Disneyland vs. Universal Studios Hollywood

Despite the fact that I'm 40 and that I've been to Southern California twice before, I had never visited Disneyland. It's "the happiest place on earth," so we decided to take a couple of days to visit. We went to Disneyland on day 1 and California Adventure on day 2. While we had some enjoyable experiences, our visit certainly wasn't magical. We had a great time at Universal Studios Hollywood though, so I thought I'd compare the parks.  

Prices

A 2-day ticket for Disneyland and Disney California Adventure (one park per day) is $185.

We went to Universal Studios Hollywood for only one day, as that’s all the time we had in our itinerary, and it is $95 per day. However, they offer a 2-day ticket (the 2^nd day has to be used within a 30-day period) for $119, which is much less than 2 days at the Disney parks.

Parking

When we arrived at the parking structure at Disney, there were multiple lanes to enter the parking structure to pay, and we found it very easy to park (cones directing the flow of traffic, attendants guiding you to a spot, etc.). We were impressed by the trams to the park entrance. 

Although we'd been to Universal before, we entered from a different direction and a bit later this time, and things were not as slick or straightforward as they were at Disneyland. There was ONE lane for entering the parking structure and we were in the wrong lane. We had to go up to the drop-off area, turn around, and drive back. 

Ticket Gates

At Disney, we lined up for the tram, we arrived at the park and lined up to pass through security, and we lined up at the entrance gate (are you sensing a theme here?) Like many people in line before us, we had pre-purchased our tickets thinking it would save time, but it didn't at all. They took the papers, scanned them, printed park tickets, and took our photos. You can imagine that this process takes a fair amount of time. 

We hadn't pre-purchased our Universal tickets because we had a lot of things on our LA to-do list, and we knew we could cut out Universal if need be since we were there just a few years ago. We were happy to be able to fit it in, and when we arrived, we had to line up for tickets and then go through security and the gate entrance, but if I compare time-frames to Disney, we would still have been waiting for the tram to take us to the park entrance. 

Lines

Theme parks have queue lines. They're awful no matter which park you go to, and your feet will hurt from standing. However, we found the lines at Universal to be much more tolerable. There's not nearly as much standing in one spot as there was at Disney. The lines at Universal kept us walking. At Disney/California Adventure, I was in direct sunlight in the queues for many rides, so I was hot, sweaty, and sunburnt. At Universal, the lines are covered and there are cooling fans as well as several water fountains. Finally, Universal has TV screens up in many of the queues, engaging riders with the characters/storyline of the ride. 

Queues at Universal Studios Hollywood - if you are outdoors, the queue area is covered.
(Left: Studio Tour line, Right: Minion Mayhem line)

Universal also has cooling fans throughout the queue lines.

FastPass/Front of Line

When we arrived at Disney, we went and got Fastpasses for Fantasmic. We didn't end up using Fastpasses for any rides as the return times were earlier or later than the times that we planned to be back in the section of the park or the Fastpasses were gone for the day. I can see that they would be more useful if we were at the park for several days and had time to kill while waiting for the time slot for our Fastpass. There is no additional cost for the FastPass, but you can have only one FastPass for a ride at a time.

Our Fastpass for Fantasmic was a huge let-down. You need the pass to be in the area for the show, and when we got there, we found out that our designated area was on the bridge in New Orleans Square. The pass said to return between 8:00 and 9:00. We were there by 8:20, and from the only available spot, all we could see was a tree. I wish I were kidding. 

Our view for Fantasmic

We had a slightly better view when people stood up.

We've never purchased the Front of the Line option at Universal because it's pricy (double the cost). An advantage to the Front of the Line ticket is that you get to the front of the line on the ride when you want to ride and don't have to leave and return. We did use the single rider line to ride Transformers twice. The 90 minute wait for the ride was cut to 5-10 minutes. Now, we had been on the ride before and our son was tall enough and willing to ride on his own, and we met just outside the exit. I'm pretty sure there were single rider lines at Disney, but since this was our first visit, we wanted to be on the rides together. 

Next I'll compare the rides and attractions.