Why I made the move to Universal Orlando

[EllieBadgeAdventures]

I have to admit that I am a Disney Fanatic! My office walls are covered in Minnie Ears. My amazon wish list looks like it was made by a 7 year old princess. I have been on Disney cruises, to the Tokyo Disney Resort, to the Paris Disney Resort, DCA, and to World more times than I can count! I love Disney! That being said, I have finally reached the tilting point and moved my WDW vacations to Universal Orlando. Don't cast stones yet!! Hear me out!

I grew up in a family that lived paycheck to paycheck and a trip to Walt Disney World as a kid wasn't even an option. After watching the episode of Boy Meets World where Cory goes to WDW, I wished upon all of my lucky stars for a chance to visit that magical place. Fast forward to 2005, I was finally a nurse with the funds to fulfill my childhood wish! I whisked my little brother and little cousin off for a trip of a lifetime. It was amazing in every way. We stayed in a Savanah View room at the Animal Kingdom Lodge. We had the free Disney Dining Plan that included an Appetizer, Entree, and Dessert! We had the free Magical Express, free Magic bands, free fastpasses, free after hours for guests, free parking at the hotel, and the free specialty seating for Fantasmic! It was easy! It was fun! It was worth the cost of the trip! I went back year after year. I had no desire to try Universal Studios, Seaworld, or anything outside of the Disney Bubble. I was officially hooked on Disney!

After that first trip, I started noticing little changes like appetizers not being included in the dining plan, parking not being free, and benefits being taken away despite the increase in prices. It was like a fire ant bite, irritating as all get out but tolerable. After 2020 my biggest fear became a reality. Disney lost the courtesy of trying to mask that they were giving me much less and charging me way more. My easy vacation became a nickel and dimed affair. We now have to pay for everything that once was free! And there seems to be no CARE whatsoever from the Big Dog Bob Paycheck.

I knew that I was starting to teeter when we decided to book hotels off property. Gasp! I broke the Disney Bubble! It just made more sense to stay in a hotel off property for $80 a night with free breakfast verses $180 on property for an All Star Resort. There were no more perks to keep me in the bubble. Let's be honest. There is no longer extended hours unless I pay for a Deluxe hotel which can be more than 10x the price of the off property hotel. There is no longer free fastpasses or free dining plans....actually there are no dining plans at all! There is no more Magical Express. What is Disney giving me for staying on property?

Finally last summer I could no longer justify the cost for a full week at WDW. What!? Maybe I was overcome with an Eeyore mindset, but the cost for what I was getting was no longer balanced on the scale. I decided to check into the cost of a Universal Orlando trip and found an excellent price on their top tier annual pass! Did you know that you can stay in a Premier resort at Universal for a Disney Value Resort price? Did you know that if you stay at a Premier Resort you get a free express pass for everyone in your party and can get into the parks early? I didn't either! SO WE DID IT! We invested in an annual pass! Let me sum this up for you... in the last year my husband and I have flown out to UO 5 times, stayed a total of 4 weeks and paid less than a 1 week trip to WDW. Every time we turn around we get discounts for having an AP. We don't have to wait in many lines, and a lot of days we sleep in and don't get to the parks until 4pm and can still ride all of the rides with the help of our annual pass after 4pm express pass . We even got a HHN ticket free with our pass! Now obviously I can't just not go to WDW. So we have added a day here and there for Disney while on our UO trips. Unless something drastically happens at Disney, I don't think we will be going back to the Disney Bubble life.

 

[Her Dotness]

A beautifully written account but sad that conditions are bringing veteran "Bubblers" to this point.

A lot of us are probably teetering on the brink ourselves.

Who'd have thought so many nasty changes would bring us to that point?

 

[Gehrig1B]

I am seeing this from a lot of Disney regulars that understand what has been lost over the last few years. Truth is, Disney is still packed and pulling in the $$$. I do believe this was the plan all along, siphon off the regulars who don't spend as much on souvenirs and extras and grab the once-in-a-lifetimers who are going to drop huge amounts of money and be one and done...

