First and foremost having both parks reasonable walking distance from each other is super awesome! A huge chunk of my WDW stress was centered, to one degree or another, on the cattle car, err,,, 'bussing' system employed by WDW. Why not have more busses with freakin' seats? You know, like touring busses? What evs, WDW went cheap with their cattle system and is stinks.
1) They didn't have a choice with that. Disney owns so much land they could put them miles apart and still have extra room. Universal is locked into the land that they have with little to no land left for expansion.
Good thing too! Worked out great for my family! All that space when combined with a non-coach transport system is unpleasant.
Second, having the resorts walking distance from the parks was possibly even more awesome. Everything I said above plus no park closing mad rush to buses and horrible bus lines. Also,in the middle of the day, no big deal to walk back to hotel for little break or whatevs.
2) Never really had this issue when staying at Disney, then again hotel prices at Universal seem to be higher than Disney counterparts. I never stay at Uni so I wouldn't know.
Both of our recent visits resulted in very unpleasant mobs a the ole bus stop. You are either lucky, or I am unlucky. Not sure what you point is about hotel prices. Our Uni Hotel was part of a package, so the price was a little obscured. Per day, Uni was more affordable than WDW. About 10-15% cheaper including hotel.
Third, all day unlimited fast passes. This almost worked too good. I almost felt guilty always wisking to the front of every single line. ...well... no fast pass for some Harry Plopper stuff.
3) As far as these go, they are good but very overpriced. There are so few attractions in each park that you could easily do all in one park or the other in the same day without these fast passes. Not to mention even if you got the overpriced room where they come free you still paid for it.
Not sure what you mean by overpriced. You mean if purchased separately? Maybe. They were part of my package. Package 10-15% cheaper than WDW.
Fourth, package delivery to room! Not to loud noisy give shop, but right to your bed! Spent way more money on crap because of this.
4) Disney always delivers packages to my room or the front of the park at the very least.
I wish this were true for us. Either that changed or WDW didn't communicate the room option. Uni made it super clear and easy.
Fifth, vertical resort layout. It is not what feels like a 4 hour walk from the bus to your room. ...or from the lobby to your room for that matter.
5) Universal uses more of a hotel style, while Disney uses more of a resort getaway style. Hence the long walks to rooms.
Yep. Pain in the tuckus late at night dragging home.
Sixth, Prices. Yea, way less gouging going on. Still gouging, sure. But not quite a deep, and they don't salt the blade before violating you like Disney does. (exception, charging for parking, seems completely uncool to me, still rubbing me the wrong way on this topic).
6) Having been to both parks I find the value at Disney to be higher. Angus beef for a dollar or two more is a huge difference in my opinion. The only thing Uni has going for them in my opinion is the 10% for passholders which Disney does not do.
I agree with you, barely. Just barely. WDW is becoming a mob scene and their transportation is of the lowest possible luxury. I really hate pressing up against sweaty people on the way back to my sprawling resort hotel. WDW went with the sprawl layout, Uni did not. Sprawl would be ok, but the cattle car style (non-coach) bus service is just not competitive with what Uni offers. Use coaches and problem solved. Heck, expand the monorail system and problem solved too! (but we all know that won't happen becuase cattle car-ing is very cheap and affordable....and people seem ok with it.
...until they discover alternatives like Universal. We did. WDW Orlando vacation monopoly over.
However I am not the kind of person to stay at parks a lot simply because I live less than two hours from them and make mine day trips rather than weekends. My biggest thing with Disney is the customer service. Had a ton of terrible experiences with workers at Uni and so far haven't had a bad one yet at Disney (knock on wood)
I did see a distinct difference in employee presentation. WDW has better trained staff true. I saw many Uni employees just really seeming to be semi-miserable. ...But Uni didn't let us stand in line for a character photo only to turn us away when we were next in line because it was time for Alice's break. WTH is that all about? Uni (and Six Flags) handles it logically,,, they simply place a character caretaker at the end of the line and nobody else can be added. No turn aways. If you are in line, you are good to go.
Let that sink in for a sec..... Six Flags does that better than WDW.