So, we ended up doing a long weekend in Orlando Feb 10-12. Our crew was me, the wife, our 12 year old and our 8 year old. The trip was a Christmas present for the kids, with the 12 year old wanting to do Universal and the 8 year old wanting to do Disney.
Based on advice here and other places online, it seemed like staying in a premier hotel at Universal was worth it for the express passes. Therefore, we drove down Thursday after school and stayed Thursday night at the Hard Rock. The hotel itself seemed fine, but the location was phenomenal.
We are not a family that likes to stuff as many experiences into vacations as we can, nor do we like to schedule things terribly far in advance. Based on what I read about Universal, it seemed like one day would not allow us to see everything, but it would allow us to see a lot. My kids were most excited about the Harry Potter lands, so we decided to do the 1-day park hopper ticket. By making the Hogwarts Express a park hopper exclusive ride, Universal smartly sealed the deal on that ticket upgrade for my family.
As we were headed to bed on Thursday night, that was about all we had planned. We knew we had a park hopper, we knew we had express passes, and we knew we got early admission at Islands of Adventure. I also read that our plan in the morning should be to head to Hagrids because it does not have an express pass line. So that's what we did.
Friday
We left earlier than we typically would to try to take advantage of our early access. Therefore, just before the official opening, we were waiting outside the I of A gates. Apparently others had also read similar advice because there were a ton of people with the same plan. Even though we went straight to Hagrids, we still ended up waiting about 70 minutes to ride.
I should note that my son was talking a big game about roller coasters, but we hadn't been to a park or fair in years. My daughter is pretty brave for an 8 year old, but she was a bit unsure. My wife is scared and doesn't like them. Thus, three of us rode Hagrids, while my wife got out of line just before boarding.
After we got off, my daughter said it was scary and fun and wondered it we could ride it again. I gave the bad news about waiting in line, so we decided to see some other things. Both of my kids thought Velocicoaster seemed too intense, so we decided to head away from Hodsmeade and go around the park the other direction.
We hit almost all of the non-coaster rides going clockwise around the islands. Interestingly, my daughter was a lot more scared by the 4D with some movement style rides (Spiderman, Kong, etc.) than the rides that moved. Both kids chickened out on the Hulk.
By mid-afternoon, we made our way back to Hogsmeade and took the Hogwarts Express. The kids thought it was incredibly cool, and it was some nice downtime in the midst of a busy day.
On the Universal Studios side, we ate lunch in Diagon Alley (great fish and chips and bangers and mash for a theme park), bought some wants, and messed around for a while with the wand tricks. We watched the dragon on Gringott's breathe fire a few times and went on Gringott's. Event though it's roller coaster-ish, my wife loved it. My daughter, on the other hand, thought it was really scary and hated it. I think the combination of 4D and coaster was the problem.
We then went around US clockwise, and the Men in Black ride was a hit with everyone, but especially my daughter. I had the highest score of our group. I need somewhere to brag.
We did the ET ride which was weird, dated, and kind of nice. Then we saw the Bourne Stunt show. The stunts were pretty good, but the technology was incredible.
By this point, everyone was pretty exhausted and it started to rain a bit. We had some dinner and wanted to check out the Hogwarts Express the other direction, so we headed back to I of A. The rain let up and we did the Harry Potter rides we skipped that morning, with both kids loving the ride inside the Hogwarts Castle. It was getting late, so we also caught the sorting hat laser light show on the castle. As with everything else Harry Potter at Universal, it was exceptionally well done.
I of A was set to close and US was the park open for another hour, but it was clear that everyone was exhausted at this point. Therefore, we set off on the longest walk in history to the Hard Rock. Cue a soundtrack of "My legs hurt. I'm tired. Etc."
We made it back, got our luggage, hopped in the car, and drove to the Marriott Orlando World Center. Needless to say, no one had trouble getting to sleep.
Saturday
Because we were not staying on Disney property, we did not have early access to Magic Kingdom. And, seeing as how the day before was jam packed, we decided to leave later in the morning and get some sleep. As the only vague planner on the trip, I was in charge of figuring out the schedule.
I settled on purchasing both an individual lighting lane for the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train (3:30 in the afternoon) and the Genie+ for the day. I had read how much more carefully you needed to pay attention and game the system than at Universal, and those comments were right. I saw that I could book a Genie + reservation at park opening (9am), so I booked Jungle Cruise for 2ish in the afternoon. Then, at 11, I was able to book another ride.
Overall, my family vastly preferred the express passes to the Disney version. Like I said, we're not huge planners, and having to decide what ride we wanted to do 3 hours later was not a good a fit. We did it, rode all the things we really wanted to, and probably ended up having 10-12 Genie + bookings, but it made the day feel more like work and less like fun. I understand that Disney would have a hard time implementing the express pass system without having to make changes, but I would have gladly paid more money for a better experience. My son and I rode Space Mountain late in the day and he wanted to hop on again right afterward. I saw that there was another reservation available in 20 minutes and tried to book it before I had to dejectedly tell him that we could only use the booking once per ride.
Our Magic Kingdom day was fine, but the age of my kids and going to Universal the day before made it seem less magical. The Harry Potter worlds at Universal are better executed that anything at Magic Kingdom. In addition, so many of the rides at MK seem old and tired. While Universal probably relies too heavily on 4D attractions, MK needs something to fill the thrill gap between Jungle Cruise/Pirates/Winnie the Pooh and the coasters. There are simply too many rides that are boring or outdated. On the other hand, Thunder Mountain and the Mine Train are both really great family coasters, and Space Mountain is a notch more thrilling. Tron (once open) will slot at the top end of thrills, but there will still be a huge gap around the smaller thrills.
Another thing that my wife and I both missed from the last time we were at Disney was the characters. Do characters not walk around anymore? That used to be one of the best parts about the park, but the only characters we saw were Winnie and Tigger just outside the Winnie ride. Otherwise, there was numerous meet and greets that you could sign up for, but that doesn't have the same magical feel.
Sunday
Our plan was to enjoy the water slides at the hotel and then drive back to SC whenever the kids got bored. The Marriott World Center has the best hotel water slides I've ever seen, so this plan seemed foolproof. Foolproof except for the weather that is. We ended up having temperatures in the 50s and 60s, so the kids thought the heated water was fine when they were in the pool, but froze the second that got out of it to go up the slides.
We ended up staying in pool about an hour and half anyway. They probably did more laps around the lazy river than most NASCAR races have.
If this trip summary helps anyone in the future, that would be great.
Our family scores out of ten would be:
Hard Rock Hotel (8) - Awesome location. Ok hotel.
Islands of Adventure (9) - Great park experience with express passes
Universal Studios (7) - Seems more dated than its sibling, but still fun
Magic Kingdom (5) - Disney seems better at talking about the magic than delivering it currently.
Marriott Orlando World Center (8) - HUGE hotel. It's a resort hotel and a conference hotel in one. I prefer smaller hotels, but if you like larger ones, this one has it all.
