Travel from WDW to Universal Studios?

[Xanthe]

Hi everyone and Happy Holidays!!

How long does it take to get from WDW to Universal and what is the best way for us to go? We won`t have a car and don`t want to rent one.

Here is some background info and I would really like opinions

My 15 year old has finally heard about the Harry Potter part of Universal that is scheduled to open in 2010 and REALLY wants to go. We were already planning on going to WDW in Aug and I would rather stay at Disney and day trip to Universal instead of moving hotels.

THANKS!!
Xanthé

 

[Darcy03231]

If you don't want to rent a car:

1. Mears Shuttle - you need to make reservations a day in advance. As I recall its about $18/pp roundtrip.

2. Taxi - I'm not sure of the cost

3. Lynx Bus - really cheap (a couple of dollars) but you need to change buses.

If you take the shuttle or taxi it should take 20-30 minutes, depending on traffic. If you take the bus it will take an hour or two.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

I would highly recommend staying at a Universal hotel for at least 1-2 nights. Yes, it's a pain to do a split stay but it's so worth it.
Universal hotel guests can simply show their room key and can bypass the regular lines. It's like having an unlimited fast pass.
Once you try it you'll never want to go back to standing in lines again. We were instantly spoiled and that little key is worth its weight in gold.

All 3 hotels are 4* deluxe. The Hard Rock hotel is our fav.

Also even if you don't stay onsite there, if you have a AAA ID card, you get 10% off at shops and restaurants except for a few kiosks.

Check out the Universal boards for more info.

 

[Desnik]

We are going June 2010 and are planning a day to go to Universal for the new Harry Potter land! We are so excited!! We plan on just taking a taxi from our resort. It will be 5 of us so a taxi will probably be the cheapest without us having to share a ride with others or be on a bus. I believe I have read here it's around $30 each way.

We did think about doing a split stay at Universal at the beginning of our trip but decided against it. If we were to go to a Universal hotel from the airport we would have to pay for transportation to get there. Staying at a WDW resort gives us free transportation from the airport and we will not have a car nor do we want to rent one. Also for the one day we plan on going to Universal it just didn't make sense for us to have to stay at one of their resorts. We would have to pay to then switch from the Universal hotel to the Disney one so that was another added cost. Also front of the line access does not apply to new attractions, so that perk wouldn't help us for the Harry Potter rides which is all we plan to do there.

 

[Xanthe]

Thank you SO much everyone! I didn't think about the Taxi idea. I knew about Mears but thought it was much more expensive than that. While staying on site at Universal is great (we stayed at the Hard Rock a few years back and LOVED the hotel) we spend a lot more time at Disney and we arent sure which days we'll go to Universal so staying at Disney makes more sense for us.

I really appreciate everyone posting....thanks guys

 

[arielmomma]

Not to hijack your post, but how do you get ahold of the Mears shuttle?

My DH and I were asking ourselves this same question with regards to our upcoming vacation in September. It sounds like Mears would be our best bet. Thank you.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

Not to hijack your post, but how do you get ahold of the Mears shuttle?

My DH and I were asking ourselves this same question with regards to our upcoming vacation in September. It sounds like Mears would be our best bet. Thank you.

http://www.mearstransportation.com/

 

[arielmomma]

http://www.mearstransportation.com/

Thank you!