I think we are officially done with Disney!!

[mom2mikel]

This last trip was a somewhat budget, last minute trip. We stayed at the Hard Rock Hotel and went to US/IOA 3 days and then up to Tampa for 3 days at Busch Gardens. It was a slightly shorter trip than we usually take and we couldn't justify the cost of Disney park tickets so we skipped it for the first time in 7 trips.

While I really do love the atmosphere at Disney, I have to say we didn't miss being there at all. I could see going to Disney every few trips, but I think we are converted to a Universal family now. The kids ages have a lot to do with it, I'm sure, as they are old enough to want the bigger rides.

When we were planning this trip we thought of staying at Universal the whole time and I thought we'd get bored. Wouldn't you know -- I wished we had a few more days there. Busch Gardens was great too

Just had to share!!

 

[LUVIOA]

We made it official this year too. Not that we were ever a Disney family either we are just done w/it. Universal kids all the way! Nothing like hearing kids whine "do we HAVE to go to Disney?"

 

[patster734]

Because my wife is currently getting just 2 weeks of vacation per year, we don't have time to visit both Disney and Universal for a full week. So we've been doing short, Universal trips for the past 5 years. Last visit to Disney was in 2005.

 

[minniejack]

I"m with you guys--we said we're not doing Disney again until we have Grand Kids

 

[ducky_love]

I love Disney but I think I went so much that the magic rubbed off a little. Plus they closed some places I really loved and there isn't anything new to replace them. Add that with rising prices and it was just time for a change.

I'm really so impressed with Universal. It is tough to compare the two because they are really different animals but I can see skipping Disney for the next few years.

 

[Lucky4me]

I wish I was done with Disney with those park prices....but I'm an addict.
Right now our next trip will only be one day in the Magic Kingdom for MVMCP and I'm slightly bummed about it. dd and I have some park days left on our hoppers, but no one else we're going with has tickets or can afford them, so no Disney.
We found 14 day tickets for Universal that cost $99. At that price, I can learn to love it more than Disney.

 

[Lucky4me]

I love Disney but I think I went so much that the magic rubbed off a little. Plus they closed some places I really loved and there isn't anything new to replace them. Add that with rising prices and it was just time for a change.

I'm really so impressed with Universal. It is tough to compare the two because they are really different animals but I can see skipping Disney for the next few years.

ita
We miss The Adventurers Club so much!! Best night time entertainment at Disney World. I have no clue why they didn't keep that one open...

 

[ducky_love]

ita
We miss The Adventurers Club so much!! Best night time entertainment at Disney World. I have no clue why they didn't keep that one open...

How did you read my mind?? On the 2 year anniversary of the club closing I am missing it a little more than usual today. I understand making room for new things - but leaving buildings empty for two years breaks my heart!!

Universal is easy to love. Don't worry!

 

[christophfam]

You can count me in too! Universal has been our first pick over Disney for a couple of years now. You just can't beat their hotels and the great level of service you receive. Express all day long...! It is just such a nice relaxing trip. With the kids in high school and middle school now, I just can't pull them out of school anymore to go off season to Disney. If you stay onsite at Universal, you really don't have to.

 

[Lucky4me]

How did you read my mind?? On the 2 year anniversary of the club closing I am missing it a little more than usual today. I understand making room for new things - but leaving buildings empty for two years breaks my heart!!

Universal is easy to love. Don't worry!

We're going in November with the same friends we went with ten years ago. They still talk about the nights we went to Adventurers Club as being the most fun they ever had at a bar! We also hit the rest of PI, but AC was hands down the most unique and most fun.
We're trying to figure out something even close to it, but there isn't anything.
So looks like it's Jellyrolls, which is fun, but just not the same.
I sound like a whiner. I'm not really. We love Universal and we have a great time no matter where we go!

 

[Brit_Jude]

I had my wedding at Disney this year and while I loved my wedding the magic has defiantly worn off. We had some issues with our resort and the cast members in the parks were just so so - not a lot of magic - one down right rude. We did two day trips over to Universal and loved it, it was like a breath of fresh air - I had not been since I evacuated Panama City, Florida for Hurricane Ivan. We now have a week booked at HRH Christmas.

 

[dgr1973]

While we have never been to Universal I can see that happening to us too! We really love Disney but my girls are older now so they like the bigger thrill rides.

 

[strawberryblonde]

Hard to believe that we are going to be in Orlando for the first time in 4 years, for two weeks, and not buy park hoppers to WDW. We are just going to do MNSSHP one night, Disney Quest for one day for my son, and Cirque one night for our entire family.

We WILL be staying for an entire week at HRH and enjoying US/IOA at our own pace. We are looking forward to this very much!!

I could not see paying the prices at WDW's Table service when food quality and choices have gone down. We are missing the "free dining" by days (and the dates of our trip were not chosen by us, we are tied to the dates of my DH's conference). I'm also very sad that Pleasure Island is closed.

We love Disney, but can't see paying full price for a product that will be quite a bit less than what we experienced in the past. Things have changed a great deal in 4 short years, sad.

 

[bookgirl2632]

While I loved my first trip to Universal, I will never be done with Disney. It nearly killed us last week, seeing people walk around with Disney stuff and not ever going over there. It's the first time we were ever in Orlando and didn't go to Disney. We got so excited just to go in the Disney store at the airport, that's how bad we were jonesing for it!

