RVing to Disney World & Universal!

Is it the kids or the parents that want to go to Disney more?

We fell for Disney marketing

We have always had a line item in our parenting checklist to take the kids to Disney World, Florida. Now that our youngest was 4 and our oldest 12, we felt it was the perfect time to go. But we still could not justify the cost with having Busch Gardens Williamsburg near us. However, we just could not shake the dream of having this experience as a family. Also, with the stimulus money and capacity limits making the lines shorter than ever...how could we say no.

With our RV we went! We went to Disney AND Universal Studios.

Christmas Day in the RV Universal Disney

This trip provided us with countless hours together each day just having fun and making memories. It really fused us as a family.

We went in December to avoid humidity and to see Disney's Christmas decorations and parade. All 3 kids said that this was the best Christmas ever!

We loved riding the ferry into Magic Kingdom and the parade. Watching all the characters pass by and sing Christmas carols was so fun.

Cinderella's Castle had changing light demonstrations projected on it.

The safari ride at Animal Kingdom has so many animals and the big jeep that you tour in is so fun.

The Avatar area was so cool! At night everything lit up and you really felt like you were in the Avatar land.

My favorite show was Magic Kingdom's Hall of Presidents. The animatronics for each president is amazing!

Disney souvenirs

Bubble wands and character masks were our favorite, but the ultimate experience was character pin trading.

Disney Trading Pins

We bought lanyards and a pack of 25 souvenir pins from Pintastic Trading Pins on Etsy. We had them mailed to the Thousand Trails campground mail room, so they were there waiting for us.

We let our kids divide them by picking one at a time each. At the Disney parks there were several locations to trade with cast members. They have a booth set up with a cork board displaying pins available for trade. You choose one to take and offer one of yours to trade. Due to COVID, we dropped our pin into a bucket to be sanitized. Each station allows you to trade up to two times.

Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom cards

At Magic Kingdom, you can get a set of free spell cards, a key card and a map from the Firehouse near the entrance. You watch a video and then visit the locations using your cards to defeat villains. Each location has a video with Disney villains. You activate it with your key card and then use your spell cards to defeat them. There are some that require the back of the card facing the villain. My twelve year old was great at this. My seven year old was not and it was quite frustrating for her to get the screens to respond to her actions. Link for more information on this card game.

Matching or Family shirts

I loved seeing families in matching or coordinated shirts. When I visited the Target in town, I was blown away by all of the Disney souvenirs and matching shirts. Chuy's restaurant also has Disney themed T-shirts.

Universal Studios

Every evening Universal had fireworks.

There was also a show in the water with lights and fireworks going through famous scenes from their movies.

Both parks at Universal had Harry Potter areas together called the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Diagon Alley in Universal Studios and Hogsmeade in Islands of Adventure.

Harry Potter Wands at Universal

At both places you can go through a wand ceremony at Ollivanders where a wizard chooses only one person from the group to have a wand selected for them. The selected person then tries out a couple spells to determine which wand would be the best fit. I loved the words they spoke over my kids when the wand was selected. "You have a unique ability to... This wand has chosen you because you are..."

We got lucky both times we attended the ceremony because thankfully one of our children was selected each time. It can be disappointing to wait in a long line and then another kid is selected for the ceremony. Even if you wait in line again, you are still not guaranteed to be selected, even with the best Harry Potter costume.

My daughter's wand ceremony video below. The lighting is low but you can hear the ceremony. At minute 2:58 is the glorious moment where the wand chose her.

Hogsmeade

Hogsmeade is beautiful, especially the cute shops and castle up on a mountain. You can get Butter Beer from street vendors. We preferred the warm butter beer. Also, the Three Broomsticks restaurant offers the Great Feast for 4: salad, rotisserie smoked chicken & spareribs, corn on the cob, and roast potatoes. We loved it!

Diagon Alley

Capes are so cute ($125) and there is an interactive mirror that tells you how you look.

The dragon spews fire every 10 minutes. It is very exciting but warm and loud. It was a little alarming for our 4 year old.

Diagon Alley was so beautiful at night!

The Simpsons

You have to get a Flaming Moe's, Duff Beer and a pink donut. This was our favorite snack place.

Dr Seuss

Such cute rides and souvenirs

Rides at Universal

We loved the rides at Universal. Most were in a building with a car of some sort (bus, car, train, etc) that interacted with movement, height and vibrations and a large screen. In some parts the vehicle moved more like a roller coaster. The Kong ride in Islands of Adventure included a massive King Kong gorilla robot that was phenomenal.

Transformers & Fast & Furious

Mummy

The Mummy roller coaster was our favorite ride a Universal Studios. You think it is over and then...

The Mummy souvenir shop was so much fun!

Disney springs

We spent a day at Disney Springs and loved it. There are a lot of restaurants and shopping, as well as some cool activities to do like a hot air balloon ride and a boat ride in a boat that looks like a 1950's car. They also have a movie theater.

