buying annual pass on day of!

[lar32]

We will be returning from a Disney cruise on Friday June 3rd and are looking forward to seeing Universal for the couple days we'll have before flying home. I booked the Universal annual pass rate at the Hard Rock Resort for the two nights after we return. My question is since we fly out on the Sunday we'll only have that Friday that we port, which when you consider the time it takes to get rental car, drive to Universal and check in at hotel we'll be lucky if we make it to the parks by 1. Then we'll have all day Saturday and are still trying to decide if it's worth it to get in 3 hours on Sunday before our flight. I figured we'd wait to buy my husbands annual pass and all our passes until the day we arrive just in case there is 1. some emergency or something that prevents us from getting to the parks as planned 2. the weather is awful 3. someone gets sick. My question is is there any benefit to buying the passes before we come? We will already have to validate the annual pass so getting in a line on the first day will be required as there is no getting around that. So since we'll have to do that, why not wait until we get there to buy all the passes while also taking advantage of the small discount on the other passes by buying them after the annual pass is validated. Also, could we buy the two day park hoppers and upgrade to a third day if we could see that we'd love to return back to the parks on the day we fly out, if even for 3 hours only? Would love your thoughts. This is our first trip to Universal ever!!! Wish we could have taken the kids out of school for longer and hubby didn't have to return to work so we could have stayed longer. Those tickets sure make it worth it for people that can take advantage of 7 days!!! Would love your thoughts!

 

[Badge]

We will already have to validate the annual pass so getting in a line on the first day will be required as there is no getting around that.

From my past experince, this is not true. We ordered annual passes online last year around sept. for our trip in dec. We picked the option to pick up the passes at the park. When you arrive, they have computer stations set up that I have never seen a line for. You simply walk up to the computer, type in your code and slide your credit card and you get all your passes. The whole process took about a minute after getting to the computers. Once you have your passes, you can enter the park. There is no picture or anything you have to get done. These computers are not just for AP either, you can order any type of ticket online and pick it up here to save a lot of time waiting in line at the ticket counters. Those lines can be huge at times. Just make sure you purchase the pass without any black out dates.

Also, if you are planning on returning sometime this year (since you are buying one AP, I would hope you are), you may want to think about purchasing an AP for everybody. We had two trips planned during this year and thought about doing what your thinking. We ran the numbers of purchasing one AP and three park hoppers for the other members of the family for each trip vs four AP and the AP's were the cheaper way to go even with the little discount you get when purchasing park hoppers with an AP. For example, if you purchases 4 AP's, the total is roughly $920 ($230 each). Now, if you were to purchase 2 sets (one for each trip) of 3 day park hoppers (1 adult, 2 kids since one adult has an AP) WITH the 15% off, your looking at roughly $700 for those 6 days (three days each trip) and thats just three people. So, add another $230 (the price paid for the AP) to that $700 and your at $930 for a family of four to purchase 1 AP and three stand alone park hoppers for six days of travel. So, your saving roughly $10 just for buying each member of the family an AP and you can go longer than those 6 days if needed. The saves are even greater if you wanted to come down for say 7 nights in one of your trips.

Since you booked AP rates at the hotel, the hotel will need to see the passes. For us, we just showed the confirmation page showing that we purchases AP online and will be picking them up. The people at check in need to see some sort of proof that you do in fact have an annual pass. So, you may save some time by ordering online and showing them your print out of the order at check in. I have read on here that some TM do not except this as proof of a pass and still require you to show the pass once you get it, but it worked for us.

EDIT: Also remember that the prices of park hopper tickets are $10 LESS when you buy online. So, the three day park hopper at the gate is $154.99 and thats the rate that has the 15% come off of. So, you are really only saving about $12 if you wait to buy the tickets at the park with the 15% discount. This also effects the math I did above making the savings of an AP for every member of your party even greater since I took the 15% off the online price and not the gate price.

 

[lar32]

thanks for taking the time to respond. Many things to think about but I'm thinking it's probably best to order online before arrival. It's just that we live in Seattle so don't know that we'll be out again within the year...sadly...

 

[bumbershoot]

It's just that we live in Seattle so don't know that we'll be out again within the year...sadly...

Well, while you're there you can think about upgrading the other tickets, in case you love it.

We sure wish we'd upgraded our tickets in December, but I didn't realize I'd love it that much and didn't budget for that upgrade as well as a WDW upgrade! So here we are, preparing to buy our second set of tickets (and one AP for the hotel discount) for Universal inside of a year's time...