Is the Costco deal the best deal out there?

[laughatjimmy.com]

Hey gang, thanks in advance for your responses. Wife, kids, and I are doing 5 days at the US resort after our Disney Cruise. We're about to book the Costco deal, (3 day tickets for all 4 of us, 5 nights at the Holiday Inn across the street), for a total of $970 bucks. Is there a better deal out there, or is that the cream of the crop?

 

[lazer]

Things to think about. Does that include park to park tickets? If you want to ride Hogwarts Express, you'll need park to park.

When are you going? Staying onsite gives the benefit of Early Entry AND Express Pass, which gives you access to shorter lines for most rides (HP excluded) when they are crowds. You can also add this one once you're in the park.

 

[macraven]

Hey gang, thanks in advance for your responses. Wife, kids, and I are doing 5 days at the US resort after our Disney Cruise. We're about to book the Costco deal, (3 day tickets for all 4 of us, 5 nights at the Holiday Inn across the street), for a total of $970 bucks. Is there a better deal out there, or is that the cream of the crop?

when do you plan to be at universal?
does the hotel have a free shuttle and decent times to the parks?
or do you plan to walk from the hotel to the parks?

if you are not sure if this is the best deal out there for you, check out the prices with a AAA package, UO package for offsite places.
and go through the numbers of purchasing everything separately.
tickets, hotel, etc.

 

[hops&dreams]

For us, the best deal ended up being getting hotel only for HRH through cheap tickets (I booked with a 20%off code) and a 2 day p2p ticket (plus 3rd day free, although we aren't using it because of time constraints) from undercover tourist through the mousesavers newsletter link. For 2 adults and an 11 yr old, it was less than 1,000 for 2 nights at HRH and 3 day p2p tickets. For a theme park and staying onsite (the ee and unlimited ep were important to us), I didn't think that was terrible.

 

[johde]

Not knowing your dates is the big thing. But a quick breakdown on going on your own.

$970 - Total ***
$528 - 3 days Park to Park Tickets ($176 each) through Undercovertourist / Mousesavers Newsletter Link.
====
$442 - for Hotel and any "extras" the package might have.

That gives you a base for comparison. If the package has 2 nights, you can probably do just as good booking an onsite room. I'd check Universal's site with APH code as well as Cheaptickets, Orbitz etc with coupon codes. The APH rate is Annual Pass Holders and you need to bump up one of the tickets to an annual pass.

 

[hops&dreams]

Also keep in mind the cancellation policies. This is what pushed me to booking my own- more flexibility as far as canceling or changing dates. This was important to us, as we're driving from the Midwest at the height of winter. (Although you wouldn't know it this weekend- it was in the 50s yesterday!)

 

[Grumpy92]

In general I dont think packages are a good deal. US has offered a few good ones but upon doing research we find it better to not to book the package.

check out mousesavers.com as a great resource for discounts. I would suggest the CBBR resort they have been offering specials and you can get a family suite.

 

[hops&dreams]

I just read your original post again... tickets alone would be :
Adults: 174 each = 348
kids (3-9) 164 each = 328
TOTAL 676 for 2 day park to park tickets (plus 3rd day free).

I'm not sure what time of year you're going, and if early entry or express pass would be important to you, but if not, I think the Costco deal sounds pretty good. It would essentially be spending less than $300 for 5 nights at a hotel. I don't think you'll be able to beat that with a pkg, or even separately, from Universal, if you're wanting to stay onsite.

Also, keep in mind that Cabana Bay DOES include early entry, but DOES NOT include the Unlimited Express Pass.

Good luck! Let us know what you decide