Planning a Day Trip to Universal

[ck2d]

We're planning a trip to Disney where we will be staying at a resort and using Magical Express. We won't be renting a car.

We've never been to Universal Studios, and are thinking about taking a day trip to visit it. For those who have done something similar, is it worth it to go for one day? How did you travel there if you didn't have your own car? Do you have any helpful tips?

 

[taiko225]

I am a solo traveller So I booked the mears shuttle at the front desk of disney resort. It is 20USD return. You can choose your pickup time and return time. They normally have a shuttle every hour. And return you could call 3 hours before hand to book your return shuttle. Uinversal has 2 parks. If you are big riders, you need at least 1.5 days to do all the rides without the Express pass. And it is totally worth going to... even just for the Harry Potter things. If you are a family travelling together... use Uber to get there. Easily available and it is around 15-20 USD depending on the time of day and traffic. If you never ride Uber before... you can get at $22 first ride credit too which could cover 1 trip to.

 

[luvgoing2disney]

We did this two weeks ago and used Mears. We've been to Universal several times for just a one day trip and have always used them.

I would encourage you to get your ticket ahead of time online and also consider the Express pass. It's not cheap, but it saves you a LOT of time, especially if you will be there for one day only and will be visiting both parks. If you are interested in HP attractions, you will need to visit both parks anyway.

 

[disneyseniors]

We did the same thing last year, OP. We were at Disney for 9 days and wanted a day at Universal Studios only. We had been to IOA 2 years before, so only wanted the Studios side. We contacted Mears, via the front desk at our resort the night before, set it up for 7:15 pickup. The next am we were waiting at 7am, and by 8 am we had not seen a Mears vehicle at all. We were getting anxious because we wanted to get to Uni for rope drop since we only had one day. We ended up going to the valet and calling a cab. The cab immediately took us to Uni. We took the cab back to the resort. The cost was appx 35 to 40 each way. We felt it was a bargain as we didn't have to wait at the mercy of Mears. Needless to say, we were very disappointed that Mears never showed up, as we had set it up and confirmed the night before. So, I guess you take your chances with Mears. Others have used it and rave about it. But we are one and done, and will always use a cab from now on. (can't use Uber because we don't have a smart phone)

 

[snoopboop]

We're planning a trip to Disney where we will be staying at a resort and using Magical Express. We won't be renting a car.

We've never been to Universal Studios, and are thinking about taking a day trip to visit it. For those who have done something similar, is it worth it to go for one day? How did you travel there if you didn't have your own car? Do you have any helpful tips?

If you want more flexibility in your departure and return times, you might consider a private car service. This is especially true if there are 4+ people in your party, as the cost may then actually be LESS than the shuttle. Many on the Dis recommend Tony Hinds. I always hire Amy Lake of Bond Motor Co.

Also, if you're just going for the one day, DEFINITELY consider purchasing Express Passes. It's like being able to enter any FP+ queue at any time. If you get the Unlimited version of the EP, then you can use the Express queue multiple times on each attraction. Otherwise, it's limited to one use per attraction for the day. There are only a handful of attractions it isn't valid for, so if you want to do a bit of advance planning, you can plan your day to make sure you hit those non-EP attractions at times when they're likely to be less crowded.

 

[gotomu212]

How many people are in your party? It may make sense to book a ghost room at Universal and get the complementary unlimited express pass instead of individually buying it for everyone. Time of year and number in your party would drive that cost comparison.