Split trip

[luvallprincesses]

We are planning a 14 day Orlando trip starting the Saturday prior to Thanksgiving. We are frequent WDW-ers, but have never been to Universal. It's time. We were thinking of splurging on 3 nights/3.5 park days onsite deluxe at Universal with express passes included (since its holiday week). It seems to make sense to start at Universal and then finish at WDW with 10 days, as that will be our more relaxing portion since we don't feel rushed there/have seen it all. We will be staying at the Swan on AmEx points. I have a few questions for doing this split trip, if anyone can help me with any parts:

1. Is there a reason that we should do the trip in reverse? (I'm aware we hit WDW over Thanksgiving this way...but we won't do parks much while its busy there at that time). Will we be disappointed in the room "downgrade" moving from a deluxe at Uni to the Swan? (Never stayed there before.)

2. Does it make more sense ($) to rent a car for the whole Universal portion to then transport ourselves to WDW 4 days later (which we would then be able to return at WDW or not?) Otherwise we'd be hiring a town car for airport transfers, I guess, since no ME services for Swan. What are other reasonable options are there to move ourselves and all luggage to WDW?

3. Anything else I haven't considered that I should?

 

[damo]

If you are staying onsite at Universal with express, you will be doing minimal waiting in line. This makes it very frustrating when you get to WDW and have to wait. This is why many people recommend doing WDW first.

It doesn't make sense to rent a car and just park it at Universal. A $20/night to park, it gets very pricey....unless you get an amazing deal on the car. Price out the options. A cab is under $100 return between WDW and Universal and with Universal and the airport. You can also do a 3 way limo rental. Lots of us do exactly that.

 

[RMulieri]

I would do Universal last..Once you do the express passes, it spoils you for anything else..Plus, it is a much slower pace and more relaxing and it is a great way to end a trip before going home

 

[ArwenMarie]

In your case I would do Universal first. Because it's the shorter leg of the trip and because it's new to you. Ten days at WDW will be easy-going just because of the length of the trip.

I think you'll be ok going from the Uni hotels to the Swan in terms of room quality.

For the car, we always have a rental car no matter where we stay, Universal, onsite Disney, offsite. Always. We do not like the transportation at Disney, other than the monorail and the boats.

In your case, I would either rent the car which will take care of everything (which will also come in handy to get around WDW on your ten-day stay) or just do town cars for all the transport (to Uni, to WDW, back to the airport.

I think you will love the split stay, especially with that length of trip! Happy planning

 

[schumigirl]

Yep, do Universal last

EP will spoil you. It would be hard to go back to queueing at Disney after having that....even at the busiest times it's worth its weight in gold.

As for a car,What damo suggested was good advice.

Sounds like a great trip

 

[elaine amj]

Remember, Swan also has crazy parking fees. I wasn't able to find cheap enough rental car rates to offset the killer parking fees so I just used a towncar last time I was in orlando. I stayed at the Dolphin during Christmas week and it was nice The grounds are lovely although the rooms are slightly tired. Very spacious rooms with a crazy amount of storage though!

 

[luvallprincesses]

Thanks for all of your thoughts and advice! I am surprised by so many saying to do Uni at the end due just to the express pass being spoiling as opposed to WDW. I hadn't considered the spoiling part. But still: my thoughts for getting the express pass and doing Uni first, specifically for the time of year of this trip, is because it is Thanksgiving week and the pass would be put to such good use in that situation, while doing the split in reverse puts us at WDW Thanksgiving week without even having the option for express pass like we could be doing at Uni during that crazy week. Doing WDW at the end of the trip, as I was thinking, puts us there at the #1 recommended week for low crowds, which means Uni should also be slow then (right?) so it would be more of a waste of money to have express pass at that time.

I appreciate the viewpoint of normally recommending WDW before Uni, if getting express pass, but does thinking of it with respect to week 1 being holiday/majorly crowded in both places and week 2 being uncrowded make a difference to do the trip in the order I originally planned? Or express pass is so spoiling that this crowd level situation is still trumped...so we should fight WDW crowds Thanksgiving week and then sail through low crowds at Uni the next week with an express pass?

Thank you for the thoughts on the car/transportation. I think it makes more sense for us to do a 3 way leg instead of rental due to Uni and Swan parking prices and we'd rather use transportation (and occasional cab to/from DTD) than drive around.

 

[johnvree]

I would stay at the nicer hotel last. The parks are going to be awesome. No kid is going to say "I miss Universal" when they are about to get on Splash Mountain and, vice versa, no kid is going to say they miss Disney when they are about to get on Spiderman.

But the hotel is different. I wouldn't want to be checking into the Swan for a week and have my kids tell me how it's not as nice as the hotel we just left. So if I was going to be staying at the HRH or the Portofino at USO and the Swan at WDW, I'd stay at the Swan first and hope everyone is impressed with how nice the USO hotel is compared to the Swan (nothing against the Swan, which is a great resort).