"Affordable" combined WDW/Universal trip?

[SweetieinVT]

I'm looking for recommendations for how to make a combined trip affordable. I'm thinking two to three days at Universal, four to five at WDW, probably at a moderate (we stayed at Coronado last time) or maybe Wyndham Bonnet Creek, but I'm open to suggestions. Has anybody done this? What tips/tricks can you recommend? We have two adults, and 12 (g), 10 (b), 7 (b), and 5 (g) YO kids.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

I've looked into this and it's really not affordable. The only way to save a bit of cash is to stay offsite and buy tickets througha discount site but even then it's not a big savings.

 

[Marshmelo]

Universal may have a special deal if you stay at one of their hotels the days you visit there.

 

[Parker Clan]

I'm looking for recommendations for how to make a combined trip affordable. I'm thinking two to three days at Universal, four to five at WDW, probably at a moderate (we stayed at Coronado last time) or maybe Wyndham Bonnet Creek, but I'm open to suggestions. Has anybody done this? What tips/tricks can you recommend? We have two adults, and 12 (g), 10 (b), 7 (b), and 5 (g) YO kids.

We do it every year. Go in the summer lol specifically August. Mid to late. If you can. The last seven years we've done combined Universal and Disney trips. Staying on site at Universal in a resort that gives free express pass is key because all the rides accept EP.

 

[bumbershoot]

Buying the two sets of tickets is what makes a combo trip expensive.

For Uni I stay onsite at royal pacific, hard rock, or portofino. That gives you unlimited express pass for your entire stay (from checkin to park-close on checkout day) and early entrance to one or both Wizarding worlds each day.

 

[illinidp]

Booking an AP rate and then upgrading at least one person to an AP can save several hundred dollars, especially at Universal.

 

[melissapealo]

Did you stay in 2 rooms at CSR or a suite? If a suite, then 2 rooms would be cheaper although not guaranteed to be connecting. Also 2 rooms at a value would be less. You could look at a family suite at AoA or ASMusic and that cost might be lower as well. Also a cabin at the Fort, while would be less square footage would give you a kitchen if you wanted to save money on meals. I'm not sure but I think it may be more cost effective with that large of a group at Universal to stay at a cheaper resort and then add the express pass. I just put in some random dates and it looks like Cabana Bay is around 200 a night for a family suite while the 3 that offer free express pass are all around 800.
Another option would be staying offsite for the trip. You can get a 3 bedroom condo for under 1000. for a week. We've actually gotten 10 nights for 800. That would save a lot of money on the lodging. You could also utilize the kitchen and save on meal cost as well as have laundry in the unit. You would need to figure in car rental as well as parking if you do stay offsite. There are many places where you can purchase discounted park tickets if you do stay offsite.
It really depends on what you consider "affordable" as everyone's opinion on that varies. There are many options available, you just need to determine what the priorities are for your family and then go from there.

 

[Sue M]

At Universal they have a value resort that has family suites at half the cost of WDW value resort family suites, with a lot more amenities. Cabana Bay. I’d spend 3-4 days at Universal.

 

[Kaytie]

Using random dates next spring, All Star Music comes up at 50% higher than Cabana Bay, not twice as much.

 

[wellesleyprincess]

The main issue with affordability is the ticket costs not the hotels. Both have affordable hotel options. I'm biased but Cabana Bay is my happy place and I would be happy just to vacation there.

The reason it is much more expensive than just a week at either one is the cost per day of tickets goes down as the number of days go up. So for example, a 5 day ticket to one will be significantly less than 2 days at 2 different parks.

TBH with 4 kids and a split trip, I'd look at offsite vacation homes. Cabana Bay (as much as I love it) would be a bit tight with all 6 as would the family suites at ASMu. Because your kids are all over 3 you'll have to have rooms that sleep 6 which limit you to two rooms or family suites. We did that exact split last time with 4 adults because we needed 3 beds (my husband and I weren't married yet) and it was comfortable. I could imagine doing it with 6 if more of your kids were younger, but I'm guessing with the amount of stuff, it'd be tight at Cabana Bay. Similarly I think having all the fold outs out constantly at the All Stars might lead to some tripping over each other.

 

[Disnsyncey]

I would one day like to visit Universal again (my university rented out IOA when I was there, so we had free visits) but if I only have a limited amount of time and MONEY (that's the main factor), I have to stick to WDW, as the price of the tickets for 2 instead of 1 is MUCH more money....

if you had the money to sink into those 2 sets of tickets, I would split between on site at Disney and a deluxe (or whatever is the equivalent in their terms) at Universal in order to get the express pass....

