I completely understand where you're coming from! The main difference between Disney and Universal is the marketing. My brother and I grew up with Disney - I remember my parents, brother, aunts, uncles, cousins and I all going to see Aladdin the night it came out and then playing with our character figurines for hours every day after. I remember loving he Little Mermaid and pretending I was Ariel every time I went in our pool. I remember watching The Lion King with my cousins as I held my Simba and Nala stuffed animals with magnets in their noses so when you brought them together they "kissed." I remember crying on my first few days of Pre-K, and bringing a picture of my family in Mexico at Epcot from our first trip to Orlando that summer with me to look at and feel better. Disney's the biggest name associated with childhood, and going to the parks brings back that flood of memories and reminds you of those lazy, carefree days of being a kid.
The people at Disney are marketing geniuses and know how to play off of those memories perfectly! I can't imagine a single person who grew up loving Cinderella, Snow White and Peter Pan not wanting a chance to get to ride through those movies and relive the memories. The entire resort has a ridiculously strong emotional pull and therefor keeps people coming back year after year. It's hard going from a resort that's so personal and dear to one's heart to a cool theme park that's really technologically advanced but doesn't have that emotional pull.
It depends on what you grew up with. As much as my brother and I loved Disney growing up, we also loved Jurassic Park and thought everything about that movie was magical. Getting to walk through the gates of Jurassic Park ourselves, hearing the music play as the giant trees swayed in the breeze... it was breathtaking! One of my best friends growing up also loved Jurassic Park when she was younger and she cried walking into the land at IOA for the first time this past March! Her pictures are hilarious! As much as I love Disney and the parks, once you strip them of the emotional pull I think the Universal parks (IOA especially) are far and away better, theming included. The New York area of MGM is a big picture that looks like a city scene, whereas Universal's New York is lifelike and reminds me of home! And you can't beat the theming in any of the lands at Islands of Adventure.
Again, it's hard to break away from the emotional pull of Disney but if you allow yourself to, you'll see just how cool Universal is! My parents like Disney but they didn't grow up with it as much as my brother and I did, and my brother doesn't care about all that emotional cutesy stuff when it comes to theme parks, so they all like Universal Studios better. For every ride at Disney there's a ride at Universal we all like better - we'll take The Hulk over the Rock'N'Roller Coaster, Spiderman over Dinosaur, Jurassic Park over Splash Mountain, and The Mummy over Everest. I love Disney and would love to get over there again sometime soon, but to us, when it comes to the rides and theming as a theme park itself, we like Universal better and find it to be a far better value.
I just wrote you guys a book
and this was our first trip. Myself, hubby and our 9 year old. We have been to Disney twice in the last 4 years----we all agree that this vacation was sooooooooo much more relaxing. There isn't the hustle and bustle, the HAVING to get into the parks by 8 am, etc. but there also isn't the Disney "magic"....which is ok, it was fine when our son was younger, but now this park just seems to fit us better. 
But rides are rides...no matter who the characters are, right?
so it really doesnt matter where I'm at!!!
