Opinions on order - Disney/Universal trip

[le9397]

I've been to Disney a dozen times and love it. I have only spent 1 day at US/IOA and DBF has never been. We booked a 10 night trip (8/28 to 9/7) staying at the Beach Club. Then we both won Universal tickets on the superbowl giveaway so decided to switch a few nights to onsite at Universal. We are planning 5 nights at Beach Club & 5 nights at RPR.

Now the big question, which order to do the stays in? I was planning to start at US and end at Disney but our second hotel stay will include Labor Day weekend. I'm wondering if FOTL would make spending the holiday weekend at Universal a better choice?

It's just the two of us traveling....we start off strong at the beginning of the trip but start taking it easy toward the end. Regardless of where we spend the nights, we'll probably end up doing 6 days at DW, 1 day at Typhoon Lagoon and 3 days at US/IOA (is that enough?).

Thanks for any advise you can offer a Universal newbie!

 

[nerdboyrockstar]

Now the big question, which order to do the stays in? I was planning to start at US and end at Disney but our second hotel stay will include Labor Day weekend. I'm wondering if FOTL would make spending the holiday weekend at Universal a better choice?

Bingo. It being Labor Day weekend, you can take it so much easier than anyone else at the parks with your room key. You'll be spoiled by Universal's FOTL and by RPR so I say you do Disney first and then relax with your Universal stay.

 

[Darcy03231]

I would do US/IOA at the end too. Once you have FOTL you'll hate going to WDW and standing in line.

 

[tlinus]

Bingo. It being Labor Day weekend, you can take it so much easier than anyone else at the parks with your room key. You'll be spoiled by Universal's FOTL and by RPR so I say you do Disney first and then relax with your Universal stay.

Totally agree with ^^^^^^^

 

[Disneyhappy]

We made the mistake one time of doing Universal before WDW and never, ever again! After having FOTL access to attractions with less than 10 minute waits, the kids were very cranky at WDW about waiting in line for anything. FP helped a bit. Also, we find with FOTL and the compactness of the parks, CW and hotels, Universal is more relaxing after the hustle and bustle of WDW. WDW is so big and spread out that I didn't realize who much time and energy was wasted in the transport to the parks and DTD, even when staying at deluxes. Part of the reason may also be tht I have found WDW unbearably crowded over my last 6 trips- over different times of the year- compared to Universal. We love the Beach Club and will be staying there this summer. Have a wonderful trip to both resort destinations!

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

Definitely save USO for the end. I was there Labor Day weekend 08. The parks were very full and it was so nice to almost walk right on to everything with FOTL. It is so much more relaxed pace than WDW.

I would give yourselves some to enjoy RPR. We loved having a full day to chill out by the pool.

 

[le9397]

Thanks so much for all the responses! I'm going to do Disney first. We have APs there so if we want to spend any of our time at Disney while staying at Universal it won't make any difference. I think the Universal passes are good for a week so we're covered.

I'm not going to buy the waterpark tickets ahead of time. Both resorts seem to be fabulous so we might save that for another trip and do a resort day instead.

Now if the trip would just get here!

 

[macraven]

as usual, i'm late for the party...............



do disney first then universal.
once you do, you'll understand why we suggest that order.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

We made the mistake one time of doing Universal before WDW and never, ever again! After having FOTL access to attractions with less than 10 minute waits, the kids were very cranky at WDW about waiting in line for anything. FP helped a bit. Also, we find with FOTL and the compactness of the parks, CW and hotels, Universal is more relaxing after the hustle and bustle of WDW. WDW is so big and spread out that I didn't realize who much time and energy was wasted in the transport to the parks and DTD, even when staying at deluxes. Part of the reason may also be tht I have found WDW unbearably crowded over my last 6 trips- over different times of the year- compared to Universal. We love the Beach Club and will be staying there this summer. Have a wonderful trip to both resort destinations!

Same here! When ds was 7 (now almost 9) and we switched from US to WDW, BTMR had a 20 min. wait, not great but not bad by Disney standards. Ds stomped his little foot and said, "I am NOT waiting in a 20 minute line!" I thought, whew, we sure got spoiled fast. Now we know.

 

[La2kw]

I guess I'm in the minority here. We always do Universal first. The Universal resorts are fantastic, but we can only afford a single room there. We are DVC members, so when we get to WDW, we get a 1BR unit. I would hate to go from a 1BR unit to a single hotel room, so that's why we do Uni first. If we were staying in a DVC studio, then it wouldn't matter as much. Also, we are from the West Coast, having FOTL allows us to sleep in the first few days of our vacation and not miss anything. Even sleeping until 9am Easter time feels like 6am to those of us used to Pacific Time. At WDW, if you sleep in, you hit the crowds.

We have been to WDW so many times, we never wait more than 20 minutes in line. We use fastpass and we hit the parks early. If a line is too long, we skip it.

 

[Metro West]

I would do US/IOA at the end too. Once you have FOTL you'll hate going to WDW and standing in line.

In a word...yup!

 

[amystevekai&bump]

just wanted to say that we went to florida in May and went to Universal first and disney second (unfortunately it was all booked and paid for before I read on here that we should do it the other way around)

Next year we are definitely going to do it the other way around - universal was so relaxing and I found it so hard queueing at WDW after the luxury of FOTL!!!

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

I guess I'm in the minority here. We always do Universal first. The Universal resorts are fantastic, but we can only afford a single room there. We are DVC members, so when we get to WDW, we get a 1BR unit. I would hate to go from a 1BR unit to a single hotel room, so that's why we do Uni first. If we were staying in a DVC studio, then it wouldn't matter as much. Also, we are from the West Coast, having FOTL allows us to sleep in the first few days of our vacation and not miss anything. Even sleeping until 9am Easter time feels like 6am to those of us used to Pacific Time. At WDW, if you sleep in, you hit the crowds.

We have been to WDW so many times, we never wait more than 20 minutes in line. We use fastpass and we hit the parks early. If a line is too long, we skip it.

I feel your pain. Well, except for the time zone changes. We have a 3br timeshare (non DVC) so it is tight to go from all that space down to 1 room. For us though, our US stays are only 1-2 nts when adding onto our TS stay. I'd love to be able to stay 2 full weeks.

 

[le9397]

Same here! When ds was 7 (now almost 9) and we switched from US to WDW, BTMR had a 20 min. wait, not great but not bad by Disney standards. Ds stomped his little foot and said, "I am NOT waiting in a 20 minute line!" I thought, whew, we sure got spoiled fast. Now we know.

That is funny! As I'm laughing, I'm thinking I would probably be the same as your son.

 

[rwdavis2]

IMHO, 5 days at Universal is a bit of overkill. You can probably do both parks and repeats much of them in 3 days. But if you plan to hang at the pools then my advice doesn't matter.
Fun either way,
BD

 

[amystevekai&bump]

IMHO, 5 days at Universal is a bit of overkill. You can probably do both parks and repeats much of them in 3 days. But if you plan to hang at the pools then my advice doesn't matter.
Fun either way,
BD

we were there in May and had 3 nights (although it was only 2 days) and having been to universal many times before it was the first time with our children and it wasn't long enough.

Next time we plan to stay for 5 nights (and it will be 6 days) - the reason is it will be the end of our vacation and we plan to spend it at a lot slower pace and really enjoy the pool/hotels/city walk and relax. I agree with you that you can see all of the parks in 3 days but you can also make it a much more relaxing vacation if you have longer - well at least I hope to!!

actually having just reread your thread - you are saying the same thing as me aren't you - so sorry!!! - I agree with you totally!!!