First time trip at Universal and considering onsite stay

jenrose66 · Mar 5, 2015

Hi All. DH really wants to go to Universal, and I do too, though it's a little harder for me to give up Disney and it's just too expensive to do both when you factor in the cost of tickets to both places. Anyway, I found a good deal on airfare and that is going to dictate when we go, which would be the end of April. But I have a lot of questions!

I'm feeling a little nervous just taking a trip with so little advance planning. We would stay onsite for 6 nights at Royal Pacific. I quoted a package right on Universal Orlando's site and they included a 3 park unlimited pass.

So with the unlimited pass, does that mean I can go into multiple parks each day for the length of my trip? Also, it says Wet N Wild is included, but we won't have a car, so is that walking distance?

Also, with Universal, is it the same as with Disney where I would save money by booking everything individually. Like just reserve the hotel at Universal, then get my tickets from Undercover Tourist, then get my airport transfers from a 3rd party? If I do that does it have any effect on the express pass? Also, express pass is good for every night of my hotel stay right?

Thanks for taking the time to read. We are so excited about maybe taking this trip. My kids are really starting to get into Harry Potter so I think they'd have a lot of fun.

HM · Mar 5, 2015

I think you'd come out better with all your elements separate. I found it worked that way for both my trips.

I don't know anything about W&W and how that works, but it is not walkable from US/IOA onsite.

For you, I'd suggest going to the Loew's or Universal site and put in APH as a promotional rate vs the Stay More Save More (SMSM) rate for the room and see what works better. With the number of days you are going, an AP might be a good choice for you.

jenrose66 · Mar 5, 2015

HM said:
I think you'd come out better with all your elements separate. I found it worked that way for both my trips.

I don't know anything about W&W and how that works, but it is not walkable from US/IOA onsite.

For you, I'd suggest going to the Loew's or Universal site and put in APH as a promotional rate vs the Stay More Save More (SMSM) rate for the room and see what works better. With the number of days you are going, an AP might be a good choice for you.

Thank You

tesslor · Mar 5, 2015

I saved quite a bit of money booking everything separately. I would check aaa.com for your rooms. There are sometimes great room rates depending on your state. I purchased my park tickets thru Undercover tourist. I purchased a 14 day 3 park Unlimited ticket which also includes wet and wild. The mousesaver newsletter will also have a link to save you a few more dollars at undercover tourist.

Unlimited gives you access to all the parks each day, so you can park hop.

nkereina · Mar 5, 2015

tesslor said:
I saved quite a bit of money booking everything separately. I would check aaa.com for your rooms. There are sometimes great room rates depending on your state. I purchased my park tickets thru Undercover tourist. I purchased a 14 day 3 park Unlimited ticket which also includes wet and wild. The mousesaver newsletter will also have a link to save you a few more dollars at undercover tourist.

Unlimited gives you access to all the parks each day, so you can park hop.

I did the same thing - bought tix through Undercover Tourist and booked my room through AAA and saved money. However, I'm trying to book for late October and it doesn't appear there's any AAA rates available that time.

jenrose66 · Mar 5, 2015

Ok, so the AP Power Pass is $214.99. If I buy that and the rest of my family's tickets from undercover tourist (3 park unlimited) the cost would be cheaper than buying just all of us the 3 day unlimited tix by about $10 plus it would save an additional $165 on the hotel. So it looks like buying the power pass would put us ahead by $175. However, how does City Walk work? I am not interested in going to clubs. Do I need a special ticket to go there and walk around, say if we wanted to eat there?

bumbershoot · Mar 5, 2015

I book through this site: http://uo.loewshotels.com/en/booking/uo?hotel=UEPBH,UEHRH,UERPR

We have APs now but I used maple leaf tickets for one ticket purchase, and have used undercovertourist for another UO ticket purchase and both are great for discounted tickets.

HM said:
I don't know anything about W&W and how that works, but it is not walkable from US/IOA onsite.

Sure it is. We walked, not to W&W, but to/from the 4 Points Sheraton, two different times for car rental purposes. W&W is right there. It's not 5 minutes away, but it's walkable if you want to.

jenrose66 said:
However, how does City Walk work? I am not interested in going to clubs. Do I need a special ticket to go there and walk around, say if we wanted to eat there?

