Got the APH rate, now what?

[wildflower]

I was just able to save $330 on our two rooms for three nights by switching from RPR to Portofino Bay and using the Annual Pass Holder Discount. Wahoo! I'm excited to save money and try a new resort, since we've never stayed at Portofino Bay before. But now I have a few questions:

1. I checked our dates (beginning of June), and they're not blocked out for Annual Pass Holders. But apparently US is unavailable to for APH on any concert date. How can I find out if there will be a concert at US while we are there? Not sure how common they are...

2. We have six in our family, so I reserved two rooms. Since the rooms are both under my name, will I be able to show just one Annual Pass (my own), or will someone in each room to be an Annual Pass Holder?

3. We'll arrive late-afternoon on the first day, then we'll have two full days and the fourth day we'll need to the leave the parks early-afternoon. I know that we want park-to-park tickets for Hogwarts Express. I just need to decide if we want to include Volcano Bay in our tickets and if we want 3-day or 4-day tickets. We could just hang out at Portofino Bay on the day we arrive, or we get in an extra evening at the parks. Just not sure it's worth the extra cost. Also not sure if we'll be able to fit in Volcano Bay with two full days and two partial days. Any recommendations?

4. Do the Annual Passes work as park-to-park tickets between all three parks including Volcano Bay? It looks like there are different levels of Annual Passes. Is there any reason to upgrade past the most inexpensive one. I likely won't use it besides this trip...

Thanks in advance!

 

[macraven]

AP allows you to do both parks the same day
Ioa/studios
You can go back and forth as many times you need to

Can not answer your question regarding all ap for volcano bay
Premier and preferred ap will cover all 3 parks

More info about the water park from UO should be out soon

Do you have a seasonal pass?

I did Mardi Gras concert with my preferred ap and had no issue for the studio side park

 

[wildflower]

No, I don't have a seasonal pass. I'll be purchasing an annual pass for myself so I can get the APH discount on the rooms and then probably tickets for everyone else. I just need to figure out which annual pass to buy and which tickets make sense for the other five people in the family.

 

[macraven]

Seasonal and power passes will have some limitations for the parks

Check the UO website to see which ones will work for your group the best

Ap holders can buy park tickets at a discount
That is what would work for you it seems like

P2p tickets would allow the others in your group to do both parks on the same day

 

[chmurf]

Premier and preferred ap will cover all 3 parks

is that official ?
do you have a link (UO website still says 2 parks)

 

[macraven]

Nothing official but I talked to gs when at UO last month
And I renewed my preferred ap march 1 by phone and was told then Vbay would be included with i
Was told the official info will come out later

Read universal Informer as they had reports in their site

Like I said this is not UO official yet but I feel ok with what was told to me

 

[chmurf]

thanks
i'm asking because in that case, I will upgrade DS and DW's power pass to preferred tomorrow (going in august) to avoid any potential price hike if and when they raise prices when they make the announcement

does that make sense ?

 

[wildflower]

So, tell me if I've got this right...

It's not official, but word is that the Preferred AP and Premier AP will include Volcano Bay when that park opens. The Seasonal Pass and Power Pass might too, but we don't know yet.
Looking at the benefits of each, I really think I only need the Power Pass for our four-days at Universal. It would get us the discount at Portofino Bay, and I could use it to purchase the park tickets for the rest of the family at 15% off.

Two things I'm not sure about:

If I wait to find out whether or not Power Pass includes Volcano Bay, do I run the risk that all the annual passes that include Volcano Bay will go up in price when the announcement is made? Maybe I should just purchase the Preferred AP now?

The 15% discount on admission tickets purchased at the front gate says in is "not valid on 3-Park Unlimited tickets." How does a 3-Park Unlimited Ticket differ from a 3-Park Ticket or are they the same thing? I'm leaning toward getting 4-day 3-Park tickets for everyone else in the family...

Any advice would be appreciated!

 

[chmurf]

If I wait to find out whether or not Power Pass includes Volcano Bay, do I run the risk that all the annual passes that include Volcano Bay will go up in price when the announcement is made? Maybe I should just purchase the Preferred AP now?

that was my question above, and I sure hope someone can give insight (or even cristal ball readings)

The 15% discount on admission tickets purchased at the front gate says in is "not valid on 3-Park Unlimited tickets." How does a 3-Park Unlimited Ticket differ from a 3-Park Ticket or are they the same thing? I'm leaning toward getting 4-day 3-Park tickets for everyone else in the family...

first of all, compare prices.
you get a discount when you buy online, compared to buying at the gate.
make sure that your AP discount gets you a better price than buying in advance


the 3 park unlimited ticket gets you unlimited access to all 3 parks every day for 14 days, and it's a park to park ticket

the 4 day 3 park tickets gets you entries for 4 days over the course of 14 days.

 

[damo]

that was my question above, and I sure hope someone can give insight (or even cristal ball readings)




first of all, compare prices.
you get a discount when you buy online, compared to buying at the gate.
make sure that your AP discount gets you a better price than buying in advance


the 3 park unlimited ticket gets you unlimited access to all 3 parks every day for 14 days, and it's a park to park ticket

the 4 day 3 park tickets gets you entries for 4 days over the course of 14 days.

The 4 day tickets are only good for 7 days, not 14 anymore. That goes for all the multi-day tickets except the explorer ticket.

 

[wildflower]

Oh, thanks! I didn't realize that the gate prices were higher than the online prices. That would have been a bad surprise! Are the gate prices published somewhere so I can compare them (with the AP discount) to the online prices (with no discount)?

 

[Laura_Dee_]

Nothing official but I talked to gs when at UO last month
And I renewed my preferred ap march 1 by phone and was told then Vbay would be included with i
Was told the official info will come out later

Read universal Informer as they had reports in their site

Like I said this is not UO official yet but I feel ok with what was told to me

I'm really starting to think they are waiting for the coca-cola promotion (Florida residents get 3 months free on an annual pass) to end to announce anything. It ends the 29th. Hopefully after that they will FINALLY announce something.