WDW+Universal trips?

[aristocatz]

Not sure if I'm posting this in the right section....

Seeking info/experience from those who plan WDW trips where they might incorporate a side trip to Universal for a day or two?

Do you just do a day trip or stay overnight? Do you rent a car or take a shuttle?

Thanks!

 

[DisneyWishes14]

We've done two WDW/Uni splits. On both occasions, we did 4 nights at WDW and 3 at Uni (once at Hard Rock, once at Portofino). We really prefer staying onsite at Uni when park touring there, particularly at the hotels that offer the express pass with your stay as it really cut down on our wait times. If you only want to visit Uni for a day, you could certainly stay at WDW and simply uber/lyft over. If you want to spend two days there, I would consider staying at a Uni resort. Traveling back and forth for two days is a bit inconvenient, IMHO.

 

[glvsav37]

We started doing combo trips. We are also DVC members.

The way we work it is that we plan 2-3 days at UO staying on site there then moving over to WDW for the rest of our stay.

The only downside is that we lose out on the free WDW transportation from the airport (or to the airport if you do UO at the end of the trip) plus the added exp of moving between resorts.

We prefer to stay on property at UO b/c some of the resorts there offer the ExpressPass (UO's much better version of FP) as a perk and its worth its weight in gold given we only spend a short amount of time there. Plus the proximity of these resorts to the parks is within walking or very short boat ride distance which really maximizes park time.

IMO, doing a day trip to UO is not worth it, b/c you can stay all day, and you'll spend money transporting between the 2 regardless and you are paying for a hotel room, but the perks UO resorts make it worth spending the money there vs just at WDW where you'll only get a room out of it. Plus if you are on the WDW dining plan, you'll be sort of wasting credits you cant use that day and need to play catch up.

It also helps that we can save on DVC points now that we need bigger rooms.

 

[Ksquared]

We often drive to Florida so doing both is not an issue for us. We've done trips where we do 1 or 2 nights at Universal before Disney and we've done trips where we do Disney first then go over to Universal. As others have said, we prefer to stay onsite when at Universal in a hotel that offers FOTL passes. Last trip we added a 1 night stay at Universal as a surprise for the kids, we did Volcano Bay the day we arrived and Islands of Adventure that night then spent the next day in the Studios and back to Islands to finish up a few rides we wanted to do again. Then we headed over to Disney and did MVMCP that night. We did everything we wanted in Universal in those 2 days. Not sure we could have done it all if we hadn't stayed onsite there

 

[YawningDodo]

We've done two WDW/Uni splits. On both occasions, we did 4 nights at WDW and 3 at Uni (once at Hard Rock, once at Portofino). We really prefer staying onsite at Uni when park touring there, particularly at the hotels that offer the express pass with your stay as it really cut down on our wait times. If you only want to visit Uni for a day, you could certainly stay at WDW and simply uber/lyft over. If you want to spend two days there, I would consider staying at a Uni resort. Traveling back and forth for two days is a bit inconvenient, IMHO.

Agreed. Last time I went to Universal, it was when we were staying in WDW and did two separate day trips to Universal via taxi (we'd gotten a good deal on the room through Costco so it didn't make financial sense to split our stay). I decided on that trip that my rule going forward was that if I wanted to spend more than one day at Universal, I would do a split stay. It's just too expensive and inconvenient to arrange the travel back and forth if you're doing it multiple times. It's a balancing act; on my upcoming trip I decided to do only one Universal day and I am day tripping again, but for a single day it's fine. I'm just always sure (after a bad experience in 2015) to pack a full change of clothes and a towel to put in a locker in case I get too uncomfortable after riding one of the water rides.

So in reply to the original question...it really depends on how many days you want to do. If you've been to Universal before and just want one day to hit the highlights (or if like me you're content to visit only one of their parks on this trip), a single day trip will be fine. If you haven't been before and/or you're keen to try to do it all, though, I'd suggest going for at least two days (add another day if you want to do their water park as well) and staying onsite at UO for that part of your trip.

 

[billlaurie]

We also will stay onsite at Universal to get the express pass for 2 days. We will check out of CSR in the morning, head to Universal parks and stay at RPR for that night, hit the parks early in the AM for a full day and stay at an Airbnb that night. We are driving so it makes it a bit easier. Two days in Universal is enough for us. The convenience of being able to walk to the parks and the 2 day EP + early entry keeps us from doing daytrips. Tack it on in the beginning or the end of your Disney trip and it makes more financial sense with the rooms.

 

[StarSpeckledSky]

Not sure if I'm posting this in the right section....

Seeking info/experience from those who plan WDW trips where they might incorporate a side trip to Universal for a day or two?

Do you just do a day trip or stay overnight? Do you rent a car or take a shuttle?

Thanks!

We rent a car anyways so we just drive over, explore, then head back to our Disney Resort. Do this every time we go to Disney.

 

[gharter]

We just did this.
Rented a car. Kept looking and got the rate downto reasonable.
We spent 2 1/2 days at universal. Stayed at Royal Pacific. Definintely stay at a resort that has free Express Pass. Its awesome! Front of the line for nearly every ride.
The cost of tickets and Express pass nearly made the room free with our package.
Left Universal about noon and went to our resort at WDW.
Checked in and headed to a park. We had FPs already starting late afternoon.

 

[glocon]

Unlimited express pass is a game changer, so we wouldn’t consider doing UO any other way except for staying on site at a deluxe. Totally different vacation when you have this. This summer we are doing CSR for 5 nights then RPR for 4 nights. It will be a very relaxing end to the vacation not having to rush around when staying onsite at UO.

 

[emily nicole]

This past trip in late April/early May, we spent 1 day at Universal. We had a rental car, but if we didn't, we'd have just done a taxi/Uber/Lyft.

We bought the unlimited Express Pass for the day which definitely helped us do everything we wanted to do - multiple times - in one day. We are Season Pass holders so there was actually a discount on the EP - I think it was $70 per person vs. $100. We enjoy Disney After Hours at a similar price point (actually higher) and I looked at it as a similar benefit for Uni parks.

 

[rcj2000]

We did a Universal, WDW, Disney Cruise vacation a few years ago. We flew into MCO and rented a car for the entire vacation. We started at Universal. Stayed at Cabana Bay for 3 nights, then drove to the BC and stayed there for 3 nights then drove to Pt Canaveral for a 4 night cruise. I really enjoyed our time a Universal because I didn't feel rushed. We were able to go to the parks before park opening because we were staying at Cabana Bay. We paid extra for the unlimited express pass but it was worth it for us. Cabana Bay was the least expensive option for us even when factoring in the express pass. We had 5 people traveling all together.