Splitting days between Universal and Disney

[WanderlustNZ]

If there is a long wait you simply show your hotel room key and you get the next available table........of course there may be other hotel guests before you.

It took a 90 minute wait down to just over 10 for us on a really busy night.

If the wait is quite short they don’t always operate this perk. I’m not sure if it’s less than 30 minutes.......been so long since I was told what it was.

Bubba Gump don’t use it. If you have a Landry’s card that will get you ahead in the wait list.

Toothsome and Cowfish recently added this to their restaurants.

It is worth it when it’s busy.........

Thanks so much schumigirl for you fast, helpful response! It does sound like a great perk.

Out of interest, what is your favourite citiwalk restaurant?

 

[schumigirl]

Thanks so much schumigirl for you fast, helpful response! It does sound like a great perk.

Out of interest, what is your favourite citiwalk restaurant?

You are very welcome.........

Now there’s a question!!!

We love NBC and Cowfish probably more than any other..........we have never been disappointed in any meal we have had in both places, and cocktails are fabulous!

5 years ago it used to be Margaritaville......but apart from the burgers and nachos we have found the quality and menu choices to have gone down last several years.......and again, love their cocktails! And great atmosphere........

Vivo gets good feedback, and we keep meaning to try it, but for us the best onsite pizza is Sal’s at Portofino Bay......so it's hard to pass that one up.

Toothsome we need to give another try.......my husband loved it, and I think what I ordered was the problem rather than the whole place so it may have clouded my impression as many love it........

Oh we do want to try Breadbox at some point and Voodoo donut when it opens..........

Sorry for the essay.........so many choices!!

 

[WanderlustNZ]

You are very welcome.........

Now there’s a question!!!

We love NBC and Cowfish probably more than any other..........we have never been disappointed in any meal we have had in both places, and cocktails are fabulous!

5 years ago it used to be Margaritaville......but apart from the burgers and nachos we have found the quality and menu choices to have gone down last several years.......and again, love their cocktails! And great atmosphere........

Vivo gets good feedback, and we keep meaning to try it, but for us the best onsite pizza is Sal’s at Portofino Bay......so it's hard to pass that one up.

Toothsome we need to give another try.......my husband loved it, and I think what I ordered was the problem rather than the whole place so it may have clouded my impression as many love it........

Oh we do want to try Breadbox at some point and Voodoo donut when it opens..........

Sorry for the essay.........so many choices!!

Great answer. Thanks so much!

I am going to check out menus for NBC and Cowfish now.

 

[MDH]

I haven't read all the responses, wanted to give my opinion without mentally forming rebuttles or confirmations of others.

I would do disney, and the reason is simply because of the hotel you are staying at at Universal. Getting the Unlimited express pass for Universal you are going to be able to just hammer things out at the parks. We were just there for a similar trip, it was 3 days universal 5 days disney. We did every single thing at Universal, and MULTIPLE times. Express pass is a godsend. We rode hulk 8 times, each main harry potter ride 7 times, spiderman 4 times, transformers 3 times, you get the idea I think. And our family is a little younger than yours, 3 kids, 12,10,and 7. With only one 11 year old, you'd be able to do even more.

Cue us going to disney for 5 days and we didn't finish everything. With only 3 fastpasses, larger crowds, and larger parks (not saying there is more to do, but physically larger at least) we just couldn't do it all.

This is in no way an insult to Universal. I absolutely love it and am flying back from CAnada for a second visit this august , but in my opinion, the speed and efficiency with which you can enjoy the parks means you can afford less days there and more at disney.

 

[shanew21]

I agree that you can definitely do Universal in 2 days with an express pass. It is what we did last time. The only problem is that we felt rushed and I kept wishing that we had at least 1 day more.

I loved that all parts of Universal, including Citiwalk, were within walking distance, and we found ourselves wishing that we had a bit more time to just wander around and ‘smell the roses’ so to speak.

I think that either way we will feel like we’re missing out on something, so I just need to resign myself to the fact that I can’t do it all.

Agreed, but in this case they would then be even more rushed at Disney. It's impossible to do a lot of Disney in 2 days.

 

[EveDallas]

I haven't read all the responses, wanted to give my opinion without mentally forming rebuttles or confirmations of others.

I would do disney, and the reason is simply because of the hotel you are staying at at Universal. Getting the Unlimited express pass for Universal you are going to be able to just hammer things out at the parks. We were just there for a similar trip, it was 3 days universal 5 days disney. We did every single thing at Universal, and MULTIPLE times. Express pass is a godsend. We rode hulk 8 times, each main harry potter ride 7 times, spiderman 4 times, transformers 3 times, you get the idea I think. And our family is a little younger than yours, 3 kids, 12,10,and 7. With only one 11 year old, you'd be able to do even more.

Cue us going to disney for 5 days and we didn't finish everything. With only 3 fastpasses, larger crowds, and larger parks (not saying there is more to do, but physically larger at least) we just couldn't do it all.

