OK, now what?

[Anal Annie]

So I finally got spooked into picking a date & a Universal hotel for our 1 night / 2 day cross over to the dark side this August. I got worried that the standard rooms would sell out so I booked the HRH even tho all along I'd said I was just going to book the cheapest one. Now to figure out tickets. It seems that the secret link from the Mousesavers newsletter would get us 2-day base tix for $123.95 pp or 2-day park-to-park tix for $$139.95. I believe those prices include all the tax & shipping too. The current deal on the Universal website for 2-day tix is like $136 for hoppers & $116 for base but don't know if that includes taxes & if not how much more does that add?

But so I have 2 questions to answer and figure out. We will go over early on a Thurs. morning, check in and get our tix. We will have all that day / night & then early entry and all day the next day. Should we do base or Park-to-Park? We ALWAYS park hop at Disney but do most people hop at Universal? Not sure what to expect. The price diff. for 3 ppl is $48. Worth it? And then should I order from UnderCover Tourist or Universal's current deal?? Thoughts??

 

[kkendle]

The prices on the Universal website do not include tax...to see how much it would be just put it in your cart and then check out....you can get to the point where you will see the total price before you actually purchase it.

I generally get my tickets from Undercover Tourist. It includes everything...so no extra cost for shipping or taxes. Right now, our AAA office has the 2 day 2 park tickets for $136 each....also no tax or fees added. I will likely get them there this time as the price is a few dollars cheaper. If you are a AAA member, you would need to call your local office to check the prices.

I would definitely do the hopper option....it is not expensive and we always hop when at US/IOA. That is my family....we can do main attractions at IOA and then go to US and do the things we want to most and round the day out with whatever else we feel like adding. We like the benefit of being able to do this. Plus....you can do Harry Potter both days if you choose as well.

Having said that...we never do hoppers at Disney aside from the first time we went....the parks are so large and tiring, we can and do, spend an entire day at one park. I can see the benefit but for $50 per person more....1 park a day works for us. The US/IOA parks are not nearly as big.

My 2 cents worth.....enjoy!

Kelly

 

[patster734]

I completely agree with kkendle. With express access, you may finish the first park early, and with park-hopper, visit the other park.

 

[Mad Hattered]

I voted 2 day park-to-park. Since you are a "newbie" you won't know the parks as well and will need a little "discovery" time. It's true the parks aren't as large as Disney by any means but I would want to take my time and soak it all in.

With a 2 day hopper perhaps you can take in some shows during the day as well. On the other hand, the wife and I are thrill ride (or pretty much ANY ride) junkies so we spend a lot of our time doing that and hopping back and forth to get our fix. If you aren't so much into that thing then I would go with a one day per park ticket.

 

[Anal Annie]

OK, I figured hopping would be a plus but I wasn't sure how the parks compared in size. It will all be new for us. We will have AP's at WDW and know those parks pretty well by now and we've never stuck to just 1 park per day. DS will be 15 this summer and we're all pretty much ride fanatics so I'm sure we'll find more than 1 or 2 things that we want to ride multiple times. This venturing over is not something that we're likely to do again very soon as it really will add up to be an expensive couple of days. (Expensive compared to the fact that our accomodations at Disney are covered by our DVC membership and considering that we'll already have our AP's.) Anyway, I went ahead & booked the HRH just in case we feel like we've accomplished a lot that first day & want a pool / resort break or something. I will re-consider the hopping & talk to DH about it (he'd originally said it probably wasn't necessary).

The mousesavers newsletter with the secret link to Undercover Tourist comes out on the 15th I think so I'll look at the tix pricing again.

 

[macraven]

So I finally got spooked into picking a date & a Universal hotel for our 1 night / 2 day cross over to the dark side this August. I got worried that the standard rooms would sell out so I booked the HRH even tho all along I'd said I was just going to book the cheapest one. Now to figure out tickets. It seems that the secret link from the Mousesavers newsletter would get us 2-day base tix for $123.95 pp or 2-day park-to-park tix for $$139.95. I believe those prices include all the tax & shipping too. The current deal on the Universal website for 2-day tix is like $136 for hoppers & $116 for base but don't know if that includes taxes & if not how much more does that add?

