For those who did a split vaca between Disney and Universal

[agavegirl1]

Sydneysmom, be sure to post any questions for us regarding Universal/Islands of Adventure and Sea World down on the appropriate boards. We are a friendly bunch and love to help!

 

[Sirenn]

Loved reading through this thread, as a split trip is exactly what my fella and I are planning for next year. He's a Florida native who made countless trips to Universal whilst growing up, and I'm a Disney dreamer who thinks that WDW > all of the things (although I love Universal as well).

Our plan is to visit Disney World for 5 days, Monday - Friday. We'll take Saturday off and visit his family, then maybe swing by Sea World on Sunday. Monday & Tuesday will be dedicated to Universal Studios. My hope is that by taking advantage of WDW's value season and inexpensive flights, rental car deals, etc we'll be able to afford two days in one of the Universal properties that offers early entry and the Universal Express pass. The upgraded amenities and "front of the line" perks will feel like a vacation within a vacation!

 

[agavegirl1]

Loved reading through this thread, as a split trip is exactly what my fella and I are planning for next year. He's a Florida native who made countless trips to Universal whilst growing up, and I'm a Disney dreamer who thinks that WDW > all of the things (although I love Universal as well).

Our plan is to visit Disney World for 5 days, Monday - Friday. We'll take Saturday off and visit his family, then maybe swing by Sea World on Sunday. Monday & Tuesday will be dedicated to Universal Studios. My hope is that by taking advantage of WDW's value season and inexpensive flights, rental car deals, etc we'll be able to afford two days in one of the Universal properties that offers early entry and the Universal Express pass. The upgraded amenities and "front of the line" perks will feel like a vacation within a vacation!

This sounds like a very balanced plan. You didn't mention your dates but you did mention value season so you should get so much done! Will you be using park-hopper tickets at Disney and/or park-to-park tickets at US/IOA? You can travel much more quickly as two adults and hopping works best for DBF and I.

 

[indimom]

We did a split trip in July 2013. In our case, we did it this way because it gave us more trip for the money than we could have managed any other way.
We did have to give up some things in order to do a split trip.
I had enough Disney Rewards to cover four park days and our campsite (we tent camp, but had never camped at Disney before). We chose two major parks plus water parks and more. We skipped MK and AK.
I had additional rewards to cover two nights at Universal Royal Pacific and we spent three days in the parks there. (So our total oop of gas, food, and $600 for the Universal park tickets.)


Did we miss MK and AK? yes. In a perfect world, I'd like to do each Disney park once and Epcot twice.
How about the camping? Fabulous. Would do it again in a heartbeat. We loved it. The weather was gorgeous. We had space to spread out. We ate well at our campsite. And it was so quiet and relaxing.
Universal? Fabulous. But, I always leave wanting more. We love Express Pass, the proximity of the parks, the hotel, the pools, citywalk, all of it. And we didn't have nearly enough time there.
Which to do first/last? For us, I would always do Universal at the end because there is less rush and hustle, less walking, and it's a nice way to wind down from a hectic theme park vacation. I also feel like we might be annoyed or disappointed in Fast Pass at Disney if we had the Express Perk at Universal first in the trip.

 

[sydneysmom]

Cool!

$2600!!

I know, right!!! that's ALOT of money to save, and I don't feel at all like we're sacrificing anything. I'm so excited for just a completely new vacation ....and all new rides!

Sydneysmom, be sure to post any questions for us regarding Universal/Islands of Adventure and Sea World down on the appropriate boards. We are a friendly bunch and love to help!

I will, thank you.... because I have a gazillion questions, that's for sure. I'm not sure how the Royal Pacific or Portofino compare to Disney resports, so I have no perspective which to choose. I'll ask that over in the Universal threads to get some opinions. We've only stayed at the GF when we went to Disney, so I have no idea about the Universal resports. (just that we want to stay at one of the 3 to get the 'skip the line' perk....)

