Best ticket option for August?

[LynnB]

Planning a 5 day trip for 4 adults to celebrate my son’s HS graduation. Dates are 8/24 to 8/29. Trying to figure out the best ticket options for our group. Already have Cabana Bay booked using the pass holder rate so will need to get at least one AP, but probably 4 as it will give us an excuse to come back. Lol

We definitely want to do a day at Epic and that is what is making this difficult. I’m not sure what my best ticket option is.

I was considering these Undercover Tourist tickets. I’ve used UT many times in the past and then upgraded one or all of our tickets to AP’s. Is that an option with these tickets since they include a day at Epic? I’d hate to buy them and not be able to upgrade.

2-Park 4-Day (Park-to-Park) PLUS 1-Day Universal Epic Universe Ticket - $506 p/p​

My other thought was just buying the AP’s now.

2 Park Seasonal Annual Pass - $425 p/p​

or​

2 Park Power Annual Pass - FlexPay - $505 p/p (1/2 now and then Flex pay)​

I’m unsure what my best ticket option for Epic is if I go this route. They offer an AP discount for Epic but I think the AP has to activated before you can take advantage of that discount. I definitely don’t want to wait until we get there in August to get our Epic tix.

​

Any suggestions or advice would be appreciated. Thanks!

 

[tony67]

Its kind of hard to give advice right now - there are a lot of unknowns.

I would almost always say go with the AP - I tend to say go with the Power Pass - but if seasonal covers your needs and you checked the blackout dates than go with that. You can always upgrade if needed.

The Epic tickets changes that. As I said in another thread you can always buy the AP and buy the single day ticket for Epic - then get a refund after you activate your AP - that is what I did and odd are you would be able to do that in August.

Also we have no idea if or when an AP with Epic will be available - depending on ticket sales for Epic they could do that at any time it makes sense to them. IF ti happened you can always upgrade to that and get a credit of some sort of single day epic tickets.

 

[LynnB]

Its kind of hard to give advice right now - there are a lot of unknowns.

I would almost always say go with the AP - I tend to say go with the Power Pass - but if seasonal covers your needs and you checked the blackout dates than go with that. You can always upgrade if needed.

The Epic tickets changes that. As I said in another thread you can always buy the AP and buy the single day ticket for Epic - then get a refund after you activate your AP - that is what I did and odd are you would be able to do that in August.

Also we have no idea if or when an AP with Epic will be available - depending on ticket sales for Epic they could do that at any time it makes sense to them. IF ti happened you can always upgrade to that and get a credit of some sort of single day epic tickets.

Thanks Tony. I’m definitely leaning towards the AP. Do you know if I can upgrade the 4 day 2 Park PTP + 1day at Epic from UT to an AP? It would be nice to buy that now, know I have Epic taken care of, then upgrade to AP once there.

 

[tony67]

Thanks Tony. I’m definitely leaning towards the AP. Do you know if I can upgrade the 4 day 2 Park PTP + 1day at Epic from UT to an AP? It would be nice to buy that now, know I have Epic taken care of, then upgrade to AP once there.

Most likely yes you can. The issue I have had in the past is that they don't give money back in those cases. I had a ticket that cost more than the AP and they did not give me the difference back. I did get them to give me a 10 gift card - but that was still less than the value of the ticket I was exchanging. For me it did not matter I knew id get a few more trips out of the AP. But you want to know going into it.

 

[LynnB]

Most likely yes you can. The issue I have had in the past is that they don't give money back in those cases. I had a ticket that cost more than the AP and they did not give me the difference back. I did get them to give me a 10 gift card - but that was still less than the value of the ticket I was exchanging. For me it did not matter I knew id get a few more trips out of the AP. But you want to know going into it.

Thanks. Yeah, I’ve upgraded to AP before and had it be cheaper. Used to happen a lot when UTC would have their buy 2 get 2 day free tickets. Loved that!

It’s just the one day at Epic part of the ticket that has me worried. I know you can’t upgrade a 3 park ticket to a 2 park AP. I think because it’s technically a 2 park ticket with a separate single day ticket for Epic it would be ok. It’s just all so new that I’m scared to assume anything.

Thanks for letting me ramble!

 

[tony67]

I know you can’t upgrade a 3 park ticket to a 2 park AP.

even that depends - if you have a three day ticket and don't use the water park you can upgrade to a two park ticket - but how they will do that with 1 day Epic - IDK - was thinking about that - but without knowing for sure I would not risk it.

 

[CAPSLOCK]

I would not buy tickets including Epic and just assume they could be upgraded. At the least, I don't think you'll save significant money doing that even if they let you do it. They have to be figuring a full price Epic ticket into their equation. Even if you get someone on the phone who tells you it's possible... if the person you get at the actual counter doesn't know how or won't let you, that's a lot of headache to save a little money.

I think @tony67 has the right idea with getting the normal Epic tickets then asking for the AP discount after the fact. This presumes your AP is active before your Epic day. That has the unfortunate side effect of requiring you to lock in your actual Epic day, vs the 5 day ticket that lets you choose on the fly.