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Normally we spend the morning of Labor Day in the hotel pool but since we already had some pool time yesterday, we checked out early and bid farewell to Universal Studios. We had breakfast at First Watch (I tried the new bacon/cheddar pancakes, which were different, but surprisingly good) and then killed some time at Downtown Disney (to keep the Labor Day weekend/Disney tradition alive).

At 10:30am, we drove over to the Peabody Hotel near the convention center to see the march of the ducks. It’s quite a sight to see a family of mallard ducks waddling down the red carpet from the elevators into the fountain in the hotel lobby.

Then it was back into the car and onto I-4 heading towards home. With only a brief stop for lunch (mmmm … Mellow Mushroom), we were back home by 3:00pm and began unpacking and getting ready to go back to school/work tomorrow. Another great Labor Day weekend mini-vacation is in the books.

For the past few years we’ve been Disney passholders and have spent a lot of time at the Disney parks. Now that I’ve spent a weekend at Universal, I noticed a lot of (obvious) similarities and a few other things I wanted to muse about.

Disney FastPass vs Universal ExpressPass Plus

Both parks have a different approach to “skipping” the long lines for their attractions. FastPass is included in your admission price to the Disney parks but Express Pass Plus is an (expensive) add-on, unless you’re staying at a Universal resort (which we did). I liked how with ExpressPass Plus you can get in line when you want (i.e., now) as opposed to FastPass which gives you a time window to return (and there’s also a limit on how many FastPasses will be distributed in a given day). Since it’s a paid add-on (and there are only a few Universal hotels), I think ExpressPass Plus definitely gets you through the lines faster than FastPass and the overall process seemed smoother.

Rides/Attractions

I also noticed similarities in the rides. I guess this should be no surprise as every “regular” amusement park has the same basic set of rides (ferris wheel, bumper cars, etc.) so why not these resorts? Disney has the teacups, Universal has the Storm Force Accelatron. Men in Black at Universal is a grown-up version of Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin. It seems obvious that the Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit roller coaster at Universal is targeted at fans of Aerosmith’s Rockin’ Roller Coaster at Hollywood Studios (I still prefer the latter). Like Disney, you can meet the different characters and get autographs at Universal, but you won’t find any princesses or fairies (well, except the Tinkerbell look-alike that gets slapped around in Shrek 4D).

Overall, I think there is less to do at Universal (discounting the fact there are only two parks instead of four). Before we left on Friday, I had noticed that the park hours were only 9am – 7pm, which seemed short to me (compared to Disney where some parks are open past 10pm, sometimes as late as 1am!). It turned out not to be an issue, though, since both days we had done everything we wanted to do by the late afternoon. Part of that was our use of ExpressPass Plus, part was that the parks didn’t seem to be that crowded for a holiday weekend, but a big part was definitely that there just wasn’t as much to do or see as there is over at Disney.

I’m not complaining (I’ll do that elsewhere): we actually had a nice relaxing weekend without feeling stressed, or rushed, or pressured … and that’s what a vacation should be. Universal was definitely fun, but I’m looking forward to getting back to Disney next spring so I can ride the new Star Tours.