My family has been to WDW before, and basically were obsessed
Now my dad wants to take the family on a trip to Universal/IOA before we go back to disney, and none of us have ever been before. So what are the pros of universal over disney? What do you wish universal did that disney does? A breif comparison would be lovely!
Meghan
i do both parks and just can't compare them.
i get the best out of each based on what makes me happy.
universal (the darkside) is a different experience if you have been to only disney (the motherland).
i can't imagine taking a vacation to orlando and not staying on site at universal and disney.
i do disney first commando style. it is time consuming when you rely on the busses to transport you to places. also, the busses are so crowded when you leave the parks at closing time. so much standing around when your feet and legs ache.
universal is small and can be walked to easily from the parking garage or from the hotels. all three hotels provide water taxis and rick shaw transports and busses. yes, even hrh has bus service. many people go to eat at the different hotels and the UO provides the transportation to make it easier to get around.
you will find that the universal stay of your trip will be relaxing.
We are probably staying 4-5 days. Not all the details are planned out yet. But, that express pass sounds great, and i do like the idea of staying sooo close to the parks, that you can walk there. Thanks again for all your posts
i think that is very appealing. i do disney first and by the time i move on to universal, i'm thrilled. no busses, a quick walk to anywhere at universal when staying on site. my feet thank me for that over and over.....
if you stay 4 nights on site at universal, your hotel key is still valid for FOTL on the day you check out until the park closes.
JMO, but if you are planning on spending 5 days at Universal, you are going to run out of things to do.. We had plans of doing the same thing for 6 days a few years ago, by day 2 we were done and spent the last 4 days of our trip at Disney.
i haven't encountered that issue at universal.
i spend the first 2 full days hitting everything i love in the parks.
when i do the shows, it really cuts into the time. when i do table service for meals, it also takes park time away from me.
on the 3rd and 4th day in the parks, i can do repeats and spend leisure time in the shops and watch the daytime street actors.
i also spend a day at city walk stores. a lot of time at HRC as i collect the pins and their merch. i have on occassions taken in a movie at the city walk cinema.
also hit the resturants at the on site hotels and their gift shops takes up a lot in the day.
pool hopping is encouraged at the 3 on site hotels and that alone can be a full day.
doing the dive in movies at the pool takes up the later evening for me.
for me a 6 day stay at universal covers it for me.
i see you have small children ages 2 and 4 now. since you said you went a couple of years ago, your children were babies.
littles get tired a lot faster and don't enjoy the same shows that older children do. families usually focus in on what is good for their entire family.
if you didn't use strollers on your last trip, i can see that your littles probably got tired and needed down time. if you go in the heat of the summer, most people need the down time from the sun and heat.
i have been able to receive more discounts with coupons and
AAA at universal than i have at disney.
disney gives me 10% off the room only with the AAA.
universal gives me 35% off
the only time i can get a discount of 10% at disney is at dtd when i use my disney visa card for over $50. The ap for disney only gives discounts for a few things.
universal honors AAA, APH, AARP, Orlando magic card, MC at city walk, the hotels, vacation packages,in the parks for merch and food and for buying tickets.
both wdw and universal offer the room delivery of your purchases when you stay on site.
I guess it goes back to the theory that one should never dine at a place that isn't busy, there is a reason its not as busy..
That said, we have never waited in a line thats more than 20 minutes, but again we are very organized and planned to avoid it.
all resturants can have good and bad days.
i haven't had a bad meal at the darkside in some time. i have had some issues of the food not meeting a certain standard but i talk to the supervisor at the place and it is corrected and both of us are pleased then.
same for disney. i have had table service and counter service at some resturants and the food is not up to par. what one person raves about, another might totally disagree. all in a matter of tastes. therefore, i can't say the longer the line or the busier a place is determines if the food is good.
We are always relaxed at Disney..
This trip we are spending 13 nights at AKV , for us to spend the day at Universal is going to cost us about $230 for 3 tickets and to park.. So basically, it comes down to whether we went want to go from a 9 day MYW to a 10 day for an additional $6 or spend that day at Universal for $230...
i have figured it out differently for the ticket costs but i don't think you want to hear it.
the 2 year old would have no charge at UO for admission.
i think you have made up your mind and have no plans to be open and try uo again. that is okay. universal is not a favorite if you are an obsessed disney fan . the OP said she was obsessed with disney and is still looking forward to the UO trip.
I would never get a 4 day pass because we wouldn't use it, one day is enough, we MIGHT be able to get a second day of use out of it.. I would like to hit Universal this year, but from a financial side, it doesn't make sense when our kids(4 and 2) would be just as happy at Disney for that day..
We can easily spend 13 days at Disney, between the parks, water parks, water sports, Downtown Disney and the Boardwalk, as well as the resort pool, its easy..
i'm sure you will have a lovely time at disney.
when my kids were little we enjoyed disney except for all the transportation and the time it took by bus to get somewhere from our resort.
it just wore the kids and me out waiting on busses and trying to get to a place for a specific time. eventually, we did take some cabs but that started to get too expensive.
you gotta go where your kids want to be.
that's the bottom line.
when they get older, maybe you would check out uo at that point.
i have been reading the threads on the CB in the past and i am amazed at all the people that plan to do UO when potter is opened.
almost forgot to add, when you stay on site at the UO hotels, they provide free transportation to Sea world, wet and wild. you can even take a trip to busch gardens from the hotel.
Im actually really excited for it, and cant wait to go. I now understand what you were all saying when you said that you cant compare the two, they are just completely different (in the best way!)
Your plans sound great! Are you going to Blue Man Group? We saw them on tour and LOVED the show. That's going to be our date night, and dinner at City Walk.
