5 Days Itinerary Help! Disney + Universal

[Shelliemay]

So we recently booked VWL 2 bedroom villas for 11/1 to 11/5 for 4 nights. This will be our second trip ( last time was 5 days at Disney during January ) , and we are planning spend a day to Universal too. However, during the time when we arrive , there will be 2 Potterlands in 2 theme parks. Do you think one day will be enough for us in Universal? Also, is Halloween Horrors Night worth it? That also means we will be spending only 4 days in Disney World. Should we do park hopping and how should we plan it? I've also heard that there is also a Food and Wine Festival in EPCOT. What is it and how is it like? Will there be any Christmas decorations at this time?

Please give us some ideas of how should we plan our trip, thank you so much!

 

[USAF79]

Wife and I have done ioa and uni in one day twice. If you get there at rope drop you can have ioa done at lunch time. We always do hard rock then hammer uni side. We usually finish the day before four to five. We go in late September each year.

 

[Disneydreamer23]

I believe you can do universal in 1 day if you don't do the shows ( beetlejuice) I have done the whole 2 parks in 1 day with shows I was there at 9 am and I love hhn I had a blast would highly suggest going

 

[Disneyhead'71]

I believe that the days of being able to do both Universal parks in one day are coming to an end.

And Halloween Horror Nights are by far my favorite up charge after-hours event at any of the Orlando parks.

 

[PrincessNelly_NJ]

I think you will have to hit Universal first in order to experience everything, hit despicable me, transformers, and the London side of Harry Potter than hop the train over to Islands of Adventure. Ride everything at Islands of Adventure then head back to Universal for the rest of the night.

 

[jjbuster2]

Love Food & Wine. I could easily spend 2 days or more doing nothing but that but you have to commit at least one day there. It's not just the standard 11 countries...they bring little food booths from 30-40 countries-each with 2 or 3 small portion sized food choices and a beer and/or wine selection from that country. OK, everything is not fabulous (I've tried a few things I wish I didn't) but it is fun finding the nibbles you do like.

They will have begun putting the lights on the castle and other places for Christmas (I think this starts in August or September) but they won't be turning them on yet.

 

[Weather_Lady]

It's very difficult to predict what another family would most enjoy. FWIW, with 4 days, I would park hop, and spend:

- 1 morning at HS, with a mid-day break, followed by an evening at Epcot's World Showcase for the Food & Wine Festival, hopping back to HS for Fantasmic if desired
- 1 morning at Epcot (Future World), with a mid-day break, followed by an evening at Epcot, including a nice TS dinner, covering anything you missed in World Showcase the first night
- 1 morning at the AK, with a mid-day break, and for the evening, either head to the MK, see one of the dinner shows, or visit DTD (a/k/a Disney Springs) for shopping, a visit to Splitsville and/or a TS dinner
- 1 full day at the Magic Kingdom, staying late for the MSEP and Wishes

 

[PigletIsMyCat]

crowds may still be big with the new potterville in november. if you haven't been to universal before and want to see like EVERYTHING you will probably want two days. even like a year after potterville opened, the forbidden journey would routinely hit 60-90 minute wait times. if you will be happy with just seeing the harry potter stuff and like the simpsons area, one day might be okay. i know the first time we saw potterville we easily spent 4 hours in the area between photos, three rides (i rode fj twice, once on the single rider line), and just trying to take everything in. if you are big harry potter fans and want to see the shops, expect to spend one day on both pottervilles.

that might put you at only 3 days for disney. get a hopper, do one full day at MK, one full day at epcot, and split one day - animal kingdom am, dhs evening. or just go crazy like we do and do two parks each day, with the afternoons/evenings at epcot for food and wine lunch and/or dinner. we almost never spend the entire day in one park.

 

[LucyK]

I don't recommend doing Universal in one day, you'll feel rushed and in the end you won't enjoy it. If you realy want to do it in one day, pick one park and stick to it but rest assured you still miss some stuff, specially if Potter is a priority since waiting times for it will be pretty high since it'll be new.

 

[Shelliemay]

Thanks for the responses guys! We also felt that the days were not enough, so we decided to add another day so we can spend 2 days at Universal. By the way, do we have to pay to enter the Food and Wine Festival, and what are your must-dos restaurants at Disney? Thank you so much!

 

[PigletIsMyCat]

you'll need a ticket to enter epcot, where food and wine festival is located. some of our favorite restaurants are biergarten at germany, the crystal palace breakfast in magic kingdom, ohana dinner at the poly, and raglan road at downtown disney.

 

[MickeyisMyBestFriend]

I think if your only doing 4 days at Disney a park hopper is a good option. One day at Universal is enough time for both parks and even more! I personally would think 5 days at Disney is more enjoyable than 4 days at Disney and 1 at Universal. Hollywood Horror nights is not worth it. Hope this helps. Have a good trip

 

[PrincessNelly_NJ]

I think if your only doing 4 days at Disney a park hopper is a good option. One day at Universal is enough time for both parks and even more! I personally would think 5 days at Disney is more enjoyable than 4 days at Disney and 1 at Universal. Hollywood Horror nights is not worth it. Hope this helps. Have a good trip

One day at Universal wont be enough with the new Expansion. Crowds will be out in force to see the expansion for quite sometime. I don't believe the original in IOA really calmed down until roughly 11/2 - 2 years after it opened.