Day Tickets or Annual Pass?

Nittany

Disney is my happy place.
Joined
Mar 10, 2015
Family of three going to Universal for the first time - traveling Nov. 28 - Dec. 5. We were planning on doing at least 2 days at Universal. I am so used to Disney and the planning, planning, planning...so I may be overthinking all of this, but I did have some questions:

1. From what I can see online the cost of 2 day park-to-park tickets will cost us approximately $907.97 on UO website (yes, I know I can get them a little cheaper at undercovertourist.com), but the lowest tier of annual pass would cost us $914.97. Am I missing anything - only a few dollars difference? We usually travel to Florida at least once a year, but could jump down for a long weekend here and there since the tickets would already be paid for and we would also be getting 15 months with the annual pass. Yes, I know there are black out dates and I am okay with that.

2. Do annual passholders get a discount on hotel rooms when staying on Universal property? That may be worth it in itself for us to stay on property and get the free unlimited passes at LRPR or HRH.

Thanks!
 
AP does qualify for discounts but it’s not automatic.
Dates and hotels will be listed when ap rates are released.
 
We bought AP's (seasonal) last Feb. when I was there for a conference and we realized that the tickets we were getting ready to buy were about the same cost. We figured, maybe we'd use them, maybe we wouldn't but no harm/no foul if we didn't. We decided to go in a few weeks, and snagged what I thought was a pretty decent AP rate for the hotel.
 
Hi Nattany,

Yes, the 2-park Seasonal Pass is only a little more than a standard 2-day park-to-park ticket, which makes it an absolute bargain for Orlando. It does open op the APH rates, which saves around 30% off of the normal rate, making it an even better deal. We are only 7.5 hours away, so we can make 2-3 trips on a single ticket.

The only real downside is the blockout dates. If you can avoid those, you're set. If not, upgrading to a higher pass makes sense if you will make a second trip.

You are correct, that there is very little planning to do for Universal. I put down my thoughts on planning Universal at https://www.disboards.com/threads/how-i-plan-a-universal-trip.3794121/, and how to make the most out of your AP. With 4 or more, the EPs at the deluxe hotels are a great deal; with 3 it is still pretty good. Hope it helps...
 


Hi Nattany,

Yes, the 2-park Seasonal Pass is only a little more than a standard 2-day park-to-park ticket, which makes it an absolute bargain for Orlando. It does open op the APH rates, which saves around 30% off of the normal rate, making it an even better deal. We are only 7.5 hours away, so we can make 2-3 trips on a single ticket.

The only real downside is the blockout dates. If you can avoid those, you're set. If not, upgrading to a higher pass makes sense if you will make a second trip.

You are correct, that there is very little planning to do for Universal. I put down my thoughts on planning Universal at https://www.disboards.com/threads/how-i-plan-a-universal-trip.3794121/, and how to make the most out of your AP. With 4 or more, the EPs at the deluxe hotels are a great deal; with 3 it is still pretty good. Hope it helps...

Thanks cfoxga - this information is super useful! I also read your post for planning and I do believe that we will purchase annual passes and stay at a deluxe resort.

:thanks:
 
Remember some discount websites already include tax with their pricing, so add tax to the UO tickets to see how much you are saving. I haven’t bought tickets from UO our first trip.
 
Another thing to keep in mind is with Universal you could use flex pay for APs if you're out of state which you can't for Disney. Depending on how many trips you may take it could be worth upgrading one of those APs for parking benefits but probably not if you're going to be staying on site anyway.
 



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