Is it feasible? From Cinderella's Castle to Harry's Hogwarts?

[mjohn9083]

Hello wonderful Dis-ers! I need advice from y'all about my Sept. 2014 trip.

I will be in WDW at Coronado Springs in Sept. with DH (first time trip) and DCousin (on the Dis as JAMIESMITH - check out our last trip together from her trip report) and her DH and DD who will be 5.

We will be flying from Mississippi on a Saturday and staying at Disney until Friday.

My question is this: DH has promised to take me to HP world while we're in Orlando. I would like to go the Saturday after we have finished at Disney.. This means we would check out of Coronado Springs Friday morning, spend the day in a park, then have to get us and our luggage somewhere to stay Friday night, and then how to get to HP world, and then get back to the airport on Saturday night for a flight back to MS.

My thought was to ride Magical Express to the airport Friday afternoon, but what happens to the luggage after check out Friday morning to the time I am actually ready to leave?

And is there a somewhat cheap way to get from the airport to HP world Friday afternoon? Or a recommended hotel to stay at Friday night? Or should I stay at WDW in a value for the night to just ride Mears Saturday morning? But what would I do about luggage?

Thank you all so much for any input! I really appreciate it!

 

[mjohn9083]

ADDITION:

Or do you all think it would be better to just spend our Friday (last day @ Disney) and not go to the parks and instead check out, drop luggage off at front desk, and use Mears to get to Harry Potter world? Then when we finish, go back to Coronado, get luggage, and ride Magical Express to the airport?

That would save us $ for a hotel Friday night, but we would be missing out on our last day in the parks.

 

[madelyn]

We visited Universal and Disney World in the summer of 2012. That trip we drove to Florida from Texas so transportation was not an issue. My son and I have annual passes to Universal that are due to expire in early June. I was trying to price out a return visit to use those passes but it is hard for me to imagine being so close to Disney and not visit Disney so I was trying to figure out if visiting both would be feasible and affordable. Seems that taxi/shuttle to/from the airport or between Disney/Universal would be at least $40 to $60 for two people each way. So it would almost seem easier/cheaper to rent a car for one day. So is your return flight home on Friday or Saturday or are you trying to decide which day to return? I'm not sure if a Friday or a Saturday would be less busy at Universal. You might ask over on the Universal board. I would think Friday might be a better day to go since Saturday might have more locals/FL residents visiting on a weekend trip. If you are arriving the Saturday before, that leaves Sat thru Thur (6 days) at Disney so I would think Friday would be a good day for Universal. But if you are trying to check out of your Disney hotel, get transportation over to Universal then get back to your Disney hotel to retrieve your luggage and take Magical Express back to the airport to catch your flight, I would say you don't have enough time to visit Universal unless your flight is very, very late. Doesn't Magical Express pick you up 3 hours before your flight time? Also a 1 day ticket to Universal isn't cheap so it would seem a waste to buy a ticket just for a few hours in the park.

 

[tammyroo]

I don't know how feasible your plan is.....it depends on your expectations and your stamina.
We went Dec 2010 to both WDW and Universal. We switched hotels to stay on property at Universal for one night to take advantage of express pass and early entry to HP. Without those two things we would not have been able to do HP or the Universal parks. Granted, it was a few days before Christmas and crowds were excruciatingly large.
I don't know how the lines are for WWOHP now. For us, there was a long line to get in the WWOHP then long lines for the shops, rides, etc. once you got in the land. I think it would be helpful for you to do some research on that if you haven't already.
Even with our advantages I would have liked to spend more time in WWOHP but the lines were so long and the area is so small it gets claustrophobic with crowds. Maybe the newness has worn off and the lines are significantly less than they were.
I regretted trying to do everything that trip....We were all so exhausted and ended getting colds at the end. I am waiting until the next phase of WWOHP gets done before planning another dedicated trip for just Universal.
I personally would recommend skipping your last day at WDW and going to a hotel that has good neighbor policy with Universal for Friday night. Or just waiting to do a dedicated trip to Universal later when you might have more time to enjoy and not feel so rushed.
There may be a combo Mears transportation/one day ticket to Universal....seems like I remember seeing that somewhere before.
Just my thoughts/experiences.