Citywalk is open to all. After a certain time at night there's a door fee to get into some club-like places. That pass just waives it. It's no big deal at all.

jenrose66 · Mar 5, 2015

Actually I'm confused. Now it looks like Universal is offering better prices on their tickets than Undercover Tourist. As part of the package on the Universal website the 2 adult and 3 child tickets I would need for the 3 park unlimited are $1023.48. If I buy them from Undercover Tourist they are $1106.39. That's unusual.

threeblessings · Mar 5, 2015

I'm booking tickets right now and UT is coming out at $933.82 for me, for 2 adults, 3 kids. Wonder if I missed something...

jenrose66 · Mar 5, 2015

threeblessings said:
I'm booking tickets right now and UT is coming out at $933.82 for me, for 2 adults, 3 kids. Wonder if I missed something...

I will have to look. I used the mouse savers link. I will work on it later

threeblessings · Mar 5, 2015

I was just doing the the 3 day park to park pass. Is the unlimited the one that you can use to go to other parks?

vatmark · Mar 5, 2015

jenrose66 said:
Actually I'm confused. Now it looks like Universal is offering better prices on their tickets than Undercover Tourist. As part of the package on the Universal website the 2 adult and 3 child tickets I would need for the 3 park unlimited are $1023.48. If I buy them from Undercover Tourist they are $1106.39. That's unusual.

Does your price you listed include tax on the tickets through Universal? The listed prices for tickets on universal site do not include tax. The Undercover tourist prices include taxes already.

Ann

RMulieri · Mar 6, 2015

vatmark said:
Does your price you listed include tax on the tickets through Universal? The listed prices for tickets on universal site do not include tax. The Undercover tourist prices include taxes already.

Ann

THIS IS CORRECT..UCT includes shipping and the taxes.Universals price does not

jenrose66 · Mar 6, 2015

Thanks. I think I have everything figured out. The cheapest route for my family looks to be buying the cheapest AP, booking a room at Royal Pacific and buying the family their additional 3 Park Unlimited Tickets From Mapleleaf tickets (who were much cheaper than UT).

Maybe it's because I only deal with Disney, but Universal seems almost too good to be true. It's hard to believe that for my family of 5 we will get unlimited park to park access for our entire trip for $1000. Plus with the hotel we get front of the line access the entire time too! It sounds too good to be true...I'm not missing anything right?

For comparison's sake I did price out a trip to Disney with the same dates. It would be $498 more.

bumbershoot · Mar 7, 2015

The only issue is if you want to upgrade the family's tickets to APs for a future trip. I believe that the 3 park tickets cannot be upgraded, because part of it was Wet and Wild.

pcstang · Mar 7, 2015

there is complimentary shuttle service to W&W also at the deluxe results.

jenrose66 · Mar 7, 2015

bumbershoot said:
The only issue is if you want to upgrade the family's tickets to APs for a future trip. I believe that the 3 park tickets cannot be upgraded, because part of it was Wet and Wild.

That makes sense. I'm not worried about upgrading because we only end up in Florida as a full family every other year. I just wanted the hotel discount so I bought the cheap pass after confirming I wasn't there during black out dates.

jenrose66 · Mar 7, 2015

pcstang said:
there is complimentary shuttle service to W&W also at the deluxe results.

Great. I saw there was a shuttle service but it didn't specifically say free so I wasn't sure if we had to pay.

DPCummerbund · Mar 7, 2015

jenrose66 said:
Great. I saw there was a shuttle service but it didn't specifically say free so I wasn't sure if we had to pay.

It is free, but it doesn't run regularly - just once or twice a day. The schedule is posted in the hotel lobby.

Canuck16 · Mar 7, 2015

jenrose66 said:
Hi All. DH really wants to go to Universal, and I do too, though it's a little harder for me to give up Disney and it's just too expensive to do both when you factor in the cost of tickets to both places. Anyway, I found a good deal on airfare and that is going to dictate when we go, which would be the end of April. But I have a lot of questions!

I'm feeling a little nervous just taking a trip with so little advance planning. We would stay onsite for 6 nights at Royal Pacific. I quoted a package right on Universal Orlando's site and they included a 3 park unlimited pass.

So with the unlimited pass, does that mean I can go into multiple parks each day for the length of my trip? Also, it says Wet N Wild is included, but we won't have a car, so is that walking distance?

Also, with Universal, is it the same as with Disney where I would save money by booking everything individually. Like just reserve the hotel at Universal, then get my tickets from Undercover Tourist, then get my airport transfers from a 3rd party? If I do that does it have any effect on the express pass? Also, express pass is good for every night of my hotel stay right?

Thanks for taking the time to read. We are so excited about maybe taking this trip. My kids are really starting to get into Harry Potter so I think they'd have a lot of fun.

Express Pass is good on your checkout day as well if you have a park ticket for that day as well

First time trip at Universal and considering onsite stay

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