Universal Orlando vs. Disney---any thoughts?

[Brander]

My sons, now 12 and 14, and I have spent three of the last four summer vacations at WDW. These have been some of the best times we've ever had. We've stayed on site, and love all of the attractions that disney has to offer.
Now the downside. I'm practically broke after our disney vacations. Iknew this going in, but every now and then, you wonder if there are other ways to get the same great feelings from a trip without the high cost.
We have done day trips to Universal Orlando, and enjoyed the parks very much. Maybe because our trips were Disney "focused", we may have enjoyed Disney better.
My question is this--for someone who has spent on-site vacations to both parks, could you pick out one which you enjoyed better? Did you find Universal Orlando gave you a more economical trip, ie. more bang for your buck?
Obviously, this is a subjective question, but all input will be appreciated.
Thanks in advance for your help!
__________________
Disney World---Our favourite place to be!
Fort Wilderness 1976
Off Site 1981
Off Site 1982
Caribbean Beach Resort 1996
All Star Sports 2002
Wilderness Lodge 2004
Wilderness Lodge 2005

 

[Motherfletcher]

This might be the wrong forum to get an unbiased answer but I have found Universal and their on-site hotels to cost a lot less than WDW. Another thing is my kids are about the same age as yours and they have kind of outgrown Disney or feel more grown up at USO with the thrill rides and shows.

 

[wilma-bride]

We did both WDW and USF/IofA on our last trip. To be perfectly honest, although we liked the theming of Disney the only park we really enjoyed was MGM. Both of us are thrill-ride people, though, and we found we enjoyed USF/IofA much more for the thrill aspect.

Can you not combine both? Why not stay at an off-site hotel which offers transport to all the theme parks, then buy tickets for WDW and USF (perhaps allowing a couple of days at each) as well as some time spent off-site taking in the local attractions (which are often less costly).

 

[No11's Mom]

We too have always done both WDW and UO, although last year the only Disney park we did was MGM. This year we are just doing Universal. My son is 17, and except for Tower of Terror and Rocking Rolling Coaster at MGM, he is just not that interested in the Disney parks anymore.

Although there are no value hotels at UO, I feel you still get a greater value for your dollar by staying onsite at Universal. The conveniece of being able to walk from your room to the parks, and the convenience of FOTL cannot be overstated. And the hotels are beautiful.

Good luck with your decision.

 

[Patch'sD]

We have switched. Universal offers so much more as a resort guest that it makes the whole expierence so much better. Disney has taken so much away from the resort guest over the years, ( Early Entry, Prefered Seating, Magic Kingdom Club, ....) Universal on the other hand has enhanced the Resort Guest with FOTL, Prefered Seating, Transportation,.....) while still offering discounts on Rooms. The online Five day for Two Ticket offer is one of the best bargains in Orlando.

It will be along time before I go back to Disney. Universal offers so much more and the rides are much better than Disneys anyway.

Thanx

 

[TigerLilly's Mom]

We love both parks. Universal we go to often, WDW, maybe every two years or so. The things I love at Disney are the parades, firework shows, and general entertainment. Universal cannot hold a candle to Disney is this area. But, a little Disney goes a long way for us.

Universal is our favorite destination. FOTL is amazing and I would NEVER stay off site for these trips. Even during the slow times of the year we have enjoyed FOTL. We love the Hard Rock Hotel and because we are platinum members, and we always enjoy an upgraded room. My husband is a die hard Spiderman fan and will fly to Orlando just to ride this ride and have a fish sandwich at Margaritaville.

My kids are 10 and 7, and my 10 year old LOVES coasters, so WDW doesn't do much for him ride wise. My little girl is right in between and loves the cool rides (Spiderman, MIB, ect.) but still likes the characters and princesses at WDW. But, if you give my kids a choice, the will pick Universal. I think it is because we have so much free time with FOTL, that we always go back to the Hard Rock in the afternoon for a swim. They LOVE that pool.

Hope this helps.

