Southern California City Pass ?'s

[PrincessAbby'sMom]

Trying to plan a trip for Dec.....

Starting in San Diego (SeaWorld & Zoo), moving up to LegoLand on our way to Anaheim...doing Universal & saving the best for last - DL.

I just read on the DL forum that this one DISer had to go to the main gate at DL to redem all of her ticket vouchers......??????????? (she just got back from the trip)

We wanted to fly into San Diego 1st (rent a car) then move North, but that would ruin everything.....anyone know any more info.......do I really have to go to DL 1st to pick everything up???????

Please help????

 

[Sorsha]

That's not how it worked when we used City Pass in 2005!
Now granted, that's been almost 2 years, so things may have changed, but here's how it worked when we used it.
At the first theme park we visited (happened to be the San Diego Zoo) we purchased the CityPass. It was listed right there as one of their ticket options. They opened the booklet, pulled out the voucher for "San Diego Zoo", gave us a receipt and a ticket for the day and gave us back the booklet. Then at each park we visited after that (we went to Sea World next, then Disneyland and DCA, never did make it to Universal, ran out of time) we simply presented our booklet at the window where you would normally purchase your tickets. The CM at the window would remove the appropriate voucher and convert it into a ticket for that park. At Disneyland, we got regular 3 day park hoppers in exchange for our vouchers. One thing to remember is that the vouchers HAVE to stay attached inside their booklets until the CM himself removes them. That's because the date of purchase was stamped only on the booklet, not on each voucher, so without the booklet attached the CM would have no way of knowing if the vouchers had expired already. You have 14 days to use your vouchers. But so far as i remember there was no order in which you had to use them, and you could start using them at whatever park you wanted. On the last day of our vacation, we ended up giving our ticket booklets with the Universal vouchers still attached in them to another family of 4 that we found at the breakfast bar of our hotel. We weren't going to use them, so we figured someone might as well! They were very happy and I hope they had fun at Universal!

 

[tmatthews]

princessabby'smom, The difference here is sorsha bought the citypass at the zoo. I bought mine from Travelocity and was given a paper to print out with a bar code which entitled me to a booklet. However I had to go to DL first to redeem that paper for the book and vochers that Sorsha was talking about. If you haven't already purchased the city pass, then I would do what sorsha did and just purchase the city pass at the zoo or seaworld where you intend to go first. It is still correct not to pull out the tickets from the booklet! Also, if you wanted to purchase ahead of time try going on the zoo's website or seaworld's and purchase there......just a thought.

 

[WebmasterMaryJo]

I'm wondering if different agencies have different types of So Cal City Passes. DU books through the Walt Disney Travel Company, and in the past it used to be that you had to go to Disneyland first. That is no longer the case because some people begin their vacations in San Diego.

 

[Sorsha]

princessabby'smom, The difference here is sorsha bought the citypass at the zoo. I bought mine from Travelocity and was given a paper to print out with a bar code which entitled me to a booklet. However I had to go to DL first to redeem that paper for the book and vochers that Sorsha was talking about. If you haven't already purchased the city pass, then I would do what sorsha did and just purchase the city pass at the zoo or seaworld where you intend to go first. It is still correct not to pull out the tickets from the booklet! Also, if you wanted to purchase ahead of time try going on the zoo's website or seaworld's and purchase there......just a thought.

AH! That explains it!
That's a great idea, to purchase ahead of time from the websites. I know when I was looking at ticket prices online for Sea World in San Diego, purchasing CityPass online was available.

 

[LittleP]

Costco sells the Southern California Citypass passes at some stores and online as well. They are priced lower and supposedly you do not have to be a member to buy them online. My agent at Get Away Today suggested this because the tickets they sell have to be used at Disney first.

 

[PrincessAbby'sMom]

Thank you to all, I think I understand now & will watch the fine print when searching for the City Pass.

 

[VegasMike21]

Costco sells the Southern California Citypass passes at some stores and online as well. They are priced lower and supposedly you do not have to be a member to buy them online. My agent at Get Away Today suggested this because the tickets they sell have to be used at Disney first.

They cost $209 at Costco's website but do they have to be used at Disney first or can they be used somewhere else first?

 

[LittleP]

According to an e-mail that I received from Costco.com, their passes do not have any restrictions on where they are used first or in what order they are used. I have not ordered mine yet, but I think that non members have to pay a 5% surcharge. It's still a little less than anywhere else that I have seen.

 

[VegasMike21]

According to an e-mail that I received from Costco.com, their passes do not have any restrictions on where they are used first or in what order they are used. I have not ordered mine yet, but I think that non members have to pay a 5% surcharge. It's still a little less than anywhere else that I have seen.

yeah there is a 5% surcharge if you are not a member, luckily my g/f is so we don't have to pay the dumb surcharge. What a deal that is for $205 per ticekt...basically it's like getting sea world and universal for free.

 

[PrincessAbby'sMom]

Thanks guys for all the answers....

LittleP - did you just recently email Costco, or has it been awhile? And you guys still say its cheaper at Costo even w/the 5% surcharge???

Thanks again guys - you have really saved me alot of headache & research.

 

[VegasMike21]

Thanks guys for all the answers....

LittleP - did you just recently email Costco, or has it been awhile? And you guys still say its cheaper at Costo even w/the 5% surcharge???

Thanks again guys - you have really saved me alot of headache & research.

yeah it's cheaper even with the 5% surcharge, the 5% surcharge is only like what $10. Making it like $215 and other places are like $235 for the tickets.

 

[LittleP]

I got the response from Costco yesterday. The 5% surcharge makes the adult ticket $220.50 and the childrens ticket $178.50. It's a little less, and you can start your vacation where you want to!

 

[#1minnie]

fyi...I was on Universal's website last night, and if you purchase via their website you can get even one more day at Universal, (so total of 2 days at Universal) but I think you had to start out at Universal first and obtain the passes at their gate. I'm keeping that in mind for our trip next June. Hopefully they might have a similar option next year as well.

 

[tiggerwannabe]

I just got mine...

purchased em on Disneyland.com for $235 with free shipping.

Costco still seems to be the better deal, I wish I had known about this about 4 days ago