Question about 7 day tickets

[VW31]

Myself and family are going to US/IOA for 7nights/8 days (Thurs-Thurs), and I'm trying to find tickets that we can use for all the days we are there.
The only tickets I found were the 7 day tickets, but
on the AAA website it states, "Ticket expires within seven (7) consecutive calendar days beginning on the first day of use"
and on another site it states, "Unlimited park-to-park access for 7 consecutive days, including first day use".

So giving my travel dates, does that means I can't use the ticket on either the 1st day or last day?
If so, are there any tickets where we can get access to the parks on the first day and last day, for a total of 8 days?

Thanks.

 

[phamton]

Have you conisdered getting at least one annual pass? With that, you will have free parking and also discounts at all the stores and restaurants on site.

The other family members could get Season passes as long as you aren't going during any of the blackout days.

 

[VW31]

Yeah, I thought about getting an AP for myself (awaiting for room rates to see if its worth it) but that would only give me access to the parks on all 8 days.
By season pass do you mean the Annual Power pass? I thought about that after I posted the question, I believe that is about $10-$15 more than the 7 day ticket.
However, now I'm thinking maybe it's probably best to rest up the day we arrive and prepare for a full day at the parks the next day.

Boy, the decisions of a planning addict!

 

[Daydreamer64]

You could use your arrival day to swim, eat and roam around at Citywalk?! There's lots to do there and you could cruise on the resort boats to tour the other resorts on Universal property- that's what we did last year.

Universal offers a stay for 4 or more days and play for free package- we paid $219/ night at RPR in July ( 2 adults and 3 kids )- stayed for 4 nights and had 2 ( free adult) tickets that worked like hoppers for both parks for 7 days consecutive days. We could have gotten the room for less $ with the ENT rate and then bought the 5 day tickets but the 5 day passes w/ the cost of the discount room cost the same as the package for us so we went the easy route- the tickets were handed to us on the day of check-in and worked wonderfully for us. If you can't get the room at AP discount then you might look to get it this way. There are so many ways to find discounts that it takes a bit of time to get it all straightened out.

If you need 8 days of access then I would look into the year long passes. The Power pass was offered last summer ( can't find any info on it now ) for like $99/year and had black out dates - that may work for you if one of you get the AP for yourself and PP for the rest of the family to get the room discounts- some people have been having trouble getting the discount rooms for Ap during their travel dates- I would reserve the room if you can at Ap and then order the AP for the parks.

Oh, our tickets only started to work for the 7 day window after we activated them as we went through the gates.

AND a side note ****if you are a Georgia resident you can get a discount room- we booked one last week at RPR for January at $119 per night- it was the only discount that I could find at the time- the resi people said the ENT rates were not available- I tried AAA too.

Good luck!

 

[gschmerl]

I too was going to suggest you look into the "stay and play" package. You get length of stay passes with that.

 

[VW31]

Last year when I went to Universal I did the stay-n-play package. Had I known what I know now about the various discounted rates and tickets that are available, I wouldn't have went that route. I paid more than what I could have paid, and that was just for 2 people.
Now, going with 6 people, when I package everything separately, it comes out cheaper than the stay-n-play package.

 

[GVBELL]

We bought the Stay & Play for $99 each, which I thought was fantastic. The tickets actually states "expires 6 days after the 1st day of use" which means 7 consecutive days. Perhaps consider arrival or departure day as a day to swim and relax at the hotel? Cos once you activate it....that's it.