Which order to stay?

[jothp]

Hi, on our trip last year we arrived on the 12th August and stayed 4 nights at Universal followed by 14 nights at Disney. We found Universal to be slightly more relaxed and a slightly slower pace especially with the express passes so we thought it would be better to do this at the end of the holiday next time.

We are now looking at going again next August but we will be going slightly earlier this time arriving on 3rd August. Booking Universal at the end then means that we will be staying there with express passes at the quietest part of our stay (in terms of crowds) and I'm wondering if we might be better doing Universal at the beginning again. In all other ways I like the idea of Disney first better. What would you do?

 

[saintrob]

Personally we always do Universal first purely as we prefer Disney and like to spend longer there. We like the extra days at WDW and have more down time to enjoy the resort

 

[disneyholic family]

we've only been to universal twice (we're not universal fans - 1st time we went to see what it was like, second time to see hp)..
both times i scheduled universal first, and then disney....
so 2 days at universal followed by 3 weeks at disney

 

[godders]

I've done it both ways and I would definitely do Universal first. After 2 weeks at Disney I was too knackered to really enjoy it

 

[General Panic]

Mmmm , we go every year and usually have an 8 night Disney and 4 night Universal . Never occured to me to do Universal first we always do it last. Getting of the plane and no Magical Express to Disney resort just seems "wrong" to me

We do like to unwind at Universal and always stay on site with EP and find it more relaxing after Disney's hustle and bustle. Saying that now the subject has been brought up , next time just for a change of pace i'll put it to the family and see what they think.

 

[peajay18]

Last few trips we've actually stayed onsite at Disney for 5 nights, then 3 nights onsite at Universal and then back to Disney (usually DVC) for 4 more nights.
This works out perfectly for us as it breaks up the trip and gives us time to relax at the end if we need it.

 

[chmurf]

I don't like split stays. It means leaving one resort, then leaving the next resort ... so in a word it's a "goodbye universal" followed by a tear-in-your-eye goodbye MK ...

I much prefer to do the whole stay at Disney, especially on the free dining plan, and make a double booking of 1 night at RPR first week, one night at another deluxe hotel second week
both stays get 2 days of unlimited express, and with the 14 days universal ticket, paying double for the nights you're checked in at both WDW and Universal does not make that much extra to pay, compared to the number of express pass days you get.

and having 14 days tickets for both resorts at the same time means that you can go whenever you want, wherever you want.

maybe not the most cost efficient solution, but that's one we like and that works with us.

 

[peachiepie]

Our next trip we are planning 4 nights at Universal then moving to WDW. We wanted to do it that way round as I figured after 10 days at WDW we would probably be pretty tired and may not enjoy Universal so much. So we thought we would do Universal first, then we would still be pretty fresh to enjoy Disney (and I like the idea of Magic Kingdom being the last thing we do before the flight home!)

 

[Sam1]

I've done it both ways and I would definitely do Universal first. After 2 weeks at Disney I was too knackered to really enjoy it

Us too and that's what happened with us, so I'd suggest the beginning. The money we spent to stay at the end was wasted because we really were too parked out to do anything by the end. I think we actually gave the park a miss on the second day and went to Celebration instead.

 

[k8Davies]

I agree with the guys, do the Universal bit first so you full of energy and get the most out of those parks.

Then go on to WDW, but put in some more relaxing things to do, Like only do a half day in the park then spending the afternoon in Celebration, having a pool day, trying Mini Golf, hotel hopping or my favorite walking about the Boardwalk area.

For me, I normally go hammer and tongs the first week and a bit getting everything I must do done, then have a more relaxing second week or last couple of days - Although I always have to spend my last night watching Fireworks

 

[jothp]

we've only been to universal twice (we're not universal fans - 1st time we went to see what it was like, second time to see hp)..
both times i scheduled universal first, and then disney....
so 2 days at universal followed by 3 weeks at disney

I've done it both ways and I would definitely do Universal first. After 2 weeks at Disney I was too knackered to really enjoy it

Our next trip we are planning 4 nights at Universal then moving to WDW. We wanted to do it that way round as I figured after 10 days at WDW we would probably be pretty tired and may not enjoy Universal so much. So we thought we would do Universal first, then we would still be pretty fresh to enjoy Disney (and I like the idea of Magic Kingdom being the last thing we do before the flight home!)

Us too and that's what happened with us, so I'd suggest the beginning. The money we spent to stay at the end was wasted because we really were too parked out to do anything by the end. I think we actually gave the park a miss on the second day and went to Celebration instead.

I agree with the guys, do the Universal bit first so you full of energy and get the most out of those parks.

Then go on to WDW, but put in some more relaxing things to do, Like only do a half day in the park then spending the afternoon in Celebration, having a pool day, trying Mini Golf, hotel hopping or my favorite walking about the Boardwalk area.

