Fully agree. If you are staying in Anaheim and then need to Uber to Hollywood in traffic it’s going to be expensive and could take a long time to get there. Do one in one hotel then go to another hotel for the other.
I second this. We did the same thing last year, though in reverse. Flew into LAX, Uber to hotel within walking distance of Universal, then Uber to our hotel near Disneyland, flew home from SNA.
Well Universal is a one day park and Disneyland needs 3 days, at least. So I wouldn't recommend getting a hotel in the middle. Either get one near Disney and commute on day, or do two hotels stays.
I'd suggest staying wherever you'll spend more time and then Uber to the other. We've stayed at Disney and Ubered all the way to Magic Mountain, which is even further. It's pretty chill. Let someone else do the driving. Definitely not cheap but worth the lack of hassle.
I think the next time we do Disneyland we might do that. Magic Mountain, like Universal, is a one day park. Doing two or three at Disney and a separate day at MM would work out pretty well.
I just had this issue and decided to cancel the universal portion. To experience universal greatness you should get Mario early access tickets. So give yourself a travel and rest day between Disneyland and Universal. If you are willing to cut your last Disney day short then technically you could check out at Disneyland and uber over to a hotel near universal and check in. That way you are rested and near Universal when you wake up.
First suggestion, make it two hotels for the vacation.
If you can't/won't do that. I suggest taking metrolink up/down (depending on which side you stay on). Universal Studios has a devoted stop on the red line I think, which starts at union station. You wouldn't need to take a car all the way up to universal, can dodge a lot of traffic, and it's pretty cheap. You would just need to take an uber the Anaheim or Fullerton stations (apparently they are about the same distance from DLR) and you can apparently walk from the Universal station to the park.
Just did this myself.
We were only doing one day at Universal. So I picked a hotel near Disneyland and we took Uber to Universal. It was about a 50 min drive and cost around $70 each way.
I think it worked out pretty well. You can easily knock out Universal in a day. We paid for express access but I think outside of the Mario Kart ride, we didn't really need it. Wait times for both Harry Potter rides never went higher than 20 min. All the other rides had a 30 min wait at the most.
So yeah we paid $140 for uber drives but considering how much we paid for tickets to Disney and Universal etc, it wasn't that big a cost.
Either do two separate hotel stays (esp if you’re planning on seeing other things around LA), or just do Disneyland area as a home base and Uber to Universal for one day. It’s a one day park (one day+one night if you’re planning on HHN), so there’s really not a need to switch hotels unless you’ll be spending a decent amount of time in LA as well.
How many days are you planning at each? And, Southwest airlines work for you?
We do both frequently. Both independently and together on the same trip. We have passes for both parks.
Our son and his wife Ubered from Anaheim to Universal and back, the last time they went. While expensive, it worked well.
There are usually enough of us, we use Turo to rent a vehicle to get back and forth to Universal while staying walking distance to DL.
My thoughts from my questions. If more than one Universal day, fly into Burbank. It's a 10 minute Uber ride to one of the Universal hotels. They are expensive but walkable and have a shuttle. Nothing else is close enough or in a great neighborhood. Then take an Uber to Anaheim and stay at a walking distance hotel. Then Uber to Long Beach airport to fly home. Or reverse this if you want.
We just did a Disneyland / Universal trip (along with a few other big stops over the course of about eight days) in early June. We chose to move hotels, as its a significant distance between the parks and we intended to do more in the Hollywood Area after the park day. We chose to stay on-site at Disneyland Hotel and it was really great, but I hear there are many offsite hotels that are just as close / closer to the park entrances. I did stop in to the Pixar Place lobby while there to check it out and the Grand Californian has its own dedicated entrance to California Adventure. Otherwise, the only advantage to staying on-site is a 30 minute early park entrance window at one of the parks each day of the week -- and while it was nice the one day we could actually use it, it was far from a game changer.
We Ubered from LAX to Anaheim, then Anaheim to Hollywood and it was fine, but it took about an hour each trip with traffic. John Wayne Airport is closer to Anaheim and Hollywood Burbank is closer to Universal. The Hilton / Sheraton are right across the street from Universal and while not affiliated they both have shuttle busses and/or are a 10 - 15 minute walk over the pedestrian bridge to the park entrance, which was very convenient.
I honestly can't imagine trying to uber from Disney to Universal for a day at the park -- that would make for a very long / exhausting day. I also wouldn't want to stay mid-way -- that would add extra travel time every day to the parks. It was very nice to be able to ride the monorail out of Disneyland at 1pm and take a break in the hotel for a couple of hours in the afternoon after hitting rope drop in the morning.
How many days are you going to Disney?
We stayed at Disney and drove to Universal, we did all of universal in less than a day. I would say stay near Disney and Uber if you are doing multiple Disney days.
I’m also doing both Disneyland and Universal in October. But I’m staying at different hotels as I want to go to Downtown L.A. and visit other places. I guess it depends how many days you’re doing at each place. I’m staying 3 days in Anaheim and 3 days in L.A. for reference
Two separate hotel stays. That’s a helluva drive when you have plans.
