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Staying in a Disney hotel and visit Universal and Sea World

Universal Orlando: I'm traveling to Orlando and I'm going to stay in a Disney's Hotel, but I'm going to visit Sea World and Universal Studios+ IA too

From Igor Cabrera
Posted May 12, 2010 at 10:03 AM
I'm traveling to Orlando and I'm going to stay in a Disney's Hotel, but I'm going to visit Sea World and Universal Studios+ IA too

When is the best day to visit these parks?
I'm paying for the Fast Food pakage that Disney offers. How should I organize my schedule in order to eat well when I visit parks outside Disney?

Are there any advices you could give to make my tour safer and more fun or confortable?


Comments in chronological order. Most recent at the bottom. Scroll down to respond.

From Hermione Potter
Posted May 13, 2010 at 9:45 AM
Universal is always the least crowded on Tuesday. You should also know that with the exception of the new Potter stuff that will be opening it is entirely possible to do both Islands and Studios in one day. If you want to spend time in potterland though, you can get better multiday deals by buying online usually.

One other thing - depending on which Disney hotel you are staying at, Universal will be anywhere from 30 minutes to 50 minutes from it. Add in at least 30 minutes to walk through Citywalk and actually get into the park and it will take minimum one hour from the time you leave your hotel to make it into the park so if you want to get there when it opens, get up at the crack of dawn.

From Igor Cabrera
Posted May 13, 2010 at 2:03 PM
Well my travel agent told me that the day I arrive to Orlando I will arrive at 11:00, so she sugest to go directly to Universal that day and not to visit Island of Adventure (considering that I just have half day)

Last day of my trip happens something similar, we have to go to Sea World and we have to leave it arround 5:00 PM because that is our last day in Orlando

¿Is it possible to get fun with those restriction?

From Anthony Murphy
Posted May 13, 2010 at 2:34 PM
As for your meal plan prediciment, I would opt for going to a dinner show or a nice dinner when you miss those meals at Disney when off grounds. They work more like credits and fancy dinners or dinner shows are worth two!

I would actually go to DHS perhaps the first day you are there unless you are hung up on shows.

From Deidre Dennis
Posted May 13, 2010 at 6:38 PM
We've been to Disney World twice and have always stayed at the Value resort(s) just to save some moola. Our trips are 11 days total. We also have gone to both Universal Parks, Sea World and Busch Gardens during those visits. You can't visit Orlando without doing the Universal Parks. It just so happens that both times we've gone on a Tuesday. We usually arrive on a Saturday and do Disney on arrival day until Monday. By then the break is nice so we go to Universal and hit some of the other parks. We splurged for the express plus pass and found both times that we didn't need it. Did both parks in one day easy... finished by or before 5pm and did everything.

It was about a 10-15 minute drive and we splurged again and did valet parking. That part was nice, moreso at the end of the day.

We plan to go back to the World next August and stay at a Deluxe Disney Resort for 7 nights and do 4 nights on-site at a Universal Hotel for the first time. Hopefully attendance for the Potter Island will have died down by then.

Have fun!

From Tony Duda
Posted May 13, 2010 at 9:34 PM
You didn't say if you will have a car to use while there. If you don't have a car, the time and cost to get from Disney to the other parks can be painfully high. However, I heard that Universal sells, through their web site only and not at other places, passes which include transportation to and from most area hotels/motels. The pass cost is actually the same with or without the added transportation.

After I wrote the above paragraph, I went looking for that transportation deal and found it, not at the Universal site but at a travel agent site. It is for a 1-day 2-park pass for $109.99. I didn't see it for multi-day passes. Just another option to consider.

From Elsa Ruisenor
Posted May 14, 2010 at 6:44 AM
We´ve done the Disney - Universal on every trip to Orlando. When we stayed at a Disney property for the whole trip, we did the following, schedule our Disney visits around Magical Hours, since we didn´t have a park hopper we would go to the park that had them and stick to it. About your dining plan I understand you have de QSDP, since that one can´t be changed to table service, on the days you go outside Disney I would use 1 QS for breakfast, use the snack credits to buy something to take to the parks and use the second QS credit to buy dinner at your resort. Hope this helps!

From Igor Cabrera
Posted May 14, 2010 at 7:01 AM
Well, I have talked to my travel agent and she told me that a bus is going to pick us up as soon as we arrive to Orlando and bring us to Universal where they plan to arrive at 11:00, the same bus is going to bring us to the value hotel inside disney at 18:00.

About the food in Universal I'd like to know your suggestions

From Maureen Marsh
Posted May 14, 2010 at 7:57 AM
I visited WDW last fall, 10/30 - 11/6/09 and included a day at SeaWorld. I'd always heard SeaWorld is packed with locals on weekends and school children on Fridays so we decided to go on a Tuesday and it was fine. Very moderate crowd levels with no long waits at restaurants or restrooms. Seaworld has a good website and using it made the day successful for us! First, I bought the tickets in advance through the website and saved $10 on each. I don't know if that was a temporary special or not. Then, we decided which shows were "must see" for us, and I used the times schedule and park map on the website to plan our route through the park, with almost no backtracking, to see the shows and animal exhibits in between.

We stayed at a Disney resort and used magical express. Instead of renting a car for the day to Seaworld, I made a reservation with Mears (before leaving home) for roundtrip transport from our Disney Resort. At that time, it was $18 roundtrip per adult from any Disney Resort. Mears was prompt and they let you off and pick you up a few yards from the front entrance.

We are early risers and got up in time to have breakfast at our resort before Mears picked us up at 8:25am. We got back to our resort before 7:00pm and had dinner there. Lunch and an afternoon snack were the only meals we needed at SeaWorld.

From Rob P
Posted May 17, 2010 at 6:01 AM
Igor...you didn't say how many days you are going for in total.
It sounds as if you are on a short break and won't have time to each Park justice. So travel time is going to be significant.
We've been to Orlando 7 or 8 times now and have stayed in hotels along Plaza Blvd ( convenient for all things WDW and also very close to the I4 for trips to Seaworld and Universal) , we've stayed in a house off the 192 which was nice but you have to drive to every Park which can take some time and now we always start our trip with a week on site at Universal followed by a stay at or near WDW.
Although we have stayed on site at a WDW Deluxe Resort I think that it's far more economical and convenient to stay on Plaza Blvd.Particularly if you want to visit the other Parks. It's never taken us much more than 20 minutes plus parking time etc.
Please don't miss out on Islands of Adventure if you can possibly help it.

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