The freedom of NOT doing Disney

[TravelMommy]

Fixed your post slightly. But I thought that might make a good Universal Resort Hotel's web commercial.

How to book the perfect Disney Vacation

Step 1, Book your hotel
Step 2, Link reservation to your My Disney Experience Website
Show mockup of MDE Error Message and person on phone talking to "tech support"
Step 3 Make Dining Reservation
Person 1: Honey do you want Italian or Japanese food.
Person 2: Well we had Italian yesterday.
Person 1: No not for today for six month from not while we're on vacation.
Step 4 Make Ride reservation.
Person 1: At 2:00 60 days from now would you rather be riding the Haunted Mansion or The Pirate Ride.
Step 5 Hopefully rearrange everything on the fly once you get there.
Picture of someone "at the park" frantically fiddling with the smartphone

How to book the Perfect Universal Vacation
Step 1: Book a Deluxe resort onsite
Step 2: Enjoy
Then summarize all the benefits of staying at a deluxe onsite.

* Many days in February 2014 we got on the three rides we had fast passes for ONLY those three because we did not want to wait in endless lines and went back to Stormalong Bay, weather was beautiful. Hated the new cc/ADR system. Disney planning is stressful, I spent $1000's of $$$ to wait in line??? wait, with a FP+ was over an hour at Soarin!!! Nope, we learned a valuable lesson and vacation should be vacation, Hello Universal!!!! See you soon

 

[sydneysmom]

I'm sure you're going to love Universal..........it's a fantastic place and reading your posts you really will enjoy it. Especially the stress free part......no planning is amazing

No I don't think anyone thinks it was an I hate Disney thread.......we just don't do that over this side of the boards. It was a fair question to ask

Thank you !!! Everyone has been just so nice and so helpful!!! It's a wonderful group of people on the Universal Boards!!

 

[Owlpost23]

Sidneysmom

You are going to love front of the line access. Love it, love it, love it. Honestly, its the best perk ever.

You are going to love the ease of distance between your hotel, and the theme parks. Love it, love it love it. Its so easy to go back to your hotel and enjoy all the gorgeous amenities there in the afternoon, and laze around the pool with a little fruity drink in your hand - and wander back into the parks to take in a favourite ride or two as 'walk ons'. This is truly 'vacation'. And, if you have teens, its so easy to stay at the pool, and let them walk over for an hour or two, and tell them to be back in time for dinner. (no horrible bus problems, or worrying if they will make it back in time)

I find the food is significantly better and mostly cheaper then Disney. Wayyyy better. In the theme parks, and at City Walk. You are going to LOVE that you can walk to any number of fantastic restaurants, from your hotel room. No hour long bus/boat ordeal. (actually, I like taking the boats at disney, but I am weird that way)

This made my eye twitch: not booking the said restaurant six months in advance. Really? Can you just decide what you feel like eating that night, and get in? Yes, its true. You really can. Or make a reservation or two through open table or concierge just before your trip. But you really can decide on the day where you want to eat. Its liberating :>)

The hotels are destination worthy. In my opinion, they are better kept up then the Disney counterparts. The landscaping is gorgeous. Pools are so much fun. If you wander over to the hard rock pool hotel, you really must get the nachos from the outdoor pool restaurant. So good!!!

The parks themselves: I love the details. In Disney, it was all about the details, the theming, the amazing immersion. Right now, in my opinion, Universal is doing a way better job of this then Disney. Hogwarts castle is mind blowing. I could spend hours just wandering around in the que. I imagine that Diagon Alley will be even better.

I have not been to Universal for a few years (2 or 3?) but there is so much change that has happened, I can't wait to check it out. Transformers, the minions, the new Simpson area, and the entire land of Diagon Alley. I have been pretty much away from Disney for the same amount of time (if you don't count a day at the MK 18 months ago) and the only new area is fantasyland, the 7dmt (everything else was around, dual dumbos, votlm, ext)

You will have an amazing time, and a vacation. As others would say, welcome to the dark side.....

Perfectly put! We'll be there in 43 days-can't wait to have a wonderful stay at Universal!

 

[Owlpost23]

Don't get upset .........I'm sure it'll all work out for you



I'm sure you're going to love Universal..........it's a fantastic place and reading your posts you really will enjoy it. Especially the stress free part......no planning is amazing

No I don't think anyone thinks it was an I hate Disney thread.......we just don't do that over this side of the boards. It was a fair question to ask

Thank you !!! Everyone has been just so nice and so helpful!!! It's a wonderful group of people on the Universal Boards!!

