Need help with planning please!

[Teresa Ray-Pishner]

Hi Fellow Disney Fans!

My family and I are headed to WDW for the 4th time in Sept. This is the first year, we'd like to spend 2 days at Universal (UO). We've NEVER been to UO before so have a couple questions:
1. We're staying Saturday to Friday (6 days). Should we plan our 2 days at UO in the middle of the week or towards the end? I know the girls will want to do WDW first thing we get there. My first thought was to get 4 day WDW passes (with PH) and then get the 2 day tix to UO.
2. I figured we'd stay at our resort and just taxi back and forth to UO but should I change my plan and stay at UO for the days we're there? Seems like it might be a pain to check out of our WDW resort and check into the UO resort if we don't have to waste time doing that.
3. I know virtually nothing about UO, so any suggestions are welcomed!
I'd love to hear some thoughts on all this!
Thanks bunches!
Teresa

 

[ottjdub]

First of all Welcome!!!

With my family we have a Tradition to end our trips to WDW with MK at the end of trip. We will go to Universal and Islands towards the beginning of the trip and finish the trip with Disney Parks. Disney is the reason why we go to Orlando anyways. LOL

If you have never been to Universal and you like Big Rides then you can not do the 2 Park in 1 Day. Get a Park to Park 2 Day pass. This way you can enjoy everything along with Hogwarts Express.

Just use a Taxi and stay in the Disney Resort.

 

[Teresa Ray-Pishner]

Thank you for your idea! You may have more will power than we do though! ha ha My daughter (only child) is taking her BFF with us and she's never been there before so I know we'll be too excited to get to the MK to save it for the last few days.... But even if you do WDW at the end, do you stay at WDW the entire trip or do you stay at UO and then move to WDW?
Thanks again!

 

[ottjdub]

OH don't get me wrong our Will Power is pretty weak when it comes to WDW. We will visit MK 2-3 times per trip depending on length of stay. Cannot do MK only once. haha
Example of a 7 Day trip
starting on a Monday.
Mon Fly in morning. Disney Springs the rest of day.
Tues MK
Wed Epcot
Thur Universal
Fri Islands
Sat AK or HS
Sun MK again
Mon Leave for home. If we have a Evening flight then we head over to Disney Springs again.

 

[Day-Day]

Where are you staying at WDW? (wondering how the price compares to staying at Portifino's, Hard Rock or Royal Pacific or to Cabana Bay hotel at US) We usually stay at Hard Rock or Royal Pacific and take advantage of early entry and Universal Express at Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure. Universal Express gives front of the line access to many attractions and is a benefit when staying at Portifino's, Hard Rock or Royal Pacific.

We usually do this at the beginning of the trip and have even stayed in a cheaper hotel on the day of arrival to Orlando without visiting a park on the arrival day (especially if its a late afternoon or evening arrival). One night's stay at one of these 3 hotels provides the express ride benefit for the check-in day and check-out day so if we stay somewhere cheaper on our arrival day, we check-in very early to the Universal hotel and go to the parks. We like to do the water rides in Islands of Adventure and go back to our room to change clothes before additional park touring.

When we visited US during the middle of a trip, we only stayed at a WDW hotel. If at the beginning or end of our vacation we changed to the US hotel. Changing hotels is easy; just grab your stuff and go. We have always had a car during our visits but taxi or uber would be no problem.

p.s. This entire board is a "planning" board so it may be better to have a little more description of the issue in your thread title.

 

[ottjdub]

We stay off-site so I cannot offer advice on staying at WDW or UO.

 

[luvgoing2disney]

We also are visiting in September staying on property with a visit planned to Universal. Wve gone to US many times and we usually just travel via Mears which is good and bad. The price is great but just be prepared for multiple stops at other resorts. It is also easy for the return to your resort.

We have always been able to get EVERTHING accomplished in one day especially visiting that time of the year. Repeat rides may not be possible but if you leave off Suess landing and concentrate on the big rides I think one day would be enough. It has worked for us anyway

 

[Lirael]

Hey! I'm going back to wdw this year after some time. My plan is also to visit Universal in two days. I've planned to go there in the last few days of my trip. This is because I plan to save up on car rental by only renting it for the last few days, for shopping and Universal, and before that I'll just stick to wdw and rely on their transportation.

