Planning a Disney and Universal trip

[jboehm]

Hi,

My wife and I are returning to Disney World for 10 day this fall for our 10th anniversary. We would like to spend a couple of days in the Universal parks in addition to Disney World and possibly go out to Kennedy Space Center. Disney makes it SUPER easy to plan and purchase an all Disney trip but how do I plan a combo trip? Do I stay at Disney or off site? Do I rent a car? I have a ton of questions and I really don't know where to start.

Thanks,
Jon

 

[isla bonita]

I would rent a car to get out to Kennedy space center. You can stay on site at Universal. I personally stayed in Portofino and it was very clean, and extremely convienent. You know about Disney so you can fly in and get free access to Disney thru magical express and rent your car at the end of your disney trip. I know you can rent on disney property then just return the car to airport car rental. Sounds like a plan to me.

 

[mbb]

Welcome to the Dis!!

And next, you've come to the right place for a place to start

If you haven't checked out the "Welcome to the Dis", ...here you go:
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=437927

Next up, you can consider planning your trip through Dreams Unlimited - they're a Disboard sponsor, WDW is their specialty, onsite and off
http://www.dreamsunlimitedtravel.com/wdw_main.htm

Free Dining is available to be booked until June 4 (if you're checking in August13/14?-Sept30 )

Feel free to ask whatever you need - there's lots of us obsessive planners that would be more than happy to give you a hand!!

 

[3darlings]

Isla Bonita:

We are planning to do a combo Disney/Universal trip as well. I was planning to do as you suggest: first part of trip at Disney using ME and then rent a car to go to Universal. My question is where do can rent a car on Disney proeprty? Can you do it at the hotels or do you have to go to another location? It is great if there is the option to then drop it off at the airport. Thanks for your help.

 

[mbb]

You can rent cars at the Dolphin through National, and the Car Care Centre at the Magic Kingdom too


HTH!

 

[kaw1218]

Hi,

My wife and I are returning to Disney World for 10 day this fall for our 10th anniversary. We would like to spend a couple of days in the Universal parks in addition to Disney World and possibly go out to Kennedy Space Center. Disney makes it SUPER easy to plan and purchase an all Disney trip but how do I plan a combo trip? Do I stay at Disney or off site? Do I rent a car? I have a ton of questions and I really don't know where to start.

Thanks,
Jon

I also am looking into booking a combo Disney/Universal trip(in April '07). Like the OP, I really don't know where to start. I can't wait to hear everyone's suggestions! Any and all will be greatly appreciated! Thanks

 

[isla bonita]

I would make the same suggestion to the first poster. If you stay on site plan the days their then stay on site at us/ioa. Here is a great site for us/ioa tickets
http://activities.rci.com/commerce/universaltickets/
We had a great time and saved a lot of $$ by getting these tickets.

 

[rie'smom]

We do both every year. Absolutely stay onsite @ Universal. Front of the line access is priceless. This year we are renting a 4bd/4ba offsite pool house for the WDW part of our trip. It's 5 minutes from WDW in Emerald Island. The cost is 850.00 for 7 days. A great deal. Isla Bonita has a 6bd house in the same subdivision.
If you choose to stay onsite@ WDW,Coronado Springs is our favorite. We love it better than the Grand Floridian or the Polynesian. Absolutely 5 star service. If you have any questions,go to the resort board and Buzz will answer-he has the most in depth site. I just found the linkto his website:http://coronado_springs.tripod.com/. It's so romantic walking aound the resort!!
Royal Pacific has been our choice of resort @ Universal. The staff is wonderful. The grounds are lovely.

 

[sunnishine]

It depends on how much you want to spend. If you are on a budget like me get an offsite hotel. I have 4 people with me and booked a suite hotel with free breakfast for 11 nights for $1070. We will be spending 6 days at disney and 5 days at Universal.

 

[DawnDelion]

We were planning on staying at a WDW resort the whole time and just heading over to Universal for 2 days. The question is, how to get to Universal just for the day? Does anyone know how much a taxi ride would cost?? I know if we rented a car it would be $10 parking there.

 

[judykay53]

Isn't there a bus that goes from the TTC to Universal? I didn't just dream that did I?

 

[sunnishine]

I don't remember there being a bus from TTC but I may be wrong. Most people from disney rent a car for a couple of days. A lot of the hotels have rental counters in the lobby.

 

[stephwynn]

We were planning on staying at a WDW resort the whole time and just heading over to Universal for 2 days. The question is, how to get to Universal just for the day? Does anyone know how much a taxi ride would cost?? I know if we rented a car it would be $10 parking there.

We are also planning a day trip to Universal Studios, as we did last time we were there. We took a cab that time, and likely will do the same this time. I am fortunate enough to have booked our whole stay and passes at WDW with points, so don't really want to muck with that.

Do you think we can do both parks in one day?