 

[kkproulx]

We have done split stays the past four times! Our fifth will be this October. My husband is a MAJOR Harry Potter fan (and Disney) and this is a must each vacation now. We always try to check in at a Universal on site Resort (Royal Pacific is our resort choice, but it's sold out this time, so we are at the Hard Rock). If you stay on site you get early entry to Harry Potter world, and now with Diagon Alley, I'm sure there's early entry then also. This will be our first time with Diagon Alley open, so we'll see. We spend TWO days at Universal and get a taxi to take us to Disney when we are finished. Usually only about a 30 minute ride, but over Christmas we went from Disney to Universal and it took us nearly two hours to get to Universal!!!! Traffic was horrendous!!! We checked in and went straight to Margaritaville!! A cold beverage was just what the doctor ordered!!! Have fun! Universal is awesome! You'll love it.

 

[sydneysmom]

We have done split stays the past four times! Our fifth will be this October. My husband is a MAJOR Harry Potter fan (and Disney) and this is a must each vacation now. We always try to check in at a Universal on site Resort (Royal Pacific is our resort choice, but it's sold out this time, so we are at the Hard Rock). If you stay on site you get early entry to Harry Potter world, and now with Diagon Alley, I'm sure there's early entry then also. This will be our first time with Diagon Alley open, so we'll see. We spend TWO days at Universal and get a taxi to take us to Disney when we are finished. Usually only about a 30 minute ride, but over Christmas we went from Disney to Universal and it took us nearly two hours to get to Universal!!!! Traffic was horrendous!!! We checked in and went straight to Margaritaville!! A cold beverage was just what the doctor ordered!!! Have fun! Universal is awesome! You'll love it.

I can't wait !! So you loved Royal Pacific then? That was my first choice when we've been looking too.... I love the theming of that hotel. How do you like it compared to Disney hotels?

 

[kohlby]

We haven't gone to US/IOA since the recent expansion. We used to always do a split visit with the two - as in we've done 7 trips like that! We used to just do 2 days for US/IOA and 3-4 days for Disney parks and then 1 for SW. However, when the never-expires Disney tickets jumped so much in price, we realized it was no longer financially in our best interest. So, we switched it up. We were supposed to have a Disney-only trip. But we surprised the kids with one day at IOA since we really, really wanted to check out HP. We knew we didn't have time for US as well. Then our last trip was US/IOA - with 6 days there and 1 day at Legoland. Our next trip is 7 days of Disney with waterparks and more and 1 day at Legoland. It's so hard to be so close to IOA/US and not do it! But we know it makes the most sense financially these days. We will do US/IOA the next year. (We did skip AK on one trip after it being a flop 3 trips in a row for my kids. In the future, we will likely skip AK if we do both US/Disney. But since our next trip is just Disney, we are doing a half day at AK. Skipping AK gives us more EP time and we love our EP time!)

As for the resorts, we always stay at RPR and really like it. We stay there mainly because it's the cheapest of the three resorts. (I realize there is now a 4th one). They allow pool hopping so we did hop over to Hard Rock's pool on our last trip.

As for timing, we don't worry about which park we're doing first. It comes down to crowds/money to figure it out. In the past, we stayed at the Dolphin frequently for free with hotel points. They often had a buy 4 nights get the 5th free going on, which could be used with points too, so we scheduled our Dolphin time to take advantage of the deals and then fit in US/IOA on whichever side worked. The trip that had one IOA day was actually done in the middle of our Disney days, just because that's where it fit best due to crowd calendars.

 

[kkproulx]

I can't wait !! So you loved Royal Pacific then? That was my first choice when we've been looking too.... I love the theming of that hotel. How do you like it compared to Disney hotels?

We love Royal Pacific. It's the closest to Islands of Adventure. Take the path to City Walk, hang a left and you're there! It's a beautiful Resort. That's my "Polynesian" stay since my hubby won't sway from the Beach Club at Disney! He likes to walk to Epcot every night. I don't want to get in any trouble here, but my preference is Universal over Disney, but I can't keep my hubs and DD12 away from Disney.

 

[kkproulx]

OH and the Pool at Royal Pacific is AWESOME!

