6 days, 5 people, then 4, 3 parks, 2 tired kids, 1 condo = not as much magic

heather13

DIS Veteran
Joined
Jul 6, 2010
Our six day trip to Universal, Seworld and WDW (HS, EP, MK, MNSSHP) was fun but wasn't as magical as past trips when my kids were younger and we stayed on property.

We've always stayed on property, even when I was a kid. But my mother was coming with us so we decided to try a condo. Two rooms on Disney property is very pricey, and we needed more space than an extra DVC bedroom could provide (we tried that last time).

Then a week before our trip my mom broke her leg and couldn't travel.

Windsor Hills was a pleasant experience. Fantastic property, fantastic pool, but not completely worth the hassle with a family of four (although being able to fix breakfast every day was AWESOME and saved $). Definitely missed Magical Express and the ease of getting to parks. However...

Driving to the parks at WDW from Windsor Hills was VERY easy. It was a 15 minute drive, plus 5-20 minutes depending on the park. HS was definitely our easiest day, we were at the gate 20 minutes after leaving the condo. We waited 45 minutes just for a bus to show up when staying at Disney properties. That was probably my favorite part and park!

MNSSHP was such a disappointment. We absolutely loved it five years ago. But the parade was cut in half, the show was awful (Hocus Pocus witches, really Disney??), CMs were stingy with candy (I shouldn't complain about this one, but my kids RAVED last time at the amount of candy they got and talked about the party for weeks afterward) and we missed every dance party thanks to a FP confusion (another story) and trying to get a good spot for the show and parade. DH was grumpy and DD was too tired after fireworks to do anything else.

F&W was great, Epcot was so much better now that my kids can ride bigger rides - that became one of their favorite parks. HS was fantastic - loved the shows, loved the rides, loved SW, loved Jedi training, loved Sci Fi atmosphere and food. Our MK day was great and thanks to Touring Plans we rode almost everything. It was very hot though and DD had to take a break in the shade (even though it wasn't in our plan!!). BOG was fantastic - steak, french onion soup were great, grey stuff was meh, other desserts were very good and meeting the Beast was very cool.

Visited Disney Springs for the first time ever. TRex was very fun, food was very good. The whole area is very cool but rather crowded. Lots of teenagers just wandering around in the evening. I wasn't too comfortable with that, especially as some of them were swearing around my kids.

Universal, well... I'll just say we left this as our last day to go out with a HP bang. It was more of a whimper. Disney just does things so well so that it was hard to compare. I really regret not doing the park earlier in the week when we had more energy. HP World was fantastic - but we spent a lot of money to go spend money in Diagon Alley (where else can Olivander help my daughter choose a wand? - yes she was picked and she was delighted). Aside from the shops and a handful of rides at HP we really didn't find much to do. Should have bought TP for Universal - we wasted far too much time in lines. By the time we finished with HP World it was 5pm and the only rides that weren't kiddy rides were water rides. Weather was getting cooler by then so we started to leave the park. As we were leaving crowds were starting to come in for their HHN. We had the worst time trying to find the parking garage - no signs, no CMs to help. It was awful and made me really miss Disney with happy CMs guiding everyone to their cars. After speaking with friends about this park over the last several days, we all agreed that it's probably better to do just Disney or just Universal. We probably could have spent 3 days at Universal - focusing on HP one day then doing rides multiple times later. The park just felt disorganized but I suspect there's a lot to do there if you know where to look.

As for Seaworld, not much to see there but I'm glad we did it. We voted that it had the best ride (Mako) and best show (Pets Ahoy) out of every park, but that's about it. That fortunately was a more casual day. Kraken (roller coaster with VR glasses) was horrid for me. I don't get motion sick easily, but I almost had to lie down for an hour. It was evening before I felt completely normal again. I should have known when more than half of the riders weren't even wearing the VR glasses.

It's been five years since our last Orlando trip, when my kids were enamored with princesses and meeting characters. It was fun to see them evolve and be interested in other things, like learning about countries, animals and judging the looks of the princesses ("She would make a much better Cinderella than a Belle!"). I'm hopeful that we can make it back there when they're teenagers to see the next evolution. And I hope that I'll remember to add a few additional days of rest next time.
 
What a wonderful report, Heather, and I can certainly relate to the whole "missing Disney" feeling when at Universal. It has been reported all year that Universal seems more crowded than Disney this year( even the Magic Kingdom). Was that your experience as well?
 
What a wonderful report, Heather, and I can certainly relate to the whole "missing Disney" feeling when at Universal. It has been reported all year that Universal seems more crowded than Disney this year( even the Magic Kingdom). Was that your experience as well?

I felt that Universal was more crowded starting midday, but that might have simply been a result of limited space in Diagon Alley. Definitely the first two hours weren't crowded at all, except Olivander's which is where we started. With a Touring Plan we probably would have left after lunch to ride something else but I couldn't quite figure out what to do that wouldn't eventually require a 90 minute wait for Hogwarts Express to get to the next park, and as my daughter mentioned we were specifically there for HP.
I thought Disney was more crowded than I remembered from previous trips (early December and mid-October), but not quite as bad as I'd feared based on predictions here.
 

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