Breaking Down The Costs Of A Universal Studios Vacation.
I share my spending on a recent trip and give some comparison to Disney costs.
As a first-time visitor to Universal Studios Orlando, I wondered how it compares to a trip to Disney. In this review, I will outline all the costs associated with my family’s trip and highlight some major price differences from our Disney trip.
First, here’s some basic information for our trip:
- Timing: Late October 2025, during Halloween events.
- Party size: Two adults, one child over the age of 9. (Essentially three adults).
- Length of stay: 4 nights, 5 days.
This post contains the hard numbers of our actual spending. Your vacation spending may differ based on a variety of factors.
Hotel and ticket package
I booked our vacation through Costco Travel. I have never used this service before and felt this trip would be a good test of how the service works and if we run into any issues.
We chose to stay at Endless Summer Resort, Dockside Inn and Suites. I did price out packages for the premium resorts that include Universal’s Express Pass and compared that to staying at one of the budget resorts and paying separately for the Express Pass. In every package I checked on Universal’s own website, it was always cheaper to stay at a budget and add an Express Pass.
Staying at Dockside Inn gave us access to a 2-bedroom hotel room, which was really nice to have. We had plenty of space and our child was able to have their own room.
Our package included tickets for 3 days, park-to-park, plus one day at Epic Universe.
The price for Express Pass at Epic Universe was almost three times the cost of our park tickets so we opted not to get Express Pass at all.
Hotel total: $1895.30
Tickets total: $596.68
The Costco package included an $89 Costco shop card and 2% back for our membership reward.
How does this compare to Disney? Our stay at Disney was longer so we had the benefit of discounts for a longer stay. Our nightly rate at POP! Century was $280 while it was almost $500 at Dockside. Was the extra room worth the higher price tag? Yes, we did love having more room and while POP! is a nice room, it is very tight. Our park tickets for Universal were also more expensive than Disney by about $35 per day per person. Comparing costs on Express Pass versus Lightning Lane, Disney comes out on top and gives us much more choice.
Dining at Universal
Like our Disney vacation, we bring food with us to have for breakfast or lunch, cutting back on the amount of food we buy in the parks. Having the small kitchenette area in our Dockside Inn room was another nice feature compared to our Disney stay.
We did end up purchasing some snacks and eating a few lunches and mostly dinners in the parks. All of the locations we ate at were quick-service locations except Margaritaville.
Total food spend: $617.71
How does this compare to Disney? When comparing just quick service, food carts and hotel food court purchases, both Universal and Disney were pretty close in pricing. A typical quick-service dinner meal costs us about $50-$60 at each park. A sit-down restaurant was closer to $100 in each park.
Merch purchases
Since this was our first visit to Universal Studios, I expected we would spend more on merchandise purchases. The Wizarding World parks were the biggest appeal for my child and me, so we each purchased a wand. We also purchased two Power-Up bands for Super Nintendo World. My husband bought a t-shirt and we picked up a holiday gift for a relative. I also got a bowtruckle, my child got wand suspenders and my husband gifted me a shoulder owl.
Total spend on merchandise: $466.52
Extras
There was only one extra that we did while we were at Universal Studios and that was a round of miniature golf at Hollywood Drive-In Golf at Universal’s City Walk. It was the last night of our trip and a fun activity to wind down our visit.
Total cost for extras: $60.00
Recap of total spend for a 5-day trip to Universal Studios Orlando
Now that we’ve covered all of the spending categories from our trip, our total for a family of 3, staying 4-nights/5-days was $3,636.21.
We have done 4-day trips to Disney and spent under $3,000 total.
Overall, our impression was that the tickets and express passes were higher at Universal Orlando. Food and merchandise costs were about the same; however, there are more options and character meals at Disney so it is easier to spend more there.
I also felt that there was much more to do at the Disney parks, not just in terms of rides, but add-on experiences, shows, parades, scavenger hunts and general options. I could spend days at one Disney park and not get everything done, but Universal felt like I was satisfied after a single-day visit, except for Epic Universe.
