Overall, the consensus is that, for this trip, Universal had a slight edge over Disney. Not just with COVID handling, with with crowds, lines, buses, and ride experiences. Mobile order never worked right at UOR, however, so Disney was better in that regard.
Disney was fine, but with the heat and many more lines extending outdoors in the sun, and larger crowds, it did interfere with enjoyment.
That isn’t to say we didn’t enjoy both. We totally did and ended having a great time at both. Just that Universal took the win. We asked our DIL which she preferred, and she said Universal. DS22 agreed, particularly the Harry Potter area. At Disney, while overall they like EPCOT best, they did concede that if they could only do one park, they would pick HS.
Endless Summer I also give the edge to over Pop. The quality of the rooms were similar, but we could get a family suite for the same price as a single room at Pop (even with the AP discount). The vibe at Endless Summer was also more relaxed. Perhaps too relaxed, but it was nice.
The Skyliner ended up being a non event for someone like me who has a fear of heights, but I will say the reliability of it is a huge negative. More than half the time we planned to use it we couldn’t. This was most a problem at Epcot. Halfway during the day we were going to leave but rain storms shut down the Skyliner. We headed to the buses, but before we got on a bus we decided to stay. But had we not changed our mind, we would have ended up waiting at the bus stop indefinitely because unknown to us, the Skyliner had opened back up. There is no way to know this in the app nor in the signage, which means we would have walked about an extra mile to catch transportion. They are NOT running the bus when Skyliner is running. So we would have been at the bus stop not knowing the Skyliner was open again, and you have to walk back to International Gateway.
Also, on our second HS day, the Skyliner took 56 minutes to get to the park from Pop which was annoying. If we had wanted to arrive for 10:00 that day, we would have had to be in line probably at 8:45 to make it. As such, Skyliner is fine if you aren’t going during busy times. And for two of the mornings, we had a message on our phone saying the Skyliner was not going to open in time and so had to use the buses. I am not sure how, if the hotels were busier, that I would like depending on the Skyliner at all. Glad we won’t need it for our December trip. At off times, it works fine and is relaxing.
In many ways, it is nice that we went now because when I go back with just my wife in December, we have no pressure of rides and we can just relax and do what we when when we want, and spend time just enjoying ambiance.
Thanks for joining me on this trip! Sad it is over.