"Affordable" combined WDW/Universal trip?

[lambdabeta]

We are doing a split stay. First week WDW and second Universal. The Universal trip we are staying at HRH CL for less than CR in WDW. I saved by doing room only booking and buying tickets through my work website. Plum benefits/tickets at work they had a deal at Universal buy 3 days get 4. Right now they are having deals like that. Buy 2 days and get 5. We bought our Disney tickets at the cheapest secondary sellers. At the time it was Maple leaf. It varies who has the cheapest. We are driving to Tampa for 2 days to visit family in the middle of our trip so we needed a rental car. We decided to get one for 1 week because the price difference wasn't that much and it will get us to Disney faster. We also are flying in the day before and staying at a cheap hotel near the airport and driving to Disney first thing in the am to get the most benefit. I hate to pay $500/night and get in at noon and not enjoy the parks. We are doing the same thing before Universal so we don't have to drive back from Tampa really early to check in to HRH. There are a lot of options out there. You may find a package may work for you or staying at Universal at a deluxe for the days you are going to the park and then a lower category or outside hotel for Disney and use Uber or the hotel shuttles to get back and forth to the Disney parks. Everyone has a different way to save. There aren't as many discounts available as there used to be from what I have been reading. Good Luck and enjoy your trip.

 

[Sue M]

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.

I noticed that too about not offering 14 days anymore AND they stopped selling the multi park pass (Orlando Pass I think it was called) where you could buy Universal, Seaworld, Aquatica, and Busch Gardens options that exp in 14 days. We used to buy Universal, SeaWorld and Busch Gardens, 3 Park Pass and could go to any of those parks as many days as you want for 14 days. Since our trips are 10-14 days this worked well.
So now if you wanted more than 7 day entry have to buy AP. And buy SeaWorld separately

 

[Sue M]

We are doing a split stay. First week WDW and second Universal. The Universal trip we are staying at HRH CL for less than CR in WDW. I saved by doing room only booking and buying tickets through my work website. Plum benefits/tickets at work they had a deal at Universal buy 3 days get 4. Right now they are having deals like that. Buy 2 days and get 5. We bought our Disney tickets at the cheapest secondary sellers. At the time it was Maple leaf. It varies who has the cheapest. We are driving to Tampa for 2 days to visit family in the middle of our trip so we needed a rental car. We decided to get one for 1 week because the price difference wasn't that much and it will get us to Disney faster. We also are flying in the day before and staying at a cheap hotel near the airport and driving to Disney first thing in the am to get the most benefit. I hate to pay $500/night and get in at noon and not enjoy the parks. We are doing the same thing before Universal so we don't have to drive back from Tampa really early to check in to HRH. There are a lot of options out there. You may find a package may work for you or staying at Universal at a deluxe for the days you are going to the park and then a lower category or outside hotel for Disney and use Uber or the hotel shuttles to get back and forth to the Disney parks. Everyone has a different way to save. There aren't as many discounts available as there used to be from what I have been reading. Good Luck and enjoy your trip.

I believe Maple Leaf only gives vouchers and charges a fee for delivery? UT sends real tickets & no shipping fee. When I’ve checked UT has been cheaper for us.

 

[luvallprincesses]

When we did a split stay, we watched for AP rates at Uni to stay at Royal Pacific for 3 nights and just purchased the lowest level AP for one person to be able to book that rate. Then used American Express points to stay at the Swan. We also found it cheaper to hire private transportation from Uni to Disney since we were a party of 6, it was cheaper than per person with Mears, etc.

 

[Haley R]

I don't think you will need any more than 2 days at Universal. We stayed at Royal Pacific because we wanted to get the unlimited fast passes that come with that hotel. The rest of our family stayed at Cabana Bay and said it was a little noisy and pretty busy. I would compare that to a Value resort at Disney. After our stay at Universal we moved over to POFQ at Disney and stayed there for 3 nights.

 

[lambdabeta]

I believe Maple Leaf only gives vouchers and charges a fee for delivery? UT sends real tickets & no shipping fee. When I’ve checked UT has been cheaper for us.

