I’m anxiously waiting for 2020 discounts to appear, so I’m trying to distract myself with planning. We will be doing a 2022 trip to WDW for the Tron ride. I was thinking of doing 9 days this trip (our longest ever) and doing 5 nights WDW, 3 nights Universal. It seems that Universal has been growing on me more and more. It’s so relaxed when you have an Express pass and don’t even really need a set schedule (although I definitely make one!)
What is your ideal WDW to Universal ratio when you do a trip with both?
I am curious about this as well. I’m thinking our next trip should include at least a little time in Harry Potter land and am wondering how people handle splitting a trip up.
I haven’t done a “both” trip yet…but our May 2020 trip is just that.
We’re going 6 days at WDW, 3 days at Universal. We are not getting Express Passes. (We did 4 days at Universal in February 2018, and found Express Passes entirely unnecessary…)
Crowds are looking to be higher for this trip than our previous trips, however, so I don’t think we’ll be able to be quite as relaxed. How I see it, we allocate one day to Harry Potter (both parks), then one day to each of the parks for everything else.
The biggest thing I have is that it feels like 6 days at WDW isn’t quite enough, but we’re making it work. That’s because HS has become a 2-day park now. Usually EPCOT is also a two-day park, but we’re cutting it back to 1 day for this trip.
If you are going only 5 days at WDW, I would consider getting 6-day tickets but use a half day at WDW and a 1/2 day at Universal so that you use 2 1/2 days at Universal. Hit Universal early that day, then around 2:00 leave and head to a WDW park (whichever you so choose) to do evening activities in.
My main concern for our trip, however, is that with 9 days in the parks, we will completely wear ourselves out. So I’ve tried to make sure that I’ve planned the days to be DONE in the parks most days by about 4:00, give or take, OR that we go into the park in the afternoon to stay later.
LOL, you read my mind. My plan is for the 6th day to be in MK til about 2pm. Then go check-in at our Universal hotel. Then spend the rest of the day at Universal. With a 9 day trip, that is 5.5 days WDW, 3.5 days Universal. I think its a pretty nice mix.
Also, we will be staying at one of the Universal resorts that includes the Express Unlimited Pass already But I’d buy it anyway even if we weren’t. I know it’s not NECESSARY, but there’s something about walking on basically every ride in the park besides Hagrid’s Motorbike Adventure that I simply can’t resist
With 2 weeks I like 3-4 days at Universal. We’ve done 1 night onsite for 2 days express pass and 2 day trips from WDW, and this year 2 nights onsite for 3 days express pass and no day trips. I could have stayed longer.
Depending on when you go, we didn’t have Express Pass, and that was pretty close to our experience. Not entirely. A few rides had waits. Everything else was like 5 minutes or less most of the time. But we went in February when crowds are very low.
My math for this is simple. 4 WDW parks and 2 UOR parks. This assumes park hoppers at both locations and X-pass at UOR. If I had more than 6 days, they would probably be added to WDW.
I did Universal for the first time lat year- went with some friends for HHN , no kids. Now, I cant wait to bring my kids! Our family of 5 ( kids 15,10,7) are planning 5 nights Disney and 3 Universal at a hotel that includes EP. Not a crazy HP fan, but it really is amazing. Also love the ease of touring and knowing that we will be able to do all the rides that we want that day without staring at my phone trying to secure more FP reservations. Going to try Volcano Bay for the first time this trip as well.
Love Disney but Universal has opened my eyes to a different type of vacation and I think split stays will be in our future more often.
I have yet to go to Universal (been to Hollywood one multiple times, not my choice - don’t care for it). Family trip in Jan/Feb we are going to stay in Orlando for two weeks. I’ve conceded to going 1 day - to Islands of Adventure. Never watched the HP movies, no interest in HP, but I’m a Marvel fan. I think rest are doing 7 days WDW, 2 days (1 pk per day) to Universal. I’ll just go spend the day at WDW by myself (I’m the only that will have WDW AP) Didn’t even opt to go to Universal in 2011 when we got “stuck” in Orlando for 2 nights post cruise due to snowstorm in MSP…we went to Seaworld .
On a nine night trip, I would do two UOR days. On a six night trip I would do one. With an emergency extra day in both cases if I didn’t achieve everything I wanted, or rain spoilt the fun.
(I’m the only that will have WDW AP) Didn’t even opt to go to Universal in 2011 when we got “stuck” in Orlando for 2 nights post cruise due to snowstorm in MSP…we went to Seaworld 
.