We're a nice bunch on this board!

 

[johde]

* Many days in February 2014 we got on the three rides we had fast passes for ONLY those three because we did not want to wait in endless lines and went back to Stormalong Bay, weather was beautiful. Hated the new cc/ADR system. Disney planning is stressful, I spent $1000's of $$$ to wait in line??? wait, with a FP+ was over an hour at Soarin!!! Nope, we learned a valuable lesson and vacation should be vacation, Hello Universal!!!! See you soon

I haven't done FP+ yet, but I had read here how bad January and February were while kinks were being worked out.

From reading the trip board, it seems like once you get past about 3 people FP+ become exponentially harder to manage. You'd expect 6 people to be about 2 to 3 times the work of doing 1 person because once you get past the initial setup you should theoretically be able to everything for everyone at the same time. In reality, it seem like 6 people are 8 to 10 times the work of 1 person at time and more likely to have technical problems.

I normally travel solo and with my spare tickets I have around, I been able to make FP+ reservation for almost anything I want (except 7dmt and A&E) the day before with no problems. Where with 6 or 7 people even 60 days out you run into not enough FP+ slots at one time so you need to do a couple of people than copy their setting over to the others getting overlapping times, For example some people with 2:00 - 3:00 and others with 2:05 to 3:05.

 

[Granny square]

On our first trip to universal, the kids wanted to go back into the park in the afternoon before dinner and ride 'mummy' one more time. They were too young to go by themselves, so I went with them, and waited for them on the bench at 'finnegans'? I think. Anyhoo, it was taking a bit longer then I expected, because they had front of the line, so I kept a closer watch on the exit area. Caught the little munchkins sneaking out of the exit only to whip around the corner to ride again. Apparently it took 5 or 6 rounds before I figured out what they were up too... its one of their favourite Universal memories (and mine too!) The total glee, well, it was just a lot of fun to see, and the kicker was they were fooling 'mom'. I let them ride a couple more times, because, well, we had the time.....

What a fun story.

 

[Planogirl]

O.M.G. What is this fast passes to wait in line thing? I just finished looking at the A&E FP+ saga on the FP+ "tips" thread and I am about to cry. Apparently the whole system crashed last night as people tried to get in at their 60 day window at midnight or 1am or whatever godforsaken time your window opens. ALl I can say is I want to vomit after seeing that.

It does give people another way to see A&E but I would say that you'd have to plan for rope drop. It's not appealing but at least it's a back up of sorts.

 

[theSurlyMermaid]

It does give people another way to see A&E but I would say that you'd have to plan for rope drop. It's not appealing but at least it's a back up of sorts.

I guess that's what I must do because I am not relying on this FP stuff. It kind of stinks that 4 members of my party (and two of them are ages 4 and 2) are coming from Seattle, so the jet lag is going to make rope drop a tad more difficult.

 

[keishashadow]

I haven't done FP+ yet, but I had read here how bad January and February were while kinks were being worked out.

From reading the trip board, it seems like once you get past about 3 people FP+ become exponentially harder to manage. You'd expect 6 people to be about 2 to 3 times the work of doing 1 person because once you get past the initial setup you should theoretically be able to everything for everyone at the same time. In reality, it seem like 6 people are 8 to 10 times the work of 1 person at time and more likely to have technical problems.

I normally travel solo and with my spare tickets I have around, I been able to make FP+ reservation for almost anything I want (except 7dmt and A&E) the day before with no problems. Where with 6 or 7 people even 60 days out you run into not enough FP+ slots at one time so you need to do a couple of people than copy their setting over to the others getting overlapping times, For example some people with 2:00 - 3:00 and others with 2:05 to 3:05.

we had 5 pp in our party in January when part of the testing phase. No problem getting the FPs, the issue was when we would return the lines were ridiculously long (BTMt. line stretched back up over the bridge by SpMt & the one for the Star Wars ride in MGM was back past Indiana Jones - we walked away from that one).

In june just the 2 of us. I was able to score FP for the 1st day of the 7 Dwarfs ride. Some idiot decided that they would offer them the same day as free dining plan was released. Only took 3 hrs to snag those bad boys for a much-about-nothing ride imo.

Surprised that things went very smoothly during June's trip though. No long waits and able to move things around easily when we were running late or just changed our mind as to what we wanted to experience.

