Upgrading from 2 park 4 day Hopper Ticket to Universal Seasonal Annual Pass

[MJW01]

Good afternoon everyone - first time poster but have spent many hours over the years browsing the forum for useful advice!
Apologies if my question has been answered before but I've not been able to find the answer anywhere.
We are returning to Orlando next August and were originally intending to spend our whole holiday at Disney after visiting Universal many times previously. Kids have now decided they want to split our holiday between Disney and Universal so we are now spending 8 nights at Coronado Springs and 7 nights at Portofino Bay. As you can imagine budget has risen substantially so are looking to economise wherever possible!
We are not bothered about returning to Volcano Bay so were looking at the Universal Seasonal annual pass.
My question is if I bought a 4 day 2 park hopper ticket -$289 on Orlando Attractions compared to $319 on Universal website or 5 day 2 park hopper ticket -$302 on Orlando Attractions compared to $335 on Universal website, would I be able to upgrade to seasonal pass even though cost of seasonal pass would be less than both of the hopper tickets! Also would I be refunded any difference?
If the answer is yes, would I be able to upgrade before leaving or would it have to be done whilst at Universal? If at universal would they calculate difference based on the gate price?
Any help would be greatly appreciated - many thanks in advance.

 

[tony67]

You need to do it there while the ticket is still valid and as long as you have not used the ticket at VB
i would also recommend going to guests services in the park - not outside - they are far more experienced.
They should give you a gift card for the difference

What they will credit for you is hard to say - I can tell you what happened to me last week
I had a 14-day 3-park explorer ticket - which is about $40 more than the seasonal pass.
I got to guest services (outside the park) on the Friday of HHN - after about an hour working with them I was able to get the 2 park seasonal pass and I was under the impression that they were going to credit me $42 back based on the receipt they printed - but that was not the case - they said it was an even exchange
I'm not sure where that -$42 receipt was going too

I had already wasted too much time so I emailed guest services and they also said that it is typically an even exchange (I know that is not true)
She offered a $30 gift card for my "troubles" - I felt that was fine and picked it up at guest services

So i would go in and tell them you want to upgrade to a seasonal pass and to get the difference back on a gift card - and start from there

 

[MJW01]

Many thanks for your help, tony67.
So from your experience, probably best to buy a ticket that is as near as possible in monetary value to the seasonal Annual Pass.

 

[tony67]

Many thanks for your help, tony67.
So from your experience, probably best to buy a ticket that is as near as possible in monetary value to the seasonal Annual Pass.

In my experience yes - in future I will just buy the pass as it was just too much hassle - but the pass was not an option as part of a universal vacation package
If you search the forums I am pretty sure there is a discussion on this exact topic

 

[MJW01]

Thanks Tony.

 

[Dubb]

Is it advantageous to purchase tickets, rather than the seasonal pass, in order to visit the parks on what would be blackout dates? And then upgrade at the end of the trip?

 

[CAPSLOCK]

Yes