This is in no way an insult to Universal. I absolutely love it and am flying back from CAnada for a second visit this august , but in my opinion, the speed and efficiency with which you can enjoy the parks means you can afford less days there and more at disney.

But why would you want to "hammer things out" ? That doesn't sound like much of a vacation to me. But to each their own.

 

[MDH]

But why would you want to "hammer things out" ? That doesn't sound like much of a vacation to me. But to each their own.

Just a saying. Meant as get a tonne done. We still spent as much time as needed wandering Diagon Alley, casting spells, checking out shops, and getting pictures

 

[Sparkly]

But why would you want to "hammer things out" ? That doesn't sound like much of a vacation to me. But to each their own.

Same, I've never been a fan of the rushing from one ride to another strategy.

 

[EveDallas]

Just a saying. Meant as get a tonne done. We still spent as much time as needed wandering Diagon Alley, casting spells, checking out shops, and getting pictures

I'm glad you enjoyed it. Me personally, I would never be able to do everything I want at Universal in three days. I could spend a whole day in the Wizarding World alone.

 

[MDH]

OK that's fair. But here's the question. Could you finish everything you wanted to do at disney in 2 days? That's the comparative I was trying to give the OP. That while sure that's short for both parks, you will get more of what you want to do in lesser time at Universal, and thus I'd use the extra time at disney to get done the things you otherwise will have no chance at.

 

[schumigirl]

OK that's fair. But here's the question. Could you finish everything you wanted to do at disney in 2 days? That's the comparative I was trying to give the OP. That while sure that's short for both parks, you will get more of what you want to do in lesser time at Universal, and thus I'd use the extra time at disney to get done the things you otherwise will have no chance at.

Not the person you were asking, but we could do everything we wanted to do in less than that time.

Not downing Disney at all, I see no need to bash Disney, I don’t doubt it is still an amazing place to visit.........but for us there’s so little we want to do or see there.

MK.......we would do Splash, Space and Thunder Mountain.....

AK.........Expedition Everest is the only thing we do there.......I detested Avatar and it bored me to tears so have no interest in anything to do with it.......

DHS.......ToT and RnRC are the only things we enjoy there......

Epcot.......no interest at all........the place bored us silly...........some folks tried to tell us we just didn’t get Epcot......we did, it’s just not for us.

Of course my husband is a huge Star Wars fan so if he ever goes missing I’ll know where to look for him when that opens up.........

But although I know Disney can be the be all and end all to some folks, there’s not enough for us to fill a whole day never mind 2 days.......

So I fully understand when folks say they have enough of Universal in a day or so........we feel the same about Disney.........

But, for us there is so much we love about Universal Orlando.........we never seem to get bored of it........different strokes and all that.

 

[EveDallas]

OK that's fair. But here's the question. Could you finish everything you wanted to do at disney in 2 days? That's the comparative I was trying to give the OP. That while sure that's short for both parks, you will get more of what you want to do in lesser time at Universal, and thus I'd use the extra time at disney to get done the things you otherwise will have no chance at.

To be honest, yes I could. Between all 4 parks, there are only 12 or 13 things that interest me. That's why I haven't done Disney since 2013.

 

[EveDallas]

Not the person you were asking, but we could do everything we wanted to do in less than that time.

Not downing Disney at all, I see no need to bash Disney, I don’t doubt it is still an amazing place to visit.........but for us there’s so little we want to do or see there.

MK.......we would do Splash, Space and Thunder Mountain.....

AK.........Expedition Everest is the only thing we do there.......I detested Avatar and it bored me to tears so have no interest in anything to do with it.......

DHS.......ToT and RnRC are the only things we enjoy there......

Epcot.......no interest at all........the place bored us silly...........some folks tried to tell us we just didn’t get Epcot......we did, it’s just not for us.

Of course my husband is a huge Star Wars fan so if he ever goes missing I’ll know where to look for him when that opens up.........

But although I know Disney can be the be all and end all to some folks, there’s not enough for us to fill a whole day never mind 2 days.......

So I fully understand when folks say they have enough of Universal in a day or so........we feel the same about Disney.........

But, for us there is so much we love about Universal Orlando.........we never seem to get bored of it........different strokes and all that.

Agreed with everything. I just love everything about UO, but that doesn't mean others shouldn't love Disney. Plenty of fun to go around.

 

[WanderlustNZ]

Thanks everyone for your thoughts and considered debate.

It’s actually been very helpful, as it’s often not until you find yourself agreeing or disagreeing with others that you realise what your heart (rather than your rationalising head) is trying to tell you.

