Why I made the switch to Universal Orlando

[Einstein509]

You'd only need the one Preferred, but you are correct that it in your case it wouldn't be worthwhile unless they offer a military AP equivalent to Preferred.

Good point, I didn't think about just getting one Preferred Pass to cover the entire family for parking/discounts. That would make it more palatable if we went multiple times per year. However, we only have one trip planned so far.

Thanks for the advice.

 

[notatallmagic]

Haha your story sounds almost identical to mine! Welcome!

As a family we used to go to WDW every year from when our youngest was about four years old until she was around 16 or so. Great memories that I’ll never regret. We used to often get the ‘free’ dining plan as well which was convenient. We never had a desire to visit UO due to our love/fascination with WDW and how dare we take one day away from WDW to visit UO. LOL my avatar and username is still WDW related but that’s ok.

I still miss WDW but we’re totally hooked now on UO. I think both parks have their own type of ‘magic’. Honestly I think it’s all about the wonderful memory making which does not matter necessarily where we are. But I do agree… UO seems so much more affordable. And so much more freedom. Less detailed planning for us means more flexibility and low key.

The most magic we feel is in the Harry Potter areas as we’re huge fans. We are also a big thrill roller coaster family so Velocicoaster etc are must-do’s every trip.

Speaking of every trip… we used to go to WDW once per year. Because APs are affordable at UO, we’ve gone once per month since last August. Not all of us at once but usually 2-3 of us at a time due to college attending etc. (Also due to cheap Spirit/Frontier flights which most people hate but we’ve had good experiences with for a 2 hour flight and only take a small suitcase each as our one personal bag for the weekend). You can’t beat $33 flights each way!

Anyways you’re not alone. You’ll find a new love at UO. I do still miss WDW in small doses but we are so into UO right now. The AP hotel rates are amazing! Although the premiere resorts have been pricey lately but it’s so nice to experience the other ‘prime value’ and ‘value’ resorts. They are all amazing in their own way. For example, DD and I stayed at Aventura in a deluxe queen room last week for only $167 per night and the room was huge with endless windows! We did still get a mini Disney fix by Uber-ing to Disney Springs the one morning and last year we attended the Holiday party at MK. But UO is our current true love right now.

I also love how both parks and Citywalk are all easy walking distance from each other, including most of their hotels to the parks.

Lol I’m rambling but I feel you! UO is more flexible, has its own magic, friendly helpful staff, and feels like more bang for your buck. You’ll LOVE the discounts and after 4 express with premiere. So excited for you!

So many of these stories are similar to ours! A Disney only trip at least once a year from about 2006 until 2018; always on site, often Free Dining. From 2018 until this spring we were Passholders, visiting 3-5x/year, always on site, and using our super fun Frontier/Spirit discounted airfare! We did not renew our passes this Spring, due primarily to the "charging more for less" strategy and the decreases in value and service - and the overcrowding!

We just got back from a week at the SeaWorld parks - solid B+ experience for about 1/3 the price of a Disney trip, after booking the Discovery Cove package with the 14 days of free park tickets. We did uber over to the Disney area for a day; got to experience a weekday uncrowded Disney Springs, FINALLY get some Gideon's cookies (amazing), visit some resorts, walk the Boardwalk, ride the Skyliner, and have dinner at the Poly. It was nostalgic and a little sad. Our Discovery Cove and Aquatica experiences were super fun, and the trip was very low key. We did compare to Disney, with some wins and some losses.

BUT, we spent one day exploring the Universal parks. We had visited one park about ten year ago...but not since. We found the three resorts we visited to be lovely and immersive. We absolutely LOVED the security (shaded and fast) protocols, the easy walk with beautiful landscaping from the parks to Royal Pacific, the friendly staff, the variety of food choices and budget tiers, the closeness of City Walk, and the completely easy ability to navigate the area without needing to wait on transportation. The souvineers were also super compared to what we saw at the Disney resorts - fresh, well priced, and cute displays. (Side note - after being such a HUGE HIT, with the exception of one mug, we saw no Encanto merch at Disney - what's up with that?).