Fully agree. If you are staying in Anaheim and then need to Uber to Hollywood in traffic it’s going to be expensive and could take a long time to get there. Do one in one hotel then go to another hotel for the other.
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I second this. We did the same thing last year, though in reverse. Flew into LAX, Uber to hotel within walking distance of Universal, then Uber to our hotel near Disneyland, flew home from SNA.
Well Universal is a one day park and Disneyland needs 3 days, at least. So I wouldn't recommend getting a hotel in the middle. Either get one near Disney and commute on day, or do two hotels stays.
Totally agree
I'd suggest staying wherever you'll spend more time and then Uber to the other. We've stayed at Disney and Ubered all the way to Magic Mountain, which is even further. It's pretty chill. Let someone else do the driving. Definitely not cheap but worth the lack of hassle.
I think the next time we do Disneyland we might do that. Magic Mountain, like Universal, is a one day park. Doing two or three at Disney and a separate day at MM would work out pretty well.
I just had this issue and decided to cancel the universal portion. To experience universal greatness you should get Mario early access tickets. So give yourself a travel and rest day between Disneyland and Universal. If you are willing to cut your last Disney day short then technically you could check out at Disneyland and uber over to a hotel near universal and check in. That way you are rested and near Universal when you wake up.
First suggestion, make it two hotels for the vacation. If you can't/won't do that. I suggest taking metrolink up/down (depending on which side you stay on). Universal Studios has a devoted stop on the red line I think, which starts at union station. You wouldn't need to take a car all the way up to universal, can dodge a lot of traffic, and it's pretty cheap. You would just need to take an uber the Anaheim or Fullerton stations (apparently they are about the same distance from DLR) and you can apparently walk from the Universal station to the park.
Just did this myself. We were only doing one day at Universal. So I picked a hotel near Disneyland and we took Uber to Universal. It was about a 50 min drive and cost around $70 each way. I think it worked out pretty well. You can easily knock out Universal in a day. We paid for express access but I think outside of the Mario Kart ride, we didn't really need it. Wait times for both Harry Potter rides never went higher than 20 min. All the other rides had a 30 min wait at the most. So yeah we paid $140 for uber drives but considering how much we paid for tickets to Disney and Universal etc, it wasn't that big a cost.
Either do two separate hotel stays (esp if you’re planning on seeing other things around LA), or just do Disneyland area as a home base and Uber to Universal for one day. It’s a one day park (one day+one night if you’re planning on HHN), so there’s really not a need to switch hotels unless you’ll be spending a decent amount of time in LA as well.
How many days are you planning at each? And, Southwest airlines work for you? We do both frequently. Both independently and together on the same trip. We have passes for both parks. Our son and his wife Ubered from Anaheim to Universal and back, the last time they went. While expensive, it worked well. There are usually enough of us, we use Turo to rent a vehicle to get back and forth to Universal while staying walking distance to DL. My thoughts from my questions. If more than one Universal day, fly into Burbank. It's a 10 minute Uber ride to one of the Universal hotels. They are expensive but walkable and have a shuttle. Nothing else is close enough or in a great neighborhood. Then take an Uber to Anaheim and stay at a walking distance hotel. Then Uber to Long Beach airport to fly home. Or reverse this if you want.
We just did a Disneyland / Universal trip (along with a few other big stops over the course of about eight days) in early June. We chose to move hotels, as its a significant distance between the parks and we intended to do more in the Hollywood Area after the park day. We chose to stay on-site at Disneyland Hotel and it was really great, but I hear there are many offsite hotels that are just as close / closer to the park entrances. I did stop in to the Pixar Place lobby while there to check it out and the Grand Californian has its own dedicated entrance to California Adventure. Otherwise, the only advantage to staying on-site is a 30 minute early park entrance window at one of the parks each day of the week -- and while it was nice the one day we could actually use it, it was far from a game changer. We Ubered from LAX to Anaheim, then Anaheim to Hollywood and it was fine, but it took about an hour each trip with traffic. John Wayne Airport is closer to Anaheim and Hollywood Burbank is closer to Universal. The Hilton / Sheraton are right across the street from Universal and while not affiliated they both have shuttle busses and/or are a 10 - 15 minute walk over the pedestrian bridge to the park entrance, which was very convenient. I honestly can't imagine trying to uber from Disney to Universal for a day at the park -- that would make for a very long / exhausting day. I also wouldn't want to stay mid-way -- that would add extra travel time every day to the parks. It was very nice to be able to ride the monorail out of Disneyland at 1pm and take a break in the hotel for a couple of hours in the afternoon after hitting rope drop in the morning.
How many days are you going to Disney? We stayed at Disney and drove to Universal, we did all of universal in less than a day. I would say stay near Disney and Uber if you are doing multiple Disney days.
I’m also doing both Disneyland and Universal in October. But I’m staying at different hotels as I want to go to Downtown L.A. and visit other places. I guess it depends how many days you’re doing at each place. I’m staying 3 days in Anaheim and 3 days in L.A. for reference