Although I do agree with some of what you have said, our trips to Universal leave me longing for the special touches of Disney. We will continue to travel and stay deluxe at Disney, although we will make those visits less frequently.

 

[k5xs]

I have to admit that I am a Disney Fanatic! My office walls are covered in Minnie Ears. My amazon wish list looks like it was made by a 7 year old princess. I have been on Disney cruises, to the Tokyo Disney Resort, to the Paris Disney Resort, DCA, and to World more times than I can count! I love Disney! That being said, I have finally reached the tilting point and moved my WDW vacations to Universal Orlando. Don't cast stones yet!! Hear me out!

I grew up in a family that lived paycheck to paycheck and a trip to Walt Disney World as a kid wasn't even an option. After watching the episode of Boy Meets World where Cory goes to WDW, I wished upon all of my lucky stars for a chance to visit that magical place. Fast forward to 2005, I was finally a nurse with the funds to fulfill my childhood wish! I whisked my little brother and little cousin off for a trip of a lifetime. It was amazing in every way. We stayed in a Savanah View room at the Animal Kingdom Lodge. We had the free Disney Dining Plan that included an Appetizer, Entree, and Dessert! We had the free Magical Express, free Magic bands, free fastpasses, free after hours for guests, free parking at the hotel, and the free specialty seating for Fantasmic! It was easy! It was fun! It was worth the cost of the trip! I went back year after year. I had no desire to try Universal Studios, Seaworld, or anything outside of the Disney Bubble. I was officially hooked on Disney!

After that first trip, I started noticing little changes like appetizers not being included in the dining plan, parking not being free, and benefits being taken away despite the increase in prices. It was like a fire ant bite, irritating as all get out but tolerable. After 2020 my biggest fear became a reality. Disney lost the courtesy of trying to mask that they were giving me much less and charging me way more. My easy vacation became a nickel and dimed affair. We now have to pay for everything that once was free! And there seems to be no CARE whatsoever from the Big Dog Bob Paycheck.

I knew that I was starting to teeter when we decided to book hotels off property. Gasp! I broke the Disney Bubble! It just made more sense to stay in a hotel off property for $80 a night with free breakfast verses $180 on property for an All Star Resort. There were no more perks to keep me in the bubble. Let's be honest. There is no longer extended hours unless I pay for a Deluxe hotel which can be more than 10x the price of the off property hotel. There is no longer free fastpasses or free dining plans....actually there are no dining plans at all! There is no more Magical Express. What is Disney giving me for staying on property?

Finally last summer I could no longer justify the cost for a full week at WDW. What!? Maybe I was overcome with an Eeyore mindset, but the cost for what I was getting was no longer balanced on the scale. I decided to check into the cost of a Universal Orlando trip and found an excellent price on their top tier annual pass! Did you know that you can stay in a Premier resort at Universal for a Disney Value Resort price? Did you know that if you stay at a Premier Resort you get a free express pass for everyone in your party and can get into the parks early? I didn't either! SO WE DID IT! We invested in an annual pass! Let me sum this up for you... in the last year my husband and I have flown out to UO 5 times, stayed a total of 4 weeks and paid less than a 1 week trip to WDW. Every time we turn around we get discounts for having an AP. We don't have to wait in many lines, and a lot of days we sleep in and don't get to the parks until 4pm and can still ride all of the rides with the help of our annual pass after 4pm express pass . We even got a HHN ticket free with our pass! Now obviously I can't just not go to WDW. So we have added a day here and there for Disney while on our UO trips. Unless something drastically happens at Disney, I don't think we will be going back to the Disney Bubble life.

Please send this post in an email to: guest.services@disneyworld.com

 

[Her Dotness]

Please send this post in an email to: guest.services@disneyworld.com

Yes, indeed! Great idea.

 

[TheRustyScupper]

. . . I love Disney! That being said, I have finally reached the tilting point and moved my WDW vacations to Universal Orlando . . .