In short, we are now SUPER excited about becoming Universal passholders for a year. I think we will get the escape/immersion feel we loved at "old" Disney with a lot less transportation hassle. Any tips or Boards to visit for Annual Passholders at Universal?

 

[notatallmagic]

My first trip to WDW was in July 2012. We stayed at POFQ. So hot, so crowded! Our party consisted of myself and my 3 teenage daughters.

We had a great time despite the the crowds and heat. We hit the parks at early entry or rope drop and stayed for the extra evening hours. Go go go.

my next couple of trips in the following year we’re simila except the weather.

fast forward to 2017/18 most of my trips are with the husband and I But we have had a couple of trips with our adult children and grandchildren-staying at AKL.

we fell in love with AKL and started spending more time enjoying the resort.
in 2019, we bought DVC direct AKV. We have since stayed at many of the DVC resorts and are not park open to close as much but we on our vacation in May 2022, we did spend more time 8n the park because we took our youngest grandson For his first trip.

thankfully, our vacations are mostly pre paid due to DVC and AP and are only OOP for food and flights but I can understand how many people would want to spend their money elsewhere.

I have been to Universal and LoVE HPW. i would visit again, but when I go to WDW, I am in the Disney bubble and everything is just a bus, skylines, monorail, boat ride away.
park reservations are not much different than planning FP+ I don’t really care for the park hopping after 2 rule because sometimes we hit AK early and have lunch at a different park.

for some people, WDW is a one and done. For us, we enjoy the resort, the parks, the entertainment, the shopping, sometimes the food, the festivals, and so much more.

Is WDw our only vacation destination? No. Am I happy with the price increases? No, but WDW must raise prices to keep up with inflation and to continue to provide a great vacation destination.

OP, I understand the frustration and there are many things that I am not happy with at this time-lack of daily house keeping, no TiW card, no dining plan, park hopping after 2, no room service, no Magical Express (tried Mears and not a fan), and probably a few more issues.

Curious if Disney is still skipping the room cleaning - we were just at a SeaWorld area resort, with a lovely clean room every night, emptied trash and new toiletries and coffee, a FRESHLY MADE BED, and other nice touches...alll for far less than a Disney Value resort. Oh, and add two hot tubs, live steel drum music, a resort Starbucks, a super nice front desk staff with no wait, and free drink coupons. At this point, I think Disney's "charge more for less" comes down to excuses and ways to save money.

 

[notatallmagic]

Well consider if you're just looking at 4 theme parks to 2 theme parks if you feel 3 days max at Universal double that it would be 6 days if they had 2 more parks to explore. Seems to me you're just about even with Disney. Take out 2 parks from Disney you're at 3.5 days. I know I know not actual math here but just that I'm the same way that we spend about 3 days at Universal but that's 3 days with 2 parks. We used to spend 5 days at WDW with 4 parks although this last trip we did 6 days+1 extra with our CM friend getting us in but that's because we had a wedding at the parks and specific reasons to spend more than our normal amount of days. For 2 of those days we weren't in the parks open to close because we had wedding stuff going on and a large gap 1 day where all of us took naps due to the wedding lol.

We were just doing that math too! Figuring Disney has four parks and two waterparks - we usually go for 8 days. With Universal having 2 parks and one waterpark, that's about half. I do always feel exhausted after our Disney trips though, which I would enjoy changing to a little more relaxing experience - enjoy the resort, the pools, the hot tub...

I figure with Universal passes, we might go for 5-6 days, and maybe go once more/year, pending a great flight price. That might be easier with older kids's schedules too, and maybe try different resorts at Universal.

 

[wdwrule]

So many of these stories are similar to ours! A Disney only trip at least once a year from about 2006 until 2018; always on site, often Free Dining. From 2018 until this spring we were Passholders, visiting 3-5x/year, always on site, and using our super fun Frontier/Spirit discounted airfare! We did not renew our passes this Spring, due primarily to the "charging more for less" strategy and the decreases in value and service - and the overcrowding!