 

[madelyn]

We stayed on-site Disney for 4 nights then moved over to a Marriott off-site condo for the next 7 nights. But during that 7 night Marriott time, we got a 1 night stay at Universals Hard Rock Hotel on-site to get 2 days of "Express pass". This was early June so I don't know how necessary Express Pass would have been for an early summer week. But the rain was terrible so the crowds left the park. I only rode the Harry Potter ride once, just a few minutes before it closed. It was walk on. My sister took my son to that ride using the on-site early entry feature and I think they waited 30 to 45 minutes?

 

[spiceycat]

to do HP right you need to be at Universal.

so would plan a trip just to US/IOA to do the HP part. Now you can do it - if you are young and have loads of energy. You need a rental car - so that might be difficult because you need to rent at US/IOA or airport - not at WDW - guess you could rent to another place (it will cost more) - so rent at Disney or DD hotels - make sure you can return the car to the airport.

then drive to US/IOA would stay in a Universal hotel - just for the FOLE - front of line entry - you can buy this but it is way expensive besides if you buy it - you can only access everything once. If you stay in the hotel you can go when you want. Plus staying onsite means when you get tired you have a place to go to relax then back to IOA. would stay at Royal Pacific - first it is the least expensive of the US hotels and it is the closest to IOA where the HP stuff is located.

here a link
https://www.universalorlando.com/Hotels/On-site-Hotels-How-to-Book.aspx

 

[Ametista]

In September the crowds for HP should not be bad. Even last June they were not that bad. Have you checked out that Dollar rent a car deal? I would try that. Once you put in you dates then it will give you rates and there will be a little button that says "Check for City special" and click it. You could rent a car for $40 just for that day/24 hours.

http://www.dollar.com/Reservations/ResStart.aspx

Otherwise you will have to pay a taxi to take you to the airport if you stay at Universal, right?

 

[madelyn]

That's a good single day rental price. Where does Dollar rent out of? The high price of a single day ticket vs multi-days convinced me to extend our trip and visit Universal more than 1 day. I hate that their on-site resorts charge for parking at the resort though. I ended up getting their medium level annual pass and that provided free parking at the parks (but not overnight) and about $100 off the on-site room night plus discounts on food/merchandise (10%?). When we were there last June the Front of the Line for on-site guests was not available for Harry Potter attractions (at least not Forbidden Journey). We were allowed early entry (1 hour) so got a head start there.

In September the crowds for HP should not be bad. Even last June they were not that bad. Have you checked out that Dollar rent a car deal? I would try that. Once you put in you dates then it will give you rates and there will be a little button that says "Check for City special" and click it. You could rent a car for $40 just for that day/24 hours.

http://www.dollar.com/Reservations/ResStart.aspx

Otherwise you will have to pay a taxi to take you to the airport if you stay at Universal, right?

 

[mjohn9083]

Thank you all so much for the great responses! The more I've talked about it with my DH (he's totally clueless to the concept that there are 2 themeparks in Orlando and they are not both owned by Disney), he wants to just drive so we'll have the car.

This way we could spend Friday in WDW, stay at a cheap motel in Orlando Friday night, get up and do all day Saturday in WWOHP, then start the drive back to Mississippi Saturday evening to get home early Sunday morning.

We're both young (fresh out of college) newly-weds so I think we'll be okay energy-wise for the 12 hour drive. Lots of Diet Coke and McDonald's on the way, of course

I really appreciate all of your responses! I'll keep you posted on what we decided .. and a trip report to follow!

 

[spiceycat]

think you will be fine - always drive from Ala 9 to 10 hours - by myself.

so with two of you think you will be fine. Florida has lots of rest stops. they have security come around often -so they are safe these days. Use them alot - if you need to take a nap or a restroom (generally cleaner than gas stations) and you can get a guide thing that has discount hotels close to WDW. So if you are coming in Sept would use it instead of making a reservation now.

Disney to me is definitely more fun in your own car.

 

[Ametista]

That's a good single day rental price. Where does Dollar rent out of? The high price of a single day ticket vs multi-days convinced me to extend our trip and visit Universal more than 1 day. I hate that their on-site resorts charge for parking at the resort though. I ended up getting their medium level annual pass and that provided free parking at the parks (but not overnight) and about $100 off the on-site room night plus discounts on food/merchandise (10%?). When we were there last June the Front of the Line for on-site guests was not available for Harry Potter attractions (at least not Forbidden Journey). We were allowed early entry (1 hour) so got a head start there.

These are their locations in Kissimmee

http://www.dollar.com/Locations/Loc...earchString=ISM&pageId=AdvancedLocationSearch