Power Pass vs Preferred Pass

We are currently planning our first trip to Universal. We are a family of 5 traveling in late May. I am trying to figure out the benefits of each pass, and which one would suit my family's needs the best.

There are no blackout dates during our trip, so either pass would work for both parks. We will get one pass in order to secure an APH discount if it becomes available.

The Preferred Pass says that parking is free after the first visit. Does this mean that we would need to pay to park for this trip?

Power Pass offers a 10% discount on tickets purchased at the park entrance, while Preferred Pass offers a 15% discount. Am I still better off purchasing the remaining 4 tickets I need through a discounter such as Undercover Tourist?

If we decide to during our trip, can the regular park to park tickets be upgraded to an annual pass similarly to the way Disney bridges ticket prices to upgrade?

Sorry for so many questions. Looking forward to our first Universal trip and to staying onsite at one of the three hotels that offer Express Pass. Thanks!!

1) Free Parking is only available in the USO parking garages and not at the hotels. Since it looks like you're planning on stay at the hotels you would still pay for parking.

2) On the AP discount on admission, The discount is taken off of gate prices which is $20 higher than the prices listed online. For Example, a 3 day ticket would be $224.99- 15% discount = 191.24 Then + Tax = 204.63. 3 day ticket at Undercover Tourist is $209 but the also offer a 2 day +1 free for $198 and those prices include tax. So with the preferred pass, you're getting almost as good as Undercover Tourist but without needing to prebuy.

3) Most tickets to Universal can be upgraded. The biggest exception are any tickets that include any other parks like the 3 park tickets or Orlando Flex tickets. Also, certain group/comp tickets can't be upgraded. Tickets purchased from general resellers like Undercover Tourist can be upgraded just fine. Based on experiences from the past year, if you upgrade at the Inside Guest Services tickets will be bridged similar to Undercover tourist. Outside, especially at the ticket booths people have been given credit for what the discounter paid for the tickets.

Yes to what Johde posted.
1. You might want to go with the lower cost pass for now.

2.If you are parking at the hotel then yeas you pay, but you'll also not need to drive anywhere. US is more compact than WDW. however, What it means is that you don't get free parking until after you buy/activate the pass. So you get free parking the SECOND time you enter the park. If you stay offsite, that would be your second day.
3. I haven't looked at current pricing, but we bought one AP, the rest via UT, I think. Later, we converted all the tickets to Power Passes. This year we bought AP's, so we could go during blackout dates.

It isn't much but the AP's give you small discounts on merchandise and food.
3. is correct, but when I recently renewed an AP, the staff member told me that US had plans to change some ticketing. I don't know if that is true, but it might pay to verify policies with a phone call to US.
Once you have an AP - again- at least w/current pricing- US gives a pretty nice discount on renewal AP's. We let our WDW AP's expire!

Thanks so much for those very clear explanations. It seems as if the Power Pass will suit our needs. Very excited for our first trip to US!

I'm no official source of info, and last time I renewed an AP, the staff told me that they were going to be making changes. (I think maybe renewal $ recently went up?, but I don't know any official information.

So take this with grain of salt

But....partly we ended up with US AP's because staff let us upgrade our tickets. We renewed our US AP because it was worthwhile. Very different from how Disney treats AP holders these days.

For us, we always did better to let WDW AP's expire between renewals, because of the high the per month $ of having an AP vs. renewal discount. (New AP = $696.51, renew=$590, or $106 less. Monthly cost of AP = $58. So if the gap between the end of your old WDW AP, and your next visit is 7weeks, you are better off letting it expire. I think that covers almost everyone pretty easily.

Our US AP's were worth renewing. I'm not thinking were going to have another round of WDW AP's.

mickeyluv'r said:

For us, we always did better to let WDW AP's expire between renewals, because of the high the per month $ of having an AP vs. renewal discount. (New AP = $696.51, renew=$590, or $106 less. Monthly cost of AP = $58. So if the gap between the end of your old WDW AP, and your next visit is 7weeks, you are better off letting it expire. I think that covers almost everyone pretty easily.

Our US AP's were worth renewing. I'm not thinking were going to have another round of WDW AP's.

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I have never thought about annual passes that way! I've always just look at the dollar amount and the "well it's $100 cheaper lets go ahead and go it!" Though I'm florida resident and I get the season passes with black out dates because lets face it... If it's a black out date I probably don't want to be there due to crowd level anyways!

If I was a FL resident, that's probably what I'd do for US as well. For WDW, I might let'em expire, and just take 7 weeks off every year.

I often wonder just what % of WDW guests are locals, say those who live within day trip proximity of WDW.

mickeyluv'r said:

If I was a FL resident, that's probably what I'd do for US as well. For WDW, I might let'em expire, and just take 7 weeks off every year.

I often wonder just what % of WDW guests are locals, say those who live within day trip proximity of WDW.

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I get a huge discount for being a "local." I consider all florida local to the theme parks. I can also get a seasonal weekday pass which I think is only offered to florida residents. My pass has black out dates and I can only go monday-friday... however, I work at home and run a rental business myself so weekends are hard for me to take off. PLUS if it's a blackout date I probably don't want to be at the parks anyways.

I think my pass was $233... for a year. I couldn't afford a disney AP if I wasn't florida. Universal tends to have more local traffic I think though.

One thing I have found during the very slow times at Disney VS Universal are the amount of foreigners. I don't see many at Universal. During those early December months I'm pretty sure there are more non-english speaking people than english at disney. During the same time at universal its lots of people who just come in from surrounding counties and are monthly, if not weekly, visitors.