On my first ever trip to Orlando (2016), we went to WDW and Universal. I grew up a MAJOR Harry Potter nerd but didn’t get into Disney until college, when I got a
Disneyland AP. So, I was equally excited about WDW and Universal for Wizarding World. This predated by knowledge of podcasts/disboards, etc. so I had no idea that there was a “war” between the two and had no expectations.
I really wish I could say I had a better time at Universal. Multiple times the employees either didn’t know basic answers to questions (where is the frog choir?), told us wildly inaccurate information causing us to miss shows, or just couldn’t be bothered to answer us. Gringotts broke down, resulting in a two hour wait for the ride. These things all really bummed me out and distracted me from the immersiveness of it all.
Now, I hear so many others say great things and I’m 100% willing to try again and maybe I just had an “off-experience”. But it irritates me when people just chalk bad experiences up to “drinking the Disney koolaid”. There’s pride and prejudice on both sides of this debate.