 

[katmatry]

I would start the trip with a 1 night stay at a deluxe universal resort and do 2 days at US. The rest of the trip I'd stay at a Disney resort. Are you flying or driving? What time will you arrive in Orlando?

 

[pa. dad]

I think you'll find the quality of the Universal attractions and parks to be very similar to the Disney parks. That is the main point I'd make.
either the first 2 days of the last 2 days of your trip makes sense then to cut down on travel. We did the first 2 days of our 6 day Dec/January trip at universal recently as we thought the crowds would be even worse at disney those particular days. In looking at different days than we did, I'd look to minimize the crowds as best i could.
If King kong is open at islands , I'd go there first as its new. then harry potter. If KK is not open yet, I'd do harry first. At Univ. I'd do Harry first there too. Have a butterbeer- its non alcoholic. Check out the many restaurants on City walk and not just the ones in the 2 parks. And Universal has some rough coasters too if your daughter is really feeling adventerous.
But after you have spent those 2 days at the Univ, parks, I would think you'll no longer think that there is anything lesser or inferior about them.

 

[2Gma]

We're taking our 4th WDW trip in Sept this year too!
Teresa, how old are the girls and are they Harry potter fans? This will help us better assist you in planning.

We went to US/IOA on our trip last May. First thing I would do is consult park calendars for "most recommended" park days. Undercover tourist and Orlando informer both have them for free. Touring plans also has them. That way you can see predicted crowd levels and chose what park looks best based on that. I think in general US/IOA is better to visit during the week. You might find doing a mix of WDW and Universal days to be the best scenario crowd wise. We found that one day at each Universal park was enough for us. We got the one park per day tickets. We rope dropped both parks and by 4-5pm felt we had done most of the highlights. We did NOT purchase Express passes (like FP at Disney but with a fee). Like at Disney if you get there early you can get a lot done. The Express Passes are free if you stay at one of Universal's deluxe resorts (1 night stay will get you 2 days worth of express passes) But we did it without and didn't find the lines to be that long except at midday. I personally wouldn't switch from WDW to Universal hotel just for the express passes. Like you said, too much of a hassle. I know a lot of people mention using Mears or Uber for traveling back and forth. It is about 30 mins from WDW. You might want park to park tickets (think Park Hoppers) that way you can hop between parks on the Hogwarts Express. Having Park to park tickets is the only way to ride it. We did not have hoppers so we missed that but will get on our next visit

Universal was really fun and a totally different experience than Disney. The Harry Potter sections have theming unlike anything at Disney. If your girls are HP fans they will want to spend a lot of time just looking around in those areas. Start following the Universal forum on the Disboards for tips/tricks. I learned a lot there!

 

[drp4video]

We always do Universal and stay at WDW. We have never stayed at Universal. We start with WDW, then do Universal in the middle, and end with WDW, always MK as watching the fireworks on our last night is our thing. I rent a car as I like to have a car the whole trip. If it is a short trip, we will just do Islands of Adventure at Universal. If it is a longer trip, we do both Universal Parks and do MK twice..first and last days.

Note that we went in September one time over labor day weekend and stayed a few days after. We only did IOA and Harry Potter had opened that year. It did not take us the whole day to do IOA as it was not that crowded. (we have yet to do the second part of HP at Studios). In fact, we have actually done IOA in 4 hours pre-Harry Potter(..but then we have gone a lot before and are familiar with the park) Possibly you could do MK the first day at WDW, then do universal at the end, leaving universal and heading to MK to finish out the night on your last night. It would depend on the crowds and park hours at both locations.

 

[GaryDis]

We're planning similar, but we'll start with three nights at UO and the rest at WDW. I figure two checkins and one taxi/über is better than one checkin and four taxi/über. And that's without the express pass, since everything I've read indicates it's not imperative in Sep.

