Anecdotally, our experience is a little different to the other posters who’ve said they’ve never spent a day at Universal or have tried it a couple of times and felt there was something missing compared to Disney. We are from the UK and first brought our children to Orlando when they were small. Our Orlando holidays over the last ten years have really changed because of what Disney and Universal were / are offering.
2012: Stayed on-site deluxe for 14 nights at Disney, took one day out to Universal, missed the ‘magic’ and decided our kids were too small so didn’t return for our second planned day
2014: 14 nights on-site deluxe with an additional week at Cabana Bay including three days at Universal parks. Thought the Universal experience was much better this time and really liked Cabana Bay (this was just after it opened)
2015: Two nights on-site at Art of Animation to lock in some hard to get FP+ including meeting Anna and Elsa (remember that being a difficult one to get?) four nights onsite at Portofino Bay with Express Pass which was a game changer, thought the whole system was great as it wasn’t stressful (we could just walk on whatever we fancied with no planning or booking) and it was ‘free’, then 11 nights at Bonnet Creek to do the Disney parks. By this point we were already questioning the value of on-site at Disney
2017: Two nights on-site at Hard Rock for ‘free‘ Express pass then a few days at Cabana Bay driving up and down I4 to Disney parks before a week on-site at Disney deluxe
2018: 4 nights Sapphire Falls, 3 nights Hard Rock with Express Pass and then two weeks on-site deluxe at Disney (free dining, 14 day tickets for price of 7 etc)
2019: 2 nights at Hard Rock for Express Pass, rest of the week at Sapphire Falls and travelling up and down I4 to Disney. We‘d had enough of paying Disney hotel prices at this point and felt Sapphire Falls was excellent value for money. However, we had a stressful five days of early rope drops as it was Presidents’ Day week and being offsite we hadn’t been able to secure the headliners with FP+ at 30 days. It was also the trip I got completely disillusioned with the Disney nickel and diming eg the parks were really busy but opening hours were short with After Hours and Early Morning Magic events taking place most of the five days we were there
2020: The only school holiday we could return this year was the same week as 2019 and we couldn’t face a repeat of the Disney experience so did a week on-site at Universal, relaxing at Sapphire Falls for four nights and then three nights at Hard Rock with Express Pass. We thought we would really miss Disney but we popped to Springs a couple of times and that was enough. It was such a relaxing and fun week, and the trip felt like good value for money
2021: After the pandemic travel restrictions were lifted we had rose-tinted Disney glasses on so split our week over Christmas between three nights on-site at Hard Rock with Express Pass and four nights at Polynesian with Genie+ and ILL. Going from the relaxed way of touring Universal with Express (although slightly less relaxing than usual because of holiday crowds) to the nightmare of using Genie+ made Disney feel even more stressful than if we’d just gone there I think.
This summer we’re doing three weeks in Orlando and all bar nine nights will be spent at Universal hotels (two nights at Portofino with Express) but we upgraded our tickets to annual passes on our last trip so we’ll be in and out of all three parks during the trip. APs get early entry and can use passes as Express after 4 pm on most dates so it feels like we got value for money. We’re doing nine nights on-site at Disney deluxe which was booked before the pandemic and we would lose money to cancel but believe me I felt like doing so after our last trip using Genie+. We got a pretty good deal on the booking when it was made in 2021 (14 day tickets for the price of 7, $200 gift card, welcome basket, $68 per night dining credit, free memory maker) so we’re sucking it up but I expect it will be our last time on-site until Genie+ has either gone or improved substantially. I did cut our Disney portion of the trip from eleven to nine nights though.
If you had told me ten years ago that we as massive Disney fans would be taking Universal-only holidays and would feel like more valued guests at Universal than Disney, I wouldn’t have believed you. But with Express Pass especially, touring Universal parks feels much less stressful. Pre-planning ADRs and FP+ was not my favourite thing but at least you could generally make a plan that worked. Now with park passes, ADRs and then trying to book Genie+ and ILLs that don’t then clash with meals and actually work with what you want to do (plus park hopping restrictions) it all just makes me not want to do it anymore.
While writing this I’ve realised that Universal isn’t really any less expensive than Disney in terms of admission, food and merchandise but somehow I don’t feel like I’m being so ripped off there. Maybe it’s because it is a less stressful vacation. Maybe because we’ve always felt like the hotels are better value than what Disney have to offer. It’s definitely partly because we’ve always felt the included Express Pass is a great product and an excellent perk of staying there.
I do understand to a degree about the difference between the two in terms of magic and immersion. But I cried the first and second times I went to Diagon Alley because of how magical they feel. I do think that’s the exception, but for us feeling like valued guests and having so much fun in a way that doesn’t require planning, checking phones or getting stressed about booking passes offers a different kind of ‘magic.’ We’re still escaping reality and it’s a far better experience than the likes of UK parks like Thorpe Park can offer.
I know Disney can’t offer unlimited Express Pass in the way Universal does because of capacity (for a start) but I do wonder how they’re going to magic their way out of the situation they’ve created with Genie+. And I really don‘t think going from a free service to $15 to a big price hike is a good look even if it does limit demand. Neither is telling (for example) on-site guests that they can’t buy it on a given day because supply is limited, when they‘ve paid so much money to get there.
