universal and disney trip

[kniquy]

We are planning a trip for our daughters 5th birthday. My older boys (both 12) want to fo a few days at universal. Would be better off just staying our first 3 days at universal and then move to AKL for another 7 days or is it possible easily to stay at DVC and travel to universal? I am wondering what is the best way to travel between the two? Any tips or help would be great. I priced out our first 3 days at universal and it would be a little over $1500 (park Tix and room) obviously I would save the room portion by staying dvc, but I am not sure if it is worth the hassle of getting to universal.

 

[micheleq]

We are planning a trip for our daughters 5th birthday. My older boys (both 12) want to fo a few days at universal. Would be better off just staying our first 3 days at universal and then move to AKL for another 7 days or is it possible easily to stay at DVC and travel to universal? I am wondering what is the best way to travel between the two? Any tips or help would be great. I priced out our first 3 days at universal and it would be a little over $1500 (park Tix and room) obviously I would save the room portion by staying dvc, but I am not sure if it is worth the hassle of getting to universal.

We stayed on points at AKV last May and went to universal as part of an extended family trip (they stayed at Cabana Bay). In my opinion, it wasn't worth it. Depending upon the time of year you go, having Express Pass could make a huge difference. We had a rental car which I thought would make things easier, but between the time it took to drive there and the cost of parking (we valet parked), we should have just stayed on site.

Book one or two nights at one of universal's deluxe resorts then go to Disney. And buy your tickets from Undercover Tourist. That's what I did for my trip at the end of this month! One night at a universal deluxe and you get two days of express pass (check in day and check out day). Go over to the universal boards here on the Dis. Super helpful folks over there.

I hope your daughter has a wonderful birthday trip!

 

[aroundtheriverbend]

Completely agree with micheleq, if you can swing the cost it is well worth it to stay onsite at Universal. We swing over there about every 3 trips, and after one time of trying to stay at WDW and commute over we swore we'd never do it again. If you haven't yet checked out the express pass info micheleq talks about, some of the universal hotels (but not all) give you what basically amounts to an all day fast pass to all but a small number of rides (sadly, not any of the Harry Potter rides unless that's changed recently), but it's a huge timesaver. You can also buy that ticket option, price varies on season, but I think it's like an additional $80/ticket a day. If you stay onsite you also get 1 hr early admission to one of the parks each day.

Agree too that the Universal boards on DIS are awesome and very helpful!

 

[davper]

Stay onsite at a Universal hotel and get the front of the line pass. Cabana Bay does not qualify. If you stay one night you get 2 days of FOLP, the day you check in and the day you check out. 2 nights gets 3 days etc.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

When we go to Universal we're usually doing it from Disney. It's a pretty easy drive. Sure, front of the line is nice but really not always necessary depending on the time of the year and the plan you have as well as things you want to do.

 

[Anal Annie]

When we did it we booked ONE night at the HRH at Universal in order to get their front of the line access included (VERY worth it if going during the summer or during a busy period). We simply left our room at BWV empty for the one night. We planned it for the middle of our trip so we could bookend the trip with Disney. I bought discounted Universal tix at Costco (which is another story). We took a taxi over VERY EARLY on our first morning, checked into the HRH and stored our 1 carry-on size bag that we brought for the night with their bell services. Then we hopped on their little water taxi over to the parks and were there by park opening so we could take advantage of their version of early opening (another advantage of staying onsite there). We toured most of the day then went back to the hotel in the afternoon, collected our bag and went to our room - changed into swim suits and hit the pool for a short time before cleaning up for dinner. The room we had was quite spacious. We went back to the parks after dinner (ate at the Hard Rock Cafe). The next morning we left our bag with Bell Services and went back to the parks for the day. It ended up being a super stormy afternoon and a lot of outdoor things were shut down just like at Disney when it storms. We finally decided we were "done" and went back to the hotel, collected our bag and caught another taxi back to BWV. We decided to go with a taxi so we wouldn't have to pay for parking at the HRH and could go to / from on our own schedule with less time involved than renting a car. By doing it this way we avoided paying extra out-of pocket for the front of the line passes (the hotel room was cheaper) and I didn't have to spend a lot of time packing up. It was easy peasy. While we enjoyed it we thought 2 days was long enough to get thru both parks (this was before the latest Harry Potter stuff opened tho).

 

[pinklotusflower]

I'd stay onsite at Universal, we stayed at Cabana Bay for 3 nights before go to SSR, Cabana has a lazy river which is nice to chill out in after a hectic day in the park. You still get early admission to the park and there are a couple of rides open. The bus ride was about 5 mins and we never waited more than 5 minutes for a bus so it was easy to go back for a few hours.

 

[illinidp]

We always stay one night at Universal at one of the top three hotels to get the
Express Pass and early entry for 2 days and we wouldn't go any other way. We are at Universal so rarely the Express Pass is important to us. Your 12 year olds would probably like the theming at the HRH and it is a very short walk to US.

 

[buzzrelly]

We went last April and did a split stay. We went to Universal for the first 3 nights and then BLT for 8 nights. I would definitely stay on-site at UO and take advantage of the FOTL and EE. We loved UO and are already planning to go back next year! Here's a link to my trip report from last year, if you are interested

http://www.disboards.com/threads/th...pril-2015-trip-report-completed-8-23.3415168/