Disney & universal

[Slapshot1188]

If you stay just 1 night at Universal (Deluxe) you get Express Passes for the day of check-in and check-out... It's the greatest perk of any Orlando hotel!

 

[gappedout]

We are staying 11 nights in August at Port Orleans Riverside. About halfway through the trip, we are keeping our Disney hotel but booked one night at Royal Pacific for our two Universal days. Will drive over very early, check into Universal hotel to get our express passes, go to whichever park has early entry, spend night in Universal hotel, go to Universal again next day and then head back to our Disney hotel the second evening. We looked at the cost of unlimited park to park express pass for our two days and it was $919 - compared to the $315 (including tax) that we are paying for the Universal hotel. Booked through Orbitz with a 15% code.

 

[Planogirl]

I say split stay. It's so nice to just walk to the parks and entertainment areas and their hotels are great. The free express at the deluxe resort just make it even better.

I would book at least two nights at a Universal resort.

 

[nkereina]

We always do a split stay now. There's stuff we love about both properties, and the Universal hotels are pretty awesome. They are worth a try.

We usually do Disney first. If we arrive at Disney on a Saturday, we'll move to our Universal hotel late Wednesday. That gives us all day Thursday and Friday in the Universal parks, as well as part of Saturday morning if we take a later flight back. Works out well for us.

 

[2neverland]

We just did a 3 way split stay and it worked great.

2 nights at Ressidence in for Sea World
4 nights in a cabin at Fort Wilderness
2 nights at Royal Pacific

I would do the split stay every time. The location of the UO resorts, early entry to WWoHP and the unlimited Express Pass are almost priceless.

FYI - we did not get the same value staying on site at Sea World. Would not do that again.

I was thinking of skipping disney but I just can't go to Florida and skip it! Though will prob only do a 2 day ticket and possibly a party night. We will be checking out universal parks this trip! Thanks for opinion/info!

 

[2neverland]

Split stay!!! We've done Universal & Disney the last five years in a row and cannot say enough good things about both experiences. We do Universal first, stay at RPR. The express pass is 100% worth it. We did rides over and over and over barely a ten min wait! The walk to Universal is great, we don't use our car for three days. Love the HP rides and "lands". Then off to Disney for 6 nights! Couldn't ask for a better vacation

Sounds fun!

 

[2neverland]

We've done it two or three times in the past (never a split stay, but I would these days). We would usually do Universal on our Arrival day and then head over to Disney for the rest of the week. We did Legoland last trip (such a letdown) and considered going back to Universal again this year, but for the first time ever we're staying completely in the Disney bubble as soon as we get to Orlando. I'm looking forward to it.

I do love the disney bubble! We stayed on property in 2014 for one week then second week at vistana timeshare -we used the waterppark n extras for the timeshare week so we didn't have to pay for parking. The timeshare wasn't to far. It also allowed us to relax. Legoland crossed mind since my son is now into lego's. I don't know anyone personally that's been and I haven't read anything online about experience's. Have fun!

 

[AshleeH]

I do love the disney bubble! We stayed on property in 2014 for one week then second week at vistana timeshare -we used the waterppark n extras for the timeshare week so we didn't have to pay for parking. The timeshare wasn't to far. It also allowed us to relax. Legoland crossed mind since my son is now into lego's. I don't know anyone personally that's been and I haven't read anything online about experience's. Have fun!

Some people love Legoland - my kids found it fun in the moment, but if given a choice between Disney/Universal or Legoland, there would be no contest (I asked them). My husband and I thought they dropped the ball on themes - they could've made the bridges look like they were made out of Legos, the trash cans could've been "Lego containers", etc. If Disney had that to work with, you know all the stops would've been pulled out. This could've been any generic amusement park in the U.S., with a few rides that had Lego themes. We also found it insanely overpriced - and we never complain about prices at Disney, but we were shocked at what we paid for Legoland and what we got for our money.

 

[2neverland]

If you can swing it, stay onsite at Universal! We've only been there once many years ago, but I was very pleasantly surprised at how much we enjoyed it. You just have to make sure that you go into it NOT expecting Disney (Disney just has a whole different feel to me). Being able to walk to the park and to the front of the lines was fantastic!

We tend to frequent amusement parks. We think of disney as it own unique league! From commercials and such universal seems to have more theming than the regular amusement parks. We don't expect it to be like disney. My son will be 7 when we go I think he will be old enough to enjoy their theming.

 

[soniam]

We always do split stay now. For the money, the Universal deluxe hotels are way better deal than the WDW deluxe hotels. If you get a Universal annual pass, you can get good rates on the hotels. Their AP is about 1/3 the price of Disney's, so it can be good deal, even for one trip. You don't have to have the AP until you actually check in. If you want to check the rates, use the promo code APH on the Universal site. Sometimes, they don't post these rates until pretty late. I usually end up booking through Cheap Tickets with a discount code and then canceling once the AP rate comes out. You won't regret going. Unfortunately, you probably won't be able to go to Orlando now without visiting Universal too

 

[2neverland]

Last fall we opted out of a split stay due to the way the discount we used worked, and I think it was a bit of a mistake. The plus side of staying on Disney property the entire time was that we were able to shift our second Universal day to a different day of the week than we'd originally planned, since it wasn't like we'd save or lose any money by it. The downside was that we spent enough money on cab fare that I can't imagine it would have cost us any more to arrange a split stay, and it was a surprisingly long ride each way. If you're driving that probably changes things, but my preference has been to avoid driving when in Orlando, and I'm sure Universal charges for parking just like all the other parks do. I didn't realize Universal hotel guests got the express pass, which would have been nice.

