Multi Day Tickets Vrs Annual Pass

[prairiesarah]

Hi all - currently planning our first trip to UO this coming March and super excited about it. Been to WDW several times and need a change and last trip down DS went a week ahead of us with his aunt and uncle and they did UO and he LOVED the rides. So we're planning to stay on site and allow ourselves lots of time to see everything.

I am just hoping that someone can confirm what I think I know already - do multi day tickets top out at 5 days? It seems that the answer is yes, then the next option is an annual pass. We're not full day park people and my tentative plan was 6 days in the parks (3 "full" days and 3 part days on travel days, i.e. our flight gets in at 2:10pm on Friday and planned to go into the parks that night for a few hours). I see us going early in the morning then spending till early afternoon in the parks, then swimming or shopping in the afternoon, then likely back to the parks in the evening for a bit. Been keeping an eye out for APH rates for the dates we are there after reading multiple threads on here (March 9th to 16th - so just beyond the March 8th that rates seem to be available to currently). If we can get better rates for hotels, I would lean towards upgrading to an annual pass, then likely planning for a second trip before the year is up.

Currently booked in at Cabana Bay for the first 4 nights of our trip and hoping we can make it work with some smart touring and early start and potentially single rider lines. Then out to the gulf coast to visit family for a couple nights, then back and looking at one of the resorts that offer express passes for one night for my birthday.

Sorry for the ramblings.... my DH and DS are excited for the trip but not as into the planning as I am so enjoying this forum and all the info!

 

[Squirlz]

I got APs when we were planning a 9 day trip. Made the most sense. On the way down, delayed Southwest flight credited us $200, so it was easy to convince my Wife to go back 10 months later.

 

[ktate82]

Last year we got 3 day tickets off of Undercover Tourist and upgraded to the seasonal pass for only $10 +tax per person. We are planning a trip back this summer (during black out dates), so will have to upgrade to the next one up for an extra $60+ tax. All in all, we will get four trips and 10-12 days out of them.

 

[Alicefan]

This November I went online to purchase a two day park to park pass and a seasonal pass was only $20 more. I say get the seasonal pass hands down. If you're going to be there for 6 days it will pay for itself. Then call cabana bay and ask if you can apply your discount if any are available and they will drop the price of your room....at least that is what they told me. Also you'll get a discount on most of the food and merch as well.

 

[hhoope01]

I say get the seasonal pass hands down. If you're going to be there for 6 days it will pay for itself.

While I bought all of my family Seasonal passes, I will throw in one caution. With Seasonal passes, on any day there is a concert at US, your Seasonal pass will only be valid for IOA (and VB if you have the 3 park pass). It isn't a show stopper or anything, but you will probably want to know and plan around it.

 

[Kivara]

While I bought all of my family Seasonal passes, I will throw in one caution. With Seasonal passes, on any day there is a concert at US, your Seasonal pass will only be valid for IOA (and VB if you have the 3 park pass). It isn't a show stopper or anything, but you will probably want to know and plan around it.

Is there anywhere to see the list of concert dates planned or do they pop in without much notice. Just wondering as we usually buy our passes in Feb and travel early June.

 

[hhoope01]

I think https://www.universalorlando.com/web/en/us/tickets-packages/annual-passes/blockout-dates/index.html shows blocked concert dates through March, 2018. (Note the * is only through then.) I'm guessing more dates will show up as they schedule more concerts.

 

[nkereina]

While I bought all of my family Seasonal passes, I will throw in one caution. With Seasonal passes, on any day there is a concert at US, your Seasonal pass will only be valid for IOA (and VB if you have the 3 park pass). It isn't a show stopper or anything, but you will probably want to know and plan around it.

In addition, there are other blackout dates which are to be expected, such as the holidays, spring break, etc. But if you can avoid traveling during blackout times, the seasonal pass is a great value. DH and I have had them since last April and we are going this weekend for our third trip. It makes it much easier for us to get here without the ticket expense, and with the added savings of the APH rates at the deluxe hotels. Its totally worth it, IMO.

 

[biochemgirl]

We bought APs and spent 7 nights at CBBR on one trip - it was fantastic! It's so easy to get park to park or from resort to park. We took full advantage of unlimited park access by only using it a few hours at a time starting with arrival night. That may seem odd, but it was truly freeing not to feel like we had to spend every moment in the parks to get our money worth. The only downside to getting APs is the temptation to plan more trips!

 

[prairiesarah]

We bought APs and spent 7 nights at CBBR on one trip - it was fantastic! It's so easy to get park to park or from resort to park. We took full advantage of unlimited park access by only using it a few hours at a time starting with arrival night. That may seem odd, but it was truly freeing not to feel like we had to spend every moment in the parks to get our money worth. The only downside to getting APs is the temptation to plan more trips!

Since I posted I decided to go for the seasonal passes and got a great APH rate for hotels. Figure it will make planning easier for us as otherwise I have to figure out which of the 6 days we are there to "drop" to fit a 5 day pass. But like you said then the flip side is now I'm thinking of when we can go again to use the tickets again before they expire to get a second use out of them!