1. I hear you.
2. Loud and clear!
3. I am retired and an ex-WDW-concierge
. . . mainly Fort Wilderness
. . . otherwise at Deluxe Resorts or DVC
4. Wife is retired WDW.
5. Our WDW activities are limited to
. . . visiting Diz-Friends at Fort Wilderness
. . . seeing a band at Epcot during a festival
. . . eating at a resort when we pay 30% or less
6. Disney was always good for us.
. . . free hoppers
. . . free parking
. . . discounts of 35%-65% on merchandise
7. We live less than 20-minutes drive to WDW
. . . yet we visit only 1-3 times per year
. . . we know CM's who haven't been in a park in 5-7 years
8. We have many friends at Universal Florida (USF).
. . . we get free admission through them
9. Disney Magic had all but disappeared for us.


Until about 5-years ago, we were enthralled with Disney. I hope it isn't just too late to re-establish the faith the public used to have with the make believe world.
We don't go to Disney to escape Real Life:
. . . we go for The Make Believe,
. . . we go for The Magic,
. . . we go for The Mystical.

 

[NavyDad]

I have to admit that I am a Disney Fanatic! My office walls are covered in Minnie Ears. My amazon wish list looks like it was made by a 7 year old princess. I have been on Disney cruises, to the Tokyo Disney Resort, to the Paris Disney Resort, DCA, and to World more times than I can count! I love Disney! That being said, I have finally reached the tilting point and moved my WDW vacations to Universal Orlando. Don't cast stones yet!! Hear me out!

I grew up in a family that lived paycheck to paycheck and a trip to Walt Disney World as a kid wasn't even an option. After watching the episode of Boy Meets World where Cory goes to WDW, I wished upon all of my lucky stars for a chance to visit that magical place. Fast forward to 2005, I was finally a nurse with the funds to fulfill my childhood wish! I whisked my little brother and little cousin off for a trip of a lifetime. It was amazing in every way. We stayed in a Savanah View room at the Animal Kingdom Lodge. We had the free Disney Dining Plan that included an Appetizer, Entree, and Dessert! We had the free Magical Express, free Magic bands, free fastpasses, free after hours for guests, free parking at the hotel, and the free specialty seating for Fantasmic! It was easy! It was fun! It was worth the cost of the trip! I went back year after year. I had no desire to try Universal Studios, Seaworld, or anything outside of the Disney Bubble. I was officially hooked on Disney!

After that first trip, I started noticing little changes like appetizers not being included in the dining plan, parking not being free, and benefits being taken away despite the increase in prices. It was like a fire ant bite, irritating as all get out but tolerable. After 2020 my biggest fear became a reality. Disney lost the courtesy of trying to mask that they were giving me much less and charging me way more. My easy vacation became a nickel and dimed affair. We now have to pay for everything that once was free! And there seems to be no CARE whatsoever from the Big Dog Bob Paycheck.

I knew that I was starting to teeter when we decided to book hotels off property. Gasp! I broke the Disney Bubble! It just made more sense to stay in a hotel off property for $80 a night with free breakfast verses $180 on property for an All Star Resort. There were no more perks to keep me in the bubble. Let's be honest. There is no longer extended hours unless I pay for a Deluxe hotel which can be more than 10x the price of the off property hotel. There is no longer free fastpasses or free dining plans....actually there are no dining plans at all! There is no more Magical Express. What is Disney giving me for staying on property?