 

[kkproulx]

We haven't gone to US/IOA since the recent expansion. We used to always do a split visit with the two - as in we've done 7 trips like that! We used to just do 2 days for US/IOA and 3-4 days for Disney parks and then 1 for SW. However, when the never-expires Disney tickets jumped so much in price, we realized it was no longer financially in our best interest. So, we switched it up. We were supposed to have a Disney-only trip. But we surprised the kids with one day at IOA since we really, really wanted to check out HP. We knew we didn't have time for US as well. Then our last trip was US/IOA - with 6 days there and 1 day at Legoland. Our next trip is 7 days of Disney with waterparks and more and 1 day at Legoland. It's so hard to be so close to IOA/US and not do it! But we know it makes the most sense financially these days. We will do US/IOA the next year. (We did skip AK on one trip after it being a flop 3 trips in a row for my kids. In the future, we will likely skip AK if we do both US/Disney. But since our next trip is just Disney, we are doing a half day at AK. Skipping AK gives us more EP time and we love our EP time!)

As for the resorts, we always stay at RPR and really like it. We stay there mainly because it's the cheapest of the three resorts. (I realize there is now a 4th one). They allow pool hopping so we did hop over to Hard Rock's pool on our last trip.

As for timing, we don't worry about which park we're doing first. It comes down to crowds/money to figure it out. In the past, we stayed at the Dolphin frequently for free with hotel points. They often had a buy 4 nights get the 5th free going on, which could be used with points too, so we scheduled our Dolphin time to take advantage of the deals and then fit in US/IOA on whichever side worked. The trip that had one IOA day was actually done in the middle of our Disney days, just because that's where it fit best due to crowd calendars.

How did you like Hard Rock's pool compared to RPR?

 

[CFioren317]

We just did a split stay trip and it worked out great. We did 4 nights at Pop Century, a night at Nick Suites and then a night at Royal Pacific. The Nicks Suites night was just a layover to relax in between, but we wouldn't do that again as it wasn't really worth the trouble. Although the room was the biggest and most convenient of the 3 rooms we had.

For the 4 nights at Pop we did 5 days at WDW and we aren't commandos so we don't have to do everything. We enjoyed the time and saw everything we wanted to see.

For the night at Nick Suites, the water park was fun for my 6 YO and my wife and I enjoyed relaxing at the pool area while she played on the slides. But the rest of it was just bleh and next time, I would do 2 nights at Royal Pacific.

Although, you really do only need one overnight stay at US. We stayed at Royal Pacific on a Friday night, June 27th. We went to US and did everything we wanted, and many things twice, throughout the day. Mostly because of the Front of the line passes. They are the best thing in Orlando, in my opinion. As a non-commando, these are just amazing. Never waited more than 5 minutes for anything. Then Saturday we spent the day at IoA and again, everything we wanted to do. Spiderman 3 times. Water rides a few times to stay cool. Jurassic Park, all the Seuss rides. No HP rides, but we walked through the humongous crowd and we saw the new ride area...wasn't open yet, but looked cool.

Basically, we could have left an hour early Saturday and rode HP if we wanted, but we aren't big fans. Also, you can literally walk to US and IoA from the hotel or take a water boat, which was cool. But no need to park and walk the 20 minutes through City Walk when you stay at Royal Pacific, which is another big perk.

Overall, as non-commandos, we enjoyed our time at US and IoA more because of the FOL passes. We did have the FP+ set up at WDW, but it's not the same. I will never go down there again without at least one night set up at US to get the 2 day FOL pass experience. To me, it is the best thing going at any amusement park in the country.

 

[TJDisneymama]

IN the past we've always just taken a shuttle from our WDW resort over to US but our next trip we're going to bite the bullet and stay on site at US. I'm super excited to experience their hotels (RPR). I think I will do US first because I feel like it would be sadder to leave Disney to go to US then vice versa, lol. Not that I'm not a US fan, I am, Disney is just, you know....... more emotional.
We will do 2 nights at US and then 5-6 at WDW. 2 days at US is plenty of time for us to see it all and have resort time in the evenings.

 

[kohlby]

How did you like Hard Rock's pool compared to RPR?

RPR does have a good pool - but HRH was better. We had never hopped over there until our last trip. Before then, we were perfectly content with RPR pool. But we did a longer stay at RPR than usual, so we had the time to check out HRH's pool and it was worth it. (My kids were 4, 7, and 10 that trip). They do play music over at that pool and some reviews said it was too loud, so keep that in mind. We didn't find it too loud at all though and I'm usually sensitive to things like that.

