Universal sharing in some of the bad press usually reserved for Disney...

[BrianL]

Also, yeah, it's expensive, but the overwrought "sticker shock" is a bit much. I still think theme parks offer pretty good entertainment value, even if I am a little tired of the nickel & diming aspects. Have you been to a concert or sports event lately? That's like 2 to 3 hours of entertianment. An NFL game for a family of four would easily run higher than this Universal trip!

 

[Jrb1979]

Also, yeah, it's expensive, but the overwrought "sticker shock" is a bit much. I still think theme parks offer pretty good entertainment value, even if I am a little tired of the nickel & diming aspects. Have you been to a concert or sports event lately? That's like 2 to 3 hours of entertianment. An NFL game for a family of four would easily run higher than this Universal trip!

Yes it can be very expensive if you are only going for one day. Universal always has deals for staying multiple days. I've seen posted here from some that going to Universal for 1 day as an add-on to a Disney vacation is expensive. Disney and Universal aren't meant to visit as a 1 off. You save so much if you go multiple days.

 

[BrianL]

Yes it can be very expensive if you are only going for one day. Universal always has deals for staying multiple days. I've seen posted here from some that going to Universal for 1 day as an add-on to a Disney vacation is expensive. Disney and Universal aren't meant to visit as a 1 off. You save so much if you go multiple days.

Yeah, my friend really wanted to tack on Universal - I was pusing for an extra Disney day. We wouldn't have even stayed that long, but the flight one day further out was WAY more expensive, so I figured we should just stay an extra night. We ate that up with the trip to Uni, but it's all good!

 

[pinkxray]

It’s easy to spend that much nowadays at local parks. Especially when you start add whatever fast pass options they have.

Whenever you do a one day trip anywhere, prices stink. She lost me at express passes too. You don’t have to add those on.

We frequent Disney and Universal, and it always comes out to be a much better deal to stay at Disney on trip, and next trip head to Universal. Prices drop the longer you stay and length of stay passes.
One day tickets are pricey.

 

[maverik85]

So a woman in marketing was looking for a way to go viral to sell her social media webinars.

She completely lost me at "Fast Passes"

I wouldn't pay $396 for something I didn't even know it's name.

First clue that she wouldn't be a good person to learn from.

Plus it gives a false impression of inflated cost to visit the park to say it cost $1100 +for one day when over 1/3 of that cost alone was for an add on she opted to pay for that isn't necessary. And honestly a lot of stuff from her list was unnecessary. The only things she had to buy were tickets and parking and that was less than half of the overall cost at $510. Eat before and after the park offsite and it will be cheaper and food is going to be factor in any trip so to me that is negligible if trying to find a budget trip.

 

[TraderStitch]

I'd say she got off pretty cheap. These places are there to make money not be charities. Want something inexpensive, go camping.

 

[tarak]

What a dumb article

Ok don't pay for express pass, that is your choice.

Actually, its all your choice.

Its all about getting clicks on their TikTok

Exactly. I have an AP for Universal. The cost to upgrade from a 3-day pass was equal to the discount I got at Portofino Bay in January. Which got the other members of my party (and me) the express pass included in the cost of the hotel. Don’t complain about pricing when you couldn’t be bothered to do the work required to save yourself money.

 

[J-Dog]

When I first read the article's headline, I had assumed that it was going to be about ONLY spending $1100 because that's fairly cheap for a theme park vacation, and then about how much more it would have cost if they'd gone to WDW.

Boy, was I wrong.

 

[AdamsMum]

$36 for dinner? Did they share one meal? And a family of four would spend at least $21.79 on breakfast at McDonalds (in Canada anyway) Weird.

 

[gharter]

Why is that news worthy? A park hopper pass at Universal is over $100 per person. Add an express pass (not a fast pass) and that can be $100-$300+ per person depending on when you go.
If they had gone at peak time, they could have spent over $1600 for their passes and express pass without any food. Seems like they got off cheap.

 

[Fanboy]

Just checked the date on the receipt in the story - they were there on September 1st.

That's the same time frame where my wife and I were quarantining at a Universal partner hotel after testing positive for Covid on our Disney checkout day, so we bought the three kids 2-day/1-park Universal passes so they would have something to do while we were recovering (kids all tested negative). They were bored with the parks, not because Universal/IOA aren't quality theme parks, but because there was nobody in the parks and all the rides were walk ons! They said they finished each park by mid-day after riding everything two or three times, then just hung out at CityWalk.

Cutting out those unnecessary $400 "Fast Passes" would have brought their total down to $713.

 

[gorkt]

They literally did the most expensive day trip possible in terms of ticket prices, which was the majority cost of the trip. Single day tickets plus express passes.

 

[Dznefreek]

You can always choose not to go.
Must have been a slow news day!

 

[BroadwayHermione5]

So interesting story: my friend happened to stay on property at UOR in 2019.

Due to having an unused day ticket to WDW, they decided to head to Orlando this year, not stay on any properties but in a condo, and do the one Disney day, a MNSSHP, a discovery Cove package (so sea world and BG as well) and save some money.

They looked into doing an overnight at Universal. Not even at one of the premier hotels they stayed at in 2019.


They were priced out.


Of Sapphire and Aventura.

Universal can get expensive-even with using discounts and what not.

I love universal, my family does (though our experience staying on property was not the best at all) and this friend loves universal as well. But for one night they got priced out.


No resort is perfect or will satisfy everyone’s needs. I am not surprised by this story in the least. I will say however that this is relatively in the cheap end for a vacation imho.