 

[Monykalyn]

How we made it "affordable" in 2015- family of 5:
6 nights onsite WDW(3cbr/3BC) booked through Orbitz stack discounts with WDW spring discount and 15% off Orbitz code. Went through ebates for cash back. I have an Orbitz CC so had reward dollars saved. Did same thing for one night at Universal (RPR) to get 2 days EP (had enough rewards to get a club level too).
Another week in our timeshare. We had buy 2 get one day free tickets to universal bought through reseller (UT- has cashback on ebates as well). Bought WDW tickets through cheap tickets (Buy 4 days get 3 days free I think) Ebates at the time had cash back of 15%with cheap tickets.
Disclaimer- I've not seen anything like the discounts I found in 2015 since. And it was still expensive! But I saved several hundred dollars doing it this way
I did a spread sheet when I got back and not doing a dining plan saved us money-we simply don't eat that way. I think we also added a day into WDW tix when we were there, plus had a couple down days to relax at resort amenities.

 

[SweetieinVT]

We do it every year. Go in the summer lol specifically August. Mid to late. If you can. The last seven years we've done combined Universal and Disney trips. Staying on site at Universal in a resort that gives free express pass is key because all the rides accept EP.

Yeah, definitely looking at one of the resorts that gives the express pass, and that is not cheap, but no worse than paying for the express pass. I don't think we could do august, just how our summers work, plus the heat, but we are looking at late April, which is not too horrible. But thanks for the suggestion on the timing, will check it out just in case.

 

[SweetieinVT]

Did you stay in 2 rooms at CSR or a suite? If a suite, then 2 rooms would be cheaper although not guaranteed to be connecting. Also 2 rooms at a value would be less. You could look at a family suite at AoA or ASMusic and that cost might be lower as well. Also a cabin at the Fort, while would be less square footage would give you a kitchen if you wanted to save money on meals. I'm not sure but I think it may be more cost effective with that large of a group at Universal to stay at a cheaper resort and then add the express pass. I just put in some random dates and it looks like Cabana Bay is around 200 a night for a family suite while the 3 that offer free express pass are all around 800.
Another option would be staying offsite for the trip. You can get a 3 bedroom condo for under 1000. for a week. We've actually gotten 10 nights for 800. That would save a lot of money on the lodging. You could also utilize the kitchen and save on meal cost as well as have laundry in the unit. You would need to figure in car rental as well as parking if you do stay offsite. There are many places where you can purchase discounted park tickets if you do stay offsite.
It really depends on what you consider "affordable" as everyone's opinion on that varies. There are many options available, you just need to determine what the priorities are for your family and then go from there.

We did two rooms at CSR last time, which was a requirement with our parents there with us that trip. As I recall, the cost of two rooms was about a wash vs a suite at one of the All Star or POP resorts, and cheaper than AoA. And I've looked at renting a home, but it also ends up being more or less a wash once I pay for a minivan rental. I will have to double check the cost of the value resorts again though to make sure it's not a big difference for 6 vs 8.

 

[SaintsManiac]

The tickets to Universal were a killer. I bought them months ago to avoid any increases and just told myself it would be worth it when I'm on the Hogwarts Express.

 

[SweetieinVT]

How we made it "affordable" in 2015- family of 5:
6 nights onsite WDW(3cbr/3BC) booked through Orbitz stack discounts with WDW spring discount and 15% off Orbitz code. Went through ebates for cash back. I have an Orbitz CC so had reward dollars saved. Did same thing for one night at Universal (RPR) to get 2 days EP (had enough rewards to get a club level too).
Another week in our timeshare. We had buy 2 get one day free tickets to universal bought through reseller (UT- has cashback on ebates as well). Bought WDW tickets through cheap tickets (Buy 4 days get 3 days free I think) Ebates at the time had cash back of 15%with cheap tickets.
Disclaimer- I've not seen anything like the discounts I found in 2015 since. And it was still expensive! But I saved several hundred dollars doing it this way
I did a spread sheet when I got back and not doing a dining plan saved us money-we simply don't eat that way. I think we also added a day into WDW tix when we were there, plus had a couple down days to relax at resort amenities.

I haven't looked into booking through Orbitz or such, will have to look at that.

 

[Upatnoon]

The cost is all in the tickets. They aren't cheap and there are no discounts, or skimpy ones at best. The only relief is buying a ticket with more days, making the per-day cost cheaper. This is why I always recommend doing Disney or Universal, but not both in the same trip.

