Universal Orlando

[toocherie]

I have an upcoming WDW trip. I am thinking of coming a couple of days early and checking out US/IOA but wondered what distances were like from the on-site hotels to the parks, etc. and then once in the parks are they comparable to the Disney parks in size and walking required? I rented an ECV when I came to WDW the last time because multiple days of mucho walking do me in. Would I need an ECV for US/IOA too? I believe there are shuttles or taxis to the parks from the resort hotels (like WDW) but not sure about walking distances once I get to those parks.

 

[Cheshire Figment]

I do not know about the access to USF/IOA from the Universal on-site hotels. However, from the parking structure it is a disaster.

Although disabled parking is on the 3rd (main) level, you have to get to where the two parking structures meet and then go a distance to where you can even rent a wheelchair. Then you go through Security and have a couple of hundred yards to get to City Walk. Then you have to go all the way through City Walk to get to a park entrance. Once you are inside a park you can then rent an ECV.

If you did rent a wheelchair, they will give you credit for the wheelchair rental cost against the rental fee for the ECV. Then on the way out they will exchange the ECV for a wheelchair so you can get back to the parking structure.

Actually thinkng about it, I would say that from disabled parking to either of the two park entrances would be fairly close to a mile each way.

 

[Figaro]

We stayed for four days at the Royal Pacific Resort this past October. There are fully accessible boats that run every 15 minutes or so from the resort to City Walk and then it is a fairly short walk from City Walk to either of the parks. The parks themselves are closer to each other than the WDW parks, so it is reasonably easy to walk back and forth between them.

There are also fully accessible buses that go from resort to resort and to Citywalk as well as bicycle rickshaws who provide rides for tips. Now, I didn't actually see any of the bicycle rickshaws, but people who have been there at other times assure me that they do exist.

We mostly walked back and forth from the hotel to the parks, as the path is a winding one along the waterways with lots of tropical plants.

As for the parks themselves...Universal Studios felt reasonably small and pretty compact to me while the Islands of Adventure seemed to be bigger and more spread out. One huge advantage to staying on site is that your room key works somewhat like a fastpass to almost all of the rides and shows at Universal. You just show them the key and then you are allowed into their fastpass equivalent line. This means that you really don't have to plan for anything other than the show times because you won't be spending a ton of time waiting in line. And the room key works from the day you check in until midnight on the day you check out.

The people here at the DIS over on the Universal boards can probably give you a lot more information than I have. My spouse and I really enjoyed going to Universal. It wasn't WDW, but it was fun with a whole different kind of energy. I am in a wheelchair, so I am not a good person to tell you what the distances are, as my spouse is my "pusher" and he doesn't consider it a big deal to push me back and forth between Epcot and the Studios a couple of times a day.