 

[PavelB]

July 2004 we spent 3 nights at RPH and then 7 nights at the GF. Well, my kids, 17, 15, and 13 loved both. This July we spent 5 nights at the RPH and again 7 nights at the GF. Well, this summer Universal was awesome! - WDW was just too crowded! For what its worth, my kids say they are done with disney for a while but anxious to get back to Universal.
As far as the cost, I got an annual pass for Universal for myself. (For the others I got the buy 2 get 3 free bonus ticket for about $100 each.) I got 2 rooms for only $159 each, and that's over July 4th. That's much less than WDW.
Oh, and by the way - FOTL FOTL FOTL really spoiled them.
Also, we went with several other families - lots of different ages - and Universal really worked out. There was something for everyone - even the adults who did not care much for the theme park aspect of the trip but wanted relaxation and good food.

Whatever you do, I hope you have fun!

 

[macraven]

i would not dream of going to orlando and not doing both parks.

i prefer universal hands down. i used to drive from disney hotel to universal for the day/s but that got old fast..........so tired driving a rental car with three kids (at that time 7-8-9) back to disney.

the 3rd year this is what we did. started at disney, moved to off site hotel at universal. mind you this was back when only the studios was open and crowds were less. when ioa opened, we started to stay at hard rock hotel.
when they honored the entertainment rate, it was cheaper than disney.
not as many discounts now at either hotel parks.

we like disney but once you have gone twice in a year, or once a year, you have the same routine. the rides are fine going on them twice but not as exciting for many repeats except for TOT, soaring, etc.
it takes soooooooo long to get from one park to another if you rely on bus service at disney. sometimes it kills an hour. i stopped renting a car 3 years ago and miss it. at disney you have an advantage if you have a car.

at universal, no car is needed. local resturants will deliver to your hotel if you order out. it is walkable to the parks from hotels, especially hrh.
water taxis are frequent and busses do run on schedule.

the nice thing about the layout at universal is you can walk it from one park to the other or to city walk and it does not cut into your time.

the rides and attractions never cease to thrill me. the thrill ride/coasters are the best here. this is personal opinion of course.

i have had some regrettable dinners at wdw but rarely at universal. did have a yucky meal at monsters. told one of the workers there and was refunded my money without even asking.

universal gives discounts on all food and merchandise for anyone that has AAA card, orlando magic care (free for the asking), universal fan club card, universal mc, and ap. disney does not. you have to buy in for the DDE for a discount.

if you want to take in a movie at universal, city walk is there with a great cinema.
i have not had any rude encounters from the universal employees.
at disney, yes i have. i think some cm at disney think people expect the magic all the time and don't reinforce that thought when a customer is unhappy.
both parks are great. i can spend more time at universal and not get bored than i can at disney. even with the down side of disney, i wll go back. next year i will spend more time at universal than disney.

if you stay with a package at the on site hotels at universal, you can set up going to sea world, wet and wild and busch. transportation is provided.
busses run regularly.

i think in the past years, i spent more at disney for lodging and food and tickets. this year, discounts are limited at universal and it is probably even on lodging costs for me.
free food plan at disney for when i am going will off set my total costs on this trip. paying about 3x the amount for disney tickets than i am for universal this year. univ: 5 days: $99
the hhn event costs will put universal on the high end for me this trip.
hhn has grown so much, all prices increased this year for it.

even with the costs increasing this year for univ, the FOTL pass is worth the cost of the room.............the express pass plus is much better than disneys fast pass as you can designate the choice of times for the ride.

 

[robvia]

Disney takes longer to visit because most rides have a pre-show.
If you visit USF/IOA, you can plan a shorter visit and still have a great time.
Saving money is the reason I made my web pages here.

http://www.nogodforme.com/orlando2004.htm
http://www.nogodforme.com/orlando2005.htm

One way you could save some money, would be to fly down, and stay in an offsite hotel your first night. Then check into the onsite hotel at 8am, get your magic keys, and visit a park. There's a good chance your room will be ready if you check in early. If not, store your luggage and head to the parks.

 

[goofy!]

We too have flipped and now prefer to stay at Universal. Our kids are 17, 15 and 8. They have declared Disney "lame."

With the annual pass, (you only need one for your family), the vacation is way, way less expensive than Disney.

