Parking at Disney World is Painful. Parking at Universal is Even Worse.

We know that parking at Disney World can be a pain in the behind.

Right away in the morning, you can become part of the parking parade (the long line of cars moving at a snail’s pace) waiting for parking Cast Members to direct them where to go. While it can be a slow and painful process, we may be convinced that parking at Universal Studios is seemingly worse.

Today, we’re taking you through four issues we’ve faced while parking at Universal Orlando. It may be a toss-up between the parking situations at Disney World and Universal, but we thought you ought to know about these problems we’ve faced at the latter.

2 Garages for Three Parks

Universal Orlando is composed of three theme parks — Universal Studios, Islands of Adventure, and Volcano Bay. You can visit any one park (or more with a park-to-park ticket) on your visit. But regardless of which of the three parks you plan to visit, you only have the option of parking in one of two garages.

That means EVERYONE, going to any of the parks, is trying to park on one of the multiple levels inside only two garages. This feels a bit like a parking nightmare, especially right away in the morning when everyone is getting there at the same time.

That’s three parks worth of people all cramming into two parking garages. It’s a lot of cars at once.

Security is Like Going Through TSA

Once you’ve parked, you then have to make your way to security before entering the park. Now we know this post is about parking, but we felt the need to include this because parking has a lot to do with this.

Regardless of where you parked, EVERYONE going to Universal Studios, Islands of Adventure, and CityWalk all have to go through the same security point. The security checkpoints at Universal Orlando are not like Disney’s. At Universal, you feel like you’re going through a TSA checkpoint with stand-up metal detectors instead of just being able to hold out metal objects from your bags like at Disney.

And when it’s really busy, you might park on the side of the garage and make your way to the central security hub, only to be directed down the side of the other garage, to merge with people who are coming in from parking on that side, into one big line to go through security.

Security anywhere can be frustrating to get through, but at Universal, it can be better or worse depending on where you parked and how busy it is.

Don’t Try to Outsmart the Garages

We recommend not trying to outsmart the parking garages. What we mean by that is, that it may not be as good of an idea as it sounds in your head, to exit the garage to circle around to find better parking.

If you exit to circle around, you will be taken back out to the main streets and have to go ALL the way back in and around. (Don’t ask us how we personally know that…) All we’re saying is sometimes, it might just be better to accept the parking spots you’re finding instead of wasting time “circling around.”

Ride Share Doesn’t Do You Any Favors

Another idea you may have to beat this sticky parking situation is to use a ride-share service like Uber or Lyft. While this may save you the hassle of having to drive yourself through the parking parade, it may cause you a lot more steps for your watch to count.

Ride share is at the very top of the parking garage with the Jurassic Park, Kong, and Jaws parking zones — level 5. There are several color areas (blue, green, yellow, etc.) where the vehicles can drop you off and pick you up depending on where your ride share or taxi is directed. So you may end up having a very long walk to security and then into the parks.

So depending on which is your lesser evil –walking or parking– you may just want to drive yourself.

In some ways, we like Universal Studios parking better than Disney World’s. And in other ways, we prefer Disney’s. It may all just come down to your preferences and experiences. We hope you have an enjoyable time regardless of where you’re parking.

For more theme park tips, keep following AllEars!

7 Universal Rides That Will Have You Saying “Disney Who?”

Do you prefer Disney World or Universal Studios? Let us know in the comments!