Universal newbie.... How do I get best priced tickets & hotel?

[bcbmommy]

We're going to Discovery Cove, Sea World, and Aquatica in a couple weeks (last minute vacay), and figured we may as well try out Universal. We're normally Disney people, so all of this is new to us. Is there a way to buy reasonably priced tickets & a one-night stay at one of their on-site hotels? There are 6 of us, btw. Thank you!!!

 

[macraven]

there is a 5 person stay allowed at the standard rooms onsite.
there are some suites that will allow 6 but they are expensive.
could be cheaper to do two standard rooms with connecting doors.

cbay has family suites that allow 6 in the room.

are you plannning a one night stay and 2 days in the park?
UO doesn't have one day one park discounts for tickets but they do have a one day two park ticket.

for those staying onsite, the hotel has a free shuttle bus from the hotel to aquatica and sea world.

 

[bcbmommy]

there is a 5 person stay allowed at the standard rooms onsite.
there are some suites that will allow 6 but they are expensive.
could be cheaper to do two standard rooms with connecting doors.

cbay has family suites that allow 6 in the room.

are you plannning a one night stay and 2 days in the park?
UO doesn't have one day one park discounts for tickets but they do have a one day two park ticket.

for those staying onsite, the hotel has a free shuttle bus from the hotel to aquatica and sea world.

Yes, we were thinking one night, two days. Would my best bet be to call Universal directly to see about a room?

 

[macraven]

Yes, we were thinking one night, two days. Would my best bet be to call Universal directly to see about a room?

you can look at the booking website for UO and get an idea of the prices for the rooms.
2 connecting rooms and the larger suites at the hotels and checkout cabana bay family suites so you have an idea on that expense.

then call reservations and talk with the TM's in booking the room.
they can guide you and answer any questions you have.
if you have AAA, the TM's can give you the room rate with that discount.

they do have packages but i never suggest to book that way.
the penalites with packages are $50 for any and every change you would make to them.

 

[DPCummerbund]

One good thing about staying onsite at one of the Deluxe resorts (Royal Pacific, Hard Rock, and Portofino, but not Cabana Bay) is that you'll get Universal's Unlimited Express Passes (similar to Disney's old Fastpasses, but they work on about 90% of the rides at any time). If you're staying one night you get UEPs for the day you check in and the day you check out.

 

[tesslor]

I got a spectacular deal on the AAA website. Was actually able to get 2 rooms for my June trip for less than the price Universal and my TA quoted me for 1. It seems each state for AAA has different prices, some not as great. We are in SD and totally lucked out. You get all the same perks as booking directly with Universal, including the Front of the Line Pass at Deluxe hotels.
It is definitely worth it to take a look at it.

 

[bcbmommy]

I got a spectacular deal on the AAA website. Was actually able to get 2 rooms for my June trip for less than the price Universal and my TA quoted me for 1. It seems each state for AAA has different prices, some not as great. We are in SD and totally lucked out. You get all the same perks as booking directly with Universal, including the Front of the Line Pass at Deluxe hotels.
It is definitely worth it to take a look at it.

Wow!! I may need to get a AAA membership!

 

[tesslor]

Wow!! I may need to get a AAA membership!

The rooms I booked didn't require a AAA membership. I had to book the 2 rooms separately and will call to ask for connecting rooms. Here is a link to the original thread. Hope it works, just copied and pasted.

http://www.disboards.com/threads/portofino-or-cabana-bay-family-suite.3375993/#post-53002223

You have to scroll down a little before you get to the part that starts talking about how I and others booked on AAA.

 

[soniam]

I got a good deal for mid-March from Cheap Tickets/Orbitz. My water view room at RPR during Spring Break is cheaper than my garden view room at POR per night, not including parking.

There's also annual passholder rates. I think you use APH in the promo code on the Universal website. It seems to me that they wait until really late to post them.

 

[bcbmommy]

I got a good deal for mid-March from Cheap Tickets/Orbitz. My water view room at RPR during Spring Break is cheaper than my garden view room at POR per night, not including parking.

There's also annual passholder rates. I think you use APH in the promo code on the Universal website. It seems to me that they wait until really late to post them.

So, to use the APH code, you have to have an annual pass, right? Universal is so confusing to me!

 

[soniam]

So, to use the APH code, you have to have an annual pass, right? Universal is so confusing to me!

Yes, but you can look at rates online first to see if it's worth it. I had considered but, but people on the boards told me that APH rates rarely happen during Spring Break. The Cheap Tickets deal was probably as good or better than the APH deal would have been.

 

[bcbmommy]

Yes, but you can look at rates online first to see if it's worth it. I had considered but, but people on the boards told me that APH rates rarely happen during Spring Break. The Cheap Tickets deal was probably as good or better than the APH deal would have been.

May I ask what the Cheap Tickets deal is? I have no idea what a good price is for Universal. A friend of mine said that through her work she can get us one day park-to-park tickets for $128, or 2 days for $165. Is that good?

 

[macraven]

So, to use the APH code, you have to have an annual pass, right? Universal is so confusing to me!

what are you confused about?
booking a room?

if you call UO reservations, they will be able to give you info on the discounts that UO has available.

