I spent full days at Disney World and Universal, and the latter is way more convenient right now

Navigating the Genie+ and Individual Lightning Lane services at Disney World can be difficult. On the day of our visit, I was awake at 6 a.m. buying the Genie+ service, getting into virtual queues, and booking Individual Lightning Lanes (expedited lines) for rides.

It cost us $25 a person for the Genie+ service and another $15 a person for a Lighting Lane to ride Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind at Epcot. I was also able to put us into the virtual queue to ride Tron: Lightcycle Run at Magic Kingdom, which was free of charge but required me to be ready to join via the My Disney Experience app at 7 a.m.

Using Genie+ helps avoid standby lines, but requires lots of time in the Disney app. I spent a great deal of our day searching for which attraction we wanted to ride next. The system is complicated, and if I didn't use it regularly, I know I'd be overwhelmed by the process.

Universal's Express pass is blissfully simple. Prices start at $90 a person (on the day we visited it was $175) and allow guests to ride all participating Express pass attractions once, including the new Villain-Con Minion Blast and the thrilling Jurassic World VelociCoaster.

For a bit more ($100 to $380 a person), there's Universal Express Unlimited, which allows you to ride the attractions as many times as you want.

Beyond purchasing the pass, there's no work to do. Simply look for the Express entrance at attractions and hop into a much shorter line.

Parking at Disney World costs $25 a day for standard and up to $50 for preferred. One of the best ways to avoid both the cost and hassle of theme-park parking is by making a breakfast reservation at a hotel on the monorail loop.

We had breakfast at Kona Cafe inside Disney's Polynesian Village Resort, which didn't cost much more than parking, then hopped on the monorail to Magic Kingdom. I'd rather spend money on Mickey-shaped pancakes than parking.

I parked for free with my reservation and left my car there for the day. We didn't run into any issues staying for five hours, but be aware that you're technically only allowed to park for free for three hours after your reservation time.

At Universal, parking costs $30 for standard and $50 for preferred. Unlike Disney, there aren't many ways to avoid the high fees when you're just visiting the parks for the day.

But parking is free after 6 p.m. on non-Halloween Horror Nights Nights, and if you purchase two or more movie tickets at the Cinemark theater at Universal CityWalk, you can have your parking fee reimbursed.

Ride wait times seemed lighter than normal when we were at Disney World, but I was still thankful for Genie+.

Between Magic Kingdom and Epcot, we rode eight attractions in five hours, from Big Thunder Mountain Railroad to Soarin' Around the World. On average, we spent 14 minutes in each line for a grand total of 107 minutes.

We also spent five hours at Universal and rode eight rides using Express. But at this time of year, standby line times seemed light there, too.

We breezed onto popular attractions like the Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man and Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts.

Our average ride wait time here was also 14 minutes, making Express worth the cost.

August is one of the hottest times of the year in Central Florida, so we paid special attention to how much shade and air-conditioning was available at Disney.

Rides like Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin and Under the Sea - Journey of the Little Mermaid had blissfully cold, indoor ride queues. We also found a shady spot in Frontierland to watch Magic Kingdom's Festival of Fantasy Parade with no problem.

When we really needed to cool down, we took refuge in one of Disney World's air-conditioned gift shops.

Most rides at Universal, from Skull Island: Reign of Kong to Men in Black: Alien Attack, have large, air-conditioned, indoor queues.

Like Disney, the shops were air-conditioned, too, so we knew we could take respite inside.

We struggled to find a quick-service lunch spot with indoor seating due to crowds.

After ordering food at Casey's Corner in Magic Kingdom, we ate outside under the shade of an umbrella, which was not ideal in the heat.

We shared a delicious lunch at the Minion Cafe. There was plenty of seating and ice-cold air-conditioning.

When it was time to change parks, we took a monorail to Disney's Transportation and Ticket Center where we transferred to a second monorail that took us to Epcot.

The process was simple and the monorail was a good place to cool down and rest our legs. It only took 20 minutes to get from one park to the other.

It's simple enough to take a 10- to 15-minute walk through Universal CityWalk to get from Universal Studios Florida and Islands of Adventure, but it's way more magical to ride the Hogwarts Express.

Since we started our day at Islands of Adventure, we boarded the Harry Potter-themed train in the Hogsmeade area of the park and ended up outside of the Diagon Alley area.

The whole process took about 25 minutes, but if we hadn't had Express, we would've waited in a longer standby line to board the train.

I love commemorating my visits to theme parks by posing for photos with characters, but we didn't see many out and about at Disney. There are usually roaming characters in the streets or in special meeting places throughout the parks, but we saw none this time.

Instead, we had to wait in lines for indoor character meet and greets or use a Genie+ reservation to meet them.

Universal was the true MVP for character sightings. In both parks, there were meet and greets, roaming characters, and performers in street shows.

The lines to meet these characters were fairly short, and we were able to snap lots of photos with everyone from Captain America to Margo and Edith from "Despicable Me."

Disney doesn't allow park-hopping (moving from one theme park to another) until after 2 p.m., so we spent the majority of our day at Magic Kingdom with limited time at Epcot.

On extra-hot days, we run out of steam pretty fast, and being limited to just one park for several hours of the day felt restrictive.

At Universal, there's no limit to what time you can go from one park to the other, so we split our day evenly between Islands of Adventure and Universal Studios.

I liked setting up our schedule that way much better. We got an adequate amount of time in each park before we were too hot to keep going.

The magical allure of Mickey Mouse and the Disney princesses will always keep me returning to Disney, but Universal feels less complicated at the moment.

It was easier to get on rides quickly, and we spent less time planning overall. Although Universal Express cost more than the $80 I spent to skip lines at Disney, if we'd stayed in the park from open to close, we easily could've gotten on every available ride.

My son and I shared a relaxing day at Universal where we didn't need to reserve times, stare at an app on our phones, or elaborately plan out what we'd do next. Instead, we roamed both parks, hopped in short lines, and leisurely snacked and drank through both parks.