Nothing beats visiting Disney World as a kid, and believing that you traveled to Mars, or that you actually went into a chamber and made yourself smaller before going back to your full size. Twenty-four years later you probably won't be wanting to fly with Dumbo, but the roller coasters and the attractions with special effects can be fun at both Disney and Universal when you travel with your family.
The first thing you ought to consider is when will you travel. The time around New Year's Eve is the busiest time of the year, or so we were told. This was the first time I visited Universal in Orlando and the fourth time I visited Disney World, and I've never seen such crowded parks. If you have no other choice, should you travel during the last days of December and the first days of January?
Regardless of which park(s) you decide to visit, be there by the time they open, or right before they do, as this will help you get the most out of the attractions and shows. The more people they expect, the earlier they open and the later they'll close, as this is how they try to compensate the longer queues.
Universal Studios has two parks: Universal Studios and Universal Islands of Adventure. Both parks require separate entrance tickets unless you want to go from one park to the other on the same day. I personally recommend visiting one park per day and spend no more than two days in total. It's the cheapest way to see everything. You can purchase a separate fast pass express in order to avoid waiting a long time on each ride. Unless you've got plenty of money to splurge, DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT get the express pass. At the time of booking, I paid about $200 for both parks: one per day per person. If I would've paid for the express pass, I would've paid an EXTRA $150 per park per day, so that would've been $500 per person for both parks. But what about wait times? Will you be screwed by waiting 45 min to an hour on the least popular attractions and up to three hours on the most popular ones?
We realized a little late that for most attractions in Universal Parks, all you had to do is to line up on the "single riders" line, which most attractions have. There would be no need to wait for 2 - 4 hours in line at the Harry Potter attractions, or almost any other attraction. Yes, you will not ride with your friends or family as parties will be split, but you should all be riding almost at the same time if you stay together as a group. You will stay together until they split you up right when it's time to ride, so you can wait for your party on the store that they have before you exit the attraction. It should take no more than 20 minutes on the busiest attractions. After waiting three hours on the Gringotts ride, by the time we figured this out my sister wanted to ride again and it took us about 15 minutes on the single riders line. We were able to see almost everything in both parks, even without lining up on the single riders line on most attractions.
Whether you're a Harry Potter fan or not, both Hogsmeade (at Universal Islands of Adventure) and Diagon Alley (on Universal Studios) look just like the ones in the movie, and you are going to like them. Now my dad wants to watch the movies and pay attention this time! If you stay at a Universal hotel, fastpass is included at no extra charge. I do not know the hotel costs and packages, so you'll have to figure out and do the math.
As for the candy and chocolates, many of these were the same that I found in the Harry Potter Studios near London. The chocolate frogs and the Bertie Bott's every Flavour Beans look the same. Assuming that the taste is the same as the ones in England, chocolate frogs are good. Out of the candies and chocolates that I bought (shown on the picture above), I would only recommend the U-NO-POO chocolates, as they taste better than M&M's. As for the others seen on this picture, they either have barely acceptable or crappy flavors, so I would not recommend them.
Now what abour Disney World parks? Fastpass? Yeah, I got some of those the last time I went, about fourteen years ago, and they should have a single riders line just like Universal, I thoguht. No big deal, right? WRONG! Unlike Universal, most attractions in Disney World DO NOT have a single riders line. The Hollywood Studios Park was not so crowded as I thought it would be, I went there on New Year's Day. I decided not to go to the Terror Tower, but to the second busiest attraction, which is the Rock&Roller Coaster Ride right after opening. This was the only attraction with a single riders line, but luckily all other attractions had no more than a 30min wait time if I remember correctly. I don't believe I needed any fastpasses there, except for the tower. Here in Disney, even though it was my fourth trip, I had not taken advantage of everything that those parks have to offer. The fist time I went was when I was seven, as my grandparents had invited me and my mom only. I loved it, but I was too young, I guess. The second time I went I was twelve, my dad had earned a free trip with me and my sister thanks to Omnilife. My mom was about a month away from delivering my youngest sister and decided not to go. We had visited Magic Kingdom and Epcot only. The third time I went I was 18, on my last year of high school. I joined a high school group, along with a teacher and a principal. It was great, but I had a feeling that I did not see everything, so now it was the time to see everything.
On the second Disney day, I visited Animal Kingdom. The Flight of Avatar had a 4-hour wait time and no fastpasses were available. I came to realize that I should've tried to book my fastpass 30 days in advance by downloading the Disney app on my phone. The most popular attractions will run out of fastpasses if you wait until your trip begins. I waited almost four hours in line, but the flight simulation was definitely worth it. I do not plan on standing in line for so long ever again. While I waited in line, I booked fastpasses for Epcot and Magic Kingdom. Some attractions such as the Test Track in Epcot and the Dwarves rollercoaster in Magic Kingdom were out of passes, but I was able to get one for the Communication Center in Epcot and the Haunted Mansion in Magic Kingdom. I lined up on the Na'vi river right before closing time (which guaranteed me a spot, no matter how long it took to get on the cart), and instead of taking two and a half hours, which was the estimated wait time, it took like 45 minutes. As I tripped, I was able to stand and walk with pain, but had to get a wheelchair for the next two days at Epcot and Magic Kingdom.
I was able to get on all attractions with a wheelchair on both parks, though some will require you to walk a few steps, which I was able to do. This is good news for people with permanent walking disabilities. Most attractions will not let you board ahead of time, but a few of them will, and thanks to that, my family and I took advantage of most attractions other than carousels or mad-tea parties, which are more geared towards young kids.
For the attractions without fastpasses, it's a good thing to start your journey in Magic Kingdom through Adventure and Frontier Land, as people seemed to flock to Tomorrowland and Fantasyland, based on the wait times shown on the app. As we did that, we were able to have short lines on all those attractions except for Thunder Mountain, where we got a pass to come back at a certain time due to my wheelchair, otherwise my whole family would've waited over two hours. We visited the Hall of Presidents in the meantime.
As for the hotel, we stayed at the Clarion Inn, Lake buenavista, as it was about $85 per night for a family of 4. If you stay at a Disney hotel, you can get into the park early before it opens to the general public and you can book your fastpasses 60 days before you go, and for up to 6 attractions (you can only book for 3 attractions and 30 days in advance if you don't stay at a Disney hotel). I believe that you might still get the fastpasses that you want if you try to get them a month ahead of time. These are the fastpasses that I would recommend, starting with the most popular ones on the left (not necessarily my favorite ones, which are highlighted in red):
For Hollywood Studios: The Hollywood Tower of Terror and Rock&Roller coaster ride (this one has a single riders line)
For Animal Kingdom: The Flight of Avatar, The Na'vi River, Harambe Safari tour, It's tough to be a Bug
For Epcot: Test Track (this one has single riders line), Soarin'
For Magic Kingdom: The Dwarves rollercoaster, Space Mountain, Peter Pan, the Haunted Mansion, Thunder Mountain, Splash Mountain, Philhar Magic.
So, long story short: DO NOT buy fastpasses for Universal Orlando and get your fastpasses for Disney World 30 days in advance.