 

[bcbmommy]

what are you confused about?
booking a room?

if you call UO reservations, they will be able to give you info on the discounts that UO has available.

lol. I'm just overwhelmed. We usually go to Disney, and I feel "comfortable" with that. Universal is completely foreign to me. I don't know what's considered a good rate for hotel & tickets.

 

[macraven]

lol. I'm just overwhelmed. We usually go to Disney, and I feel "comfortable" with that. Universal is completely foreign to me. I don't know what's considered a good rate for hotel & tickets.

look at the UO website and click on hotels.
put in dates for your trip and click on all hotels to get an idea of the rates for your dates.

do a dummy run on the reservation and see what the regular rates will be.

if you have AAA, you can call UO reservations and ask them for that rate.
if you have a 3 night stay, you can use the SMSM/stay more, save more general public rate.

i don't use the third party sites for their discounted rates at the darkside, so i can't help you there

 

[soniam]

lol. I'm just overwhelmed. We usually go to Disney, and I feel "comfortable" with that. Universal is completely foreign to me. I don't know what's considered a good rate for hotel & tickets.

Someone had posted that there was a good deal at Cheap Tickets, so I checked it out. I had never used them for WDW either, and this is our first Uni visit. Do what macraven suggests to find Uni's published rates, then go to Cheap Tickets and see if they have anything cheaper or some specials. I don't remember exactly what the rack rate is during our mid-March stay; I think it was about $340/night, w/o tax. I ended up paying $1238.18, including the taxes, for 4 nights at RPR, no dining plan. I bought tickets separately through Undercover Tourist.

Be sure to not enter children on the Cheap Tickets site. They will charge the extra adult rate, $25/extra person per night. There's an issue with the site, and it doesn't take into account that children stay free. When you check in, just tell them about the kids in order to get Early a Entry and Unlimited Express Pass, assuming you stay at a deluxe.

 

[kalamazoo]

Chances are that, with your trip being planned last-minute and it falling within spring break, you will not find any especially good deals at the Universal hotels. It is likely that room availability will be limited and what is available will be the more expensive options. Also, I think that none of the Universal hotel rooms will accommodate 6 people (5 seems to be the max) so you would probably have to rent 2 rooms if you stayed there. I think it merits a call to them just to see what they have for you.

The main benefit of staying on-site is the front-of-the line pass and early entry. If you are willing to forego those benefits then your accommodation options open up significantly. You can buy an unlimited front-of-the line pass for the day, by the way, but it will cost about $90-$100 per person, per day.

If you don't need to stay right near the park then I would recommend looking at either a Marriott or Hilton Vacation Club villa (you don't have to be a member/owner to book there). The resorts are beautiful and what would cost $1000+/night for a DVC villa will run you between $300-$400/night (2 bedrooms + living room and full kitchen).

If you want to stay near Universal (within walking distance) try the Hyatt. I think they might allow 6 people in a room and it will run you about $200 (plus tax of course, never forget the tax).

As for tickets, Universal currently has a 3 day park-to-park ticket going for the price of a 2-day ticket. Or since you are going to to Seaworld and Aquatica you might consider the Orlando Flexticket which gets you unlimited entry (for 14 consecutive days) to Seaworld, Aquatica, the 2 Universal parks and Wet'n'Wild. You can get that for about $320 (10 and up) and a little less for kids. This ticket also has a feature where you only have to pay for parking once - so if you go to Aquatica in the morning and Universal in the evening your Aquatica parking pass is good for Universal parking (at least that is my understanding. I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong).

 

[bcbmommy]

look at the UO website and click on hotels.
put in dates for your trip and click on all hotels to get an idea of the rates for your dates.

do a dummy run on the reservation and see what the regular rates will be.

if you have AAA, you can call UO reservations and ask them for that rate.
if you have a 3 night stay, you can use the SMSM/stay more, save more general public rate.

i don't use the third party sites for their discounted rates at the darkside, so i can't help you there

Okay, so I called, and here are the prices I got if we had an AP. Since there are 6 of us, we would need 2 rooms. She quoted me $234.xx per room/per night (so 468.xx per night) for PBH. Or...$114.xx per room/per night for CBR. Without the AP, it would be something like $414.xx and $179.xx respectively. So, that leads me to my question about the AP. If we get the cheapest AP, do we just have to get it for one of us? And, does that count as that person's ticket, or do we need to buy a ticket on top of that? This is for our trip in 2 weeks (mid-March).

Thank you! I know I'm asking a lot of questions.

 

[bcbmommy]

Actually, that may be the price for RPR. I'm not sure now.

 

[macraven]

Okay, so I called, and here are the prices I got if we had an AP. Since there are 6 of us, we would need 2 rooms. She quoted me $234.xx per room/per night (so 468.xx per night) for PBH. Or...$114.xx per room/per night for CBR. Without the AP, it would be something like $414.xx and $179.xx respectively. So, that leads me to my question about the AP. If we get the cheapest AP, do we just have to get it for one of us? And, does that count as that person's ticket, or do we need to buy a ticket on top of that? This is for our trip in 2 weeks (mid-March).

Thank you! I know I'm asking a lot of questions.

you can get both rooms with the ap rate since you need the additional room due to the 4 littles/kids.