3 day Christmas Trip to Universal Florida $7000- Are These Prices Normal?

[Anonymous]

Universal doesn’t take 3 days. I found it boring compared to Disney

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Universal doesn’t take 3 days. I found it boring compared to Disney

Disagree. Two parks plus time to relax-- 3 days is perfect.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How old are your kids, OP? If not yet high school aged, I’d take them out of school one Friday in late January, Feb or early March (not a holiday weekend) and fly out on a Thurs night and hit the parks Fri, Sat and even half day Sun if you want. All aspects of the trip will be cheaper and the parks will be less crowded. When we went, we stayed at an on site hotel so express passes were included, and we got whatever the park hopper tickets were called and went back and forth so only needed two very full but happy days to do everything we wanted.

+1. If they are not in highschool take them out of school and go during the week in January.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How old are your kids, OP? If not yet high school aged, I’d take them out of school one Friday in late January, Feb or early March (not a holiday weekend) and fly out on a Thurs night and hit the parks Fri, Sat and even half day Sun if you want. All aspects of the trip will be cheaper and the parks will be less crowded. When we went, we stayed at an on site hotel so express passes were included, and we got whatever the park hopper tickets were called and went back and forth so only needed two very full but happy days to do everything we wanted.

+1. If they are not in highschool take them out of school and go during the week in January.

Or better yet, wait til next year and go early to mid december. You get all the christmas decorations but none of the crowds.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, why do you need two rooms for 4 people? For 3 nights, can't you squeeze into one room? Dh and I did that with our two teenage boys.

What's the cost for staying in one of the resorts where Express Passes are included? Bc those are also closer and easier to get to/from the parks.

Because they want a vacation. We have one kid and always get 2 rooms.

+1. I’d get fewer days of express passes first. Cramming everyone into one room is stressful.

[Anonymous]

Whew. 7k for 3 days at Universal falls in that “I could afford it but would absolutely never consider it worth it” categories. I’d scrap this plan and do it another time tbh.

[Anonymous]

I think you would be better off staying at a hotel that comes with express passes. If those are all full, I would just wait and go another time. Two days there (really 1.5 days) is enough so it is pretty easy to go on a random long weekend.

[Anonymous]

Does Costco still have the Universal deal? We booked through Costco and stayed at Portofino when we went a few years ago.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP. I'm a universal fanatic and go often. Like 5x per year.

Your prices seem high. A couple things going on:

Don't buy your express passes. Stay at a premier hotel and they are included.

You don't appear to be booking a package. If do a package, you usually get a discount.

Give me the dates and # of people, with adults/kids, and I will show you some options.

Alright, I ran some numbers while waiting for your response.

You haven't booked yet, and this is problematic for you. Express passes and premier hotels sell out during holidays. I wouldn't, as some have suggested, go without an express pass.

If you go after Xmas, from Dec 27-30, you can get a great deal and benefit from reduced crowds.

Here's what I recommend. Buy an annual pass for each family member. Assuming 4 family members, you can get preferred passes (no block out dates) for about 2500. Then use that pass to get annual pass holder rates for a premier hotel, which comes with free express passes. If you book those dates, you can get premier hotels for 300 per night. You can get club lounge rooms (comes with food and drinks) for around 500 per night. You can get 2 bedroom suites in premier hotels for about 800 per night.

If you use these passes again, subsequent trips to Universal will be a smoking good deal since you'll only pay for hotels, food, and airfare if you think that is necessary. Personally, when we lived in DC, we'd throw our kids in the car at 4am and they wouldn't even fully wake up and realize what was going on until around 10am. And by then we'd be about 6 hours out.

Who in their right mind would spend $2500 on annual passes to Universal, or Disney for that matter?

Someone who is doing all the math.

3 days of universal tix = 1700

3 days of premier hotels without passholder discount= 2900

Or hotel plus express = 3400

3 days of Premier hotel with passholder discount: 900

Once you do all the math, it's cheaper to purchase the annual pass.