We're the opposite of everyone here, I guess. We'll do Disney more often and take occasional trips to Universal now, especially when they add something new.

 

[Albytaps]

Universal is a once every few years trip while Disney is a yearly trip to us. If I haven't gotten burnt out by Disney by now I don't think I will ever be.

Maybe once the kids are older we will be able to do some of the cooler Universal things like HHN and Citywalk, but right now there's no point.

WWOHP is awesome though, i wouldn't mind going there every year to see HP. Comon' LOTR make me a Universal addict!

 

[Rip]

Aside from our annual anniversary trip where we spend 2 days at Universal for HHN and one day at Epcot strictly for the Food and Wine festival, we won't be doing Disney any time soon. We let our APs expire earlier this year and decided that it was just entirely too expensive for the decline in quality we've noticed over the past several years. We will still take the kids to UO for 4-5 days every year since it's still affordable to renew our APs, and we will never stop our HHN trips, but Disney will have to wait a few years.

 

[ElizabethB]

Wow -- our recent experience was similar to others. We stayed at PBH and loved it. We really enjoyed Universal and Islands of Adventure -- thought WWoHP was fantastic. Our boys loved the whole "attitude" at Universal and IofA. They're 15 -- and the rides speak their language -- Shrek, T3D, etc. The FOTL access was wonderful, too.

Plus -- the meals we had there were delicious. We loved Tchoup Chop and Emeril's. We were very pleasantly surprised by our meal at Mama Della's, which was superb. Mythos was yummy. We even liked our theme park lunch at the Fisherman's Wharf-style restaurant. The wicked DDP fairy has not invaded Universal restaurants happily.

And, Club Level at PBH was a revelation. We're so used to Disney CL where the goal is to provide as little food as possible -- as cheaply as possible -- and start cleaning it up 20 minutes before the end of the particular service period. At PBH, the food was out for the entire time and they would walk around to let us know they were going to start cleaning up in case we wanted more food or wine. The food was plentiful, creative and tasty.

We planned three days at Universal at the start of our trip, then moved to BCV and Disney. We ended up cutting short our Disney stay and returning to PBH and Universal.

We'll always go to Disney (for old times' sake if nothing else), but we're seriously considering staying at PBH and simply driving over to Disney parks when we want to.

We loved that everywhere at PBH, the answer to any question was, "Yes, we can do that for you."

At Disney hotels, the answer these days seems to be, "No, that is not possible/allowed/permitted".

We have to agree that the WDW magic has dimmed.

 

[Rip]

Wow -- our recent experience was similar to others. We stayed at PBH and loved it. We really enjoyed Universal and Islands of Adventure -- thought WWoHP was fantastic. Our boys loved the whole "attitude" at Universal and IofA. They're 15 -- and the rides speak their language -- Shrek, T3D, etc. The FOTL access was wonderful, too.

Plus -- the meals we had there were delicious. We loved Tchoup Chop and Emeril's. We were very pleasantly surprised by our meal at Mama Della's, which was superb. Mythos was yummy. We even liked our theme park lunch at the Fisherman's Wharf-style restaurant. The wicked DDP fairy has not invaded Universal restaurants happily.

And, Club Level at PBH was a revelation. We're so used to Disney CL where the goal is to provide as little food as possible -- as cheaply as possible -- and start cleaning it up 20 minutes before the end of the particular service period. At PBH, the food was out for the entire time and they would walk around to let us know they were going to start cleaning up in case we wanted more food or wine. The food was plentiful, creative and tasty.

We planned three days at Universal at the start of our trip, then moved to BCV and Disney. We ended up cutting short our Disney stay and returning to PBH and Universal.

We'll always go to Disney (for old times' sake if nothing else), but we're seriously considering staying at PBH and simply driving over to Disney parks when we want to.

We loved that everywhere at PBH, the answer to any question was, "Yes, we can do that for you."

At Disney hotels, the answer these days seems to be, "No, that is not possible/allowed/permitted".

We have to agree that the WDW magic has dimmed.

This has been my experience with UO resorts as well. They really are "deluxe".

 

[SmallWorld71]

While I loved my first trip to Universal, I will never be done with Disney. It nearly killed us last week, seeing people walk around with Disney stuff and not ever going over there. It's the first time we were ever in Orlando and didn't go to Disney. We got so excited just to go in the Disney store at the airport, that's how bad we were jonesing for it!

We're the opposite of everyone here, I guess. We'll do Disney more often and take occasional trips to Universal now, especially when they add something new.

This is how I am. We just had out first trip to Universal/Sea World/Discovery Cove this summer and I loved it. But, my heart belongs to Disney. We are split as a family on this though. DH and DS15would choose Universal first, DD7 and I would choose Disney and DS11 just can't choose. So, we'll be alternating visits. We'd love to throw a cruise in the mix soon, too!

 

[MaMudduck]

I wish I was done with Disney with those park prices....but I'm an addict.
Right now our next trip will only be one day in the Magic Kingdom for MVMCP and I'm slightly bummed about it. dd and I have some park days left on our hoppers, but no one else we're going with has tickets or can afford them, so no Disney.
We found 14 day tickets for Universal that cost $99. At that price, I can learn to love it more than Disney.

So where did you find this deal?

This trip will be my first trip to US/IOA and not going to WDW, well maybe...I think we'll do MVMCP so I can do one day (after 4pm) there. But my choice was similar to most of you: never been there, need a cheaper trip, tix less than WDW prices & kids are older.