 

[RMulieri]

We love Portofino and stay there every trip( and will again in Jan ).It is the furthest from the parks compared to the other 2, but a beautiful walk on the canal path in less than 15 mins, you can take a shortcut that puts you at the studio entrance in even less time or take the resort dedicated boat( each resort has its own boat to the parks-except the new moderate resort Cabana bay.That only has walking or bus).Portofino has the biggest rooms of the 3 deluxe, 3 pools and the main pool has the lighthouse slide.It is also the only of the 3 that have balconies, though they cost extra per night since there are only a handful of them.We love the theming and the restaurants too.Some of the best pizza we had was at Sals marketplace.At night you can sit on the piazza with a glass of wine and listen to the opera singers perform..

 

[bumbershoot]

How did you like Hard Rock's pool compared to RPR?

I'm not the person you're asking but have a different opinion. The pool at hard rock is a shallow body of water intended to be sat in while listening to music. My son and I could not find a spot deep enough to actually swim in. The only deep part is under the waterslide (which DS assures me is awesome) but of course you can't hang out under the slide. The pool grounds feel like fun and are made for lounging and listening and people watching.

In every respect but swimming, the pool area is good. But if you want to swim, go elsewhere. Villa pool at Portofino is what I recommend for a good swim.

 

[Pacific Northwest]

Hi all. My fam and I just started talking about a WDW trip for July 2016 (we normally go to DL). In my world, talking about it means we are doing it. I LOVE planning even though the trip is 2 years away.

I've been to WDW twice (it's expensive and a pain to travel there from the great state of Washington). Me and my 2 oldest kids (14 and 12) are huge HP fans, my wife and youngest (4) not so much. There is no way we are going to travel all the way across the country and not go to US/IoA.

Only 1 or 2 people on this thread have stayed the entire time at Disney with an excursion of a couple days to US. Any other thoughts on that? I'm considering that option and purchasing express passes. Early entry is not really an option for us and therefore, not a perk of staying at US because of the 3 hour time difference (Florida 8am = Washington 5am...ouch), but we can play well into the night! In the end it will come down to cost.

Time to bust out the spreadsheets!

 

[sydneysmom]

We love Portofino and stay there every trip( and will again in Jan ).It is the furthest from the parks compared to the other 2, but a beautiful walk on the canal path in less than 15 mins, you can take a shortcut that puts you at the studio entrance in even less time or take the resort dedicated boat( each resort has its own boat to the parks-except the new moderate resort Cabana bay.That only has walking or bus).Portofino has the biggest rooms of the 3 deluxe, 3 pools and the main pool has the lighthouse slide.It is also the only of the 3 that have balconies, though they cost extra per night since there are only a handful of them.We love the theming and the restaurants too.Some of the best pizza we had was at Sals marketplace.At night you can sit on the piazza with a glass of wine and listen to the opera singers perform..

All of the reasons that you've stated are exactly what drew me to Portofino... the only thing that I've heard negative was that it was really spread out and longer to walk to the parks.

I was originally drawn to Royal Pacific because it's similar in theme to the Poly (and I love that whole South Pacific thing...). But the rooms are smaller. Now, I don't know if that will make any kind of difference or not... we're not going to spend any time in the room except to sleep / change/ go!

I'm confused. I think we can get a club room in Royal Pacific for the same price as a bay view at Portofino... so it might be worth doing that. I just keep pouring over pictures to see what finally says PICK ME! We've only stayed at the Grand Floridian at Disney, so my husband is used to a bit more room... I don't know. the more I read, the more confused I get. (I guess that's not a bad problem to have, huh?)

 

[OchreHand]

So it looks like split stays are pretty common I, too, am planning a split stay this January. It'll be my first time going to Universal and IOA in more than a decade.

If you don't have a car, what is the best option for getting from a Disney resort to Universal (preferably very early)?

That was going to be my question, too. I plan on ending my trip with Universal and I'm going to miss Magical Express especially heading back to the airpot. Is it easy to grab a cab from one of the hotels?

 

[bumbershoot]

i think we can get a club room in Royal Pacific for the same price as a bay view at Portofino... so it might be worth doing that.

Assuming the club level amenities and timing (certain foods are out at certain times, booze has specific hours, etc) work for you, even I, a portofino lover, would go with club at royal if they were the same.