But so I have 2 questions to answer and figure out. We will go over early on a Thurs. morning, check in and get our tix. We will have all that day / night & then early entry and all day the next day. Should we do base or Park-to-Park? We ALWAYS park hop at Disney but do most people hop at Universal? Not sure what to expect. The price diff. for 3 ppl is $48. Worth it? And then should I order from UnderCover Tourist or Universal's current deal?? Thoughts??

you have already spent your children's inheritance on the darkside portion of your vacation, go ahead and do the hoppers.......what's a few more $$...

i totally agree with the other posters answering your questions.
do the hoppers.

if you miss a show at one of the parks, you can always hop back to it during the day.
you might want to do repeats of rides which will blow your agenda in the park.
MIB can become addicting.....
you'll have more freedom of doing things at both parks in one day.
you won't be confined to one since you can hop.

btw, i voted with the other 12 homies on your poll.......


after the first day, you will get the layout of the parks.
there are smaller than disney's parks.
you can walk from one to another in about 10 minutes tops.

 

[Anal Annie]

you have already spent your children's inheritance on the darkside portion of your vacation, go ahead and do the hoppers.......what's a few more $$...

i totally agree with the other posters answering your questions.
do the hoppers.

if you miss a show at one of the parks, you can always hop back to it during the day.
you might want to do repeats of rides which will blow your agenda in the park.
MIB can become addicting.....
you'll have more freedom of doing things at both parks in one day.
you won't be confined to one since you can hop.

btw, i voted with the other 12 homies on your poll.......


after the first day, you will get the layout of the parks.
there are smaller than disney's parks.
you can walk from one to another in about 10 minutes tops.

I sort of figured the parks would be a little smaller. We went to Disneyland Paris last summer and were able to do both parks in 2 days. It was a push but we skipped the shows as we knew they'd be done in French so it seemed like it would just be a waste of time for us since our French was limited to Bon, Oui, s'il vous plaît, merci, bonjour and où sont les toilettes!! They are also very close together & you can walk between them very quickly. The crowds didn't seem too bad there when we were just walking around but a couple of the attractions had monster lines. (Their use of the Fast Pass system wasn't very efficient and they didn't even offer it on the 2 newest rides which had the worst lines.)

Do all or most of the rides at Universal offer this express pass ability or is it scattered around??

 

[pixeegrl]

Everything has the EP line except for the new ride in WWoHP (Forbidden Journey) , Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit in Studios, and the Pteranydon Flyers in IOA which you have to have a small child to ride with anyways....I think.

 

[damo]

I find that with just one day/one park tickets, you tend to skip a lot of things. There are many little experiences that people just coming over for one day will skim over and then say they were done the parks so early. If you do everything, you will not be able to do both parks in one day. Do the Jurassic Park Discovery Centre. Go through Camp Jurassic and Me Ship the Olive. Ride the water rides and see Poseidan's Fury and Sinbad at IOA. Spend some time at the talking fountain.

At Universal, do every attraction and show---well, leave out the Barney Show, lol. The Horror Makeup Show is fantastic but most one day people would miss is because they are just running around doing the highlights and then decide they didn't get their money's worth. Beetlejuice is also great but another often missed attraction.

Then when you have done everything, do things again. There is a ton of detail at Universal that upon first glance isn't noticeable. I am still finding things in rides after 10 years that I never noticed. Someone pointed out the little lovebirds in Port of Entry, that I never even knew where there. Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey is filled with things that even after a few rides, you still don't notice.

If you truly want to give Universal/IOA a chance, get the hopper passes and enjoy everything there is to offer as it was intended.

 

[disnewbie108]

So excited for you and your trip. Please post when you get back!!

PS. I vote hoppers too. But....We get our passes from Costco. I am not sure they still sell them. I think they are around $159 tax incl. They are 3 day park to park. The same price for adult and children. But they do not expire till 2014, even if you activate them. Since you are DVC, it may be worth a thought in case you go back after this trip for a WDW stay and want to make a quick side trip to the dark side . If you have a Costco, and if they are still available, and if you are even interested. (Lots of 'ifs') Just wanted to throw that out there. It has been a while since I have seen anything about the Costco tix on this board, so if my info is outdated, I am sure someone will post the correct info.

Good luck...

