We have stayed at Universal 2 times, and we absolutely loved it. We stay at the Royal Pacific REsort. We love the tropical feel of the islands. It is absolutely beautiful, and the service is excellent. They actually make you feel like you are a valued guest
When you stay at certain resorts, you can get free express passes. This is worth the cost of the room, IMO. I did the numbers of hotel stay vs tickets, EP, etc for each park, and the resort stay won out!
If I was making this my vacation spot, I would do at least 2 days for each park. I seem to remember that they offer free shuttles to Sea World, and others??? But my memory is bad, so if anyone else knows about this, please chime in. We did not take advantage of this as we only had 2 days. RPR is a deluxe resort, but priced reasonably.
We like the Universal side better, so spend most of our time there. HP world is amazing, fantastic, immersive, and just like the movies and books. It is awesome. We could spend a whole day there easily. Be sure to go to the Horror Makeup Show, it's hilarious. There is so much to do and see. Foodwise, we think disney is better, but we haven't tried alot of places out yet.
Let us know how it goes, and have a wonderful time