Frazzled Newbie ticket questions..help!!

[RedE2Go2]

I've researched this to death, and every time I find out something...it opens a new can of worms (re: more decisions).
Please offer insight if you can.
We are a family of 4 going spring break of next year. Hoping to stay at Hard Rock. The rates aren't out yet, so I need help based on your passed experiences.
Right now we are booked for a package deal ...8 nights at Hard Rock with 2 park tickets (length of stay). No discounts and it's pricing around $3000. It's not confirmed yet, so I can cancel with no penalty yet.
My thoughts are perhaps doing a 5 day for the price of 2 and then booking hotel separtate. Is there much chance that AP, AAA, or Entertainment rate would be offered at that time. I'm not an AP person, but would consider it for one of us if it would get our hotel rate down. Are more AP rates offered than AAA or Entertainment Rate? Does the AP rate give you a lot of other discounts that AAA doesn't.
By the way, we don't anticipate going to Universal again. At least not for a long time. The AP would strictly be used for this trip for discounts. This is a lot of questions. I'm so sorry but I'm lost!!!

 

[msr709]

First, let me welcome you to these boards. They are loaded with information and very nice people. Second take a deep breath, you have a while to plan so you're ahead of the game so far.

You will find that most people on these boards don't recommend packages because its almost always cheaper to get it done cheaper yourself. You just have to do the research and don't let it overwhelm you. Its been my experience to take the package and break it down and then compare to what I can do on my own and every time its been cheaper to do it myself.

For example, I have a trip now booked for a party of 11, 4 days at USO and 4 days at Disney. I booked 3 rooms at Royal Pacific (another USO onsite hotel) for 8/29 to 9/1 with the Entertainment rate of $119 for a standard room, Hard Rock was $164 with the Entertainment rate for a standard room. I booked us into the ASMo with a AAA rate of $61.60 ($69 w/tax) for 9/1 to 9/5. I had previously tried 9/1 to 9/5 for USO but the Entertainment rate was $144 standard room for RPR and $189 for HRH. Being that our party was more interested in saving some bucks we decided to do USO first then Disney. So you see its all in the researching. I called and I asked what all the rates were and made up my mind which was most beneficial for us. We all have an Entertainment Card and I have the AAA card so we are covered both ways. You don't have to join everything, just call the hotels and see what rates they offer and make you decision from that.

I hope I helped a little. I''m sure more people will offer their opinions. Good luck and have a wonderful trip and don't be afraid to ask.

 

[RedE2Go2]

Thank you for your response. Your reply calmed me down a bit. I think I will try to do it all separately and hope for a AAA rate. Still wrestling with whether I should buy one AP though. All in all, not a bad problem to have, is it!
thanks again....

 

[msr709]

Glad to help, that's what these boards are for. For the rates you don't need to get an AP or Entertainment Card until you have gotten the rate you want. They don't ask for any membership nos. until you check in, so you can check which is the best rate before you buy either. Good luck, and keep asking if you have any more questions.

 

[bjakmom]

RedE2Go2 - another welcome to the DIS !

2005 room rates are not out yet - I'm looking for Jan at HRH and was told to check back in June/July.
Last year I booked our Jan trip to HRH in July at rack rates to be sure I at least had a room (we went on a holiday weekend). Many of us here on the DIS were checking for the discounts to come out and they did not come out until Nov. - at that time they had AAA, Ent, AP and Fan Club rates, so I called and they lowered my rate to the Fan Club rate - that rate was quite a bit lower than AAA. A few days later someone posted about a sale at Hotelkingdom.com and their rates for my dates were even lower still - we ended up paying only 216.- club level.

So keep checking on the DIS and watch for the discounts to be released -

You might also get some idea of what room discounts people got for your vacation time frame on the threads on the "Universal Resorts" forum - there are several threads kept at the top of the forum where we go to report our "dates and rates" and "room discount watch" at the Loew's hotels. Good luck!