For me, I normally go hammer and tongs the first week and a bit getting everything I must do done, then have a more relaxing second week or last couple of days - Although I always have to spend my last night watching Fireworks

Thanks guys. It seems that Universal first is the most popular option. We did enjoy Universal first but found that we didn't really get the best use out of the inevitable early morning wake ups the first few days and thought they might have been better used at Disney to get there in plenty of time for EMH and pre park opening ADRs. Towards the end of our last holiday we (quite surprisingly) weren't exhausted as we had built in plenty of afternoon breaks etc, but we did find it harder to get up in the mornings as we adjusted to the time difference and stayed out later for fireworks and shows. At Disney we could only have 3 FP+ a day and a few low priority rides if we arrived later but at Universal the unlimited express pass would allow us to lay in a bit and still do almost any of the rides.

 

[jothp]

Mmmm , we go every year and usually have an 8 night Disney and 4 night Universal . Never occured to me to do Universal first we always do it last. Getting of the plane and no Magical Express to Disney resort just seems "wrong" to me

We do like to unwind at Universal and always stay on site with EP and find it more relaxing after Disney's hustle and bustle. Saying that now the subject has been brought up , next time just for a change of pace i'll put it to the family and see what they think.

Thanks, I was thinking that it might be more relaxing after Disney too.

I don't like split stays. It means leaving one resort, then leaving the next resort ... so in a word it's a "goodbye universal" followed by a tear-in-your-eye goodbye MK ...

I much prefer to do the whole stay at Disney, especially on the free dining plan, and make a double booking of 1 night at RPR first week, one night at another deluxe hotel second week
both stays get 2 days of unlimited express, and with the 14 days universal ticket, paying double for the nights you're checked in at both WDW and Universal does not make that much extra to pay, compared to the number of express pass days you get.

and having 14 days tickets for both resorts at the same time means that you can go whenever you want, wherever you want.

maybe not the most cost efficient solution, but that's one we like and that works with us.

I did look into that option but because we are staying 18/19 nights we really need to do Universal either at the beginning or at the end so that the between them our tickets cover the whole period. As you say it does also cost more and I think I would rather save that money for spending when there.

Last few trips we've actually stayed onsite at Disney for 5 nights, then 3 nights onsite at Universal and then back to Disney (usually DVC) for 4 more nights.
This works out perfectly for us as it breaks up the trip and gives us time to relax at the end if we need it.

It sounds great to break up the trip in this way but as we are getting free dining it seems to make sense to do the whole booking in one go to get the dining plan for all the nights we are in Disney, DD (8) is slightly obsessed by the monorail though and it would be great to stay in a monorail resort and we could never justify the cost staying there for a long stay.

 

[scoobydooby2016]

I'm going to be in the minority's it seems. I've done Universal first for 5 days followed by two weeks at Disney. If doing it again I'd finish at Universal because I don't live it as much so that would be more relaxing by the pool time for me when I'm knackered!

 

[chmurf]

I did look into that option but because we are staying 18/19 nights we really need to do Universal either at the beginning or at the end so that the between them our tickets cover the whole period

21 days disney tickets do the trick for 25 quids per person

but you're right, that's not a cheap option.
Flexibility and convenience vs. cost is always the main issue when planning.

 

[bex7583]

i would go to disney first as we also like getting magic express after the long flight . that said i dont like to end on disney either as i cant bear to leave to go home, so we like to end with non theme park days

 

[jothp]

I'm going to be in the minority's it seems. I've done Universal first for 5 days followed by two weeks at Disney. If doing it again I'd finish at Universal because I don't live it as much so that would be more relaxing by the pool time for me when I'm knackered!

i would go to disney first as we also like getting magic express after the long flight . that said i dont like to end on disney either as i cant bear to leave to go home, so we like to end with non theme park days

Thanks, last time we did get the magical express back to the airport at the end but for obvious reasons it was quite a sad experience so I'm quite keen on the idea of taking it to the hotel at the beginning of the trip instead this time. I think one of the reasons that we found it more relaxing was the fact that you were very close to all the parks so there was far less travel time each day and that meant that it didn't seem such a waste just heading into the park for a couple of hours. The last day of our previous trip we didn't go to a Disney park as would have wanted to leave the park really early to make sure we had allowed plenty of time to get back to OKW on Disney transport ready for our Magical express collection. If we were staying at Universal we would probably have gone into the park as we know we can walk back to the hotel quickly.

21 days disney tickets do the trick for 25 quids per person

but you're right, that's not a cheap option.
Flexibility and convenience vs. cost is always the main issue when planning.

Yes planning is always a balancing act. I think for this trip cost will probably win for us.

 

[Gari14]

While I enjoy a few rides at Universal, I always seem to get bored really quickly for some reason. Its just not got the same magic feeling as say MK has. Maybe its just me, but I find that after a day at Universal, thats enough for me. Im going back to Orlando next June so ill see how it is for me then, but I can't imagine my opinion would've changed much.