Staying at DVC and visiting other theme parks

[Girlstar30]

So we are thinking about going to Universal Orlando during our stay to try out the new Epic park. Has anyone stayed at a DVC resort and gone to Universal and other theme parks? How did that work out? I know there is a rental swap on DVC rental store for UO hotels and I'm wondering if anyone has ever utilized that as well. Thanks and have a Magical day!

 

[Mommb]

If you have a car, that is easily do-able. Traffic along I-4 in the morning and late afternoon is a pain, but in the middle of the day you can get to Universal Studios/Islands of Adventure from the Downtown Disney area in about 25 minutes. Of course, staying for a night or 2 close to or at Universal would give you quicker access, but I haven't tried that, and traffic will surely be worse for a while after Epic opens.

I also haven't investigated how to get to and from Universal from WDW without a car.

 

[Bucketfoot]

My wife and I haven't, but our daughters went to Universal (only for Harry Potter) on one of our trips last year.

For DL I keep thinking about throwing in a day at Knotts Berry Farm one of these trips. It's been more than 40 years since the last time I was there.

 

[Brian Noble]

I generally treat my Orlando-area vacations as: Only Disney, or Everything Else. And the Everything Else stays are usually at a Marriott Vacation Club or Hilton Grand Vacation Club resort. The only exception to that was in 2023, when I had a bunch of timeshare assets to burn and ended up booking back-to-back weeks at SSR. Disney was not selling APs at the time, so I bought a 10-day hopper and paired that with a Sea World platinum pass. That worked out pretty well---Sea World's spring food festival thing is really very good, and better than a typical Epcot festival in some ways.

Anaheim is a different story, but partly because I always have an active Cedar Fair (now Cedar Flags) AP. I'm usually there for a week, so get a four or five day hopper to DLR and take a day or two to visit Knott's.

 

[Girlstar30]

My wife and I haven't, but our daughters went to Universal (only for Harry Potter) on one of our trips last year.

For DL I keep thinking about throwing in a day at Knotts Berry Farm one of these trips. It's been more than 40 years since the last time I was there.

The boysenberry festival at knotts is coming up and that's a great time to come! I think i read that an exec that used to work at Disney came to Knotts and you can tell in the food and merchandise offerings that there has been a lot of improvements! I have the annual pass (dirt cheap) and we went to Peanuts fest this month and there were a lot of characters out and merch including loungefly. I have noticed the other theme parks definitely copy Disney. I love the snoopy on ice during Christmas at well

 

[Girlstar30]

I generally treat my Orlando-area vacations as: Only Disney, or Everything Else. And the Everything Else stays are usually at a Marriott Vacation Club or Hilton Grand Vacation Club resort. The only exception to that was in 2023, when I had a bunch of timeshare assets to burn and ended up booking back-to-back weeks at SSR. Disney was not selling APs at the time, so I bought a 10-day hopper and paired that with a Sea World platinum pass. That worked out pretty well---Sea World's spring food festival thing is really very good, and better than a typical Epcot festival in some ways.

Anaheim is a different story, but partly because I always have an active Cedar Fair (now Cedar Flags) AP. I'm usually there for a week, so get a four or five day hopper to DLR and take a day or two to visit Knott's.

This has me thinking i should buy the Disney world pass soon in case for some reason they stop offering them... does this occur often like with the Disneyland magic key passes? I've never had a florida one except for the previous coast to coast which now more than ever i really wish they'd bring back! Sometimes these other theme parks food festivals are better, the Knotts ones during covid were

 

[CarolynFH]

We haven’t stayed DVC for a trip to UOR, but we have stayed in a timeshare just north of DS. We hate I-4 traffic, so we just drove up Palm Parkway/Turkey Lake Rd. and found it quick and easy.

However, I will say that our favorite visits to UOR have been when we booked a room at one of their deluxe hotels so that we could get the unlimited Express Pass. We’ve done that twice when we were actually sleeping elsewhere, but for parties of 4-5 adults it was cheaper than buying the EP, especially adding in parking fees.

 

[Brian Noble]

This has me thinking i should buy the Disney world pass soon in case for some reason they stop offering them... does this occur often like with the Disneyland magic key passes? I

No, it was a pandemic recovery thing, during the period when they were trying to ramp staffing back up.

 

[davidhr]

We always stay at DVC for Universal. If we have a car we drive there. If not we just Uber. We really don't mind the travel time.

 

[Smugpugmug]

I've done this plenty of times while staying at Saratoga. I joke that it's the best off site Universal resort.

Someone else mentioned Knotts and DL; I have a trip to Disneyland this September and planned on doing a day at Knotts. I've never been before and wanted to check it out since I have a free day.

