Any Universal Ticket Experts here?

scoobydooby2016

Mouseketeer
Joined
Jan 10, 2016
Hi. Next summer we are staying 14 nights at Disney with one night in the middle at Universal's Portofino Bay Hotel. We couldn't stretch to more than a 14 day trip this time sadly. So we need tickets for Universal and IOA (park to park) for two days only and we also want a day at Volcano Bay. Can anyone advise of the cheapest option please?
 
Prices much of a muchness, I'd see if you can get free stuff from a UK Seller, like Attraction Tickets Direct
 
If you have one night booked at Portofino Bay I would check what rate Universal can offer you as a resident.
You can also get a discount if you are an AA member, think that's just on the gate.
 


If you have one night booked at Portofino Bay I would check what rate Universal can offer you as a resident.
.

Universal does not give ticket discounts to residents
More than often a package works more expensive than buying accomodation and tickets separately

I'm assuming the U.K. 14 day tickets are not the best deal though?

Do you want the 3 parks over 2 days ?
If so, the 3 parks / 2 days on the universal site will probably be cheaper than the 14 days ticket

The 3 parks / 2 days is $295+tax
A 14 days UK ticket is about £230
So do the maths with your bank fees if any
ATD currently has a deal for free:blue man group tickets with the purchase of a universal 14 days ticket. That might also be worth considering
 
Universal does not give ticket discounts to residents
More than often a package works more expensive than buying accomodation and tickets separately



Do you want the 3 parks over 2 days ?
If so, the 3 parks / 2 days on the universal site will probably be cheaper than the 14 days ticket

The 3 parks / 2 days is $295+tax
A 14 days UK ticket is about £230
So do the maths with your bank fees if any
ATD currently has a deal for free:blue man group tickets with the purchase of a universal 14 days ticket. That might also be worth considering

Thanks. No we want three days. One at each park and one at the new water park. Looks like the 14 day UK ticket is the best. I suppose I just found that hard to believe!
 
I did not say they offered discounts for residents. What they do from time to time is offer a 'package' i.e accommodation and ticket offered at a price less than buying separately.

To OP, you can sign up on the US site for offers
 


Hi. Next summer we are staying 14 nights at Disney with one night in the middle at Universal's Portofino Bay Hotel. We couldn't stretch to more than a 14 day trip this time sadly. So we need tickets for Universal and IOA (park to park) for two days only and we also want a day at Volcano Bay. Can anyone advise of the cheapest option please?
Slightly off topic, but can I ask how you're doing your one night stay please? We're thinking of doing the same (to take advantage of the free EPs when staying on resort). Are you keeping your room at Disney and also staying over at Universal or are you checking out of Disney then checking back in? We're thinking that we might keep our room at Disney and just take an overnight bag to Universal. We've worked out that it's cheaper to book a room at the Royal Pacific than pay for two days Express Passes. Crazy.
TIA x
 
Slightly off topic, but can I ask how you're doing your one night stay please? We're thinking of doing the same (to take advantage of the free EPs when staying on resort). Are you keeping your room at Disney and also staying over at Universal or are you checking out of Disney then checking back in? We're thinking that we might keep our room at Disney and just take an overnight bag to Universal. We've worked out that it's cheaper to book a room at the Royal Pacific than pay for two days Express Passes. Crazy.
TIA x

Hi. Yes we have booked our disney hotel with tickets and dining for 14 days and have sucked up paying for a room one night at Portofino as well. Expensive but we couldn't do more than a 2 week trip and we wanted unlimited FOL. Total cost for 2 days is pretty eye watering TBH. We will Uber there and back and just take an overnight bag.
 
We are looking at adding Universal onto our trip next year as well, for 2 days as I haven't been for ten years. The price of Universal hotels seems so expensive though; we have worked out that it will be cheaper to stay off-site and buy front of line passes, than to stay in a Universal hotel and get the extra hour in the parks. So we are going to do that.
 
Now it does depend on the exchange rate (which admittedly has gone southwards since I checked this last), but the prices of a 3 park ticket were cheaper going through the US site than the UK site. The only difference between the tickets was that the US version you had to do all your Universal visits in a 7 day span, compared to the 14 days the UK ticket got you, but if you are happy concentrating them in a shorter timeframe, then you might be able to make some savings there.
 
we have worked out that it will be cheaper to stay off-site and buy front of line passes, than to stay in a Universal hotel and get the extra hour in the parks.

did you compare like for like ?

1 night at RPR will get you 2 days of unlimited express passes.
You can check in from 6am and even if you won't get a room that early, you will have a room key to show at early entry, and you'll be able to print your express passes.

When you buy express on the side, there are 2 options. Single express (1 visit per ride, per pass day) and unlimited express (unlimited visits for each ride, per pass day)

with the hotel you get the unlimited express version

you're going in october, so 2 days of unlimited express passes for 2 adults cost $399.96+tax
A Standard King Room ar Royal Pacific, for the same date used in my sim, costs $294 + tax

so buying express on the side is actually $100 more expensive than staying onsite for that night.

Maybe you didn't realise that 1 night at a deluxe hotel in UOR gave you 2 days of unlimited EPs, or maybe did you price the single express pass.

but usually, staying onsite at an EP enabled hotel is quite cheaper than buying the express and staying offsite.
 