While we love all 6 parks, we despise crowds (particularly long queues). I worry that days spent trying to pack heaps in by moving from queue to queue could cause us to no longer love all 6 parks.
My gut is telling me that we will feel more relaxed at Universal and giving it a few more days will allow us to see it in a way that we wished we’d been able to see it the first time.
As for Disney, we were fortunate to see it really well the first time, and I’m a bit reluctant to ruin those memories by going when lines are really long. As long as we have enough time to take in some of the Xmas atmosphere (which it appears to me, Disney does better), I will be grateful.

We are off to Costa Rica afterwards to spend Xmas in the jungle. While I’m super excited, I don’t think it will feel very Christmassy. So we need to get our Xmas fix while we can. We also don’t want to burn ourselves out in the week prior.

Thanks again everyone. It’s been more helpful than you probably realise.

 

[sheila14]

Hi everyone,

With only 5 1/2 theme park days for my trip at the end of the year (week before Xmas week), I’m currently a bit torn about how to divide up my theme park days.
We will definitely have 2 1/2 days Universal and 2 days Disney, but it is which company to give the remaining sixth day to, that has me torn. This will be the day we move resorts - from Royal Pacific to Wilderness Lodge.

My family’s first and only trip to Orlando was about 5 years ago and we then spent 2 days at Universal (which felt way too short) and 10 days Disney, which was a lovely amount of time (especially since we travelled at a quiet time when crowds were low).

While I loved both companies equally, with less days this trip and much higher crowds, Universal just seems more appealing, particularly due to the Express Passes we’ll get with our 3 night Resort booking. Plus adding a 4th day to our Universal ticket is much cheaper than adding a day to Disney.

The benefit of adding that day to Disney is that we’ll be able to go to 3 parks instead of 2, and right now, narrowing my choice to two parks is proving to be really difficult.

I guess what I’m wondering from the Universal fans out there, is how they have found Disney lately by comparison? I’ve read so many posts lately from people who’ve said Disney crowds are getting bigger and bigger, and I worry that the only rides we’ll end up doing are the ones I can get Fastpasses to. Other than that, we’ll forgo all the others with their massive queues given that about 45mins is our absolute waiting limit. (In fact anything over half an hour and my husband stops feeling like he’s on holiday).

Any thoughts appreciated.

I have decided to do another split stay. I will be in Disney Mon, Tues, Wed, then check in Uo Wed, Thurs, Fri, and leave Saturday.

 

[E&Cmom]

Following as doing a split stay this Summer. ....4 nights at Universal @ Portfino Bay and then moving to Disney for 7 nights. It will be our first visit to either.

 

[Tksolomom]

We are doing 7 days at Disney and then 3 days at Royal Pacific at Universal. I love both parks. While Universal has more Christmas stuff than they used to, I love Christmas at Disney, especially MK and HS. It isn’t all about the rides, although we love that too. If it was me, I would spend the extra day at Disney, to see another park. We like 1-2 days in all 6 parks, although it is easier to see more at Universal, especially when you have the Express pass. We are also spending 1 day each at SeaWorld and Discovery Cove.

 

[shanew21]

We love both resorts, although throughout our trips to Orlando we've discovered our "sweet spot" for most people is 5.5 days of Disney and 2.5 days of Universal (add more to Universal if doing Volcano bay or if you don't have EPs). That gives you plenty of time to explore both resorts and do almost everything without feeling like you're just scrambling to check the boxes. That's not a vacation.

There are roughly 50 rides at Disney spread across 4 parks that are really far apart, whereas there are only around 30 at Universal and the parks are right next to each other. Disney also has more "show" aspects to it, like fireworks at Epcot/Magic Kingdom and light shows at Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom that all happen around the same time. There's just a lot more to do at Disney because it's so massive, and that has nothing to do with which rides you prefer or anything, it's just a fact. Disney clearly requires more time (for some people that's a bad thing).

Obviously once you've been a few times you can start to whittle down your preferences and re-allocate based on what you like, but I feel like it's just not logical to recommend that people spend more time at Universal than Disney for people who are fairly new to the parks.

 

[cschaaf]

I don't see us ever doing a split stay again - it's too expensive. We do have the benefit of being able to drive to Orlando.

We fall more on the 'hammer things out' side of park touring . We love rides. We'll also do many of the shows.

I think for us, the ideal length of stay for Disney is 5 days, and for Universal is 3 days (with Express). We don't do 'resort days', we don't go to the resort pools, we're park goers.

5 days at Disney gives us one day at each park (and we get hoppers so if we are done with a park in a fraction of a day, we can jump to another) and an extra day to hit some favorites one more time.

3 days at Uni with express and we can do everything we want to do multiple times.

Over the years, we've learned to appreciate mid day breaks - which are MUCH easier at Uni since we stay on property.

 

[shanew21]

AK.........Expedition Everest is the only thing we do there.......I detested Avatar and it bored me to tears so have no interest in anything to do with it.......

You owe it to yourself to try Flight of Passage once at the very least. You don’t even have to like the movie at all to enjoy the ride. I think it’s one of the best simulators out there, and I didn’t like the movie much either.