We just got back from a week at the SeaWorld parks - solid B+ experience for about 1/3 the price of a Disney trip, after booking the Discovery Cove package with the 14 days of free park tickets. We did uber over to the Disney area for a day; got to experience a weekday uncrowded Disney Springs, FINALLY get some Gideon's cookies (amazing), visit some resorts, walk the Boardwalk, ride the Skyliner, and have dinner at the Poly. It was nostalgic and a little sad. Our Discovery Cove and Aquatica experiences were super fun, and the trip was very low key. We did compare to Disney, with some wins and some losses.

BUT, we spent one day exploring the Universal parks. We had visited one park about ten year ago...but not since. We found the three resorts we visited to be lovely and immersive. We absolutely LOVED the security (shaded and fast) protocols, the easy walk with beautiful landscaping from the parks to Royal Pacific, the friendly staff, the variety of food choices and budget tiers, the closeness of City Walk, and the completely easy ability to navigate the area without needing to wait on transportation. The souvineers were also super compared to what we saw at the Disney resorts - fresh, well priced, and cute displays. (Side note - after being such a HUGE HIT, with the exception of one mug, we saw no Encanto merch at Disney - what's up with that?).

In short, we are now SUPER excited about becoming Universal passholders for a year. I think we will get the escape/immersion feel we loved at "old" Disney with a lot less transportation hassle. Any tips or Boards to visit for Annual Passholders at Universal?

Haha the trip I posted about in this thread included a half day at Disney Springs with the main purpose of FINALLY purchasing Gideon’s cookies… and cake slab… and PB cold brew. Omg everything was delish! We ended up hopping on a bus to Poly and did a monorail resort loop which was fun and gave us a bit of Disney magic. We’re planning on doing this exact same thing again in August since we’re staying for a week.

Becoming a UOAP holder has been life changing so definitely look into it! I love how the top tier includes limited EP after 4:00 and includes one HHN ticket per person (per premiere AP) which is all we want… because we’re chickens but love an empty Diagon Alley. We love this perk because otherwise, we would never have paid for an HHN night but can now experience some things that we choose to. Even the bottom tier is fantastic (minus the blockout dates) for hotel discounts and the price is very doable.

The smaller vicinity is wonderful too to be able to walk everywhere if wanted. Even the ‘prime values’ are easily walkable.

 

[notatallmagic]

Haha the trip I posted about in this thread included a half day at Disney Springs with the main purpose of FINALLY purchasing Gideon’s cookies… and cake slab… and PB cold brew. Omg everything was delish! We ended up hopping on a bus to Poly and did a monorail resort loop which was fun and gave us a bit of Disney magic. We’re planning on doing this exact same thing again in August since we’re staying for a week.

Becoming a UOAP holder has been life changing so definitely look into it! I love how the top tier includes limited EP after 4:00 and includes one HHN ticket per person (per premiere AP) which is all we want… because we’re chickens but love an empty Diagon Alley. We love this perk because otherwise, we would never have paid for an HHN night but can now experience some things that we choose to. Even the bottom tier is fantastic (minus the blockout dates) for hotel discounts and the price is very doable.

The smaller vicinity is wonderful too to be able to walk everywhere if wanted. Even the ‘prime values’ are easily walkable.

OMG - the Gideons! And I had the peanut butter cold brew too - simply amazing!

We did take a boat over to the Port Orleans resorts, walked on the pretty river walk, had some gumbo, and enjoyed how pretty it is. On our Poly loop we also rode the monorail and saw the fireworks from the Poly beach after a decent dinner there. I despise Enchanted (we loved Happily Ever After), but wanted to see if it had grown on us (it hadn't...lol). It was a sprinkle of magic, but still not "our Disney" anymore.

I can't wait to try Universal - my daughter was a huge Disney fan, and has been very sad about some of our experiences. After our Explore Universal day, she is now excited again. Hoping Disney can figure things out, and become a viable option soon - but waiting on buses forever, crazy prices, no Magical Express, not having a clean room, and surly Cast Members are making this an easy decision. Thanks so much for the info!

