4 day park to park or AP?

[My2CrazyGirls]

We (family of 4) are taking a spring break trip and will be staying 4 nights at Royal Pacific. Then we are staying 5 more nights off site to do some other things. I was thinking we may want to go back to the parks 1 or 2 nights, but I am not sure. Also, we may go back next spring break which would be a week earlier. IF we were to definitely plan another trip within the 12 months then the AP is a no brainer. But I am honestly not sure if we will love it or not.

4 day park to park = 757 from UT
AP = 1256

The difference is 499.

If we get the 4 day park to park and decide on day 3 to upgrade to the AP's will they charge the 499 or will they assume we paid full gate price and subtract that price from the 1256?

 

[johde]

When I upgraded my 4 day park to park pass from Orbitz(bought before the last price increase) about a month ago, they assumed I paid gate price and upgraded it to a power pass for free. You may also want to check on the Universal website and see if there is an APH rate for your dates.

 

[DPCummerbund]

We (family of 4) are taking a spring break trip and will be staying 4 nights at Royal Pacific. Then we are staying 5 more nights off site to do some other things. I was thinking we may want to go back to the parks 1 or 2 nights, but I am not sure. Also, we may go back next spring break which would be a week earlier. IF we were to definitely plan another trip within the 12 months then the AP is a no brainer. But I am honestly not sure if we will love it or not.

4 day park to park = 757 from UT
AP = 1256

The difference is 499.

If we get the 4 day park to park and decide on day 3 to upgrade to the AP's will they charge the 499 or will they assume we paid full gate price and subtract that price from the 1256?

If I'm reading you correctly, you're considering a trip of 4 nights at Universal, 5 nights offsite, then maybe 1-2 more nights at Universal.

If that is the case, you might want to consider the 3-Park Unlimited ticket (also from Undercover Tourist) instead of the 4 Day Park-to-Park ticket. The 3 Park Unlimited ticket is only $3 more than the 4 Day Park-to-Park ticket (currently $201 for adults), and it allows you to visit as often as you want within 14 days. That way, you can go back to Universal for those last few days if you are so inclined, and it won't cost you anything.

And as for the upgrade - I believe the previous poster is correct, you pay the difference between the gate price of the ticket you have and the ticket you want, but I've never tried it myself so I can't vouch for that.

 

[bumbershoot]

When we upgraded to APs a few years back, they charged the difference between the AP and *what we had paid*.

Nowadays I've heard more that they are doing it WDW-style, the differences between the AP and gate price.

The 3 day unlimited includes Wet&Wild, and therefore canNOT be upgraded to an AP, FYI. If you're keeping it open to upgrading, don't get that one.

 

[My2CrazyGirls]

Thank you for the replies. Basically we will be there in Orlando for 8 days total. We will have 4 days where we will have on-site benefits. The remaining 4 days of our trip we will be offsite relaxing and will take a day trip to Clearwater to see the Dolphins from Dolphin Tale. During those 4 days offsite we "might" want to go back to Universal, but this is Easter week and as the week goes on it may be too crazy. So we are not sure. We "might" plan another trip in the next 12 months.

How do they know if you paid gate prices or UT prices? The difference between UT 4 day passes and an AP is 499. But the difference between Gate priced 4 day passes and an AP is 367.

All these numbers are based off of 4 people (2 adults, 2 kids)

I like how the 4 day passes CAN be upgraded. But I like how the 3 park unlimited passes can be used for up to 14 days.

 

[johde]

When we upgraded to APs a few years back, they charged the difference between the AP and *what we had paid*.

Nowadays I've heard more that they are doing it WDW-style, the differences between the AP and gate price.

The 3 day unlimited includes Wet&Wild, and therefore canNOT be upgraded to an AP, FYI. If you're keeping it open to upgrading, don't get that one.

If I remember correctly, the change happened somewhere between the time of the last price increase and the opening of Diagon Alley. I wonder if the change was to make it easier to upgrade because of people wanting to add park to park because of the Hogwarts Express. And, basically everything else is a bonus for the consumer.

How do they know if you paid gate prices or UT prices? The difference between UT 4 day passes and an AP is 499. But the difference between Gate priced 4 day passes and an AP is 367.

All these numbers are based off of 4 people (2 adults, 2 kids)

I like how the 4 day passes CAN be upgraded. But I like how the 3 park unlimited passes can be used for up to 14 days.

As far as knowing exactly what you paid, I'm but sure. But, Universal and Disney keep track of what price every ticket was sold at. So, they know how much UT paid for the ticket.

If we weren't talking about the week of Easter, in my mind the choice would be easy. Buy a ticket now and upgrade it to a Power Pass at the parks. With Easter week being involved, things get a little tricky. Easter this year is April 5 and Easter next year is March 27th. Option 1 is get a 4 day ticket for this trip. At the end of this trip either a) upgrade to a Preferred Annual Pass if you "know" you're going during the back half of the trip or you "know" you are going on a trip within the next 11 months. b) if you "might" go back in the next during the rest of the year, you can buy upgrade to the Power Pass (probably for free). Just remember once you upgrade you can't exit and reenter a park because you would no longer have valid admission media so wait until the end of your 4th day. If you decide to go back next year, you can upgrade the power pass to preferred pass at that time or possibly renew your Pass for another year and Upgrade it to a Preferred Pass at the same time.

Option 2, if you don't want to worry about next year and want to possibly hit the water parks get the 14 day ticket. You can't upgrade it but you can go to Wet and Wild.

 

[sharona]

Don't forget if you have APs you can get the APH rate on your room (if available) and save a considerable amount on a 4 day stay. Only 1 of you needs to have the AP for this to apply...

 

[My2CrazyGirls]

We got the stay more save more rate (no APH rate available).

