Upgraded 3 day Costco ticket

[madelyn]

Our family of 5 just returned from our FL trip. 4 of us had the $145 3 day tickets purchased from Costco (from the San Antonio area just before we left for our trip at the end of May). We bought one Premium Pass onsite so we could get free parking and a discount on our hotel. My older son ended up going 1 day early with his aunt and uncle and I also entered the Universal parks that day with my annual pass. My husband and 2 other kids decided not to use a park ticket that day since we got to the parks late and they would have had only 4 or 5 hours in the parks. The next day we all entered the parks. It had rained heavily and I had gotten off the Jurassic Park water ride with my sons. My oldest son realized his park ticket was in his pocket and was in poor condition. When we stepped off the Jurassic Park ride I noticed an "Attractions" booth. I asked the rep if he replaced/upgraded tickets and he said he did. I asked him what the upgrade price would be and he said since we paid more for the Costco tickets than the cost of a Power Pass, the upgrade would be free. I thought that didn't sound right and told him that we were not FL residents. He said the Power Pass was orignally designed for residents but anyone could get it now. He switched out the pass for no charge and I did have to talk to a timeshare rep and declined an appointment to talk with them the next day. I am glad that I decided to register the passes online the next day because it was at that time I noticed my son's Power Pass expired on April 3 2013 even though it should have expired a year from 1st use of the Costco ticket, which was the first week of June. When we went to the parks the next day, I showed the pass to the guest services agent and she corrected the expiration date, actually changing the expiration date to a year from that day we had her make the change. She said the annual pass had been issued as a "new" pass and not an upgrade so I think the agent who made the initial transaction did something wrong. I asked this agent how much it would cost to upgrade my 10 year old son's Costco ticket to an annual Power Pass and she said $18.10. That was still much less than I expected. However, my 2 younger kids and husband only used 2 days off their Costco tickets so we did not upgrade them. Guess we can inquire about the upgrade price if we return to the Universal Parks within a year from the first use of those tickets. My older son used all 3 days of his Costco ticket. I think we would have been better off buying a 3 day ticket from Undercovertourist for him but at the time we purchased, we had no idea how many days each member of our family would end up using off the tickets. So the Costco ticket seemed safer.