Let me phrase this another way: who in their right mind would want to go to US so badly that they would pay $2500 for it?

People who like theme parks.

Assume that these are the same people who like Olive Garden for good Italian food?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Whew. 7k for 3 days at Universal falls in that “I could afford it but would absolutely never consider it worth it” categories. I’d scrap this plan and do it another time tbh.

No kidding.

[Anonymous]

Honestly that's just what Universal and Disney costs. I've seen people pay it and then save money on food by bringing homemade sandwiches into the park. For many families, it's a once in a lifetime trip.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, why do you need two rooms for 4 people? For 3 nights, can't you squeeze into one room? Dh and I did that with our two teenage boys.

What's the cost for staying in one of the resorts where Express Passes are included? Bc those are also closer and easier to get to/from the parks.

Because they want a vacation. We have one kid and always get 2 rooms.

+1. I’d get fewer days of express passes first. Cramming everyone into one room is stressful.

It always seems to be the boy parents saying this. We have two daughters and one room has always been fine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP. I'm a universal fanatic and go often. Like 5x per year.

Your prices seem high. A couple things going on:

Don't buy your express passes. Stay at a premier hotel and they are included.

You don't appear to be booking a package. If do a package, you usually get a discount.

Give me the dates and # of people, with adults/kids, and I will show you some options.

Alright, I ran some numbers while waiting for your response.

You haven't booked yet, and this is problematic for you. Express passes and premier hotels sell out during holidays. I wouldn't, as some have suggested, go without an express pass.

If you go after Xmas, from Dec 27-30, you can get a great deal and benefit from reduced crowds.

Here's what I recommend. Buy an annual pass for each family member. Assuming 4 family members, you can get preferred passes (no block out dates) for about 2500. Then use that pass to get annual pass holder rates for a premier hotel, which comes with free express passes. If you book those dates, you can get premier hotels for 300 per night. You can get club lounge rooms (comes with food and drinks) for around 500 per night. You can get 2 bedroom suites in premier hotels for about 800 per night.

If you use these passes again, subsequent trips to Universal will be a smoking good deal since you'll only pay for hotels, food, and airfare if you think that is necessary. Personally, when we lived in DC, we'd throw our kids in the car at 4am and they wouldn't even fully wake up and realize what was going on until around 10am. And by then we'd be about 6 hours out.

Who in their right mind would spend $2500 on annual passes to Universal, or Disney for that matter?

Someone who is doing all the math.

3 days of universal tix = 1700

3 days of premier hotels without passholder discount= 2900

Or hotel plus express = 3400

3 days of Premier hotel with passholder discount: 900

Once you do all the math, it's cheaper to purchase the annual pass.

Let me phrase this another way: who in their right mind would want to go to US so badly that they would pay $2500 for it?

People who like theme parks.

Assume that these are the same people who like Olive Garden for good Italian food?

Oh, you are sooooo witty and sophisticated.

[Anonymous]

Honestly that's just what Universal and Disney costs. I've seen people pay it and then save money on food by bringing homemade sandwiches into the park. For many families, it's a once in a lifetime trip.

Something about this post feels so sad. I grew up in a big family and we never went to these places. However, some of my best memories are visiting my grandparents and playing in parks with my brothers and sisters when we traveled there. I would not give those memories (and so many others) up for Universal or Disney. One of my siblings recently passed away and we shared so many great memories. But I know . . . this is DCUM.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Honestly that's just what Universal and Disney costs. I've seen people pay it and then save money on food by bringing homemade sandwiches into the park. For many families, it's a once in a lifetime trip.

While I miss my kids being younger, glad the big theme park trips are over. We did two of them- Disney once and Universal once. While I’m not a theme park person per se, the trips were fun.

I forget how much our trips cost- I’m sure it wasn’t cheap, but it surely wasn’t $7k for three days. What is blowing OPs budget is the Easy Pass. $2400 is a lot of cash.