We didn't get charged a fee for delivery. They do send them via email but we did attach them to our trip already. They were just the cheapest and we didn't care if we had hard tickets or e-tickets.

 

[Sue M]

We didn't get charged a fee for delivery. They do send them via email but we did attach them to our trip already. They were just the cheapest and we didn't care if we had hard tickets or e-tickets.

I guess I haven’t checked them in quite awhile. Last time I did, they charged shipping fee. It was quite a bit to Canada. Glad to hear they don’t anymore.

 

[Alexsandra]

The most economical way would be to do Universal at least 4 nights. The deals are better after 4 nights. I've done spilt stays twice and have done 2 days Universal and 4-5 days Disney but money wise its more economical to do at least 4 nights at both resorts if you can afford it. Last time I stayed at POFQ and then HRH. I loved both of those resorts. HRH was really nice and was so close to the parks. Plus I got express pass but it is on the pricier side. That was before they opened Cabana bay and Sapphire Falls. These two resorts are both more affordable and are so much nicer than Disney's value resorts.

Also check out Costco Travel for Universal. They often have great promotions.

 

[megs1313]

I don't think there's a truly economical way to do this. It's much more economical to do a trip of the same length at just one or the other. JMO!

If Universal is that important to you, I think it's all doable in two days (and one day if you're militant about it.)

 

[Alexsandra]

I don't think there's a truly economical way to do this. It's much more economical to do a trip of the same length at just one or the other. JMO!

If Universal is that important to you, I think it's all doable in two days (and one day if you're militant about it.)

A One day park ticket for universal is just a waste of money. You can get a 3 day park to park ticket for the price of two right now. You can even get a four day park to park with two days free right now. I calculated the trip recently and it was not worth going less than 3 days.

 

[bumbershoot]

A One day park ticket for universal is just a waste of money. You can get a 3 day park to park ticket for the price of two right now. You can even get a four day park to park with two days free right now. I calculated the trip recently and it was not worth going less than 3 days.

Well, we've had a stay of 8 days and it was going to be glorious (and then my son and I got ridiculously sick so our club level Portofino time became recuperation time and to go glasses of wine from Club personnel for me in the evenings lol).

But I don't consider a one day trip to be a waste, if that's the time you have.

 

[cdnusagurl]

We are doing this next year for the first time, but it will just be my husband and I. We're doing 8 days at Disney and 4 days at Universal. To save on money you could stay at a value at Disney for those nights, or a mod if you don't plan lots of table service meals for your trip, then stay offsite at Universal by booking a hotwire or similar deal. If you are going next year I recommend getting Universal's buy 2 days, get 2 days free deal. We did this and were able to get tickets with unlimited express passes for around $900 for the two of us. Coupled with the deal we got on our hotel (which was only $70USD) a night and we saved almost $1000 over staying at RPR to get express passes for four days, plus the price of tickets.

 

[goofy4tink]

I guess it all depends on what your actual budget is. I now have an AP at both US/IoA and WDW. But, that's not reasonable for someone who goes just once a year for a few days at each area. I would start my trip at US/IoA. Cabana Bay would probably be your best bet with the size group you have. The Express Pass doesn't come with that resort, so price out the three resorts that do offer it....if you really want the Front of the Line ability, it may be cheaper to get a room at one of those three resorts that include it vs staying at Cabana Bay and having to pay for it..per person, which isn't cheap. A resort that includes the Express may seem more expensive, but really isn't when you add the Express Pass, for each person, daily, to the Cabana Bay costs.
You can then get a car service to WDW. But where to stay. I would be very tempted to price out a family suite vs two rooms at a value. Or even the FtW cabins. Getting a room that will handle six is going to be tough. Staying off-site would be an answer, but you would then need a rental car. You could rent a car at MCO, upon arrival....which would get you to US/IoA (but having to pay to park on a daily basis at your resort), then over to WDW area and you would be able to drive to the parks from your off-site resort, and then back to MCO at the end. But compare costs! It may be cheaper to stay on-site and use DME back, with a car service to US/IoA from MCO and then to WDW.
Yes, it's a lot of work...but if it ends up saving you money, and you get the trip you have been looking forward to, it will be worth it.