Also, I personally would find that many theme park days in a row to be exhausting. I would want some relaxation days. But everyone is different.

However, you can save money by staying in a timeshare, condo or rental home and cooking some meals instead of staying in a resort hotel. You can save by driving instead of flying. You can save by limiting merchandise purchases. You can save by having a car and driving to cheaper places to eat instead of in the resort areas. For example, Twisty Treat instead of Beaches and Cream.

I'm looking for recommendations for how to make a combined trip affordable. I'm thinking two to three days at Universal, four to five at WDW, probably at a moderate (we stayed at Coronado last time) or maybe Wyndham Bonnet Creek, but I'm open to suggestions. Has anybody done this? What tips/tricks can you recommend? We have two adults, and 12 (g), 10 (b), 7 (b), and 5 (g) YO kids.

 

[Disneytam]

We saved money by getting a seasonal AP at Universal and using that for a discount at the PBH and that gives us front of the line passes as well. Then we scheduled it so that we could do two vacations within a twelve month period so that we got two trips out of the Universal seasonal AP. For our second trip which is coming up next month we added three days and two nights at Disney. The deluxe hotel prices are really different in price between Disney and Universal. We are staying at the Dolphin for our Disney part of the stay to save some money as well. OK, really I couldn't find any rooms at any of the EPCOT resorts, but it did save some money. We are paying about $350 a night for a room at the Dolphin and our AP rate at the PBH at Universal is about $340 a night. The Portofino Bay hotel is for a club level room so you can see the large difference in hotel prices. I think a Wilderness Lodge room for the same time period was $470 a night and that was for a standard view (over looking the roofs or parking lots). Any way you look at it Disney is getting really expensive! An AP ticket for Disney is over $800 a year compared to the seasonal Universal AP ticket that cost us a little over $300. The black out dates are days that we would have no interest in going anyway so it works for us.

 

[Sue M]

We saved money by getting a seasonal AP at Universal and using that for a discount at the PBH and that gives us front of the line passes as well. Then we scheduled it so that we could do two vacations within a twelve month period so that we got two trips out of the Universal seasonal AP. For our second trip which is coming up next month we added three days and two nights at Disney. The deluxe hotel prices are really different in price between Disney and Universal. We are staying at the Dolphin for our Disney part of the stay to save some money as well. OK, really I couldn't find any rooms at any of the EPCOT resorts, but it did save some money. We are paying about $350 a night for a room at the Dolphin and our AP rate at the PBH at Universal is about $340 a night. The Portofino Bay hotel is for a club level room so you can see the large difference in hotel prices. I think a Wilderness Lodge room for the same time period was $470 a night and that was for a standard view (over looking the roofs or parking lots). Any way you look at it Disney is getting really expensive! An AP ticket for Disney is over $800 a year compared to the seasonal Universal AP ticket that cost us a little over $300. The black out dates are days that we would have no interest in going anyway so it works for us.

I agree! The Universal Resorts are a lot lower in cost compared to WDW resorts. We loved Portofino and blew WDW deluxe out of the water. We stayed at Portofino one Aug with great discount and was same cost as a WDW moderate.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I'm looking for recommendations for how to make a combined trip affordable. I'm thinking two to three days at Universal, four to five at WDW, probably at a moderate (we stayed at Coronado last time) or maybe Wyndham Bonnet Creek, but I'm open to suggestions. Has anybody done this? What tips/tricks can you recommend? We have two adults, and 12 (g), 10 (b), 7 (b), and 5 (g) YO kids.

My trips just don't seem to be complete unless I do both so I'm biased there.

Depending on what kinds of attractions and rides you and your children like 2 days is adequate at Universal but 3 days gives you just a wee bit more time to explore (such as Harry Potter areas) or even just to reride things. Express Pass can help with that but we wouldn't purchase it on its own personally. Do note that if you want to explore both parks in one day or ride the Hogwarts Express you will need a Park-to-Park ticket.

Now I would also look into ticket deals too. We bought our tickets from Undercover Tourist as a Buy 2 days get 1 day free but Universal themselves also runs deals. Be aware that Universal has adjusted its ticket policy recently. Tickets expire within 7 days rather than the 14 days it previously had. I can't find it now (as it used to be clearly written on their website) about it expiring within 12months of the print date listed on the ticket but depending on when you're going you would want to look into that and see if that is still the case.

Just like Disney, Universal also has courtesy cups of water. I mention this because depending on the time of year you go (with the heat and humidity) this can be a cost-saving measure.