 

[Girlstar30]

We always stay at DVC for Universal. If we have a car we drive there. If not we just Uber. We really don't mind the travel time.

I was thinking uber because it's pretty much the same as if we paid parking there I'm sure $22 one way and we're splitting with family.

 

[Girlstar30]

I've done this plenty of times while staying at Saratoga. I joke that it's the best off site Universal resort.

Someone else mentioned Knotts and DL; I have a trip to Disneyland this September and planned on doing a day at Knotts. I've never been before and wanted to check it out since I have a free day.

I've been looking at other hotels and i think I might as well stay at Disney because for the same price as selling points and booking I'm not getting anything better... that hard rock hotel is expensive and other hotels look to be a step down... Knotts is cool as long as expectations are set accordingly. I personally enjoy it and think it's def worth the money.

 

[Mazz519]

We stay at DVC resorts every year and always spend a day at Universal, we rent a car so its easy for us to get there... a few times we stayed at Universal resorts for 2nights and got the express pass thats included when you stay on site

 

[CraigInPA]

Never did it, although we've done combined vacations at UO and WDW in the past. We enjoy the early entry and universal express entry (Universal's Lightning Lane) included by staying at one of their signature hotels. We rent out some DVC points to pay for the stay (typically at Hard Rock) at Universal. I wasn't aware that the DVC Rental Store had an exchange program. I'll have to look into that!

 

[Skywalker3]

Not really, but I don't want to think about driving after long, full days at Universal, and I LOVE staying in the Universal bubble. Their hotels are wonderful, and access is so easy. Lately, we've been tacking on a couple days at Universal before/after our DVC stays. For HHN, I"m for sure staying on site at Universal. Even just doing 1 night at a premier hotel will get 2 days of express for Univ/IoA. Epic will change a lot of factors, but I'd still plan on staying at one of the Universal hotels if doing Epic, not nec one of the 2 newest ones, but at least 1 at Universal.
I have driven to Universal/back for checkin/checkout, and had good traffic days, bad traffic days, just depends.

 

[Disdreaming479]

I keep telling my family that we can book 1 room for 1 night at universal to get express passes for two days and stay at dvc, but they always want to stay on site. Usually we book 2 rooms for a few nights and it’s $$$$ convenience is king on vacation

 

[Brian Noble]

I've been looking at other hotels and i think I might as well stay at Disney because for the same price as selling points and booking I'm not getting anything better.

Have you ever stayed at the top-tier UO resorts? They are run by Lowes, and in many ways provide a superior experience to Disney as a hotelier. There is also the possibility of using Interval getaways into one of the Orlando Marriotts. You'll have access to that once your DVC account is set up. We stayed at Cypress Harbour for a recent Universal stay, and liked it. That was an exchange, but it might have been even cheaper all things considered as a getaway.

 

[Brian Noble]

we can book 1 room for 1 night at universal to get express passes for two days and stay at dvc

We did this one year, but while staying at HGVC Sea World in a 2BR on an RCI exchange. Loved it.

 

[Girlstar30]

Never did it, although we've done combined vacations at UO and WDW in the past. We enjoy the early entry and universal express entry (Universal's Lightning Lane) included by staying at one of their signature hotels. We rent out some DVC points to pay for the stay (typically at Hard Rock) at Universal. I wasn't aware that the DVC Rental Store had an exchange program. I'll have to look into that!

Yes they do, I inquired, you have to commit to selling 100 points to start and I didn't get much details after because im not an owner yet. It seems like it could be reasonable like they would just sell the points for $18 for their "high tier" resorts (interestingly they value BLT at $17 pp so be careful what they consider a high tier resort because I wouldn't sell my BLT points for $17 I'd rather sell with Davids then DVC rental store and get more money....). They'll also swap for packages with park tickets and expresses passes i believe and throw in freebies, I think a lanyard? Lol

 

[Girlstar30]

Not really, but I don't want to think about driving after long, full days at Universal, and I LOVE staying in the Universal bubble. Their hotels are wonderful, and access is so easy. Lately, we've been tacking on a couple days at Universal before/after our DVC stays. For HHN, I"m for sure staying on site at Universal. Even just doing 1 night at a premier hotel will get 2 days of express for Univ/IoA. Epic will change a lot of factors, but I'd still plan on staying at one of the Universal hotels if doing Epic, not nec one of the 2 newest ones, but at least 1 at Universal.
I have driven to Universal/back for checkin/checkout, and had good traffic days, bad traffic days, just depends.

I didnt realize they include express passes when staying, do you get to just hop to the front of the line an unlimited amount of times or is it more regulated (booking rides, etc) like LL?