20% off all souvenirs.
15% off the restaurants in the the parks and 10 -15% off the restaurants in Citywalk. If you save $7-$8 dollars on every meal, and a dollar or two off every drink purchase in the parks, this really starts to add up.

Then there are the hotel discounts. If your dates are flexible, you can get some really good deals. We stayed at RPR the week before Christmas (our kids always get 2 weeks off - week before and week between Christmas and New Years). With the Ap discount at $129.00 a night and then stay 3 nights, get 4th night free - our stay at this 4* hotel ended up about $110.00 per night after tax. Where at Disney can you stay in one of their deluxe hotels for under $200.00 per night?

I also prefer the Loews frequent stay plan. It is similar to many other chain's plans, where the more you stay, the more perks you get. After just a few nights last year (2 trips), we were upgraded to Platinum. So, our most recent trip last month, we paid for a garden view room ($241.00 internet rate - couldn't do AP rate to get Platinum upgrade), but stayed in a 1840 sq foot villa suite. I don't get any perks at Disney no matter how often I stay at their resorts. They don't offer any incentives anymore to stay onsite. At Universal, we get points towards Platinum and the priceless FOTL.

So, this past July, we booked PBH for 10 days (gotta keep that platinum status ) with every intention to drive over to WDW for a few days. Never happened. With FOTL and pool hopping encouraged, we were content to just do some rides, relax at the pool, do some more rides. We only ventured off property twice to go sit in a field all day waiting for a shuttle to not launch. Then we went back to Kennedy to use our launch tickets to tour the space center. But we never felt the urge to go to Disney. Our vacation was not only a fun vacation with all the thrill rides, it was much more relaxing than we ever get at WDW. I prefer the sleep in, head over to the parks, get in very short lines, ride what we want, and then have a short walk to our hotel to swim or read a good book type of vacation.

To answer your question about price, three times now we have taken advantage of the great AP discounts in semi-off season times (August and December) and have travelled with a family of 5 (including two teen age bottomless pits) for 7 days - including food, airfare and rental car (but not tickets as we all have AP's) for under $2,500.00 I would say that is much, much cheaper than anything we could ever hope for at WDW if we would have similar accomodations - ie Deluxe hotels, etc. And we tend to eat out at every meal - city walk and the sit down restaurants. In contrast, our last 10 day stay at WDW was well over $5,000 -in fact, closer to $10,000.

 

[Peter Pirate]

We just got Annual passes to USF this summer because (1) they were cheap (2) the weekends in summer WERE NOT blacked out (3) the Loews Hotels were very close to a number of tennis tournaments my daughters were participating in.

We have really liked USF. What I like better are the FOTL pass, I don't think I would even do USF without it (not a very encouraging statement I guess) & the small area feels more like DL/ Cal. Adventure /DD in Cal. ... Very nice to have no real transportation worries.

USF can never compete with the breadth of WDW (nothing remotely like AK or Epcot, for example).

I really liked Universal but am not so thrilled with the overall atraction numbers at IOA as I don't ride DD or Hulk - Which limits the amount of things to do at this park severely. The Mummy is really great at Universal.

The dining and nightlife at USF is very good, certainly not as grand of scale overall (pure numbers) as WDW but great and diversified offerings nonetheless.

I think USF is a great add on to WDW. There are trips to WDW where we just don't feel like doing The Studios or MK maybe because we've done them a lot recently and just skip them. USF gives us two more choices to pop into the mix.

So I wouln never say USF is better than WDW but it's a great place with lots to do and see along the same lines as WDW...

 

[JJ For Ever]

Ive been to both recently,a week in each Resort & I have to say WDW is the best place I have ever been perhaps.Universal is great too & I stayed at Royal Pacific which was fantastic & rides are amazing - Mummy,Duelling Dragons,Jaws,BTTF,Jurassic Park,City Walk etc but there is something about Disney,hard to put your finger on it but its overall theming & atmosphere is hard to beat.Disney can do thrills too - Rock n Roller Coaster,Tower of Terror,Expedition Everest is coming soon but when you consider the quality of Epcot & Illuminations Disney is just tops for me.I would love to live in Florida with all those attractions nearby.I am so envious & we have nothing comparable in Ireland.There are good parks in UK & of course Universal Mediterannea in Spain & the big one Disneyland Resort Paris 4th most popular tourist destination in the world.

