Universal vs. Disney Trip Report

[treasuredude]

We just came home late last night. We split the trip between Disney, Cocoa Beach, and Universal. We spent two days at Disney (MGM and MK). We bought the 2day/2park tickets. Went to MGM on Thursday May 30th and was surprised at how many people there seemed to be at the gate early in the morning. This was our first trip so I guess I didn't know what to expect. Once the gate was opened (8:45), everyone dashed to RnR Coaster and TOT only to be met by a rope across the street. We were then walked down the street at the appropriate time (9:00). Longest wait all day was 10 minutes. We literally sat down on the curb 5 minutes before the parade. We did the Fantasmic dinner thing at the Hollywood and Vine. Flank steak is great and the red cake with the white frosting is out of this world. Now for the bad part..... it started to rain, and rain, and rain, and rain, and, well, you get the idea. We went to our Fantasmic seats about 40 minutes before the show. Seats weren't too bad. The rain kept coming. Finally at 9:25, the show was cancelled. I was upset but there wasn't much I could do about it. We didn't have the Hopper passes so another day was out of the question.

Friday, May 31st. We arrived at the Magic Kingdom and were one of the first 20 people there at 8:00. They made everyone move down to the far gates and filled up each row. At 8:45, they opened the gates and the race was on. It was only myself and my 14 year old son so we made a dash for the Monorail and were on the first one. When we arrived at the park, Space Mountain was our primary target. We rode that and moved onto Alien Encounter. From there, Peter Pan and Haunted Mansion. We picked up Fast passes for Splash Mountain and rode Big Thunder. As we were 3/4 of the way through the line, something went wrong and the wait ended up being close to an hour. From there we walked onto Pirates and then Fastpassed Jungle Cruise before riding Splash. Then we ate and it started to rain, and rain, and rain.... We rode our JC Fastpass and kept going. The Share a Dream Come True parade was cancelled due to the weather. Damn! That's two. The crowds did NOT die out because of the rain but simply seemed to find cover and stay where they were. We kept on moving. The rain eventually quit at about 8:00. Spectromagic did take place at 9:00. A little story about that later. Then Tinkerbell and the fireworks. A ride rundown of MK...

Space Mountain (2)
Alien Encounter (1) - did not care for this at all.
Peter Pan (1)
Haunted Mansion (2)
Big Thunder (1)
Splash Mountain (2)
Pirates (1)
Jungle Cruise (1)
TTA (1) - during rain storm. Very relaxing.
Disney Railroad
Buzz Lightyear (1) - really liked this.

COP was closed. Ate lunch at Liberty Tree. Awesome turkey!

Saturday June 1st. Cocoa Beach

Sunday June 2nd. Checked into the Hard Rock Hotel and did Universal Studios. Same crowds over there....none. We had the FOTL with our room and didn't really need it. No line was more than 15 minutes. The Terminator show is awesome and the Horror Makeup show is very good too. We ate at the Classic Monsters Cafe and that was so-so. At about 4:00, we hopped over to Islands of Adventure and rode Hulk twice, Spiderman, and Dr. Doom all with no wait and we didn't even need to use our FOTL room keys. You could get on the rides as fast as you could walk through the cues. We then went back to the HRH and swam in their great pool. Ate at Hard Rock Cafe and spent the night at Citywalk.

Monday June 3rd. Islands of Adventure. We arrived at about 9:30 and did Hulk and Dr. Doom. Went and rode Jurassic Park and then front rows on both Dueling Dragons. Ate lunch at Mythos and took in the Posiedon show. Then Hulk again and Sinbad. By now, it's H.O.T.!! We went to the water rides and found the crowds. Ripsaw Falls and Popeye both had 1 hour waits. Using our room keys, we were on in 5 minutes. Rode Ripsaw twice and Popeye one.

On the day we arrived and on the day we left, we rented a WaterMouse at Downtown Disney. These things are great. My son had a blast driving us around the lake and through the canals.

And now for the Spectromagic story. We ended up in front of Cinderella's Castle and proceeded to find a spot for Spectro. Some CMs were on the street yelling at people to sit down. No one said "Everyone PLEASE sit down", it was just "SIT DOWN!" A guy near me said to the CM, "That's not very Disneylike of you. I think Mickey Mouse would like you to say please." Several people chuckled at this and the CM turned red and screamed, "Si down now or you'll be thrown out of the park! I can do that you know." The guy apparently didn't want to push the issue and sat down. The whole ordeal left a bad taste in my mouth. When we got to Universal on Sunday I couldn't believe the difference! Everyone went out of their way to make you feel comfortable. This is just my opinion but Universal kicked Disney's *** when it came to customer service.

 

[Muushka]

I agree with your last observation treasuredude, USF does go out of its way to try to please its guests.

Thanks for the report

 

[nhrenee]

Thanks for writing. I'm glad you had fun even with all that rain, yikes! Too bad about the disney incident. Things like that throw a bit of dark cloud over events.

 

[Debbie7452]

I totally agree with you about some of the Disney CM's involved with crowd control. I admit it must be a thankless and unpleasant job but really. I was walking along in an area where NO ONE CAN STOP OR THERE WILL BE DIRE CONSEQUENCES. My 4 year old DS let go of my hand and I turned back for a moment to gather him up. Immediately, the crowd control CM starts screaming at me to KEEP MOVING! I ignored him and got my son back but it made me very angry. They need to chill out a little!

 

[cotye]

Nice report!