Upgrading to AP

[Callsdodisney]

I think I know how this works for Disney, but not for Universal.

Coming in May with 3 day, 3 park tickets. Need to upgrade at least one ticket to an AP. Not entirely sure we will come back, but if we do, it will be in December and we will want the 2 park preferred pass due to blackout dates.

If we use the water park portion in May, must we upgrade to 3 park APs that include water park? I think, for instance, if you use tickets on a day blacked out by a Disney AP, if you want to upgrade those, you have to upgrade to a pass that “allows” for the days you already used. How does that work at Universal?

 

[CAPSLOCK]

You need to get a 3 park AP once you use your ticket to go to VB.

I would suggest upgrading at least one person to the Preferred right away, if you plan to do the upgrade - might as well use those discounts the whole trip!

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

You need to get a 3 park AP once you use your ticket to go to VB.

I would suggest upgrading at least one person to the Preferred right away, if you plan to do the upgrade - might as well use those discounts the whole trip!

I'm so glad I found this. I was just going to post as a new question. Please tell me if my math is correct.

I am buying my niece and her family 5-day P2P tickets for 3 parks for August 27.
$1602.70 if we buy from Undercover Tourist. (3 adults, 1 child)
1791.31 if we bought directly on USO website. Is this the value applied to an AP if they upgrade on their last day? Could this value change based on which parks they already visited at the time of upgrade? Or is this a fixed amount?

AP Prices on USO website:
$1703.96 for 4 2-park Seasonal APs
$2129.96 for 4 3-park Seasonal APs

So as long as they don't visit VB, they could upgrade to a 2-park Seasonal AP without paying anything out of pocket at Guest Services, correct? or would they only be "credited" with lesser value tickets because they never used any VB days?

If they DO visit VB, it would cost $338.65. ($2129.96 -1791.31) because their AP must then be a 3-park AP, correct?

 

[CAPSLOCK]

The $1791.31 Universal price is what you would be credited towards an upgrade.

From my conversation in 2018, it sounded like we could have upgraded to a 2 park AP had we not visited VB.

Also double check block out dates. I have heard that if you use tickets on days that would have been blocked for lower tier APs, you will need to upgrade to a pass without those block out dates.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

The $1791.31 Universal price is what you would be credited towards an upgrade.

From my conversation in 2018, it sounded like we could have upgraded to a 2 park AP had we not visited VB.

Also double check block out dates. I have heard that if you use tickets on days that would have been blocked for lower tier APs, you will need to upgrade to a pass without those block out dates.

Thanks!! That's a good point to consider about the blackout dates too. They'll be going the last week of August which doesn't appear to be part of the Seasonal block out dates.
They are on a tight budget and I doubt they'll have $330+ to upgrade to the 3-park AP. So if they want to upgrade, but don't want to pay out of pocket, they'll have a choice to either visit VB this year or upgrade to 2-park APs.

 

[Juventus]

I just spoke on the phone with universal and they specifically said that I could upgrade from a 3 park 5 day ticket to a 2 park annual pass, even if I went to VB before the upgrade.

The guy on the phone seemed like he was reading off something and actually had little experience so I don't know what to think. It seems like some older posts on this board indicated that you could do this, and newer posts indicate that this is not possible.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

I just spoke on the phone with universal and they specifically said that I could upgrade from a 3 park 5 day ticket to a 2 park annual pass, even if I went to VB before the upgrade.

The guy on the phone seemed like he was reading off something and actually had little experience so I don't know what to think. It seems like some older posts on this board indicated that you could do this, and newer posts indicate that this is not possible.

They did upgrade to a 2-park AP and didn't visit VB anyway. There were a lot of T-storms when they were there and despite the heat, they said it just wan't worth it. They enjoyed the pool and found it to be plenty for their needs.