 

[Lori74]

if you can afford staying at universal and Disney I would go for it! I would stay at universal first, then head to Disney, kind of saving the best for last. the universal thread on here is fantastic to learn all about their resorts and parks. I know some universal resorts offer early entry and other perks. just a reminder like a pp said, if you want to ride the Hogwarts express, (harry potter train) you need park to park tickets. it all depends how adventurous your family is, if you all ride the big coasters I would definitely do 2 days, however, if you guys aren't into the big coasters, you can get through universal and islands in 1 day. my family has been quite a few times and done just one day park to park and everyone got done what they wanted, half of us do the thrill rides, half of us don't. if you decide to do just one day there, I would just stay at Disney the whole trip. but that's me. I also would make sure you leave time to enjoy your resort and plan some down time. go to Disney springs and enjoy all the resorts have to offer. have a great time and take a look at the universal threads!

 

[Teresa Ray-Pishner]

OH don't get me wrong our Will Power is pretty weak when it comes to WDW. We will visit MK 2-3 times per trip depending on length of stay. Cannot do MK only once. haha
Example of a 7 Day trip
starting on a Monday.
Mon Fly in morning. Disney Springs the rest of day.
Tues MK
Wed Epcot
Thur Universal
Fri Islands
Sat AK or HS
Sun MK again
Mon Leave for home. If we have a Evening flight then we head over to Disney Springs again.

Thanks for your input! I'm leaning towards putting US during the middle of the trip so I'm relieved you feel the same way. Thanks!

 

[Teresa Ray-Pishner]

Where are you staying at WDW? (wondering how the price compares to staying at Portifino's, Hard Rock or Royal Pacific or to Cabana Bay hotel at US) We usually stay at Hard Rock or Royal Pacific and take advantage of early entry and Universal Express at Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure. Universal Express gives front of the line access to many attractions and is a benefit when staying at Portifino's, Hard Rock or Royal Pacific.

We usually do this at the beginning of the trip and have even stayed in a cheaper hotel on the day of arrival to Orlando without visiting a park on the arrival day (especially if its a late afternoon or evening arrival). One night's stay at one of these 3 hotels provides the express ride benefit for the check-in day and check-out day so if we stay somewhere cheaper on our arrival day, we check-in very early to the Universal hotel and go to the parks. We like to do the water rides in Islands of Adventure and go back to our room to change clothes before additional park touring.

When we visited US during the middle of a trip, we only stayed at a WDW hotel. If at the beginning or end of our vacation we changed to the US hotel. Changing hotels is easy; just grab your stuff and go. We have always had a car during our visits but taxi or uber would be no problem.

p.s. This entire board is a "planning" board so it may be better to have a little more description of the issue in your thread title.

We are staying at Caribbean Beach (2nd time at that resort). I know nothing about the US resorts so no idea how price compares.
Thanks about the tip on thread title, I just stumbled across this website so I'm not familiar with it all yet. Thank you!

 

[Teresa Ray-Pishner]

We also are visiting in September staying on property with a visit planned to Universal. Wve gone to US many times and we usually just travel via Mears which is good and bad. The price is great but just be prepared for multiple stops at other resorts. It is also easy for the return to your resort.

We have always been able to get EVERTHING accomplished in one day especially visiting that time of the year. Repeat rides may not be possible but if you leave off Suess landing and concentrate on the big rides I think one day would be enough. It has worked for us anyway

Wow, so you did both parks in one day at US? I'm starting to wonder if I should wait and purchase the US tickets last minute in case my family decides they don't want to take any time away from WDW. Because we know we LOVE WDW...

 

[Teresa Ray-Pishner]

Hey! I'm going back to wdw this year after some time. My plan is also to visit Universal in two days. I've planned to go there in the last few days of my trip. This is because I plan to save up on car rental by only renting it for the last few days, for shopping and Universal, and before that I'll just stick to wdw and rely on their transportation.

That's a great idea, I'm just so used to taking the Magic Express bus back to the airport, didn't know if it would be a hassle to rent a car and have to drop it off at the airport, etc.

 

[rsagusti]

We are adding UA on to our next trip. we typically do 6 nights at Disney and 3 nights off at the beach or something, so this time we are just doing 3 nights at UA then 6 nights at Disney. Not exactly what you guys are planning, but we never seem to have enough days at the parks so we're just going for it.

 

[rsagusti]

We are adding UA on to our next trip. we typically do 6 nights at Disney and 3 nights off at the beach or something, so this time we are just doing 3 nights at UA then 6 nights at Disney. Not exactly what you guys are planning, but we never seem to have enough days at the parks so we're just going for it.