Penmac
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Mar 31, 2017
I hope that it's OK to post this here since it is not only about WDW, but I think the viewers on this forum would be able to help! If I should have posted this elsewhere maybe someone can help to move it to the right spot. ;-)
We are a larger family who travel to Disney yearly. We stay offsite, bring our own food, and budget each dollar! But, now that all our kids are over the age of 3 (and all need a ticket), we may need to start visiting more like every 3 years due to rising ticket costs. Boo hoo :-(
This year, we are considering doing a visit to Universal as well since we have never been and may not be back in Orlando for quite some time. I am a big HP fan (books and movies), and my husband has enjoyed all the movies. My oldest three have all read some of the books. My oldest (4th grader) is almost done reading the series, so I feel like she has really earned a trip to the park!
I am looking for advice, opinions, input, etc, on doing both WDW and Universal during a 1 week stay. Since I am SO undecided on our plan I would love to hear it all! I know we will enjoy Universal, but splitting our time between the two park franchises seems a bit exhausting and I know it will be more expensive since multi-day tickets are a better value. In a perfect world we would spend most of our trip at WDW because we are die hard Disney fans, with a 1 day park to park visit to Universal. Since that scenario is astronomically expensive for 7 people and very little value, it's not possible.
Our two options are:
1. Purchase the 2 day park to park, 3 day free promo at Universal. NO express pass or early entry since we are offsite. Going week of 8/19.
Attend a Halloween party at MK in addition to an after 5pm convention pass I still have active that does not expire until year's end. We can't afford to purchase Universal and then WDW base tickets on top of that. We did the Halloween party in 2017 and the kids enjoyed it.
So, all in all two shorter days at MK and then multiple days at Universal (we likely won't go all 5 days since we are only there a week). Sacrificing Hollywood studios and Epcot, which is hard but MK takes priority for all of us. Ok with skipping AK. Just not sure we need more than 2 days at Universal and worried about the fact that making this trip more about Universal than Disney will be something we may regret since we won't be back for a while. But the pro of this scenario is getting more park days for the same value as below scenario.
2. Purchase a 2-day park hopper or 3-day base ticket to Disney to use in addition to our after 5 convention pass. So, either 3 or 4 days and enjoy pool days as well. Put Universal off until 2021 or 2022 when oldest is 12-13 and youngest is 5-6. Con of this is one BIG thing- missing out on the Wizarding World now which has been on my bucket list since it opened! Pro of this is being able to do more WDW parks.
The cost of these itineraries are very similar.
My kids don't really care one way or the other. They are just happy to be going to Florida again, knowing they won't be back for a while. This is mostly about my indecisiveness and worry over going back and forth to the two different park franchises. Since I haven't been to Universal ever I am erring more towards sticking with Disney and I realize this could also be a mistake. I should be willing to branch out and try something new.
Oh, and did I mention I don't do well with motion simulation? LOL
Would love to hear from anyone!
We are a larger family who travel to Disney yearly. We stay offsite, bring our own food, and budget each dollar! But, now that all our kids are over the age of 3 (and all need a ticket), we may need to start visiting more like every 3 years due to rising ticket costs. Boo hoo :-(
This year, we are considering doing a visit to Universal as well since we have never been and may not be back in Orlando for quite some time. I am a big HP fan (books and movies), and my husband has enjoyed all the movies. My oldest three have all read some of the books. My oldest (4th grader) is almost done reading the series, so I feel like she has really earned a trip to the park!
I am looking for advice, opinions, input, etc, on doing both WDW and Universal during a 1 week stay. Since I am SO undecided on our plan I would love to hear it all! I know we will enjoy Universal, but splitting our time between the two park franchises seems a bit exhausting and I know it will be more expensive since multi-day tickets are a better value. In a perfect world we would spend most of our trip at WDW because we are die hard Disney fans, with a 1 day park to park visit to Universal. Since that scenario is astronomically expensive for 7 people and very little value, it's not possible.
Our two options are:
1. Purchase the 2 day park to park, 3 day free promo at Universal. NO express pass or early entry since we are offsite. Going week of 8/19.
Attend a Halloween party at MK in addition to an after 5pm convention pass I still have active that does not expire until year's end. We can't afford to purchase Universal and then WDW base tickets on top of that. We did the Halloween party in 2017 and the kids enjoyed it.
So, all in all two shorter days at MK and then multiple days at Universal (we likely won't go all 5 days since we are only there a week). Sacrificing Hollywood studios and Epcot, which is hard but MK takes priority for all of us. Ok with skipping AK. Just not sure we need more than 2 days at Universal and worried about the fact that making this trip more about Universal than Disney will be something we may regret since we won't be back for a while. But the pro of this scenario is getting more park days for the same value as below scenario.
2. Purchase a 2-day park hopper or 3-day base ticket to Disney to use in addition to our after 5 convention pass. So, either 3 or 4 days and enjoy pool days as well. Put Universal off until 2021 or 2022 when oldest is 12-13 and youngest is 5-6. Con of this is one BIG thing- missing out on the Wizarding World now which has been on my bucket list since it opened! Pro of this is being able to do more WDW parks.
The cost of these itineraries are very similar.
My kids don't really care one way or the other. They are just happy to be going to Florida again, knowing they won't be back for a while. This is mostly about my indecisiveness and worry over going back and forth to the two different park franchises. Since I haven't been to Universal ever I am erring more towards sticking with Disney and I realize this could also be a mistake. I should be willing to branch out and try something new.
Oh, and did I mention I don't do well with motion simulation? LOL
Would love to hear from anyone!