 

[wdwrule]

OMG - the Gideons! And I had the peanut butter cold brew too - simply amazing!

We did take a boat over to the Port Orleans resorts, walked on the pretty river walk, had some gumbo, and enjoyed how pretty it is. On our Poly loop we also rode the monorail and saw the fireworks from the Poly beach after a decent dinner there. I despise Enchanted (we loved Happily Ever After), but wanted to see if it had grown on us (it hadn't...lol). It was a sprinkle of magic, but still not "our Disney" anymore.

I can't wait to try Universal - my daughter was a huge Disney fan, and has been very sad about some of our experiences. After our Explore Universal day, she is now excited again. Hoping Disney can figure things out, and become a viable option soon - but waiting on buses forever, crazy prices, no Magical Express, not having a clean room, and surly Cast Members are making this an easy decision. Thanks so much for the info!

I totally understand. Haha our first night was at Dockside (paid $129 for the night in a 2 bedroom AP rate) before moving over to Portofino and when we went to the bus stop at park close to go back to Dockside, there was a half-empty bus waiting for us! That’s when it hit me with the difference. I was like… wait, there’s an available bus waiting at park close?!?! Typically UO buses come one after another. I’m sure there are random flukes but way better than what we are accustomed to at Disney.

 

[NewEnglandDisney]

I think a lot of us could write the same post as the OP. Disney has just lost its magic over the past decade. The prices, the insane amount of planning - even for someone who loves planning. As any veteran can tell you, the true benefit (and joy) of WDW planning used to be locking in those dining reservations, and then building around it - but the key was, to remain flexible. Have various options depending on how people feel, what's going on in the parks, etc. Having various plans that you can implement on the fly depending on circumstances. Disney has made that literally impossible.

I also don't want to spend all day on my dang phone, afraid I'm going to miss out if I am not refreshing and keeping my head down checking it. The last straw for us FastPass+ - I don't want to book a ride months in advance - and then the nightmare known as park reservations. It's just...insanity to me that I can't buy a ticket and just go where I want all day (especially as a former AP holder).

It's just not worth double the price it used to cost for what would be half the fun, for us. So we have taken a number of years off (even before recent events of the past few years).

And it really is double the price. We just booked our first on site UO vacation - a week at Cabana Bay, with a Volcano view room (which, honestly, unless you are staying at a MK Deluxe for more than a weekly take home paycheck per night, is the best theme park view in Orlando). Using the old "one of us gets an AP" trick, so we get the $200 vacation package discount and plus the resort dining/merch discounts, is going to be a full thousand dollars LESS than staying at even an All-Stars resort for the same week.

The bonus is - although my fiance has never done any Orlando parks, I have a pretty good idea that he is going to love it from everything I have shown him (Cabana Bay is so up his alley, no bowling pun intended). So we are planning on upgrading his ticket to an AP, too, when we get there. Even when factoring in that cost, once we both have AP's, we can spend a second week there next year - and the entire cost of both trips is still going to be less than a single week in a moderate at Disney this year.

On top of it all...I think my days of spending rope drop till closing at theme parks is over. If we did spend that kind of money at Disney, I would feel way too much pressure to do so. The idea of spending a week at a fun hotel, with a great view, a water park at the doorstep, and being able to leisurely enjoy IOA and USF as we want sounds like a real vacation to me. With all the money we are saving, we are going to do a MVMCP so he can have a Magic Kingdom experience. I'll always love Disney - but right now, they just seemed to have drained a lot of the magic out, and I can't wait to recapture some of it at UO.

 

[Jamie77]

Disney has just lost its magic over the past decade. The prices, the insane amount of planning - even for someone who loves planning. As any veteran can tell you, the true benefit (and joy) of WDW planning used to be locking in those dining reservations, and then building around it - but the key was, to remain flexible. Have various options depending on how people feel, what's going on in the parks, etc. Having various plans that you can implement on the fly depending on circumstances. Disney has made that literally impossible.

