stay on site or shuttle it from wdw for a day - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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hi everyone, we are planning a trip to wdw in april2012. i am planning on spending one day at universal. our main goal will be to see WWofHP, for those of you who have been, do you think the excitment of it or the newness will of died down a bit by then. I hate to ask a crowd question because honestly i don't think you can go to these places and not expect them to be crowded but I am contemplating spending the first 2 nights at universal to get the on site guest benefits if it will fit in to our budget rather than taking a shuttle from disney for the day. My kids are 15 and 18 so alot of it they are not interested in. what are the pros and cons of this?
We are also planning on going in April 2012. We have decided that we are going to spend our first night on site at Universal and then we will be able to do two days with the front of the line pass (day of arrival and next day). Then we will head to Disney for the rest of our trip. I think that the price of one night it justified when you get to get in 1 hour early and have front of line pass for almost everything. We should keep each other posted if we come up with a decent rate on site for the time period.
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DisneyDeva
1989+1993 Carribbean Beach,1996 ASS+Dixie Landings,1998 DL,2000 CB Hurricaine Floyd!!,2001 DL,2003 CS,2004 WL,2005 POR,2006 seven night eastern carb. disney cruise!!!,2006 Halloween Liki Tiki,May 2007 off site Orange Lake,May 2007 AKL,Sept 2007 CS,Oct 2008 Halloween ASM,May 2009 PC+ a seven night eastern carb. cruise,Feb 2010 GCV,BCV + BLT Sept 2011; OKW 8/12;Kindani 9/13: POR 3/13; Jambo Club Level & SS 6/14; Poly studio 8/15, GF villa July 2016;Blt + AKK June 2018
We are going to Universal for the first time this year. We plan to spend 2 days in the Universal parks and will book 1 night in an onsite hotel (you get the front of the line privileges from the time you check in until closing on the day you check out. You can check in before your room is ready, so we'll be checking in bright and early before the parks open to make the most of that perk
Disneydiva, thats a great idea! I would love to stay in touch with you/ I see your from vermont, i am in NH! One night might be better and more affordable, where will you keep your luggage though on the day you check out. Are you going to book everything yourself or are you going through a travel agent. i'm undecided on that just yet,
...One night might be better and more affordable, where will you keep your luggage though on the day you check out.
We drive down to FL, so we'll store our luggage in our car. WDW hotels will hold your luggage for the day, so I'd assume Universal hotels will do the same.
Disneydiva, thats a great idea! I would love to stay in touch with you/ I see your from vermont, i am in NH! One night might be better and more affordable, where will you keep your luggage though on the day you check out. Are you going to book everything yourself or are you going through a travel agent. i'm undecided on that just yet,
Sounds like a great idea!! I will keep you in the loop. I am going to book everything myself. I actually have a certification in travel, but never have done anything with it. So I am very comfortable with booking. Disney is a no brainer for us we are members of the vacation club, lets keep in touch. Oh and I will have bell services hold our bags for us the last day.
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DisneyDeva
1989+1993 Carribbean Beach,1996 ASS+Dixie Landings,1998 DL,2000 CB Hurricaine Floyd!!,2001 DL,2003 CS,2004 WL,2005 POR,2006 seven night eastern carb. disney cruise!!!,2006 Halloween Liki Tiki,May 2007 off site Orange Lake,May 2007 AKL,Sept 2007 CS,Oct 2008 Halloween ASM,May 2009 PC+ a seven night eastern carb. cruise,Feb 2010 GCV,BCV + BLT Sept 2011; OKW 8/12;Kindani 9/13: POR 3/13; Jambo Club Level & SS 6/14; Poly studio 8/15, GF villa July 2016;Blt + AKK June 2018
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i am leaning towards booking everything myself also, we have always used a travel agent in the past. we will be traveling with my parents and inlaws as well so a total of 8. i would love to spend a night at universal, so i guess i will work on that. i wish next years rates were available, i am not good at being patient! Linda, you will have to let us know how the waits are, i have heard the stories too of the hours long waits just to enter HP area, i'm hopping it will lessen a bit by April. Have a great trip! oh, by the way, does universal have a shuttle from the airport to the resorts like disney does? we are not renting a car
We are going to WDW for 14 days on June 13th. Plan to take shuttle to Univ. Studios on 2 days. Have heard nightmare stories on3 - 5 hour waits to get in to
Harry Potter park and ride...Teens in group...must see.....any updates on whether this has improved or not? Also heard they don't accept any form of "fast pass"? OMG
We always stay 1-2 nights at the Royal Pacific Resort when we do Universal. The perks are totally worth it. We were there last August, and we appreciated the early entry into the WWOHP and the express pass is awesome. The Royal Pacific is gorgeous.
We've had them hold our luggage on check out day, we just left it with bell services until we were done in the park.
Just wanted to comment that I was surprised that your kids at 15 and 18 wouldn't be interested in a lot of Universal. I think Universal is much more geared to teens than Disney. when my kids were teens, they would pick Universal over Disney any day- IOA has lots of thrill rides. My kids loved Men in Black and thought Buzz Lightyear was a kiddie ride compared to it.
We just did Universal March 31 of 2011 and i absolutely recommend staying onsite if you can fit it into your budget. We were able to enter the park at 8 am with early access and do Harry Potter by 9 am. At that point the waiting lines were already 2 hrs long.
We had a reservation for one night at Hard Rock Hotel and checked in at 8 am and received our fast passes, leaving our bags at Bell Services. We toured all of Universal Studios, returned to the hotel and our room was ready. The next morning we awoke, left our bags at Bell Servies again and did Islands of Adventure and Harry Potter. We spent the afternoon poolside at Hard Rock Hotel and then picked up our bags and returned to our rooms at BWV.
Sounds a little busy, but we saw everything with no waiting, so I highly recommend it.
The WWoHP doesn't take the "fast passes" but it does help to have the early entry option. You can get that by a stay onsite, or at one of the "partner hotels"
We stayed at a Fairfield by Marriott so we could get the early entry tickets -- I'm too cheap to pay Universal's onsite hotel prices.
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Last summer, I spent one night at Universal at their least expensive hotel. That got us two days of early entry. It really helped to get into the park early. Since you plan to go in April, you probably want to stay there. Remember that many schools will be on spring break and it could be mobbed. We got two day park to park passes so that the kids could ride whatever they wanted in either park. They rode pretty much everything and got to go on Wizarding World five times before leaving around noon on the second day. I'm not sure if they offer it anymore, but for the one night two days we had a HP package which got us breakfast one day at Three Broomsticks (just OK...nothing special). The big HP ride is really cool though. If you don't like rides, go through the castle anyway (separate line) to see the detailing. It's amazing. Also, they have a single rider line.
hey everyone, i haven't been on in a while. i hate when life gets in the way of my disney planning! Norm&Linda, that is exactly what i want to do. spend one night at one of the hotels on site, spend the day we arrive and the next day there then head to wdw that afternoon! i hope i can make it work, plus it would be a nice added something different. Belive it or not, my kids have looked through the attractions and besides a few of the thrill rides and Harry they aren't interested in much else, so i think that would give us more than enough time.
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We normally just go to US/IOA, and april is NOT a busy time, even easter weekend we were on HP in 45 mins, and walked right on rip ride rockitt
So I say if its in your budget and you want to stay on site, you should, as for us, we are cheapies haha and just take mears from our disney resort for 17.00 r/t
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