Universal first time visit - advice on disney split, hotel+ticket pricing

[nc6200]

Been to Disney a fair number of times, but never Universal, and need some advice. We are looking to go for ~5 days in April, with 2 days at Universal + 3 days Disney (or 3+2). I'm looking for advice on the hotel mix, tickets, etc. We are definitely the type of family & travelers that prefer convenience over cheap, so I'm not looking to focus on every nickel and dime. However where it makes sense to save some I don't mind.

I do want the express benefit and early arrival, meaning I'll probably choose Royal Pacific, Portafino, or Hard Rock. So.... questions....

1) Do I stay all 5 days at Universal to get the benefits there, and taxi/other to Disney?
2) Do I split stays? (seems inconvenient but not sure if there's benefit)
3) If I stay all 5 days at Universal, but only need 2 days of park tickets, do I still get the perks? I don't want to pay for 3 days of park tickets I'm not going to use. Or do the perks only come with matching hotel/park # of days? Should I just buy the tickets separately?
4) If I can do 5 days at hotel with only 2 days of tickets, how do I handle that? Call them?
5) Which hotel? I have a 10yo and 13yo.

 

[bumbershoot]

The perks are from the hotel. As long as you have some sort of admission on the days you want to go to the parks you get the benefits.

Just go to the loewshotels website. Book just the room. Buy tickets separately.

Doing a short trip like that and making it split is going to be an expensive way of doing it, but if it's what you want just do it.

 

[angryduck71]

My 10 year old boy likes Royal Pacific (and it's the cheapest). He's almost done with Disney. We're doing a split stay in May -- but I can stay at Shades of Green for the Disney portion which is a great place to stay for low money and we're staying for 10 days. For a 5-day trip, I know my son would prefer to just do Universal.

 

[Squirlz]

5 nights at Universal gets you into the Stay More Save More discount. Like others have said buy tickets separately. Uber to WDW.

 

[gotomu212]

Just my advice on what works for us...but at those ages I would plan more days at Universal and less at Disney. When my son turned 8 he was over Disney completely (I think only because he knew what was at Universal).

To echo previous poster I wouldn't split the hotel stay since Unuversal knocks the rate down once you stay a certain number of nights.

Also to agree with a previous poster we don't book the packages. We book directly with Loews (plus you have cancellation rights similar to other hotels) and buy our tickets separately. You don't need to match tickets with number of days. It's usually break-even (if not a little cheaper) and you can cancel the hotel and wait to buy tickets in case dates change, etc.

All 3 hotels are great but our family enjoys Portofino the best (you can pool hop though if you want to check out the other hotels one day).

 

[cmarsh31]

We ended up splitting our trip completely - US in Oct and Disney this coming Feb. I attempted to put everything into Feb but felt like I was short-changing both trips. Three days at US was plenty for us and we loved Royal Pacific!

 

[phillymummer]

Been to Disney a fair number of times, but never Universal, and need some advice. We are looking to go for ~5 days in April, with 2 days at Universal + 3 days Disney (or 3+2). I'm looking for advice on the hotel mix, tickets, etc. We are definitely the type of family & travelers that prefer convenience over cheap, so I'm not looking to focus on every nickel and dime. However where it makes sense to save some I don't mind.

I do want the express benefit and early arrival, meaning I'll probably choose Royal Pacific, Portafino, or Hard Rock. So.... questions....

1) Do I stay all 5 days at Universal to get the benefits there, and taxi/other to Disney?
5) Which hotel? I have a 10yo and 13yo.

(1) YES! And I would say do the whole trip at US and cut out Disney completely. It will save you money and be more convenient to just stay at one resort. If you have never been to US, then you could spend at least 3 days or 4 days there to soak it all in. There is this misconception that just bc there are only two parks at US, you can do them both in 2 days. That is a fallacy. There is SO much to see and do there, especially for older kids.

(2) My family loved Royal Pacific. But.... it does not have a slide at pool. If you want a pool-slide, you have to go to Hard Rock or Portofino Bay. I have heard HRH has the best pool, but I do not have first-hand experience.

 

[bumbershoot]

I have heard HRH has the best pool, but I do not have first-hand experience.

They have a great slide, but the only thing you can do in the pool is laze around. It's not deep enough to actually swim. The only deep part is under the slide and you can't hang out there.


But you can pool hop, so there's no need to book a resort for their pool specifically.

