For the occasional visitor it's pay to play for sure for the theme parks if just doing a day trip to a theme park here or there at a busy time. I just forked over $345 pp for four in our party who want to do the a one day park to park experience at Universal on our March trip. That's similar to the cost of a pretty good seat at a superstar concert (Taylor Swift for example). Here's the breakdown: $194 pp for the Universal/IOA ticket park to park ticket, $130 for the one time express pass, and $21 for tax. For what our group wanted to do, making a touring plan with and without EP, no EP made it look like it wouldn't even be worth going. The least expensive one night room day before or day of that includes the EP (Universal deluxe hotels include an EP for the night you stay and the day you check, but doesn't include theme park admission), was $745 a night - -would have given unlimited EP, but for one day all they wanted was the one time EP. So that throw away room would have made the EPs for four $186 pp rather the $130 plus tax since we're just going one day. Luckily for the ole budget, only four in our party of eleven wanted to do a day there. Many people for Universal/IOA/Volcano Bay do the three park days plus two free deal, which certainly makes for a super low cost per day by comparison. But if you only want to do one day there and mostly want to do other things on your Orlando trip, that deal is not going to be for you. By the way, Touringplans.com is who I used (the unofficial guide to WDW people) for doing a custom touring plan with and without EP, starting with their standard one day Universal/IOA park to park plan and then customizing based on our group's preferences.
Yowza!!!
We haven't been to USO in a long time but when our kids were young, we went very often and usually had annual passes. We started going in 2005 (before the Harry Potter days) when they were offering buy one year, get a year free APs. We only ever stayed at their deluxe hotels that include unlimited Express Pass because those 3 hotels were all they had. I do recall them adding some lower priced hotels but by then we loved the EP access that came with showing your room key. Once you try it, it's hard to go any other way.
So, I dug up the details on our most recent visit there in 2015. Sit down and have a cool towel to put on your forehead.
We brought our niece on that trip to be a buddy for ds21, then age 15, while our older son was away at college. We must have still had APs then because we only bought one ticket. It was through UCT. $197.21 total for a 2-day Park to Park ticket plus 1 day free, so 3 days total.
We stayed at the Hard Rock Hotel Friday-Tuesday. Prices are always higher for Fri/Sat nights. Those were $187.85 per nt plus tax. Sunday/Monday was $174.85 plus tax. Granted, this was mid-September of that year, a very low demand time of year.
In May of 2019 we had another trip booked to attend our nephew's college graduation from St. Leo's near Tampa and an extended family group stay with all of his family at Royal Pacific. It was a little more than the prices I quoted above but not outrageous. We had to cancel when my mother became very ill, and they went without us.
No one could have predicted that they'd be more than tripling their prices just 2-3 years later. It really is highway robbery and the fact that people are still willing to pay, makes their executives feel completely justified to charge that much. I don't think I'll ever return except maybe someday if we have grandchildren.
ETA: I just wanted to add, the above hotel prices were probably AP Holder rates which back then would knock about $100/nt off the price of the hotel. So usually in one 3-night visit, an AP would pay for itself in reduced hotel costs. So even if we figure $100 more for a non-AP holder it was $287. Still crazy high now.
but the wait times were all over 60 minutes most were over 85 and it was at a non busy time.
But I had all these months to steel myself to this new fact of life here at WDW.... So We did it, I justified the cost in my own mind
By dividing that cost in 1/2 (I get to use up old days on a NE ticket) and we hit MK and Studios at night .....(like I said, disney math in my own head lol) ROTR was incredible,and I will be the first to admit that hopping cost was worth that experience for the 2 of us. It was incredible,and we'd already decided we weren't returning for a few years at least, so in the balance, it was a one and done situation. The cost is too high to do this multiple times. I'm glad we were able to have this one opportunity, but don't plan on it again anytime soon. If ever,we shall see. I'm still hoping that Uni will offer some multi day deals at some point... they used to have some decent deals.
