Planning Stage - is 1 Week At Universal and 1 Week Disney A Good Idea

[kiteboy]

Hi all - Im currently pricing up a 14 day holiday to Orlando from the UK

None of us have ever been so its a learning exercise to say the least!

Im not really decided if we are going yet as its an absolute chunk of money but Im also thinking its perfect timing for our 9 year old too

We were thinking 2 weeks at a Disney Resort would be good for us - Ive also looked up the cheaper options such as Rosen Buena Vista but I think we may spend quiet a lot on ubers and lyfts to get into parks early so may as well upgrade to a Dinsey resort instead

So Im currently pricing up the disney value resorts but I also like the look of the French Quarter too - all look pretty good and obviously you can pay whatever your budget allows!

Then I saw that Cabana Bay is right next door to Volcano Bay which for our feet I think that would be great option as I have a feeling my boy wont like queuing all the time too
So a quick 5min walk to volcano bay sounds great

Would it be a good idea to have a week at a universal resort and a week at a disney resort?

Ive also heared mention though that 3 days max is all you need at universal?? is that true

Logistics of everything is hard work to figure out - another thing we are trying to figure out is food costs too

Im budgeting for £75 a day per person - which I think is mad but mainly snacks I would have thought as my boy is fussy eater

Any advice welcome - also tickets themselves I was going to go for a combo ticket for £850 each roughly for universal and disney but again is that overkill

 

[Kate_45]

I would give a little more time to disney than universal as it has 4 parks and 2 waterparks as opposed to 2 and 1.

Offsite will probably be cheaper than disney even with the ubers - if you add $40 a day for them you should be more than fine. Watch our for resort fees offside though.

Afraid I can't help you with food yet, had the dining plan last time, but there are loads of menus online so try pricing up some sample days perhaps?

 

[MarkleB]

Disney World essentially only has 1 waterpark these days, it just shifts location from time to time.

I'd consider planning in some rest days out of those 14. If you plan 7 Disney park days, 2 rest days (probably not back-to-back), a waterpark day, and 4 Universal days, that sounds pretty reasonable. We never made it to a waterpark, and we lamented not visiting Universal, but we couldn't have done more without our rest days.

I finished analysing our finances from our 14 night Christmas trip to Disney World, and we averaged £60/person/day. That includes everything not purchased ahead of time, so meals, snacks, souvenirs, gifts for folks back home, lightning lanes, and the occasional Lyft. And the souvenirs included two lightsabers and two droids, so could have been considerably less. We took a Lyft to a Walmart early on to buy breakfast items to put together most mornings and snacks like crisps to carry around the parks. £75/person/day sounds like a reasonable budget to me. (I like my budgets padded.) Shockingly, less than £6/person/day went to snacks, though it felt like a lot more in the parks. Donuts the size of your face tend to get shared.

Each Lyft was around the $10 mark for us in December, and we never waited more than 5 minutes, but we never used it early mornings for rope drop.

After this trip, I'll never talk my wife out of a non-Skyliner resort, but Lyfts and an off-site hotel would likely be cheaper. But Kate_45's advice about looking out for resort fees is critical. I'd personally prioritise the Early Theme Park Entry perk if staying at a non-Disney resort, as a handful of hotels offer it. We loved early entry, and it was easy to wake up early coming from the UK.

Enjoy your trip and enjoy planning it. It sounds magical.

 

[kiteboy]

Thanks both some info there - its hard work to get head around if you not been before

I think im tempted to be more inclined to stay on site if we can - we are not planning to do it again really just due to the costs but you never know we may absolutely love it there too!

We may as well hit it the first time - just universal and disney I think is enough for us - I know theres loads more there but you cant do it all plus we are likely to be knackered too

I think our strategy would be to hit the parks in the morning - then some sort of pool waterslide place in the afternoon and then back to parks in the evenings for fireworks - we dont want to be worn out everyday as that will lead to a grumpy kid

£60 a day for food is good - I can go light on food its my son we are more concerned about but from what Ive seen your not exactly gonna starve there by any stretch!!- plus I see you can get delivery's from walmart to the resort which may help us out if we do decide to go

next stage really is making a decision!!!

 

[jf256]

Caveat our 2020 trip was cancelled and we are going our first trip in 2 months

Just a few thoughts:

7 day ticket for wdw will likely cost the same as a 14 so that is something to consider.

Will your children be 9 at the time of the trip or will they be 10 that can make a huge difference to your overall food spend and ticket cost.

75pp should be easily doable if you are planning mostly quick service with some table dining. But have you looked up places you want to go and roughly how much they cost eg character meals can run at $60pp plus tax and tip. Kids are a bit cheaper but kids pay adult prices at disney at 10. Honestly if your child is still 9 then it may be better to go earlier rather than postpone it because the costs do jump significantly.