Curious to see how things go when I schedule FP+ for October.

As for ADRs, when we don't have kids in tow clamoring for a character meal, we often will eat offsite since we have a car. I've yet to book any ADR for the October trip. Conversely, I do have reservations in place for 4 days of dining during Universal portion of the trip.

We enjoy the best of both worlds doing a split trip to both parks, 2 or 3 days @ Universal works well for us as repeat guests.

Anybody else have a wish list as to what they'd do to improve the parks? Near the top of mine is having HP areas worked into the FOTL program for onsite guests @ Universal, even in a limited capacity of possibly 1 access granted per 2 or 3 night minimum...even if you had to schedule/commit to a specific date/time. No need to toss out the hour early perk lol, not having to commando when at Universal is one of the reasons we enjoy it! Conversely, I'd hate to see them offer a $$$ premium add on for HP.

 

[sersee05]

We are just doing Universal. First time for my kids(17, 12 and 9). ...Due to cost , we cut out Disney .

Its nice to read some of what everyone has said because I was pretty nervous about it. Isn't that silly? I was worried I was making a mistake and that we will miss Disney.

DD12 keeps telling me she thinks Disney is kind of for younger kids. DD17 and DS9 love Disney(as do I). My daughters love roller coaster though. We found at Disney that we went on a few rides in each park and other ones weren't as good as we remembered. I love the magical feeling Disney gives you .

Here is hoping we made the right choice! Something new for the kids though.

 

[Lynne G]

We are just doing Universal. First time for my kids(17, 12 and 9). ...Due to cost , we cut out Disney .

Its nice to read some of what everyone has said because I was pretty nervous about it. Isn't that silly? I was worried I was making a mistake and that we will miss Disney.

DD12 keeps telling me she thinks Disney is kind of for younger kids. DD17 and DS9 love Disney(as do I). My daughters love roller coaster though. We found at Disney that we went on a few rides in each park and other ones weren't as good as we remembered. I love the magical feeling Disney gives you .

Here is hoping we made the right choice! Something new for the kids though.

When we did 5 days at Disneyland last year, my teen DS said, Mom, we may be done Disney. Yep, we had done the San Diego Zoo, Sea World San Diego, and Universal Studios Hollywood before going to Disneyland (and had been to Disneyland 3 years before). Not enough thrills for my DS and tween DD in Disney.

So, I hope you enjoy Universal Orlando. We enjoy it. We send mummy dust in Uni's world, so sending your family mummy dust. We find the staff at Universal to be as good as Disney. Magic can happen in both Disney and Universal parks.

 

[psiprez]

We are just doing Universal. First time for my kids(17, 12 and 9). ...Due to cost , we cut out Disney .

Its nice to read some of what everyone has said because I was pretty nervous about it. Isn't that silly? I was worried I was making a mistake and that we will miss Disney.

DD12 keeps telling me she thinks Disney is kind of for younger kids. DD17 and DS9 love Disney(as do I). My daughters love roller coaster though. We found at Disney that we went on a few rides in each park and other ones weren't as good as we remembered. I love the magical feeling Disney gives you .

Here is hoping we made the right choice! Something new for the kids though.

We just got back last night (this is my first time booting up the computer). We had planned to do a week in Disney, but planning got messed up, and we switched to Universal as a "consolation." Let me tell you... it was one of our best vacations EVER.

DH, DD17, DD15 and I had an absolute blast! We stayed onsite with Express Pass, and except for the HP rides/eateries, no wait was ever more than 5-10 minutes. We even walked onto Transformers in the evening. The very best part of all? NO PLANNING NECESSARY. No. No spreadsheets, no highly coordinated ADRs, no mastery of bus routes. It's all good. Really.

That said, I did make one reservation. I went onto OpenTable and reserved a table at Mythos, only because I knew we would be hot and tired, and would need a guaranteed cool respite.

Take it from me, you will regret nothing about visiting Universal, except maybe planning for an extra day. Is it Disney? No, it is it's own place, with it's own wonders. Take the time to explore all the nooks and crannies, even the stage shows and kiddie areas. Keep an open mind, go with the flow and you will have an awesome time!

 

[Planogirl]

We are just doing Universal. First time for my kids(17, 12 and 9). ...Due to cost , we cut out Disney .

Its nice to read some of what everyone has said because I was pretty nervous about it. Isn't that silly? I was worried I was making a mistake and that we will miss Disney.

