230: Walt Disney World and Universal Orlando

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Kim recently took her two girls to Walt Disney World and Universal Orlando for a mother-daughter getaway. Hear more about her trip, learn some strategies for using Lightning Lane, new rides, new theme parks coming, and comparisons between the parks.

It was hot, humid, and rainy in the afternoons, but they still had a fun time exploring all the parks. Luckily, Universal Orlando has more indoor rides that help on rainy days.

Updates from Walt Disney World

Tron in Tomorrowland at Magic Kingdom – it is like riding a motorcycle but on a roller coaster track. The ride is fabulous but really short.
Splash Mountain is now Tiana’s Bayou Adventure – this is a two-by-two flume-like ride that has been redesigned.
Disney now has Lightning Lane Multi Experience and Lightning Lane Single Experience. With the Multi Experience, it works on multiple rides and as soon as you tap into one ride, you can request the next Lightning Lane. You want to purchase and prebook your first ride in advance. Single Experience is where you can buy a Lightning Lane time slot for individual rides like Tron or Rise of the Resistance.
Disney’s Lightning Lane experience is better than Universal’s Express Pass because they load people from that lane faster.
Disney has also changed their rules around their Disability Access service and made it much harder to obtain a pass. Keep this in mind if you have children with special needs and have used that service in the past.
Tip: If you want to stay at one of the Deluxe hotels on property, you can stay by renting Disney Vacation Club points. (Riviera has Skyliner access) See Kim’s article on renting and using DVC points.
Disney is building a new ride in the Avengers Campus and they are getting rid of the Tom Sawyer Island and Riverboat in Magic Kingdom to create Cars Land.

Updates from Universal Orlando

Note: Universal Orlando hosted Kim’s family for this part of the trip.

Kim stayed at the Loews Sapphire Falls, which is a Moderate property and does not include the Express Passes. The Sapphire Falls is within walking distance to the parks and guests get one hour early entry.
Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure still has very long lines.
The nice thing about the Universal Express Passes don’t require you to book any times online, so it is less stressful to manage. However, many people have these passes because they are staying at the premium hotels and the lanes load slowly so sometimes you don’t save a lot of time (sometimes only about 10 minutes of time savings).
There is a Universal Express Unlimited Pass that lets you ride a ride in the Express pass lane as much as you would like, without limits.
Universal Orlando is building a whole new theme park in 2025 called Epic Universe. It is going to be further away from CityWalk and the other parks or hotels. It will also have another portion of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, Ministry of Magic. There will also be two premium hotels and a How to Train Your Dragon land.