Finally last summer I could no longer justify the cost for a full week at WDW. What!? Maybe I was overcome with an Eeyore mindset, but the cost for what I was getting was no longer balanced on the scale. I decided to check into the cost of a Universal Orlando trip and found an excellent price on their top tier annual pass! Did you know that you can stay in a Premier resort at Universal for a Disney Value Resort price? Did you know that if you stay at a Premier Resort you get a free express pass for everyone in your party and can get into the parks early? I didn't either! SO WE DID IT! We invested in an annual pass! Let me sum this up for you... in the last year my husband and I have flown out to UO 5 times, stayed a total of 4 weeks and paid less than a 1 week trip to WDW. Every time we turn around we get discounts for having an AP. We don't have to wait in many lines, and a lot of days we sleep in and don't get to the parks until 4pm and can still ride all of the rides with the help of our annual pass after 4pm express pass . We even got a HHN ticket free with our pass! Now obviously I can't just not go to WDW. So we have added a day here and there for Disney while on our UO trips. Unless something drastically happens at Disney, I don't think we will be going back to the Disney Bubble life.

This may come as a surprise but none of the things you listed as free were actually free. You were being forced to pay for them whether you chose to use them or not. You can still take the same Mears bus as you did before but instead of bundling the cost into your hotel without your consent you can now choose to pay for it or not. Same with fast pass and same with dining. You never actually received a free dining plan. Instead of paying a lower rate for your room you decided to pre-pay for a non-refundable meal plan. None of it was free.

The prices have gone up for WDW pretty much every single year since they opened. At some point, each person reaches the point where they choose not to pay the higher prices. You reached yours and that's OK. You don't have to justify it - that's just part of business. That's the thing to remember - Disney is and always has been a business. The same complaints you have now are the same complaints people had in 2005 (year of your first trip) when they compared their experience versus cost from 1995 to 2005. So while you were thinking "This is a great deal - I get all of this free stuff" back in 2005, there were long time Disney parks fans who were complaining that too much had changed, prices had gone up too much and proclaiming they were done going to Disney. The cycle just repeats and repeats.

Another possible surprise - prices have gone up everywhere for everything. Look at your grocery receipt or your gas receipt. We recently took a trip to the Outer Banks. The house we rented for a week in 2012 for $4,000 now costs $12,000 a week during the same time period. It's just crazy....

I'm glad you found Universal. We love UO and IMO there is no shame in a Disney fan visiting UO. Sometimes people want something different and that's OK too.

We recently visited WDW for the first time in a few years and I was dreading this as possibly our last ever visit. So much had changed in the world and everything I read about WDW sounded so negative. Prices kept going up and I thought this was our balking point.

Well, surprisingly we had our best trip ever. We rode more rides and did more attractions than we ever did before. Using Genie Plus and $ILL allowed me to stack rides throughout the day so my wife could sleep in and relax on the patio with her cup of coffee in the morning instead of marching out the door at 6:45 AM. It was a great trip and now we are planning our return next summer after our daughter graduates high school.

 

[Marionnette]

This may come as a surprise but none of the things you listed as free were actually free. You were being forced to pay for them whether you chose to use them or not. You can still take the same Mears bus as you did before but instead of bundling the cost into your hotel without your consent you can now choose to pay for it or not. Same with fast pass and same with dining. You never actually received a free dining plan. Instead of paying a lower rate for your room you decided to pre-pay for a non-refundable meal plan. None of it was free.

While not *free* per se, no one got a price break when those things were eliminated.

• Overnight parking - room prices weren't reduced, a new fee was added for those with a vehicle.
• Reduced housekeeping - a brief period whereby guests could opt out of housekeeping at select resorts and get a GC. Now almost everyone gets the same level of reduced service but there was no reduction in room rates.
• Goodbye DME - Hello paid services for MCO <-> resort. And no reduction in room rates.
• Goodbye to package delivery.
• Goodbye to evening EMH.
• Reduce extra morning hours to 30 minutes. All with no reduction in room rates.
• Shorten Park hours and ticket prices still go up.
• Hold 4 holiday parties per week and kick out day guests at 6PM on those nights, but no reduction in ticket prices for fewer park hours on those days.
• Eliminate tram service and it still costs the same to park in the asphalt Sahara and Gobi deserts otherwise known as the Epcot and AK lots.

So while the cost of those things were always baked into your resort or ticket prices, no one got a price-break when they were eliminated.

 

[NavyDad]

While not *free* per se, no one got a price break when those things were eliminated.

