Staying at DVC and visiting other theme parks

[Girlstar30]

So we are thinking about going to Universal Orlando during our stay to try out the new Epic park. Has anyone stayed at a DVC resort and gone to Universal and other theme parks? How did that work out? I know there is a rental swap on DVC rental store for UO hotels and I'm wondering if anyone has ever utilized that as well. Thanks and have a Magical day!

 

[Mommb]

If you have a car, that is easily do-able. Traffic along I-4 in the morning and late afternoon is a pain, but in the middle of the day you can get to Universal Studios/Islands of Adventure from the Downtown Disney area in about 25 minutes. Of course, staying for a night or 2 close to or at Universal would give you quicker access, but I haven't tried that, and traffic will surely be worse for a while after Epic opens.

I also haven't investigated how to get to and from Universal from WDW without a car.

 

[Bucketfoot]

My wife and I haven't, but our daughters went to Universal (only for Harry Potter) on one of our trips last year.

For DL I keep thinking about throwing in a day at Knotts Berry Farm one of these trips. It's been more than 40 years since the last time I was there.

 

[Brian Noble]

I generally treat my Orlando-area vacations as: Only Disney, or Everything Else. And the Everything Else stays are usually at a Marriott Vacation Club or Hilton Grand Vacation Club resort. The only exception to that was in 2023, when I had a bunch of timeshare assets to burn and ended up booking back-to-back weeks at SSR. Disney was not selling APs at the time, so I bought a 10-day hopper and paired that with a Sea World platinum pass. That worked out pretty well---Sea World's spring food festival thing is really very good, and better than a typical Epcot festival in some ways.

Anaheim is a different story, but partly because I always have an active Cedar Fair (now Cedar Flags) AP. I'm usually there for a week, so get a four or five day hopper to DLR and take a day or two to visit Knott's.

 

[Girlstar30]

My wife and I haven't, but our daughters went to Universal (only for Harry Potter) on one of our trips last year.

For DL I keep thinking about throwing in a day at Knotts Berry Farm one of these trips. It's been more than 40 years since the last time I was there.

The boysenberry festival at knotts is coming up and that's a great time to come! I think i read that an exec that used to work at Disney came to Knotts and you can tell in the food and merchandise offerings that there has been a lot of improvements! I have the annual pass (dirt cheap) and we went to Peanuts fest this month and there were a lot of characters out and merch including loungefly. I have noticed the other theme parks definitely copy Disney. I love the snoopy on ice during Christmas at well

 

[Girlstar30]

I generally treat my Orlando-area vacations as: Only Disney, or Everything Else. And the Everything Else stays are usually at a Marriott Vacation Club or Hilton Grand Vacation Club resort. The only exception to that was in 2023, when I had a bunch of timeshare assets to burn and ended up booking back-to-back weeks at SSR. Disney was not selling APs at the time, so I bought a 10-day hopper and paired that with a Sea World platinum pass. That worked out pretty well---Sea World's spring food festival thing is really very good, and better than a typical Epcot festival in some ways.

Anaheim is a different story, but partly because I always have an active Cedar Fair (now Cedar Flags) AP. I'm usually there for a week, so get a four or five day hopper to DLR and take a day or two to visit Knott's.

This has me thinking i should buy the Disney world pass soon in case for some reason they stop offering them... does this occur often like with the Disneyland magic key passes? I've never had a florida one except for the previous coast to coast which now more than ever i really wish they'd bring back! Sometimes these other theme parks food festivals are better, the Knotts ones during covid were

 

[CarolynFH]

We haven’t stayed DVC for a trip to UOR, but we have stayed in a timeshare just north of DS. We hate I-4 traffic, so we just drove up Palm Parkway/Turkey Lake Rd. and found it quick and easy.

However, I will say that our favorite visits to UOR have been when we booked a room at one of their deluxe hotels so that we could get the unlimited Express Pass. We’ve done that twice when we were actually sleeping elsewhere, but for parties of 4-5 adults it was cheaper than buying the EP, especially adding in parking fees.

 

[Brian Noble]

This has me thinking i should buy the Disney world pass soon in case for some reason they stop offering them... does this occur often like with the Disneyland magic key passes? I

No, it was a pandemic recovery thing, during the period when they were trying to ramp staffing back up.