This about sums up my feelings on WDW right now.

 

[kbelle8995]

If you are switching don't stay at POP or All Stars after staying at Cabana Bay. I did this my poor sister. She had to listen my complaints the whole time . "Were the pools always this small?" "I miss the Starbucks."

 

[gorkt]

I don't feel like UO has enough to do to keep me busy for an entire week like WDW does, but with the new park, that could change. I have gone from staying at WDW and taking day trips to universal, to staying at UO resort with early entry to staying onsite with a night of express pass (throwaway room) to my upcoming trip which is 3 nights at RPR resort. UO is just more chill, compact and easy to navigate, and with Disney just making the onsite experience less appealing, its very possible that I will do a UO only trip in 2025-2026.

 

[notatallmagic]

I don't feel like UO has enough to do to keep me busy for an entire week like WDW does, but with the new park, that could change. I have gone from staying at WDW and taking day trips to universal, to staying at UO resort with early entry to staying onsite with a night of express pass (throwaway room) to my upcoming trip which is 3 nights at RPR resort. UO is just more chill, compact and easy to navigate, and with Disney just making the onsite experience less appealing, its very possible that I will do a UO only trip in 2025-2026.

I was worried (and had been told various times on these boards) that we would not have enough to do with our recent 7 day trip with Discovery Cove/Seaworld parks.

It was just different - but in a kinda good way? I am so used to being crazily busy from 5:30 am for buses and rope drop until park close for every entire Disney trip. We rarely got to enjoy our resort or relax, and I always came home exhausted. With our Seaworld trip, we did two partial/full days at Seaworld, Discovery Cove, Aquatica, Busch Gardens, and then had two days to relax and visit the Universal Parks, and do a Disney Springs/Poly Dinner/Boardwalk trip. It was so nice to be rested!

Pending airfare, if we do end up with Universal Annual Passes, I think we'll do 4-6 day trips, and have time to relax and enjoy the resorts and City Walk. Maybe we'll even Uber over to Disney Springs or Boardwalk again - but I REALLY didn't miss the early wakeup and dropping into bed exhausted every night.

 

[gorkt]

I was worried (and had been told various times on these boards) that we would not have enough to do with our recent 7 day trip with Discovery Cove/Seaworld parks.

It was just different - but in a kinda good way? I am so used to being crazily busy from 5:30 am for buses and rope drop until park close for every entire Disney trip. We rarely got to enjoy our resort or relax, and I always came home exhausted. With our Seaworld trip, we did two partial/full days at Seaworld, Discovery Cove, Aquatica, Busch Gardens, and then had two days to relax and visit the Universal Parks, and do a Disney Springs/Poly Dinner/Boardwalk trip. It was so nice to be rested!

Pending airfare, if we do end up with Universal Annual Passes, I think we'll do 4-6 day trips, and have time to relax and enjoy the resorts and City Walk. Maybe we'll even Uber over to Disney Springs or Boardwalk again - but I REALLY didn't miss the early wakeup and dropping into bed exhausted every night.

Adding a Discovery Cove day and Sea World would be enough for week for sure. I agree that UO is just more of a relaxing experience. Besides maybe hitting early entry for the big headliners that aren't covered by express pass, you can really just go with the flow.

 

[vincenza8907]

Universal also has WAY more thrilling rides than anything Disney offers. One of my friends has a Universal AP and not a Disney one because they offer more intense coasters than Disney does (she also has zero nostalgia for Disney parks).

My Disney nostalgia is longing for how things used to be. It honestly just feels like Disney does not care anymore. It is not just Bob Chapek, he has just exasperated the issue. Iger was not much better for the parks, fantastic for the movies though. Since the college program has taken over, there has been a great reduction in quality of customer service over the years. The past couple years, it is ridiculous the nickel and diming Disney is doing.

I live in Florida, and I got a UOAP preferred. My husband and I did a quick day trip at Universal for the first time in like 5 years. We were able to go on every single ride (in the standby line), we got the extra hours with the annual pass, we paid under $35 with our AP discount for a nice lunch at IOA, and team members were so nice and helpful.