• Overnight parking - room prices weren't reduced, a new fee was added for those with a vehicle.
• Reduced housekeeping - a brief period whereby guests could opt out of housekeeping at select resorts and get a GC. Now almost everyone gets the same level of reduced service but there was no reduction in room rates.
• Goodbye DME - Hello paid services for MCO <-> resort. And no reduction in room rates.
• Goodbye to package delivery.
• Goodbye to evening EMH.
• Reduce extra morning hours to 30 minutes. All with no reduction in room rates.
• Shorten Park hours and ticket prices still go up.
• Hold 4 holiday parties per week and kick out day guests at 6PM on those nights, but no reduction in ticket prices for fewer park hours on those days.
• Eliminate tram service and it still costs the same to park in the asphalt Sahara and Gobi deserts otherwise known as the Epcot and AK lots.

So while the cost of those things were always baked into your resort or ticket prices, no one got a price-break when they were eliminated.

Of course prices didn't go down but that doesn't mean there was not a price break from the potential increase. Do ice cream makers drop the price of a "half gallon" of ice cream when they incrementally decrease the size every year?

No - they don't

Second question - if Disney added all of those things back tomorrow, how much would you expect them to raise ticket prices and room rates to cover the costs of bringing them back? Whatever that answer comes out to be is the "price break" that you are getting from not being forced to pay for them anymore.

First rule of economics: There is no such thing as a Free Lunch (even on the Disney Dining Plan)

 

[Marionnette]

Of course prices didn't go down but that doesn't mean there was not a price break from the potential increase. Do ice cream makers drop the price of a "half gallon" of ice cream when they incrementally decrease the size every year?

But the ice cream maker doesn't concurrently raise the price while reducing the size of the product. Disney has done both. Optics are just as important in business as finance. Lately, Disney has been ignoring the optics.

 

[NavyDad]

But the ice cream maker doesn't concurrently raise the price while reducing the size of the product. Disney has done both. Optics are just as important in business as finance. Lately, Disney has been ignoring the optics.

Yes, they do.

They just don't raise it quite as much as they would have if they hadn't cut back on the size.

 

[Beer Me]

While not *free* per se, no one got a price break when those things were eliminated.

• Overnight parking - room prices weren't reduced, a new fee was added for those with a vehicle.
• Reduced housekeeping - a brief period whereby guests could opt out of housekeeping at select resorts and get a GC. Now almost everyone gets the same level of reduced service but there was no reduction in room rates.
• Goodbye DME - Hello paid services for MCO <-> resort. And no reduction in room rates.
• Goodbye to package delivery.
• Goodbye to evening EMH.
• Reduce extra morning hours to 30 minutes. All with no reduction in room rates.
• Shorten Park hours and ticket prices still go up.
• Hold 4 holiday parties per week and kick out day guests at 6PM on those nights, but no reduction in ticket prices for fewer park hours on those days.
• Eliminate tram service and it still costs the same to park in the asphalt Sahara and Gobi deserts otherwise known as the Epcot and AK lots.

So while the cost of those things were always baked into your resort or ticket prices, no one got a price-break when they were eliminated.

I agree you were always paying for perks somehow, but it still felt good to not have a bunch of extra charges. When parking was free it felt like a real perk. I genuinely appreciated this and it made me much more likely to stay on site. Fast pass was always something special because it was free and every other theme park had a paid system. Again I very much appreciated this and it colored my opinion about WDW in a positive way.

Charging for these feels tacky to me. It’s not necessarily the total dollar amount but the multiple up charges. Yes, it’s what everyone else does but Disney is supposed to be different. Obviously they are a business and exist to make money but they didn’t use to shove it in your face so much. It definitely takes away from the magic.

 

[Jaymarkm]

I think DVC is and will be fantastic as a base of operations too. Head to beach, head to other parks, go see a Magic game, go see fam for the day. I guess I’m not needing a bubble as much as some? We usually go see the ocean for a couple days as we live pretty dang far from an ocean.