Universal discounts

[MarBee]

Hello!
I asked on the Universal board but didn't really get an answer, so I figured I'd try here.
We are looking to add a 2 or 3 night stay at Universal to the end of our June trip. (Dates would be 6/25 to 6/27 or 6/28.) The cost for room plus tickets with the faster lines option is over $2k.
Does anyone know of any way to get discounts or save money here? (We are not FL residents.)
Thank you!

 

[tarheel618]

It might be cheaper for one person to get an annual pass and try to get a discount rate on the hotel. Type in APH as a code to see. You don't need to have the pass to book just need it when checking in. Also, try single days to see if you can get an APH rate. Not sure if there are a lot of discounts for hotel rates in June. If you stay at Hard Rock, Portofino or Royal Pacific you get a express pass for each person registered to the room for free. Royal Pacific tends to have the cheapest rates of the 3. The pass is good the day you check in (even if you check in at 6 am until park close the day you check out)

 

[MarBee]

It might be cheaper for one person to get an annual pass and try to get a discount rate on the hotel. Type in APH as a code to see. You don't need to have the pass to book just need it when checking in. Also, try single days to see if you can get an APH rate. Not sure if there are a lot of discounts for hotel rates in June. If you stay at Hard Rock, Portofino or Royal Pacific you get a express pass for each person registered to the room for free. Royal Pacific tends to have the cheapest rates of the 3. The pass is good the day you check in (even if you check in at 6 am until park close the day you check out)

Thank you! I will give this a try.

 

[tarheel618]

Thank you! I will give this a try.

there is a thread on the Universal forum for APH rates you might want to join. Universal isn't like Disney they don't do discounts way in advance just a month or two. You could already book your stay at the hotel of your choice and add the rate or change it later. Just do hotel only booking. Universal is much more laid back and less planning than Disney. The hotels I mention include the unlimited express pass- while they are more costly per night, it tends to be cheaper than buying the pass outright. I night stay gives you two days of express pass.

 

[WVMomof3]

I just bought tickets about 2 weeks before Thanksgiving. One week before Thanksgiving they raised their prices! I was so glad I ordered ahead of time. Anyway, the cheapest place I found tickets was Sams Club Travel. I knew I wanted to upgrade at least 1 ticket to an AP to get the hotel discount and I wasn't sure if they were upgradeable so I ordered 2 of my tickets from Undercover Tourist. Long story short, I ended up upgrading all 5 of my tickets to the seasonal AP for just $10 more than I paid for the 3 day ticket! You will not be able to get the seasonal AP in June, but I do recommend buying the ticket ahead of time then upgrading 1 inside the park after it has been used. You do not need the AP at time of booking. We found the cheapest rate at PBH and it has the biggest rooms. Just keep checking once the APH rates come out. I had originally booked Hard Rock, but about a week later I checked rates again and the Portofino ended up being cheaper.

 

[littledebbie335]

Not a discount, per se, but just some ideas on how to save a little money:

We originally were planning on staying at one of the more expensive resorts so that Express Pass would be included, but when I did the math, it's cheaper for us to stay at Cabana Bay and add on the Express Pass. You might want to compare those two options and see how the work out for you.

We also are getting single park tickets because the park-to-park tickets would be a couple of hundred dollars more. We just don't want to ride the Hogwarts Express that badly.

 

[MarBee]

Thank you! Just curious as to when the Annual pass holder rates come out for Universal. I tried the code "APH," but it said it wasn't available for my dates (late June 2017).

 

[WVMomof3]

Thank you! Just curious as to when the Annual pass holder rates come out for Universal. I tried the code "APH," but it said it wasn't available for my dates (late June 2017).

They don't seem to be consistent, just keep checking. I think Thanksgiving rates may not have come out till October? (Edit - it looks like they came out in September from the thred linked) There is a thread on the Universal Hotel board that usually gets updated on how far out the rates are. Right now it is through mid febuary, if the date is accurate.

http://www.disboards.com/threads/ap...ugh-read-first-post-updated-11-08-16.3301532/

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

Keep in mind that if you decide to stay at a cheaper hotel and buy Express passes, you can only ride each attraction once. It has a barcode that is scanned as you enter each Express line so they do know if you already rode.
With the room key-express pass you can ride any participating ride as often as you like.

 

[Darcy03231]

We've done US/IOA multiple times and have done it without staying on-site and/or getting express passes. The trick is to get there about half an hour before park opening. We've saved a lot of money this way. If it looks like its getting too busy, you can always add the express pass to your tickets once you're there.

 

[catfan98]

Keep in mind that if you decide to stay at a cheaper hotel and buy Express passes, hou can only ride each attraction once. It has a barcode that is scanned as you enter each Express line so they do know if you already rode.
With the room key-express pass you can ride any participating ride as often as you like.

Just a quick note - you can buy the Unlimited Express Pass which will allow you to ride multiple times, also. Either option is available on the Universal website. However, the Unlimited Express Pass is quite a bit higher than the one time use one. I priced out all of the options and found that staying at Royal Pacific which included the passes was cheaper for us than staying at a cheaper hotel and adding passes.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

Just a quick note - you can buy the Unlimited Express Pass which will allow you to ride multiple times, also. Either option is available on the Universal website. However, the Unlimited Express Pass is quite a bit higher than the one time use one. I priced out all of the options and found that staying at Royal Pacific which included the passes was cheaper for us than staying at a cheaper hotel and adding passes.