 

[loveysbydesign]

So excited for you and your trip. Please post when you get back!!

PS. I vote hoppers too. But....We get our passes from Costco. I am not sure they still sell them. I think they are around $159 tax incl. They are 3 day park to park. The same price for adult and children. But they do not expire till 2014, even if you activate them. Since you are DVC, it may be worth a thought in case you go back after this trip for a WDW stay and want to make a quick side trip to the dark side . If you have a Costco, and if they are still available, and if you are even interested. (Lots of 'ifs') Just wanted to throw that out there. It has been a while since I have seen anything about the Costco tix on this board, so if my info is outdated, I am sure someone will post the correct info.

Good luck...

My friend is a member at Costco but I am not. Can she buy the tix. for me or would they be in her name??

 

[disnewbie108]

They should not be in her name. You pick up this huge cardboad thing and take it to check out. They will then go into the security locker and bring you the actual tix. The tix are the ones you take straight to the gate. No need to go to GS. Word of warning tho-we have bought these 2x from Costco, 6 months apart. The first set we bought exp in 2013. When we went back to buy more, the new ones we out that exp in 2014. But the Costco clerk brought me 2013 tix. I asked him to go get me the right ones and he did. So be sure you are not getting some of their old stock. We used 2 days of the first set of tix we bought, and the next time we went we used up the 3rd day, and the first day of the second set (clear as mud??). So we have another trip coming in 2013, we still have 2 days left on 2nd set that exp in 2014.

Sorry, long answer. Short answer-no they should not be in her name and she should be able to buy them for you.

 

[damo]

My friend is a member at Costco but I am not. Can she buy the tix. for me or would they be in her name??

There shouldn't be any name on the tickets.

 

[Corly]

I just bought tickets at Costco yesterday 144.95 for the 3 day park hoppers and they do not expire until 12/31/15

You can purchase them for non-members as there are no names on the tickets (except the one that you will write on it)!

 

[mesaboy2]

Everything has the EP line except for the new ride in WWoHP (Forbidden Journey) , Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit in Studios, and the Pteranydon Flyers in IOA which you have to have a small child to ride with anyways....I think.

True.

I've also started adding Ollivander's to this list recently since it is a popular attraction in its own right. Most cite only the three you mention above.

 

[Anal Annie]

So excited for you and your trip. Please post when you get back!!

PS. I vote hoppers too. But....We get our passes from Costco. I am not sure they still sell them. I think they are around $159 tax incl. They are 3 day park to park. The same price for adult and children. But they do not expire till 2014, even if you activate them. Since you are DVC, it may be worth a thought in case you go back after this trip for a WDW stay and want to make a quick side trip to the dark side . If you have a Costco, and if they are still available, and if you are even interested. (Lots of 'ifs') Just wanted to throw that out there. It has been a while since I have seen anything about the Costco tix on this board, so if my info is outdated, I am sure someone will post the correct info.

Good luck...

I just bought tickets at Costco yesterday 144.95 for the 3 day park hoppers and they do not expire until 12/31/15

You can purchase them for non-members as there are no names on the tickets (except the one that you will write on it)!

Yes, we have a couple of Costco's near us...I saw these tix there on Monday actually but I passed by them because they were 3 days & we're only planning 2 days this trip. But I didn't realize they had such a long exp. date on them!! I thought they'd need to be used up within like 14 days or something! DEFINITELY worth getting as we usually go to FL 2 or 3 times a year (this summer is just our first time to leave WDW)!! COOL BEANS!! Thanks for pointing out that they don't expire so soon!!

 

[doris1976]

Go for the park hopper tickets. It is a better deal overall and you can go back and forth if one is more crowded.

 

[Anal Annie]

Go for the park hopper tickets. It is a better deal overall and you can go back and forth if one is more crowded.

Now that I know that the Costco 3-day hopper pack has a longer expiration I think we'll just buy those. I had thought they had to be used up within like 14 days or something but now that other posters have reported that they're good for like a couple of years that will work out for us just fine I think. We can use them for 2 days this summer then we can return again for 1 day on a future trip. Since we own DVC we usually try to go down 2 or 3 times a year so we'll appreciate having 1 day left for another trip. I will plan to go get them once we figure out our taxes & get our refund.