 

[mjhtvchick]

They have a great slide, but the only thing you can do in the pool is laze around. It's not deep enough to actually swim. The only deep part is under the slide and you can't hang out there.

But you can pool hop, so there's no need to book a resort for their pool specifically.

I found the pool shallow at Royal Pacific as well...are the pools deeper at the other resorts? Have only been to RPR and HRH.

 

[bumbershoot]

I found the pool shallow at Royal Pacific as well...are the pools deeper at the other resorts? Have only been to RPR and HRH.

I haven't found RPR to be shallow. *

HRH is a lazing pool. Where people with drinks can sit to their hips or waists in water for waaaaay too long.

I can swim in rpr's pool. But floating while barely in the water (I'll admit I was bigger then but ds was only 8ish and he couldn't swim without scraping himself up on the bottom) is all I could manage at HRH. And then I noticed how long some drinking-people had been sitting in the water without a break and we left the pool.


That said, Portofino has three separate pool areas. My fave is the Villas area. I like a nice rectangular pool where you can do laps if you want and not have to worry about people just standing around splashing or water volleyball etc.


*ok there are no pools that are deep enough to be good for diving. Not at Disney or universal. The really deep pools are a thing of the past. So if a ~5' pool is shallow, then they are all like that. But HRH isn't even that. nowhere near. You can literally sit on the bottom and be mostly above the water in my experience.

 

[DisneyRobin]

We have done this several times and doing it again in a few weeks!

We like to stay at universal when going to universal and move over to disney when going to disney. We've done disney 1st but always felt sad leaving so now we do universal 1st and then end at disney. We love disney most of all!!

When the kids were younger, we stayed at portofino which was very nice. Now that our kids are older (10,12,15), we're staying at hard rock. It also looks amazing and is a little closer to the parks.

We'll get to hard rock on a Sunday night and stay for 2 nights. All day at the parks on Monday and Tuesday with early admission and express riding.

Then, we'll take a cab/uber to the contemporary resort on Tuesday evening where we'll check in for 4 nights and have dinner at chef Mickey's.

Then, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday we have 3 day park hopper passes at disney.

We fly home on Saturday.

 

[mjhtvchick]

I haven't found RPR to be shallow. *

HRH is a lazing pool. Where people with drinks can sit to their hips or waists in water for waaaaay too long.

I can swim in rpr's pool. But floating while barely in the water (I'll admit I was bigger then but ds was only 8ish and he couldn't swim without scraping himself up on the bottom) is all I could manage at HRH. And then I noticed how long some drinking-people had been sitting in the water without a break and we left the pool.


That said, Portofino has three separate pool areas. My fave is the Villas area. I like a nice rectangular pool where you can do laps if you want and not have to worry about people just standing around splashing or water volleyball etc.


*ok there are no pools that are deep enough to be good for diving. Not at Disney or universal. The really deep pools are a thing of the past. So if a ~5' pool is shallow, then they are all like that. But HRH isn't even that. nowhere near. You can literally sit on the bottom and be mostly above the water in my experience.

I lol'd at your point about the loungers at HRH...gross!

I guess I was comparing the depth at the pool at RPR to the one at the community pool at the off-site resort we stayed at for the other half of our stay. As a pool activity, we will throw "sinkers" for our daughter to search for in the pool - she had a lot of fun swimming to the bottom looking for them at the community pool but it wasn't much of a challenge at RPR, where she could pretty much bend over and pick them up or grab them with her feet!

 

[soniam]

We always split stay. I like the convenience, early entry, pools, and express pass for staying at a Universal "deluxe". We stay onsite at WDW for the convenience, EMH, 180+10 day ADRs, and most importantly 60 day FP+ booking. I just think the advantages of both make it difficult to give up one. If I could only stay at one though, I would have to pick WDW because of 60 day FP+ booking and EMH. If you are looking to save money at Universal on a hotel, try Cheap Tickets or Orbitz. You can also look into annual pass rates. Their annual passes haven't been as overly priced as the WDW ones and can sometimes be worth it, even for a single trip, just depends.

 

[woodynjessiesmomma]

So we did our first Universal trip in October and did 3 nights at HRH and 4 nights at WDW (with 3 park days at each). My kids are younger than yours so we still like our Disney time, but my 8yo prefers Universal. My mom and I felt 3 days of Universal was enough for us but we don't love motion simulators and prefer old boat/dark ride style rides. We arrived late at Universal then had 2 full park days, checked out the third morning and loaded our rental van (Bell services would have kept our things but DH wanted it done then) then went to the parks for a few hours and when we were happy left for WDW. At WDW we stayed at the Swan and it was quite disappointing after HRH. Doing a split trip is more expensive, but most of that expense comes in the ticket costs. To me both resorts offer enough onsite perks and our transition was smooth so we will do a split stay again. If you think Universal or Disney has enough to keep you all 5 days, staying with one or the other would save money, but we like both so we do both.