If we get AP's we would get the Preferred Passes, the Power Passes would be useless to us because of the blackout dates.

There is a pretty big difference between the Gate price and UT price. I wish I knew what they would charge us to upgrade to the AP. Has anyone been recently and upgraded from a multi-day pass to an AP?

 

[HM]

We upgraded a 2day-plus one free day ticket from UT to a Preferred AP for around $97 in December.

We paid $176.99 for the ticket and currently the AP is showing at $276.89 with tax. So we saved around $3.

 

[johde]

We got the stay more save more rate (no APH rate available).

If we get AP's we would get the Preferred Passes, the Power Passes would be useless to us because of the blackout dates.

There is a pretty big difference between the Gate price and UT price. I wish I knew what they would charge us to upgrade to the AP. Has anyone been recently and upgraded from a multi-day pass to an AP?

I did my Upgrade on January 2nd. So just about a month and a half ago. My point about the Power Pass was that it wasn't worthless. It allows you to wait and spend the $376 on the Preferred Passes when you know your going to get use out of it. If you know your going to use the passes the rest of the vacation this year get them "now". You could even upgrade the first day so you could get the 10% discount and signup for the annual pass photo Star Card if you wanted to. If you weren't going to use more than 4 days "now" the Power Pass holds that value for you and you can pay to upgrade to a Preferred Pass when you know your going to need it. Since the upgrade from a 4 day to a Power Pass is free (at least is was for me), my thought was you don't want to leave Universal with the 4 day tickets. The Power Pass give you options down the road for a small investment in time.

We upgraded a 2day-plus one free day ticket from UT to a Preferred AP for around $97 in December.
We paid $176.99 for the ticket and currently the AP is showing at $276.89 with tax. So we saved around $3.

Right now, the 2 day + 1 free that expires from UT is treated like a 2 day ticket. The 2 day + 1 free the does not expire is treated like a 3 day ticket.

2 day is 195.99 (gate price)+tax, Non Florida Resident Annual Pass is $295 + tax or about $100 extra. ($276.89 is the Florida Resident Price)

 

[bumbershoot]

Has anyone been recently and upgraded from a multi-day pass to an AP?

There have been many posts in the last many months about it. I haven't seen a post that says they were charged in the old way, from what you paid, except for the "one day free ticket" mentions above.

But even if you lose the discount, as one used to (and as I was used to at Disneyland), you're not being charged more than the ap would have cost. It would be like you simply bought the APs upfront. You still save on the next trip there, whether it's next week or inside the ap year.

I personally would plan for the higher amount and be surprised and happy if it's the lower amount.

 

[My2CrazyGirls]

I did my Upgrade on January 2nd. So just about a month and a half ago. My point about the Power Pass was that it wasn't worthless. It allows you to wait and spend the $376 on the Preferred Passes when you know your going to get use out of it. If you know your going to use the passes the rest of the vacation this year get them "now". You could even upgrade the first day so you could get the 10% discount and signup for the annual pass photo Star Card if you wanted to. If you weren't going to use more than 4 days "now" the Power Pass holds that value for you and you can pay to upgrade to a Preferred Pass when you know your going to need it. Since the upgrade from a 4 day to a Power Pass is free (at least is was for me), my thought was you don't want to leave Universal with the 4 day tickets. The Power Pass give you options down the road for a small investment in time.

I understand what you are saying but for us the Power Pass is useless because our dates are blacked out.

 

[Jedimom]

Just returned from Universal a week ago and upgraded while we were there. For our party of 5, I purchased 4 adult + 1 child 3-day tickets from UT. Having read on the DIS that the $174 "Promo" 3 days for the price of 2 tickets might be credited at 2-day gate price, I chose to purchase the non-promo 3 day PTP tickets from UT. Total cost: 4 adult @ $178 + 1 child @ $168 = $880.

We chose to upgrade at the end of our first day there. I honestly didn't even know at that point if we really liked Universal all that much. I only knew that the math worked for me well enough to risk it. Our tickets were bridged to gate price. For $145 more total for all 5 of us, I upgraded us to 4 Power APs and 1 Preferred AP. The 1 Preferred AP gave us free parking and a 10% discount on most dining and shopping. My rationalization was that 3-4 more days @ $17 ea for parking, plus 10% off the one ($50+) meal each day we visited would absorb a significant amount of that $145. I figure I ended up "risking" only about $50 that I will be out if we do not return again within 12 months.

We ended up visiting the park 4 more days. One of those days, we only came for the Mardi Gras parade, so a couple hours in the park; that's all we felt like doing that day. One other day, we also had a short day of it. That's just kinda the way we tour parks. I'm a single mom travelling alone with four kids, a couple with ADHD issues, one teenager with...typical teenage attitude issues. They get cranky, they bicker, they downright fight....and at that point I call it a day!

To be honest, I only liked Universal; didn't love it. I loved the lack of lines -- almost everything was under 10 minute wait. I didn't care for the rides -- but then I'm not a thrill ride person. The kids felt the same. Even the two who are into thrill rides said they were okay with Universal but would prefer to go to Disney next time. Still, if we go back to Florida within a year, we'll visit Universal a day or two. So long as we have the APs and it's free, why not?

 

[HM]

So, though I bought the two day + 1 free tickets...they said three day tickets.....but US could tell they weren't three day?

 

[johde]

So, though I bought the two day + 1 free tickets...they said three day tickets.....but US could tell they weren't three day?

I'm pretty sure the promo 2 day + 1 free that expire are labeled that way. If you bought the 2 day +1 free from UT that Does not expire you probably got a 3 day ticket because all 2 day + 1 free tickets that Universal sells must be used by June 20th.

 

[HM]

Yes ,they weren't the ones that expire and said three day ticket on them.