 

[ericf70]

Last year we got 3 day tickets off of Undercover Tourist and upgraded to the seasonal pass for only $10 +tax per person.

We did this a couple years ago and it worked out great. Can you still do it?

 

[GoldmanTrust]

How do the AP rates work? How do you get them? Are they better than stay more save more?

 

[prairiesarah]

How do the AP rates work? How do you get them? Are they better than stay more save more?

There is a whole thread about AP rates near the top of the Universal hotels and resorts forum (in the stickey area). For my dates Annual Pass Holder rates were $100 to $200 a night less than the Stay More Save More rates I was getting. It allowed us to stay at RPR and get express passes instead of Cabana Bay for pretty much the same price (hotel + passes and there was about $8 difference). So it was an easy decision for me. We would have been upgrading our passes to seasonal passes anyway to get the number of days we wanted.

 

[macraven]

How do the AP rates work? How do you get them? Are they better than stay more save more?

There are 4 levels of the annual pass
Use the search button to pull up the threads /sticky that have more info in them

The uo website lists and explains all 4 categories

You need to do the math to decide if ap is better than buying park tickets

You can not always count on a better room with the ap
Sometimes the smsm has you pay a better room rate

Check out the seasons for the smsm room discounts
Smsm rates run between 10% to 35% discounts and have between a 3 to 5 night stay

I go during the period where the smsm rate is 35% discounted and have a 3 night minimum stay
This tops the ap rate in the same time period

Last February, the ap rate was more beneficial for me than the smsm

All the ap allows room discounts
I have the preferred pass and get free garage parking and 10% discount on food and merch where accepted

Not all 4 levels give that ap discount

You can order the ap online and activate it when at the parks
You can book the ap room discount before you have it activated
Just show the ap sometime during your hotel stay during your stay there

Hope this helps some!

 

[sandam1]

I know that everyone is talking about the seasonal passes, but you might want to price out upgrading one pass to the preferred level. I went from a power pass (originally bought before they introduced the seasonal pass) to the preferred. It wasn't a huge difference in price and you get 10% off on almost all of your food and merchandise. I know that I have easily made up that price difference with the discount.

 

[GoldmanTrust]

We bought APs and spent 7 nights at CBBR on one trip - it was fantastic! It's so easy to get park to park or from resort to park. We took full advantage of unlimited park access by only using it a few hours at a time starting with arrival night. That may seem odd, but it was truly freeing not to feel like we had to spend every moment in the parks to get our money worth. The only downside to getting APs is the temptation to plan more trips!

Wow I know that freeing feeling! We also do that on our trips and will be purchasing APs for our whole family this year (having gone with 2 week passes for our last two trips and “regular” tickets before that).
Universal is addictive haha!

 

[macraven]

Wow I know that freeing feeling! We also do that on our trips and will be purchasing APs for our whole family this year (having gone with 2 week passes for our last two trips and “regular” tickets before that).
Universal is addictive haha!

There are rumors that ticket prices and ap will increase

I subscribe to undercover tourist and their recent email had a header that said....

Order your tickets before the price increase

Now I don’t know which theme park they are referring to but when Disney has price increases, Universal usually follows

If you don’t plan to book a package, think about buying your tickets soon

 

[ktate82]

We did this a couple years ago and it worked out great. Can you still do it?

We did this last July. This past weekend we went and knew we were planning a trip back in July before they expire. The season pass is blacked out for the month of July, so we upgraded three of the passes to power passes for $60 each and one to the preferred for $100 (for the discounts). That discount adds up fast and just for the weekend with food and such, we about broke even.

 

[Alicefan]

While I bought all of my family Seasonal passes, I will throw in one caution. With Seasonal passes, on any day there is a concert at US, your Seasonal pass will only be valid for IOA (and VB if you have the 3 park pass). It isn't a show stopper or anything, but you will probably want to know and plan around it.

Yeah this is true, make sure you don't hit a concert day or the month of July which I would NEVER do anyway. Also, you could do like we did and have one person in the party upgrade to a preferred pass so that you get free parking as well. I did that and my best friend just got the seasonal and we use my discount for parking and food and merch. Finally on this trip I actually remembered to flash my pass for my merch discount and believe me, that $3 I saved felt like a million after a day of blowing so much cash lol. During one day I think I only saved $8 but hey....that's a Butterbeer my friends!

 

[prairiesarah]

Yeah this is true, make sure you don't hit a concert day or the month of July which I would NEVER do anyway. Also, you could do like we did and have one person in the party upgrade to a preferred pass so that you get free parking as well. I did that and my best friend just got the seasonal and we use my discount for parking and food and merch. Finally on this trip I actually remembered to flash my pass for my merch discount and believe me, that $3 I saved felt like a million after a day of blowing so much cash lol. During one day I think I only saved $8 but hey....that's a Butterbeer my friends!

I didn’t think of just upgrading one, but that’s a great idea. Does the free parking after the first visit include at the hotels? I looked at the price difference but didn’t make sense on 3 passes for us, but upgrading one for free parking and other discounts is probably beneficial. (Blockout dates aren’t an issue for us).