Slightly off topic, but can I ask how you're doing your one night stay please? We're thinking of doing the same (to take advantage of the free EPs when staying on resort). Are you keeping your room at Disney and also staying over at Universal or are you checking out of Disney then checking back in? We're thinking that we might keep our room at Disney and just take an overnight bag to Universal. We've worked out that it's cheaper to book a room at the Royal Pacific than pay for two days Express Passes. Crazy.
TIA x

we're keeping our room at disney and taking a room for one night at universal in the middle of our stay - just so that we can get early entry and front of the line..

i have a night booked at royal pacific...

we did the same thing last time..
kept our disney room, and just took a room for one night at the royal pacific..

last time, we checked into our royal pacific room at 1 in the morning (since we did the magic kingdom late that night)..

we went into harry potter for early opening (islands of adventure - since that was the only HP open then), did a bunch of other stuff...then checked out at noon (they'd given us an extra hour for check out)...

and that was all the time we needed at universal (we hate universal - just have two kids who like HP)..

anyway...we did that double booking thing.....crazy, but the easiest for us... :)

and again, we book the room so that we can get early entry...
it does help being able to get into the park an hour earlier before the crowds...

.

.
 
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did you compare like for like ?

1 night at RPR will get you 2 days of unlimited express passes.
You can check in from 6am and even if you won't get a room that early, you will have a room key to show at early entry, and you'll be able to print your express passes.

When you buy express on the side, there are 2 options. Single express (1 visit per ride, per pass day) and unlimited express (unlimited visits for each ride, per pass day)

with the hotel you get the unlimited express version

you're going in october, so 2 days of unlimited express passes for 2 adults cost $399.96+tax
A Standard King Room ar Royal Pacific, for the same date used in my sim, costs $294 + tax

so buying express on the side is actually $100 more expensive than staying onsite for that night.

Maybe you didn't realise that 1 night at a deluxe hotel in UOR gave you 2 days of unlimited EPs, or maybe did you price the single express pass.

but usually, staying onsite at an EP enabled hotel is quite cheaper than buying the express and staying offsite.

Maybe I looked at it wrong... we're going to tag it onto the start of our stay. As we won't get to the hotel until around 6-7pm that first day will be wasted so we were going to have 2 nights instead of 1 the to give a day at each park and then check in at Disney late when finished on the second day.
 
Thanks. I think we'll stay for one night at the Royal Pacific as that's coming out as the cheapest hotel onsite with express passes. We are five adults so will squeeze into one room for the night. I've noticed that sites like booking.com split us into two rooms but booking direct with Universal gives us the option to add a rollaway bed and stay in one room which will save quite a bit. Thanks for the advice
 
Maybe I looked at it wrong... we're going to tag it onto the start of our stay. As we won't get to the hotel until around 6-7pm that first day will be wasted so we were going to have 2 nights instead of 1 the to give a day at each park and then check in at Disney late when finished on the second day.

you still have the option of booking a cheapo hotel near the airport for your first night, then as you'll probably be up at silly o'clock go check in at RPR for your second night and your 2 actual days of park


Thanks. I think we'll stay for one night at the Royal Pacific as that's coming out as the cheapest hotel onsite with express passes. We are five adults so will squeeze into one room for the night. I've noticed that sites like booking.com split us into two rooms but booking direct with Universal gives us the option to add a rollaway bed and stay in one room which will save quite a bit. Thanks for the advice

do not book through Booking dot com, they don't include taxes in their price (that's how they look cheaper than the others, when they're the same price, and sometimes even more expensive while advertising their "jackpot you've got the best price ever, just for you, just today" ...

also note that you'll be charged $25 per additional adult (room rate is based on 2 adults in the room, adults 3, 4 and 5 are each charged $25 per night) make sure this charge is included in the price you pay on the booking site (make a dummy booking for 2 adults, then 5 adults, to see if you are charged the $25 per person)
if you request a rollaway bed, note that you'll also be charged $25 per night (that's the reason why americans bring an inflatable bed when they're 5 in the room)

so when you book a room for 5 adults and a rollaway bed, you're actually charged $100 on top of the room price. Some booking sites include the extra adult charges, some don't, and none include the rollaway bed fee.
 
do not book through Booking dot com, they don't include taxes in their price (that's how they look cheaper than the others, when they're the same price, and sometimes even more expensive while advertising their "jackpot you've got the best price ever, just for you, just today" ...

also note that you'll be charged $25 per additional adult (room rate is based on 2 adults in the room, adults 3, 4 and 5 are each charged $25 per night) make sure this charge is included in the price you pay on the booking site (make a dummy booking for 2 adults, then 5 adults, to see if you are charged the $25 per person)
if you request a rollaway bed, note that you'll also be charged $25 per night (that's the reason why americans bring an inflatable bed when they're 5 in the room)

so when you book a room for 5 adults and a rollaway bed, you're actually charged $100 on top of the room price. Some booking sites include the extra adult charges, some don't, and none include the rollaway bed fee.[/QUOTE]


Thank you. I've checked and two people in a room is coming out quite a bit cheaper but luckily I'd put in five people to start with so it looks like they have added the extra occupancy on already though I doubt they have put on the rollaway hire. It's still coming out cheaper than buying express passes for two days for five adults. Definitely not using booking.com for something like that. I've heard bad things about people arriving and nothing being booked for them etc. Will go through Universals own site x
 
you still have the option of booking a cheapo hotel near the airport for your first night, then as you'll probably be up at silly o'clock go check in at RPR for your second night and your 2 actual days of park
Actually that's a good shout thanks! Do you get two days front of line pass with a one night stay then?
 

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