Will Undercover Tourist Tickets Work For Us?

[wildflower]

We are making a quick trip to Orlando to take our Harry Potter fans to IOA/US. We arrive on a Thursday at 4:25 pm (at MCO) and leave on a very early flight Sunday morning. We are staying at RPR.

IOA closes on Thursday at 7 pm, so I was figuring it probably wouldn't be worth going into the park that day. That would leave us with just Friday & Saturday in the parks. Then when I was looking at Undercover Tourist's ticket prices, I noticed that the 3-day park-to-park tickets ($146.95) are only $6 more than the 2-day park-to-park tickets ($140.95). For $6 each, I'm wondering if it would be worth going into the park Thursday for the last hour or so that its open?

If we go with the 3-day tickets, we're stuck with them even if we don't make it there the first night. If we get the 2-day tickets, I bet it would cost more than $6 to upgrade them to 3-day tickets. When you upgrade a ticket from Undercover Tourist, do you pay the difference between what you paid and the list-price of the upgraded ticket or do you pay the difference between the list-price of the ticket you have and the list-price of the upgraded ticket?

Another concern about buying tickets from Undercover Tourist..... Will using these tickets delay us getting into the park for early entry? Will we have to wait in a line to get them converted into the regular tickets before we can use them?

Thanks in advance for any advice/info you have for us!

 

[bumbershoot]

At Universal they do not bridge the cost like WDW does; if you upgrade the 2 day to a 3 day you will lose the discount on the 2 day, and will end up paying gate price for the 3 day.

We ordered our tickets from UCT, and we got REAL tickets in the mail. Took them straight to the gate, used them, hubby set his fingerprint/whatever to his ticket (DS is a minor and they do not do that) and they were good to go! Absolutely no time loss at all.

 

[wildflower]

At Universal they do not bridge the cost like WDW does; if you upgrade the 2 day to a 3 day you will lose the discount on the 2 day, and will end up paying gate price for the 3 day.

We ordered our tickets from UCT, and we got REAL tickets in the mail. Took them straight to the gate, used them, hubby set his fingerprint/whatever to his ticket (DS is a minor and they do not do that) and they were good to go! Absolutely no time loss at all.

Thanks so much for your reply!

I guess we need to decide ahead of time if we want to go on Thursday if we are going to take advantage of the discount with UCT. We arrive at the airport at 4:25. (Assuming our flight is on time.) We won't be checking luggage, so we should get out pretty fast. We will be be using a town car service and making a very quick stop for groceries. I'm thinking we'll be checking into RPR at 5:25 best case scenario.

So.....do we plan to hurry over to IOA to see WWHP for an hour before close or do we relax by the pool? Actually, either choice sounds great right now!!!

 

[Mickeyluver37]

We have the same dilemma and this is why I think we're going with the 3 day Costco tickets. They are $144.99 each plus tax, which with the "plus tax" makes them slightly more, but they do not expire until 12/31/14. So if we end up only using 2 days, we'll have 1 more day to use in the next 3 years. I also am only paying for a room for one night, and we are going for a holiday week, so I'm just not sure that we'll find it worth going back a 3rd day with the crowds and no express passes.

 

[wildflower]

We have the same dilemma and this is why I think we're going with the 3 day Costco tickets. They are $144.99 each plus tax, which with the "plus tax" makes them slightly more, but they do not expire until 12/31/14. So if we end up only using 2 days, we'll have 1 more day to use in the next 3 years. I also am only paying for a room for one night, and we are going for a holiday week, so I'm just not sure that we'll find it worth going back a 3rd day with the crowds and no express passes.

That sounds like a good plan. Unfortunately my Costco doesn't have the tickets.

 

[bumbershoot]

Given that sort of timing, I'd give up on the 3 day and just relax at the pool.

I'm sure you know the airport is big, the ride is longer than I expect, grocery store stops are always longer than I figure they'll be, and WWoHP is all the way in the back of the park... I'd rather relax. Personally.

But then I'd be talking myself into another night there and I'd be thinking of stretching my vacation out longer and calling the airlines and all that...

 

[mcjw2011]

I'm sure you know the airport is big, the ride is longer than I expect, grocery store stops are always longer than I figure they'll be, and WWoHP is all the way in the back of the park... I'd rather relax. Personally.

That's a huge understatement. When I went to US/IOA last year, we made a quick stop at Walmart to pick up cold cuts/sandwiches to eat at the hotel one day. I was shocked to see every checkout lane open -- and each of them had long lines.

I shouldn't have been surprised, since it was Orlando and it's during peak vacation time. But expect to spend more time in the grocery store or Walmart if you're there during a busy period.

 

[momto3pirates]

We used UCT in June for our tickets and they were great. No problems, went right throught the gate. We arrived late and spent the evening shopping at CityWalk, had a nice dinner and went to bed so we could get up early for early entry to WWoHP.

 

[Lynne G]

We are making a quick trip to Orlando to take our Harry Potter fans to IOA/US. We arrive on a Thursday at 4:25 pm (at MCO) and leave on a very early flight Sunday morning. We are staying at RPR.

IOA closes on Thursday at 7 pm, so I was figuring it probably wouldn't be worth going into the park that day. That would leave us with just Friday & Saturday in the parks. Then when I was looking at Undercover Tourist's ticket prices, I noticed that the 3-day park-to-park tickets ($146.95) are only $6 more than the 2-day park-to-park tickets ($140.95). For $6 each, I'm wondering if it would be worth going into the park Thursday for the last hour or so that its open?

If we go with the 3-day tickets, we're stuck with them even if we don't make it there the first night. If we get the 2-day tickets, I bet it would cost more than $6 to upgrade them to 3-day tickets. When you upgrade a ticket from Undercover Tourist, do you pay the difference between what you paid and the list-price of the upgraded ticket or do you pay the difference between the list-price of the ticket you have and the list-price of the upgraded ticket?

Another concern about buying tickets from Undercover Tourist..... Will using these tickets delay us getting into the park for early entry? Will we have to wait in a line to get them converted into the regular tickets before we can use them?

Thanks in advance for any advice/info you have for us!

I bought my tickets through UCT. Came in mail quickly. We stayed at the Portofino. For early entry, they just look at your room card. Has nothing to do with where you bought the ticket from. We arrived around 1pm, and the IOA ended at 8pm. We still didn't go to either park. We pool hopped and ate at CityWalk instead. IOA opened early at 8am for us, so getting a good night's sleep the first full day at IOA/US was good.