As for pools, I was disappointed in the HRH pool because it was so shallow. I don't love to swim but I like to be able to stand in the water. DS8 loved the slide though and can't wait to go back. The Swan did have a better pool IMO. We will likely stay at HRH again, but would consider RPR (as it's bit cheaper than HRH with same park benefits) or CB (if we don't want EP for some crazy reason).

As others have said the main benefits are linked to the resort and not tickets. I would book Universal room and tickets separate. Only buy the number of days of tickets as you plan to use and if you are getting 4+ days consider a Seasonal Pass depending on black out dates.

 

[sunsetbeachgal]

We are doing a split stay in February, three nights at Royal Pacific then moving to Disney for three nights at Pop. We Have stayed at both within the last year, so am aware that RP is much nicer, we splurged to stay there in order to get the express pass. Since any on site Disney resort gets you the same benefits as far as FP and early admission, we are saving the money and staying at Pop. The trip is our treat for son, daughter in law and granddaughter who is 11. The focus is Harry Potter but she is still young enough to love Disney. As others said, the big cost (other than two rooms each resort, ouch!!) is admissions to the parks.

 

[Owl X]

I recommend a split stay with 2 days at a Universal Deluxe Hotel and 3 days at a Disney area Hotel.

If you stay at a Deluxe Universal Resort you get Express Passes which allow you skip the regular lines.
You will be able to knock out most rides in both Universal Parks in a single day using Express Passes. The remaining rides and shows you missed the first day will take about a half day. A two day Park-to-Park ticket is all that is needed if you have an Express pass.
Note that the Harry Potter rides are excluded from Express Passes. So you need to use the Early Park Admission one morning to avoid long waits on those rides.
You will need Park-to-Park tickets to ride the Hogwarts Express between parks.

I personally prefer the Swan Hotel (or Dolphin) at Disney as you can walk to Epcot or
Hollywood Studios and it cheaper than the Disney Epcot Hotels.
I would purchase Park Hoppers so you can split days in different Disney Parks.
The Magic Kingdom, Epcot and Hollywood Studios each have a night show.
I recommend arriving at a different park each morning at rope drop to avoid long lines.
Prebook your 3 Fastpasses back to back with the first about an hour after rope drop.
Then take an afternoon break (and nap) at your Hotel followed by visiting another park at night.
During the break, book another Fastpass for a night ride.

Example:

1. Magic Kingdom morning > 3 FPs > Break > Epcot night
2. Animal Kingdom morning > 3 FPs > Break > Magic Kingdom night
3. Epcot morning > 3 FPs > Break > Hollywood Studios night

 

[toonaspie]

I would love to do this in May.

I know there is already a transportation thread on this but I am wondering what would be the best (in price and flexibility) in getting around from the airport to Universal and then to Disney (or vice versa) and then back to the airport again without a car? Would it be in our best interest to rent a car in this case? I'm not really good with adjusting to new cars even for a small amount of time and my friend and I wouldn't know our way around Orlando (I might have better luck but he would be doing most of the driving and he's not good at paying attention to street signs and turns). Plus it would have to be from a car rental place that wouldn't require us to go very far to return it.

 

[sunsetbeachgal]

Toonaspie, If you don't like renting cars, then I would do my research on the transportation boards for their recommendations of taxi versus shuttle or Uber. A couple of considerations: If you stay on site at a Disney resort they include Magical Express to and/or from the airport. This can be roundtrip or one way, if you start your trip off at Disney then you take their transportation to the resort, then are only on your own to get to Universal and back to the airport, so part of your problem is solved without any additional expense. Or you can end up at Disney and they use their transportation back to the airport. Also, be aware that there is a charge to park a car at the Universal resorts, and it is not cheap. We stayed at Royal Pacific and I think the nightly rate was $22. ouch! No parking charge at Disney owned resorts (I think there is at Swan/Dolphin).

We drive to Orlando, but rarely use the car once we are at the resort. We eat meals on site and prefer to use the onsite transportation systems at both as they are so good.