I actually posted about this on the dining forum a few months ago and got some interesting insight - however if you are doing mostly QS with a few table service meals thrown in it should be fine. If you are planning a table service meal + QS and your kids are 10+ then you may struggle. https://www.disboards.com/threads/food-budgets-what-was-yours-how-long.3896199/

Are you planning 2023 or 2024 as disney deals for 2023 are pretty much over now there is a free night offer and gift card floating but you need to book flights and i'm not sure its a great deal. The hotel price seems to be about what we paid when we got 5 nights plus gift cards + dining credit

Moderate and budget resort perks are not that much better than partner hotels at the moment. If you stay at the swolphin you actually get extra evening hours aswell and it is walkable to two parks. There are offsite fees but a lot of the time still ends up same price as a disney moderate (Dependent on season - the prices are a bit all over the place eg my points stay at swan reserve would cost me $600 a night at the moment but it was $350 6 months ago when I booked. If you book a rate that allows for changes you can lock it in and then cancel if disney offer a good deal or the rates go down). You also have the hiltons onsite at disney springs and bonnet creek.

 

[kiteboy]

Awesome - my son is 8 now and will be 9 at the time of travel - so thats great to know - I did think prices might change at 10 but not really looked at - now or never then really

We would probably be doing quick service mostly with the odd table service maybe if my son fancies the food! Im hoping it might help with him trying new food to be honest - I cant see my son being that bothered about meeting characters nevermind dining with them so that would save us time and money too

Will have a another good look tonight - all im doing at the moment is youtube videos on hotels and waterparks etc - spent hrs looking at so any info regarding options is great

 

[zavandor]

Early entry is a very good perk for staying onsite. Half an hour might seem not much, but it's huge if you can make it*. It allows to ride a couple of priorities before the rest of the guests enter the parks. And then you are ahead of the curve: while everyone else queues for the attractios you've already done, you can move to the next priority where you'll find a short wait. And so on, it adds up a lot.
If you don't get early entry or you think you won't be able to take advantage of it, then budget for Genie+. You might want to buy it at least once anyway both for MK and DHS (it's less useful at Epcot and a waste of money at AK).
Pop century has the Skyliner which makes access to the Studios and Epcot so much easier. If it is within your budget, it's a huge plus

The extra evening hours for deluxe resorts are absolutely fantastic, however I'm not sure it's worth the extra cost.

I usually do 11 nights at Disney and 3 at Universal. Especially with a 9yo, Universal has more coasters and intense rides, Disney caters for kids more.


* the harsh reality of Disney transportation and rope drop is that you have to leave much earlier than you think to take full advantage of it.
For example, if a park opens at 9, it means early entry starts at 8:30. To be among the first to enter and get in line for the top priority you have to be at the park at least at 8:00 or earlier. Which means leave your room at 7, always budget 1 hour for Disney transportation. Can you be ready to leave your room by 7? If not, then Early entry won't give you much.

 

[nicksinger8]

I went this summer with my wife and two girls aged 8 and 11. We actually did one day at universal - we got a two park one day pass and actually for us that was plenty even though we weren't on site. It is very thrill ride heavy and whilst we don't mind some thrills, there were plenty of rides we had to skip. We also like Harry Potter, but don't love it so we did miss Forbidden Journey (due to motion sickness) and Hagrid (due to ridiculous queues). I would have thought, for most people, 2 days would be a good amount for the parks and 3 for those who want to do everything, especially if staying on site - you can then skip queues.

 

[IzzyQQ]

When I first took my children at 7 and 10 we stayed in Disney for 2 weeks and used a hire car to get to Universal for 2 days. If I was taking children again now I would stay at Disney again and use an Uber to travel between.
For our adults only May trip I did a spreadsheet of hotels, they all had to be close and have transport. We were going to go for a Disney Springs location but factoring in any costs for paying for the transport and distance we decided in the end to go for Coronado Springs. I deducted the ticket price and free dining credit and the resulting room base price was comparable to the Holiday Inn.

 

[Ruttangel]

As everyone has pointed out Universal is 2 day max, Disney you can spend 10 days easy.
Universal, stay 2 nights at on site hotel that has skip the line passes, will make your life so much easier. We preferred Royal Pacific to Hard Rock
Disney, stay where you like but for a first timer how about a nice moderate like Port Orleans French Quarter, lovely grounds, boat ride to Disney Springs. For a deluxe I would pick Yacht Club as that helps get to Epcot and Hollywood otherwise Animal Kingdom Lodge is best resort for value and amenities. I wouldn't stay near Magic Kingdom prices are high and too far from other parks.