 

[the Dark Marauder]

I really liked Universal but am not so thrilled with the overall atraction numbers at IOA as I don't ride DD or Hulk - Which limits the amount of things to do at this park severely.

That is only two attractions out of fifteen. How is that severely limiting?

 

[Peter Pirate]

Well, take away the two coasters and you're down to 13. Remove the Flyers and you're down to 12 (I'm too tall). After that you've got two pretty good wet rides (good for hot days) & Spidey, which is great (3 worthy attractions) taking us down to 9. After that you've got a lame Dr. Doom, 8. A lame Jurassic Park,7. An OK Poseiden's Fury (but seriously, how often can you do this?), 6. A very good Cat In The Hat,5...And the other attractions are what? I don't recall any 'keepers'.

I'm not saying IOA sucks by any means. The theming is great and the feel of the park is very good. But Hulk, DD and Spidey are the big three and for folks who can only do one of them, this park (IMO) is seriously lacking. Universal, on the other hand surprised me with a lot of things.

 

[cabloom]

My DH & I (both 40's - no kids) went to Universal for the first time this year - 4 days in May, stayed onsite. We've been to Disney twice before and were eager to try Universal. While we had a good time, overall it just didn't do it for us. Other than Spiderman, Mummy, and MIB, there wasn't much we wanted to do over and over. Hulk was fun but we could take it or leave it - heresy, I know! And some stuff - we were sorry we did once. (Twister comes to mind ...)

Our hotel was beautiful, FOTL was fantastic, the theming of the parks was impressive, the CMs were friendly and helpful ... but it just didn't measure up to Disney for us. I can't explain it - personal preference, I guess. That said, if I was a kid, I'd probably think Disney was lame also and would prefer Universal for all of the thrill rides.

When all is said and done, I think it's a great thing that Universal and WDW both exist - that way there's something for everyone!

 

[2BigKIdz]

Even if you don't stay on site at Universal, you can purchase the express passes and get FOTL access for 1 ride on each ride that day. We did this last summer when the lines were horrible and it made for a very pleasant day.

We are definitely Universal people (my husband loves the studios and I love IOA- sorry, but that is THE BEST theming, ever, in a park). Having never been to a Disney park until we were 30, it just didn't do it for us. I did like MK, but my husband declared it "the absolute worst park I have ever been to!" He HATED it and refuses to go back. We did like MGM, but still don't think it holds a candle to Universal. The only things there we really enjoyed was ToT, RnR, and the muppets, and the show at the end of the day, forget the name, was outstanding. My husband did like Star Wars but rides like that make me sick so once on that was enough for me (I do not ride back to the future anymore either). We do however love DisneyQuest and Downtown Disney. I actually prefer Downtown Disney to City Walk, just more to do there. We have not been to AK yet, waiting for Expedition Everest to open next Spring and we will never go to Epcot, have 0 interest in going there.

We have never stayed on-site at either place. We do have AP for universal, got the buy 1 year get 2nd year free deal last year, was a great deal. We will probably stay at HRH next spring for a few days before checking into our condo or house.

 

[antmaril]

Our son is 18 and we always do both. This year we spent three nights at the Boardwalk Inn (which we all loved) and two nights at Royal Pacific. We had three day park hoppers at WDW and five days for the price of two at Universal. We just do all of our favorite things. At MGM this year, I bet we were only in there an hour. We did Rock'n Roller Coaster, the Great Movie Ride and the Tower of Terror - that's it - we were done. We went to Magic Kingdom at opening and did our favorites - Space Mountain, Haunted Mansion, etc. - We were out of there by 1:00 p.m. You get the idea, we enjoy our favorite things and move on.

Since we've been there so many times, we don't fret about doing anything. If there is a really long line for something, we skip it. Of course, at Universal we LOVE FOTL. We always do WDW first, because we have FOTL to look forward to.

Anyway, we enjoy doing both parks and are planning to do this same trip again in January.