I don't blame you! Those tickets are sooo expensive! I remember when we went for their Halloween Horror Nights 2 years ago, I was able to get FL Resident tickets and they were still over $60 for just the one night and that didn't include their fast pass so we waited in lines for the houses for over an hour for a 5 miin walk-through. It was horrible. I love love love city walk but just the little bit I saw of Universal didn't interest me to go back anytime soon!
They are ridiculous! If I could get tix for $60, I'd go, but over $100 seems crazy to me! I really want to go for the Simpsons ride and all the crazy roller coasters, but it just doesn't seem worth it! I don't know!
I've never done it but I know they talk about it all the time on the Podcast for Disboards. I guess it's something like you take your park tickets and they convert them to APs and you pay the difference. For some reason they say it's best to use a day but I'm not sure why
So it a way I guess you would have already paid for X amount of dollars of the AP and then whatever isn't paid with the park tickets that you've bought already would be what you paid. In a way it seems nice since they don't have a payment plan, at least you could have a certain amount already paid off if you bought a package that needs to be paid in full 45 days out.
I know Amanda..creativeamanda is doing the same thing in Dec so maybe she can add her 2 cents???
I never listen to the podcasts, although, it's probably because I don't know how! Maybe if I did, I'd listen!
I kept seeing that it's better to use your ticket at least one day before you upgrade, but I never understood why either!
I guess I will have to price it out and see if it will help save money for our next trip!
Yes, they definitely are expensive. Dh and I are getting ap's there because it worked out to be way cheaper than buying tickets seperately for 2 trips. It is hard to spend the money there especially when I know we would have fun just staying the extra days at disney. It really boils down to how badly you want to see US/IOA. Since we haven't been in over 10 years there is so much new to us to see. I am looking forward to it, just putting the money out of mind (or trying to anyway).
We plan to upgrade Dh and my tickets to APs. We don't have park hoppers, but I am pretty sure that difference doesn't matter. Everything I have read says to atleast use the ticket once to lock in current gate price, then you can do the upgrade. That way the ticket is worth possibly more than you paid for it (which definitely affects us as we bought the tickets before the august price increase). Then you upgrade at guest services in any park or even DTD (think you can even upgrade at certain resorts, but not POR). We are getting regular AP, which allows for park hopping. If you used the ticket then the expiration of the pass would be the on the first day of use in 2011. Hope this helps. Check out this thread about tickets:
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1452684. That should help you, know it helped me!
Have a safe time with all the traveling. Wish for you it was for a better reason.
I really would like to go to Universal, I haven't been there in a long time either, before IOA was even there, and my DH has never been! He really wants to go on the roller coasters, but he's the one who said we shouldn't go when I told him the price!
It's really up to him, I can take it or leave it, of course, I'm sure it will be fun if we go, but I'm happy with an extra Disney day as well!
That makes sense about using the tickets before upgrading them to AP's! I bought mine before the August increase too. I'm not sure if we will do it, but since I'm going this November and want to go back next October, it seems like it makes sense. We really should have done it when we were there in May but just didn't bother!
I will check out that thread, thanks for all the info!
And yes, I wish we were going to NC for something better too, it's going to be a rough couple of days. I really should get off the disboards and try to get to sleep since I have to be up at 4:30 to get ready to start the drive down there!
And so honored! I love your list! I would love to meet Belle and the Beast together, especially in the pretty holiday wear. How I wish I was going to 
I told Brandon that and he said forget it, we don't need to do Universal! I'm sorry, but I think that's insane for ONE DAY!!! I told him we don't need to decide right now, but I think he's leaning towards not going. I wanted to go but at the same time...I'm kind of excited for another day in Disney! 
So we will see what happens with that, of course, I'll let you guys know what we decide, when we do!
If I remember right, that's why we decided to cut it from the trip we were planning for January, because it was just so expensive to go to Universal, when compared to just another few dollars a person for another day at Disney. It's not on the itinerary at the moment for November, but we'll see.