Our favorites stores were the Lego store and Volcom. At Volcom everything was 40% off, so we got fanny packs for the park for as cheap as $16. This was perfect for the parks because rides that did not allow bags permitted fanny packs.

There is also some open air areas at Disney Springs which was perfect for hanging out and other activities like a picnic, climb a tree or throw a ball. I would not get too close to the water though, there were signs about snakes and alligators.

Our kids trying to be street musicians at Disney Springs. I may have dropped a few coins (or all the coins I could find, lol) into their collection hat.

Keep reading, to learn more about the logistics and tips we learned.

Our two week trip with our RV was about $6,000

Tickets made up half of the trip's cost.

2 tickets to Disney xs 5 - $1421

2 tickets to Universal Studios xs 5 - $1277.95

Free Lodging with an RV - $0*

The RV really helped make this trip possible. We paid more in gas and went a little slower, but we paid nothing to camp. With a Thousand Trails membership we were able to stay at their Orlando RV resort at no extra cost to our annual membership. We were also able to camp overnight for free in Cracker Barrel parking lots on the way down, which helped break up the drive.

The Orlando RV resort with Thousand Trails was amazing! 3 heated pools and a hot tub. Being able to swim at the campground in December was such a treat! I definitely recommend adding some time to unwind and just hang out at the campsite.

*We added two nights in a hotel on the way back $184.87

If I did this again...

1) I would look into annual passes, especially at Universal. We met several people with passes even though they were from other states. They said it saved them a lot of money and gave them the ability to come pack if they wanted. With at least one person with a certain pass level, you do not have to pay the $26/day parking fee ($40/day for preferred. Free after 6:00 pm). If you upgrade your tickets to annual passes on or before your last day, you get to use the cost of the ticket as a credit towards the purchase of the pass.

2) I regret doing Universal base tickets instead of two park tickets because we were not able to ride the Harry Potter train between the two parks.

Universal also had a sale at that time where you got 3 more days free with each two day purchase. However, you must use all 5 days within 6 days. We lost a day because we were not aware of the 6 day stipulation. You may be able to get an extension if you go to Customer Relations.

3) I would schedule more down time. We found that having a day between each park day was the best way to go because there is a lot of pressure to get the most out of your ticket by being there open to close. We take forever to leave the park at night and usually stay until close, so to try to get there again in the morning the next day took a toll. We also had to take time to do laundry.

Some things to know...

Fast pass

If you can swing for the fast pass for one of the adults (use child swap for the other adult) and the kids that would be riding, we found it totally worth it. Christmas week had maybe 30 minute wait times. But the week before New Years Day had wait times 90-120 minutes. The fast pass cut the time in half. However, on these busier days, the fast pass vouchers sell out. There are only two guest relations places to purchase the fast passes in the park which can also be a long wait.

*Fast pass link

Child swap

Child swap combined with a fast pass for one adult and the riding kids made the busy days amazing! The swapping adult did not need a fast pass. With child swap, the initial parent waits in line with the riding kids and the other waits around the ride exit, usually in a gift shop. You can also go do something else and meet back up when they get off the ride. Then the other parent and riding kids go through the exit back up to the ride to get on. Some rides had a waiting room usually equipped with a movie and benches. Some rides also give you a voucher to exchange with the other parent for the second ride.

Height requirements

Our youngest was 40 inches, so he was able to ride almost everything. However, being able does not mean that he wanted to, lol. With most of the rides having a moving car, loud noises and darkness, even the minions ride had my four year old wanting to get off. The Harry Potter ride was definitely too scary for him with the moving train being a roller coaster at times. The Hollywood Rip Ride Rocket roller coaster at the entrance required 51 inches. So our seven year old was not tall enough to ride.

Meal plans were helpful at both parks, especially with a refillable drink. This helped us to venture out and try some of the fun food at Universal in the Simpsons and Harry Potter areas.

Food in the park

At Universal, we loved the snacks in the Simpsons area: large pink donut, Duff beer and Flaming Moe's. We also loved the family feast in the Universal Studios Harry Potter area: Ribs, Chicken, Corn on the cob, Salad and Rolls - 4 large servings. The warm Butter Beer was so delicious. At Disney, the Mickey Mouse ice cream bars had the best chocolate (also sold at Publix in town). It usually cost us about $60 to feed all five of us a meal at the park.

Grocery delivery from Walmart really helped us to eat out less. By the time we were done with the parks, everything would be closed at night, so even if we wanted to go to a restaurant, it was a little tough. When we did eat out, we found that it took longer than expected to get our food and we were either exhausted and ready to go to bed or if before the park, we were losing time to get into the park. I found packing things like bread, nutella, fruit, bagels and cream cheese really helped keep us full during the day until we could eat a meal at the park.

#disney #universalstudios #herewegofamily