We booked a room for middle August back in June, a week before we got the AP. I called to see what we owed when we arrived at the hotel, so I can budget. They told me about a promotional going on for Florida residents, and I forgot how much we saved, but then I mentioned I am an AP. I saved $115 on my trip. When I was a Disney passholder, you could not apply passholder discounts to Florida rates (which were just the same amount in "savings".)

 

[vincenza8907]

You'd only need the one Preferred, but you are correct that it in your case it wouldn't be worthwhile unless they offer a military AP equivalent to Preferred.

That's what my husband and I did. We got one preferred and one power pass, and the block out dates for the power pass are dates I would not be caught dead in the theme parks anyway. Pure insanity.

 

[Pooh's World]

Lot of complaining on the boards and on the show; this week's show in particular. And I get it. Nobody wants to pay more and get less. But here's the deal. People are still flocking to Disney. Still hearing complaints about long waits and huge crowds. So what exactly can they do to fix it? Ryno mentioned that they no longer give out deals for the single mother. If they were to do that, the parks would be even more crowded and we'd have more complaints. The reason you can stay at Universal for cheaper is because they're still trying to draw the crowds that Disney has on a daily basis. You think that once Universal is maxed out they're going to continue to keep these low costs? It's a simple supply and demand problem. The demand is there. As long as it's there, they're not going to lower costs. If they did, there would be an even bigger issue with demand.
If someone has a reasonable answer then I'd love to hear it. But this person would then become famous the world over for solving the issue with supply/demand.
Complaints about the magic not being there is totally reasonable. Complaints about understaffing/shows remaining closed are totally reasonable. But complaints about costs are unfounded at this point.

Solution is simple get rid of Bob Chapek and his mentor Bob Iger.

 

[Pooh's World]

My Disney nostalgia is longing for how things used to be. It honestly just feels like Disney does not care anymore. It is not just Bob Chapek, he has just exasperated the issue. Iger was not much better for the parks, fantastic for the movies though. Since the college program has taken over, there has been a great reduction in quality of customer service over the years. The past couple years, it is ridiculous the nickel and diming Disney is doing.

I live in Florida, and I got a UOAP preferred. My husband and I did a quick day trip at Universal for the first time in like 5 years. We were able to go on every single ride (in the standby line), we got the extra hours with the annual pass, we paid under $35 with our AP discount for a nice lunch at IOA, and team members were so nice and helpful.

We booked a room for middle August back in June, a week before we got the AP. I called to see what we owed when we arrived at the hotel, so I can budget. They told me about a promotional going on for Florida residents, and I forgot how much we saved, but then I mentioned I am an AP. I saved $115 on my trip. When I was a Disney passholder, you could not apply passholder discounts to Florida rates (which were just the same amount in "savings".)

Disney is like the American car industry in the 70s. Arrogant, with planned obsolesce and trying to squeeze out every dollar from the loyal American customers. Universal and Sea World are like the Japanese and German automakers that were going to take over in the decades to follow.

 

[notatallmagic]

Disney is like the American car industry in the 70s. Arrogant, with planned obsolesce and trying to squeeze out every dollar from the loyal American customers. Universal and Sea World are like the Japanese and German automakers that were going to take over in the decades to follow.

And we/I are like the folks who "always bought American/Disney" out of loyalty, who are then left regretting their decision to spend more for lower quality. Perfect analogy.

 

[DarthSkellington]

I've been sold on Universal for a few years now but even though my wife loves UO, she still gets sucked back to Disney(send help). I'm not at the boycotting stage, but I could get there with another bad trip. Epic Universe will be a game changer and Disney will be forced to do something, probably more half measures. I love the Disney Resorts or I would of been done years ago. I need Universal to add balconies and possibly a Harry Potter hotel. It's amazing the progress UO has made and they really are on a trajectory to pass Disney in so many categories.

 

[easyas123]

need Universal to add balconies and possibly a Harry Potter hote

Yes, this 100%