Another big Disney Parks fan over here. I’m lucky enough to have been to all the resorts worldwide multiple times, apart from Shanghai - had a trip booked to check it out last year on the way back from Hong Kong, but had to abandon it at the last minute due to visa issues with my wife. She was born in HK, and apparently the mainland Chinese government view her as a Chinese national despite her being a UK citizen for many many years now. Hope to get out there before long to check out their Pirates of the Caribbean.

Love WDW and I’ve visited countless times over the years, but I feel like the quality of the product has been slipping for a while now and the costs just keep rising. Also not a fan of the Fastpass+ system - much prefer the MaxPass system out in CA. Do enjoy the Disney bubble in FL though. Agree that Epcot is a mess of construction at the moment, I often refer to it as my favourite bar. Love drinking around World Showcase, especially during the Food and Wine Festival, but will miss Illuminations on future visits. Always stay at the Yacht or Beach Club so we can walk into Epcot in the evenings. Via Napoli is a must for us every trip, as is The Boathouse in Disney Springs and California Grill at the Contemporary. Ale and Compass at the Yacht Club is a hidden gem. Lots of things to love but the experience as a whole just isn’t as good as it used to be, whilst also costing much more.

We now tend to spend more time staying at Universal than WDW when we visit Orlando - the hotels are better and less expensive, the unlimited front of the line pass is a huge advantage, and it’s nice to not have to plan your dining six months in advance / rides 60 days in advance - we find it a much more relaxing experience as we can just wake up and decide what we want to do and eat that day instead of sticking to a pre-arranged schedule. I love spending the afternoon drinking by the pool at either Hard Rock or Royal Pacific before heading into the parks in the late afternoon for some rides, before dinner and drinks at City Walk. Love the whole resort, especially the boats that take you along the water ways from the hotels to the parks. Halloween Horror Nights is also a great time.

The Tokyo Disney resort is amazing and should be on every fan’s bucket list - Disney Sea is just incredible. Hong Kong is a small park but Mystic Manor is one of my favourite Disney attractions anywhere. I wouldn’t go to HK just to visit the park, but HK is a great place to visit and the park is just a bonus. Quite a lot of people also tie a quick stop at HK Disney into a Tokyo trip. Not a big fan of the Paris resort, which is unfortunate as it’s the closest one to me by some margin. It would be great to live closer to any of the other parks!

Edit: I actually proposed to my wife at WDW! Got down on one knee at Sea Breeze Point on the Boardwalk, then went straight into Epcot for the F&W festival to celebrate which was perfect.

I agree that WDW is lacking in capacity, but I don't think a fifth gate is necessary just yet. They need to add additional capacity to the current parks first.

The thing is, Disney artificially limits the capacity of their existing attractions, particularly during slow seasons. Ignoring the effect of FastPass+, which has been something of a disaster in terms of inflating the wait times of less popular / high throughput attractions (POTC being the best example), Disney significantly reduces staffing, number of ride vehicles etc in the off season. If the parks were being operated like they are in the high season in the low season, wait times would be significantly reduced. The reason there is no true off-season anymore is more down to management decisions as opposed to vastly higher crowds.

If less people were visiting due to higher priced tickets, they would further reduce the operating capacity of the attractions so the wait times would be the same. Due to the constant cost cutting strategies employed at WDW, attraction wait times aren't a representative metric of how many people are visiting at any given time / how busy the parks actually are.

Couldn't agree more, and I'm a huge WDW fan. I think it's going to be very interesting to see how Universal's current offerings impact WDW 20-30 years down the line. Many, many people who visit WDW now do so due to memories of their visits when they were young. It's the sentimental effect of wanting to share that 'magic' they felt with their own children... and lots of kids these days are forming more of those memories at Universal. Anecdotally, I've helped countless people plan Orlando trips from the UK, and I'd say that 90% come back saying they enjoyed Universal more than Disney due to how much easier / more relaxing it is and how much less time they spent waiting in lines.

Yup, fantastic advice. Love MaxPass at DL, it reminds me of how much more I used to enjoy WDW.

Don't get me wrong - I'm in my early thirties, married with no kids and I seem to end up travelling to WDW from the UK around once a year. I'm just saying it's going to be interesting to see what happens over the next 20-30 years as I think there is a generation of kids now who will have fond memories of Universal, perhaps more so than Disney. I'm not sure I'd agree that guests are placed first at WDW anymore though... I think profits are placed above literally everything else at this point. They've even been reducing the aircon usage in the summer months to save money.

In terms of Universal - it's worth bearing in mind that up until they opened the Wizarding World of Harry Potter ten years ago they were in trouble. Despite this they have been been at the forefront of cutting edge attractions - The Amazing Adventures of Spiderman is still an incredible attraction and that opened in 1999! It does look like Disney have taken the worlds best attraction crown back with Rise of the Resistance, but interestingly the design team was led by the same person who led the team on Spiderman.

Also worth bearing in mind that the third park in Orlando is going to have the Super Nintendo World area, and Nintendo is about as big as IPs come. The rumours of the tech being used in the Mario Kart attraction point to it being a Rise of the Resistance challenger too - guess we'll find out when it opens in Osaka this year.

This is exactly what I mean - we started off by adding a few days at Universal onto the end of Disney trips, but over the years we've been spending more and more time there. We've even had trips were we spent a week at Universal without doing Disney at all. The factors you listed are key, along with the fact that its much better value for money, particularly the hotels. Disney is fun, but it's increasingly hard work - Universal is relaxing.

Couldn't agree more. I still love WDW, but I'm spending much less money there than I used to.

Rumours are that the additional fee for top tier attractions is going to be a fair bit more than $10. I’m guessing it will depend on time of year and crowd level, but I’ve seen numbers closer to $20 - $25 suggested, with rumours of even more for the very peak seasons.

Agreed. I started visiting UOR for a few days as part of a WDW trip. Now I visit WDW for a few days as part or a UOR trip. It’s much better value for money - especially the hotels, particularly the three that offer unlimited express - and so much less stressful. No real planning required, just show up and enjoy.