Back in 2005 we tried Royal Pacific for 1 night, for the 2 days of Express line access and we were hooked!
Seriously, once you try it, you'll never want to go without it. Dh flat out refuses. Even if I could pay for the unlimited Express pass, being able to walk to the parks in 5-10 mins (HRH & RPR) having a view of the Hulk from your room, never needing a car, it all just adds to the enjoyment and convenience.
We have found that 1 AP pays for itself with a hotel stay of 3 nights that grants the APH discount.

Many of our visits were in Sept & Nov and we could get RPR for $134 (Sun-Thurs with the APH discount) I realize this was a couple years ago but still we were able to get the HRH for $174/187 in fall of 2015. Compared to paying for express passes each day for a family of 4 + offsite hotel + rental car + parking, you may as well just stay onsite. JMHO.

 

[tarheel618]

One thing you should know is that all Universal hotels charge for parking.

 

[MarBee]

This is all great info and tips! I've never been before so please keep them coming! Thank you!

 

[catfan98]

Back in 2005 we tried Royal Pacific for 1 night, for the 2 days of Express line access and we were hooked!
Seriously, once you try it, you'll never want to go without it. Dh flat out refuses. Even if I could pay for the unlimited Express pass, being able to walk to the parks in 5-10 mins (HRH & RPR) having a view of the Hulk from your room, never needing a car, it all just adds to the enjoyment and convenience.
We have found that 1 AP pays for itself with a hotel stay of 3 nights that grants the APH discount.

Many of our visits were in Sept & Nov and we could get RPR for $134 (Sun-Thurs with the APH discount) I realize this was a couple years ago but still we were able to get the HRH for $174/187 in fall of 2015. Compared to paying for express passes each day for a family of 4 + offsite hotel + rental car + parking, you may as well just stay onsite. JMHO.

Agree with all of this. Like I had said earlier, we are booked at RPR for 3 nights in April. Crazy high price (and we have to get 2 rooms) but I'm hoping there will be a bit of a discount...but it's a busy time so I'm prepared that there probably won't be one. We had originally booked at Sapphire Falls...but I talked DH into RPR. He was sold on the short walk, lol. It was definitely more, but the EPs will be priceless on spring break, I think. We went in June a couple of years ago, stayed offsite, and it wasn't horrible, but my son wanted to ride some of the coaster several times and we just didn't have time for him to do that with the lines. So hopefully with the EP, he will be able to!

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

Agree with all of this. Like I had said earlier, we are booked at RPR for 3 nights in April. Crazy high price (and we have to get 2 rooms) but I'm hoping there will be a bit of a discount...but it's a busy time so I'm prepared that there probably won't be one. We had originally booked at Sapphire Falls...but I talked DH into RPR. He was sold on the short walk, lol. It was definitely more, but the EPs will be priceless on spring break, I think. We went in June a couple of years ago, stayed offsite, and it wasn't horrible, but my son wanted to ride some of the coaster several times and we just didn't have time for him to do that with the lines. So hopefully with the EP, he will be able to!

The Hulk was closed for refurb at our 2015 visit but on previous visits we have literally walked right into our seats to ride. It's a tiny wait for the first row.
Once you get used to this, even a 15 min wait at Disney feels like an eternity. We learned the hard way that if we want to do a split stay, we should do Disney first.

 

[ljmclin]

I just bought tickets about 2 weeks before Thanksgiving. One week before Thanksgiving they raised their prices! I was so glad I ordered ahead of time. Anyway, the cheapest place I found tickets was Sams Club Travel. I knew I wanted to upgrade at least 1 ticket to an AP to get the hotel discount and I wasn't sure if they were upgradeable so I ordered 2 of my tickets from Undercover Tourist. Long story short, I ended up upgrading all 5 of my tickets to the seasonal AP for just $10 more than I paid for the 3 day ticket! You will not be able to get the seasonal AP in June, but I do recommend buying the ticket ahead of time then upgrading 1 inside the park after it has been used. You do not need the AP at time of booking. We found the cheapest rate at PBH and it has the biggest rooms. Just keep checking once the APH rates come out. I had originally booked Hard Rock, but about a week later I checked rates again and the Portofino ended up being cheaper.

I want to buy my tickets from SAMs club. I plan to get a 3 park-4 day-park to park ticket. Do you know if all days haveto be used in order or just withing a 7 or 14 day period? We plan to use 3 days in a row and come back later in the week to use th 4th day.

 

[havaneselover]

I want to buy my tickets from SAMs club. I plan to get a 3 park-4 day-park to park ticket. Do you know if all days haveto be used in order or just withing a 7 or 14 day period? We plan to use 3 days in a row and come back later in the week to use th 4th day.

Good any 4 days during a 7 consecutive calendar day period.

 

[momto4obkids]

I saved quite a bit of money on our Royal Pacific Resort stay at the beginning of December by collecting discounted hotels.com gift cards, you can combine them on their website. I also do rewards programs and earned some of the gift cards as well.

Ebay has deals on them, Samsung pay, sometimes Amazon has a sale on them also.

Right now hotels.com has a deal if you send someone a $50 gift card you get a $10 gift card. I did this one by sending m husband a gift card and combined them with no problem.

 

[Zhoen]

How much are the Sam's Club tickets y'all are talking about? I looked on their website and all it told me was the 1-day tickets. The Universal site has 3-day, 2-park passes for $254.99, but if there are other deals out there, I'd love to know!