushed or that you missed out on something.

 

[GaSleepingBeautyFan]

I like to do onsite and do Disney first and then Universal.
I did Universal first for one day last year and got quickly spoiled by their Express Pass so Disney lines made me grumpy.

So from now on, I'll be doing Disney first and then Universal if I'm planning on going to Universal on a trip.

 

[BuzzyBelle]

We JUST did this...literally. We went to Universal 4/9 and stayed at RPR then went to BLT from 4/12-4/20. Although many people recommend doing Disney first then UO, I just couldn't because we just love WDW too much. And I am sooooo happy that we did it this way. RPR was great and the parks were fun. The HP areas were amazing, but the rest of the rides seemed repetitive and definitely not as fun for us as the rides at WDW. So while the express pass is a nice perk, after we did most of the rides, we weren't dying to do any of them a second or third time, like we do at WDW. We ended up going to the parks til around 1 and then hanging back at the pool for the day and then eating at City Place at night. And can I say that City Place was crazy crowded and filled with a lot of smokers/partiers. That's just not our style, though I'm not condemning people who like that sort of thing. We just don't. We are much bigger fans of the family atmosphere at WDW and DTD...we are just more G-rated people, I guess.

So that's just my two cents. Have fun with whatever you decide!

This is a lot how we felt about UO also. I loved the HP sections- absolutely amazing, but felt the rest of the parks to be lacking. We stayed at RPR for a few days last week and it's just not Disney. I know if it was my family and we were going from staying at GF or WL to the RPR we would have been seriously let down. Save the best for last

 

[macraven]

i do the motherland first and rush all over the place.
then i switch to the darkside and relax and have a laid back vacation.

do your switch stays the way it works best for you.
there are different combinations to have fun all over in orlando area.

 

[mmounsey]

We've only done this twice...and the first time is a bit foggy...I think we did our one day/night at US during our honeymoon, right in the middle of it...will have to back and see for sure though...but it was my first trip out there for both WDW and US, so I was a complete newbie...I still remember looking at Crystal Palace and thinking..wow, I wonder what that is? lol

A more recent trip back in 2012...I do remember. We only did IOA, and we did one day, first. My reasoning was I needed to be at Disney the rest of the time...we stayed offsite (disney decorated condo), did DTD on our arrival day, and the only time I was grumpy, was walking to the areas other than HP and Jurassic. I thought it worked out great.

Our upcoming trip will again include IOA and US to see the new HP areas. Right now (and it will probably stay this way), we are planning on doing it first, for about a day and a half (still tweaking the park days), one night at Cabana Bay while we are there, then over to WDW onsite...either Pop or AOA.

I just need to end my trip in my Disney bubble.

 

[LuvGoofy6]

We have always done Disney first. As others have previously mentioned you get spoiled with Universal's express pass. Even if you are going at a time that is less busy there are still some rides that have long lines and the express pass is handy. We used to stay at Disney resorts and drive to Universal for a couple of days in our vacation but in 2011 we decided to stay at a Universal resort the last two nights of our vacation and now wished we had done it that way in the previous years.

 

[flateacher]

I see you are going to stay on-site - I totally agree. As most have said the Express Pass from Universal will spoil you. We were Disney Annual pass holders for years (10 maybe?!?). My oldest is now almost 14 and my youngest is almost 7. We started Universal when oldest turned "11" and "got into Hogwarts" after she started reading the books. Only Hogsmeade was open then at IOA. We didn't get Universal annual passes but went about once a year. Last year we let our Disney Passes expire and now have Universal Annual Passes. I think Express Pass beats the Fast Pass system. My husband will only stay on site and loves Royal Pacific Hotel. He is done with Disney. As you can see it depends on the family. Some prefer Disney. After this trip you will be able to determine what will work best for your family in the future.