DD12 keeps telling me she thinks Disney is kind of for younger kids. DD17 and DS9 love Disney(as do I). My daughters love roller coaster though. We found at Disney that we went on a few rides in each park and other ones weren't as good as we remembered. I love the magical feeling Disney gives you .

Here is hoping we made the right choice! Something new for the kids though.

Be sure to check the restaurant sticky at the top if you haven't yet. Just like WDW there are both good and bad places to eat and opinions vary widely.

I hope that you have a great time.

 

[sersee05]

That just made me quite excited! I was going to ask what you all do for dinner.

I was never good at the adr thing. I was able to eat a couple of places at disney that I wanted to but we winged it a lot too..which wasn't always a good thing.

There are some resizes open at some of the disney hotels. I think I can reserve at least one night. Kids ALWAYS want Trex. We usually eat a light breakfast that we bring at wherever we are staying. Lunch is usually in whatever park we are in..but dinner is where it's at

My kids are all about the "magical" dinners and eating places we can't at home. Infact, it's one of the most important aspects of vacation to them!

Hotels are booked..so offsite I stay. So my experience might be different without ep..but I will keep an open mind!

 

[sydneysmom]

We just got back last night (this is my first time booting up the computer). We had planned to do a week in Disney, but planning got messed up, and we switched to Universal as a "consolation." Let me tell you... it was one of our best vacations EVER.

DH, DD17, DD15 and I had an absolute blast! We stayed onsite with Express Pass, and except for the HP rides/eateries, no wait was ever more than 5-10 minutes. We even walked onto Transformers in the evening. The very best part of all? NO PLANNING NECESSARY. No. No spreadsheets, no highly coordinated ADRs, no mastery of bus routes. It's all good. Really.

That said, I did make one reservation. I went onto OpenTable and reserved a table at Mythos, only because I knew we would be hot and tired, and would need a guaranteed cool respite.

Take it from me, you will regret nothing about visiting Universal, except maybe planning for an extra day. Is it Disney? No, it is it's own place, with it's own wonders. Take the time to explore all the nooks and crannies, even the stage shows and kiddie areas. Keep an open mind, go with the flow and you will have an awesome time!

It sounds like Universal turned out not to be a consolation, but was an awesome time! So how did you like Mythos? I keep reading that in most everyone's comments.....I'm getting the feeling this is a MUST DO!! How was Daigon Alley? Glad you had such a great trip!

 

[dizneedoll]

Reservations for lunch? What's wrong with that?

What's wrong with that is that BOG is a Quick Service for Pete sake! It's gone bad when one need to make a FP res for a QS!!

 

[GoHerbie]

I'll echo the comments of many that our upcoming Universal trip will be a vacation FROM Disney world instead of to it! We're planning 2 and a half days in the Universal parks and that's it, no trip down I-4 to the World even for one Disney day.

How can we pass up the MK Christmas decorations? We haven't ridden the 7DMT yet. We haven't met Anna & Elsa. No problem, that all can wait. There's definitely Disney Magic that's not present elsewhere, but it requires way too much planning to achieve on a regular basis.

 

[momtosam]

I don't think I could be in Orlando and not at least visit MK however there is NOTHING that makes me feel like I have to do an on-property stay again. In the future I see us split staying Universal and then an off site condo ( we loved Sheraton Vistana). Getting the Express Pass with our room stay seems well worth it. FP gave me so many headaches in May while our days at Universal were very leisurely.

 

[momtosam]

What's wrong with that is that BOG is a Quick Service for Pete sake! It's gone bad when one need to make a FP res for a QS!!

And this was another thing that didn't work for us the way it was supposed to when we visited. They had our Dessie but couldn't find our food selections we made from hope. Kind of defeated the point of the whole magic rose thing.

 

[theSurlyMermaid]

I hope that eventually the Potter stuff moves to the FOTL category. RipRideRockit is FOTL now and it wasn't the last time I was there. That said, we waited 20 minutes for Forbidden Journey….we just got there early, but not stupid-early. It was August 2012. It was just fine. I LOVE how Universal does their baby swap….so much superior to Disney it's not even comparable. The kids enjoyed the FJ line with us and then waited up front by the carts on the benches watching the movies with whichever adult was with them while the other one rode without doing the line again. Disney makes you do the Fastpass line twice and the Fastpass line isn't always so "fast". I don't know if that aspect changed at all with FP+ but I doubt it.