WWYD - Universal in Middle or End

[rlduvall]

I have been mulling over this for several weeks and tomorrow is my make or break decision. Last year my DS and I spent one night, in the middle of our trip, at one of the Universal on-site hotels to receive FOTL access for 2 full days and thoroughly enjoyed it [we are seasoned WDW and Universal veterans]. By doing it in the middle of the trip and not wanting to pack up everything, we just burned the DVC points, i.e. we didn't check out - they never knew we were gone. Worked out perfectly and since we only stay in studios it wasn't that big of a deal.

This year [10 night trip - value studio], my DS is wanting to stay at least two nights and I can't decide if we should do it the same way as last year and burn two nights of DVC points by going in the middle of the trip, or just go ahead and check out and move over to Universal for the last two nights. While the latter seems like the obvious choice it means we will be at Universal on a Friday and Saturday night and here are my issues [I can't do it at the beginning of the trip because DH will be with us then and he doesn't care about Universal]:

1) We want to play the new minature golf course and it will most likely be more crowded on the weekend; 2) Slightly higher room rates; 3) Our flight leaves early Sunday morning so we won't gain any time at the park for that day whereas in the middle of the trip we would have a portion of that extra day; 4) We will not be able to check our luggage at the resort that Sunday morning for our outbound flight - I love that perk; 5) Disney let down knowing when we head to Universal we will not be going back to Disney that trip.

We will have a rental car.

Opinions . . . please!!! Someone make my decision for me.

[I might post this on the Universal board also, so forgive me if you see it twice]

 

[bumbershoot]

Our first time to Universal we did it in the middle. We didn't do it how you did it; we packed up and moved and enjoyed the new resort, then packed up and moved back. Going back to Disney parks after Universal was nice in some ways, but fast pass is so clunky compared to the onsite Universal Express Pass. Going back to a bigger room, however, was lovely (we had been at OKW, and then moved to RPR which has the smallest rooms!).

Our second time, we did Universal at the end. Ahhhhh. We really love Universal (if they had a timeshare with all the perks of staying onsite, we'd sell DVC and buy the Universal version in a heartbeat, we love it so much), and it felt really nice to be there at the end.

We have only done Orlando trips with a rental car, so we haven't yet done DME or RAC and aren't used to the luxury (I assume) of checking the bags at the resort. However, hubby has "status" with the airlines we use to get to and from Orlando, so our wait to check bags is never that long.

The Universal resorts are so lovely and restful, I'd think about doing Universal at the end, and just leaving from there. Maybe add in another night. Spend some time at the pool. Take advantage of the resort there.

And, FWIW, even if you're over at Universal, if you miss WDW you can always swing back over there if you can't stand it anymore. It's much nicer to visit WDW while staying at Universal (hotel perks-wise) than visit Universal while staying onsite at WDW, in my opinion, so it's always an option.

 

[rlduvall]

We have only done Orlando trips with a rental car, so we haven't yet done DME or RAC and aren't used to the luxury (I assume) of checking the bags at the resort. However, hubby has "status" with the airlines we use to get to and from Orlando, so our wait to check bags is never that long.

Thanks for the advice. We always have a rental car and you can use RAC whether or not you use DME for your flight home. It's a separate perk from DME - even though DME users would utilize it too. It's wonderful to not have to go to the check-in line at the airport as RAC also prints out your boarding pass.

 

[Cinderpamela]

On our trip to WDW last December we did the exact same thing as you... kept our DVC room while we went off to Universal for one overnight. It was sure nice to not have to move all of our stuff, and to have to fully check out and check in twice over sounded like a royal pain.

The main reason that it happened this way was because it was only after I had my DVC reservation set that we decided to add the overnight at Universal and take advatage of the perks, so I didn't want to mess with an existing DVC reservation and wind up losing it all.

That said, I don’t think I would want to burn through those precious DVC points next time around, for myself. But I agree with you that the final check out from WDW, and the whole luggage service perk, would make me tempted to do a split stay.

Since you can’t do Universal at the start, (that's what we are doing on the next WDW trip 2013, and adding more days at US to boot) I would be tempted, in your case, to put Universal in the middle then return to WDW.

It just cracks me up how similar our situation, and dilemma’s are on this one....

We are still debating our decision... but since its not till Dec 2013 we've got lots of time!!!