If you’re undecided on whether to go to Disney World or Universal Studios Florida, here’s some comparisons, to note I’m writing this with two kids age 12 and 9.
Disneyworld
Disney World has multiple parks (Magic Kingdom, Holywood Studios, Animal Kingdom and Epcot) with different themed rides across multiple parks. For me I like the magical immersion of the different words, which Disney does really well.
Best rides: Guardians Cosmic rewind, Tiana, and Tron (these required individual lighting lane passes or virtual queues). Rise of the Resistance, Avatar Flight of Passage . We really loved the immersion of Galaxy’s edge, and have now totally become obsessed with droids!
In fact we enjoyed most – Big Thunder Mountain, Space Mountain, Soarin’, Muppet 3D, Mission Space, Slinky Dog, Star tours and many more.
We were staying in a Disney hotel, so woke up just before 7, to join the queue, and hovered over the one we wanted each day, we were successful each day, but the queue position definitely varied. Other guests were saying Tron tends to have availability when the virtual queue re-opens at 1pm, whereas the other rides do not, so best to go for your best option at 7am.
When you book as a package you often get Memory Maker/Disney PhotoPass which I really like, there’s lots of photographers who’ll take your photo and you also get all your ride photos. Disney now has bluetooth tech so your photo automatically links from your seat on some rides.
Universal
Universal has 2 parks. Islands of Adventure and Universal Studios.
First impressions are that its dated in areas (Marvel Super Heroes, Toon land, Seuss Landing) and much better in others (Jurassic Park, Harry Potter) I felt it was really aimed at either the extreme rides or super simple rides but not that much in between.
Universal’s Harry Potter World of Wizardry is great in both Hogsmeade and London, the butter beer is nice, if expensive (almost $10 for a frozen one). The rides in Harry Potters Wizarding World are suitable for most ages, Hagrids is excluded from hotel fast pass, expect to wait over an hour (its worth it). Gringots is also good.
Best rides: Hagrids (for everyone), Hulk (see below), and VelociCoaster.
Without a virtual queue many of the top rides queues are long if you don’t have a fast pass. To note the weather in August comes with storms and thunder, and when thunder occurs everything outdoor stops. We waited for 2h for Hagrids, got to the front, only to be told the ride is now closed – it was closed for a further 4h, so we’re glad we didn’t wait more. This left us really frustrated, and a bit annoyed (you dont get any fast pass for another go). The next day we decided to go first thing, and it was worth the wait, but it is a wait. If universal had virtual queues it might have been just a 30 minute wait and could be more manageable.
Water parks
Typhoon bay (disney)
Typhoon bay was reached via bus, the bus stopped at Typhoon bay then Disney Springs, on the way back we appeared to need to get off at Disney springs (shopping mall), and then get on another bus.
Typhoon bay lockers were $10, towells were free if you were staying in resort – you simply go up to the counter and advise what hotel your staying in. Lockers use a 4 digit pin.
I didn’t have any issue finding loungers when we wanted them, but some were being used to store towels etc.
Typhoon bay has an amazing wave pool, it switches from a regular wave pool and a typhoon wave! The typhoon wave is high ! its thrilling but also alarming! it creates a lot of water movement so even the shallow end can push you about ! This was a main attraction and my kids couldn’t get enough of being hit by 10ft waves !
There’s several rides – see https://www.disneyworld.co.uk/attractions/typhoon-lagoon/
We did a few (I’ve now forgotten the name), most had a queue so you could see the line and join it if you wanted to.
Volcano Bay (Universal).
Volcano bay can be reached by the central car-park on the lower level, you then bus to Volcano bay, note the queues can be a little long.
Once you arrive you get checked in and each are assigned a taputapu wearable.
Lockers cost from $10-$25 (family lockers), the $10 lockers are quite hidden and quite small. You appear to need to bring towels. We bought the family locker, and only just managed to fit 4 sets of shoes, sun cream and towels in it ! Note you need a credit card or you can pay for a locker with your taputapu if you associated it with a payment card.
Many people appear to use the loungers as their towel storage, essentially blocking out all the loungers.
Universal has a big wave pool, with a variety of tube and body slides, the bulk of the slides are more extreme, with only a few amount with are younger family friendly.
The wave pool, goes on/off fairly regularly and is good. There is a smaller pool, which is the other side.
Volcano bay does have two lazy rivers, one with rings, and another which is faster which you wear life jackets.
Mobile food order was quick and reasonable. Plenty of water fountains and chilled water available.
for rides see; https://www.universalorlando.com/web/en/gb/search-results/
Volcano bay and wait times
Your given a taputapu (a waterproof wearable/watch) to manage virtual queues, it tells you how long you have to wait to join the line (once you’ve tapped into your ride).
During the day some rides are free rides, but there are very few screens to check other than the ride totems where you check-in. If you tap in for a ride before taking that ride you essentially start again with the new ride (free rides don’t reset/count).
Our first ride we had to wait 30 minutes for Moana (green) oddly despite 4 of us tapping in, we then had a 10 minute wait for us all to be in sync (so essentially 40 minutes)..
We did a few free rides on the 2 person inflatable. after this our next ride was 3h! for Krakatau. (The ride was good but was a little disappointing we couldn’t do it again).
Once you’re time is up, you then join the ride, the queues themselves can be 20+ minutes, so essentially you cannot start a new queue unilt you’ve completed the one you started.
The paths have water spraying on them, so you don’t need water shoes, and there were plenty of fountains.
Food orders were reasonable.
Keep a close eye on the weather
Check the weather and have a backup plan. If lightening is near (which is common in August), everything closes until the thunder has past – which can be hours. In universal our taputapu stopped counting down, so essentially your on pause during whether which was annoying having waited 2 out of 3 hours for the next ride.
Conclusions
If you have thrill seeking teenagers, I imagine Universal will be more thrilling. Harry potter is very good.
If you have a family who’s younger, I think Disney is more suitable (especially if you like Star Wars), fast pass isn’t necessary, but not too expensive if you want it. The Typhoon Bay wave pool is out of this world.