Orlando/Disney/Universal - one hotel or two?

[tickingthebox]

Having had a look at the travel books they seem to suggest a two week holiday doing a day of Disney / day of universal / water park / animal kingdom etc etc and staying centrally to everything.

However when I have been to Disneyland Paris I have found it far better to book into a Disney hotel and take advantage of the extra magic hours and fast passes.... (and we do go in early, we find it a real bonus!)

Universal seems to do this to but again for hotel guests - early entry into the Harry Potter part....

Would we be better moving hotel halfway through the holiday and doing one park then the other or is there another way to do this??

We are going in 2018 so plenty of planning time!!!

I wouldn't bother, that seems like a lot of hassle
First visit we stayed closer to WDW
second time closer to universal
Neither was much hassle, driving over there is so easy

What month are you going?

We go in late januray and it not so busy. The extra hours are a bit pointless. You can usually get round everything over a couple of days anyway. Do most things twice.

But then i suppose if you are going in august (when its open til midnight) the extra hours make it really really long day.

Paris is really very different to orlando. Where we did find the extra hours useful.

we are going in July....

We are just back from Orlando and did both Disney and Universal, staying centrally.

Disney have the fastpass down to a fine art. I am assuming you are buying tickets online before you travel, if so you can download the app, link your tickets to the app and start reserving slots for fastpass 30 days before your visit. This is what we did and the only ride we couldn't get a fastpass for was Avatar which is brand new and very popular. (We instead got there at opening time and only queued 30 minutes). There is no additional charge for the fastpass at Disney and once you've used your three for the day you can easily get more - we found that slots regularly opened up during the day and we were able to get on popular rides again in the evening with no wait.

Universal's fastpass system is crap. It costs something outrageous like $85 per person per day which for a family of 5 is ridiculous. Not nearly as many people using it as there were at Disney. We also found that by using the Universal app and single rider lines where available we didn't wait long for anything.

We stayed in an apartment at Vista Cay and it was 10 minutes from Universal and 20 from Disney. The I4 in the morning or evening rush hour can be a bit of a nightmare though.

Personally I would book for Disney, as it has the most parks and water parks. Use uber to travel to universal - IOA, Studios and volcano bay. With you going in July I would def budget to buy the speedy passes, even for one day and get the park hopper - take hog warts express between the two parks.

We always do this. 9 days in a Disney hotel then move to Hard Rock at Universal for 5. Works really well - free transport (although you can walk to the park in minutes at Universal), quick or extra access to rides, everything feels very safe so kids can wander about. Would never go for the villa option as the two-hotel approach is really efficient and easy. Have a lovely time!

We stay in a villa (I'm not sharing a room with 2 teenage daughters who seem to make a lot of bloomin noise all night) with a pool and use that as a base for days out - makes food cheaper too, without meaning being tied to a cooker on holidays.

We stay for 2 weeks and in the middle of it we do one night at a Premium Universal hotel giving us 2 days of their early entry and Express line access (Universal's equivalent of Fastpass) - EXTREMELY valuable in July - it will be US summer break too and BUSYYYYYY.

The Unlimited park-to-park Express passes cost more for 2 days for 4/5 people than a room for a night at one of the 3 premium hotels Hard Rock/Royal Pacific/Portofino Bay.

We stay on site at Disney (port orleans) and enjoy planning fast passes etc. Then we have one overnight stay in a universal hotel. $12 uber journey. Make sure you book one of the universal hotels that offers free fast passes and early hours. The cost of the fast passes is virtually the same price as the hotel room if there are 4 of you. Be aware that the fast passes are top of the range as many times as you want rides but are not valid for some of the rides including Harry Potter ones. But you do get in earlier to get shorter queues. Having said that we waltzed into the Minions ride last August and saved a 180 minute queue so there are some big rides included. Two days at universal was enough for us with one nights stay. You get fast passes for two days with one nights stay.
For anything else Uber is your friend and you don't need to be near by if you are Disney based.

Google the DIBB forums for the best Florida advice for British people

Universal now allow the express passes on the Harry Potter rides :)

Thanks for all your advice - any tips on best hotels to stay in?