Also, if you opt to drive in rather than do the split stay, do yourself a favor and bring a full change of clothes on your Universal day(s). We didn't on our first day, and we had a bit of a miserable afternoon (and a miserable cab ride) after getting soaked through to the underwear on the water rides.

We will have a car for sure! I don't like the idea of driving back n forth at the same time trying to budget it right. Disney surely tricks you into staying longer with those cheaper by the day tickets Then I stay there the whole time to get use of them!

 

[2neverland]

Some people love Legoland - my kids found it fun in the moment, but if given a choice between Disney/Universal or Legoland, there would be no contest (I asked them). My husband and I thought they dropped the ball on themes - they could've made the bridges look like they were made out of Legos, the trash cans could've been "Lego containers", etc. If Disney had that to work with, you know all the stops would've been pulled out. This could've been any generic amusement park in the U.S., with a few rides that had Lego themes. We also found it insanely overpriced - and we never complain about prices at Disney, but we were shocked at what we paid for Legoland and what we got for our money.

I was shocked at their hotel prices when I first looked them up! I already knew I would be driving there if we went. If the lego store is still at the new disney springs we can just go there

 

[2neverland]

We always do split stay now. For the money, the Universal deluxe hotels are way better deal than the WDW deluxe hotels. If you get a Universal annual pass, you can get good rates on the hotels. Their AP is about 1/3 the price of Disney's, so it can be good deal, even for one trip. You don't have to have the AP until you actually check in. If you want to check the rates, use the promo code APH on the Universal site. Sometimes, they don't post these rates until pretty late. I usually end up booking through Cheap Tickets with a discount code and then canceling once the AP rate comes out. You won't regret going. Unfortunately, you probably won't be able to go to Orlando now without visiting Universal too

Will have to do some calculations!

 

[2neverland]

We are staying 11 nights in August at Port Orleans Riverside. About halfway through the trip, we are keeping our Disney hotel but booked one night at Royal Pacific for our two Universal days. Will drive over very early, check into Universal hotel to get our express passes, go to whichever park has early entry, spend night in Universal hotel, go to Universal again next day and then head back to our Disney hotel the second evening. We looked at the cost of unlimited park to park express pass for our two days and it was $919 - compared to the $315 (including tax) that we are paying for the Universal hotel. Booked through Orbitz with a 15% code.

Interesting-im gonna have to do a lot of math homework!

 

[elaine amj]

Uni onsite is amazing. To me, it's an amazing perk and Budget-minded traveler that I am, I would (and have) paid extra for it. We stay either one or two nights and then stack offsite stays before and after ( we do multiple split stays on our trips to save money - we don't find moving hotels too bad of a hassle).

If u like water rides, IOA has the best! Our routine is to start the day in our swimsuits and dry fit tees and crocs that can get wet, do a few quick rides and then hit the water rides multiple times for 1-2 hrs ( super easy with the Express Pass). Then walk back to the resort pool and jump right in (since we are already soaked through).

 

[agavegirl1]

My favorite kind of Orlando trip is a split trip. WDW, SW, US/IOA and a day trip to Busch Gardens from our Disney resort. I've stayed at all the Universal Deluxe resorts an prefer Portofino for the theme but all are great.

 

[snowybelle]

Another vote for split stay! The perks (Express Pass! early entry!) of staying at Universal's hotels are great, and I find that their deluxe hotels are much nicer than most everyplace I've stayed at WDW (and for less money). I've stayed at Hard Rock Hotel and Royal Pacific... loved them both. Both a short walk or water taxi ride away from the parks.

 

[wdw4rfam]

It depends on when you are going. If it's not busy, we just stay at Disney and drive over to universal 2 of the days. We did a split stay once and found that we lose a day moving, which ended up costing more. Plus we usually go in September, when express pass isn't usually needed.

 

[jimjenkids]

we have been struggling with this same issue. I have a hard time with the $900 tickets for 2 days(hop between) for 4 people. it really made my DH rethink the whole thing-and now tells us the Disney is even more "Bang for his buck" with that being said, I have been to US and we are now booked for 2 nights-2days right before we check in at Disney. the cost is crazy! for what we would pay for 1 room w/hopper tickets at Disney for 6nights is not much more that what we are paying for Universal(but we are now doing 2 rooms at POP and 6nights) the kids are older and are wanting that extra park so we will do it this trip but before Disney. we are staying at the Cabana Bay to save a bit of $ but also get the HP experience with the hopper type pass, I cant justify the upcharge for the FP equivilant. we will then check out and head over to Disney-staying at POP, unless some kind of discount comes out-then we have to see what is the best(I really prefer CBR).

 

[jsbowl16]

We priced it this year for next year to see what two nights at Universal would cost vs adding two nights to a week long vacation at Disney. Both stays would be two days of tickets, dining plan and stay at a Deluxe resort for two nights. For three of us (Two adults and a four year old), it would cost about $900 more for two days at Universal vs adding two days at Disney. It was about $950 to add two days to Disney and $1850 for two days at Universal in August. The cost of adding days 8 and 9 for Disney tickets is so much cheaper than getting days 1 and 2 of Universal tickets.