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

[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.

I could afford the food, but for me it’s all about eating healthy while saving money. Even if you can afford $20 for a bad hamburger or chicken strips, I would much rather pack some fruit, chips and a sandwich or bagel.

[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.


I could afford the food, but for me it’s all about eating healthy while saving money. Even if you can afford $20 for a bad hamburger or chicken strips, I would much rather pack some fruit, chips and a sandwich or bagel.

+1 The food is not the expensive part of this. That said, it's annoying to pay for bad food when you can make something you like and bring it along. We do that a lot just because it saves time (no waiting for food).

[Anonymous]

It may be normal but us if worth it? 7k is a Lot of great trips.

[Anonymous]

Can you stay in one room onsite and get the express passes included?

[Anonymous]

Price out staying onsite. It'll get you express passes and actually saved us money. You're also going during one of the most expensive times of the year...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is one reason why I travel internationally for my vacations. It's too expensive to travel within the US, prices are insane. Cheaper to go overseas

This! I'm taking myself and 2 kids to Germany for 4 days in December for just over $3K. We used to go to Orlando every year around xmas, but it has gotten ridiculously expensive so we started going elsewhere.

Just as an aside OP, we did look into going to Orlando for a few days before we booked the trip to Germany, and the flights from DCA were only about $50-80 RT/non-stop. This was about 2 weeks ago tho so prices may have gone up by now. We were actually going to book the trip since the flights were so cheap, but it was the price of the park tickets that sent us into shock. We were planning on being there for 4 days (but only going to parks on 2 days) and the park tickets were $175 per person/per day!

So that would have been nearly $1200 for park tickets only, with no rental car, parking, food, hotel, or gas expenses included. We also had to figure in costs for the 2 days that we were not going to be at a park. The total was going to be well over $4k, so I decided to explore other options, and I'm so glad I did.

[Anonymous]

If you stay at their resorts the express pass is included. We liked the Portofino hotel.

[Anonymous]

Don’t buy what you cannot afford.

Go to six flags or Hershey park, pack sandwiches and call it a day.

Dorney Park is also a good option.

Disney/universal is for the rich.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Don’t buy what you cannot afford.

Go to six flags or Hershey park, pack sandwiches and call it a day.

Dorney Park is also a good option.

Disney/universal is for the rich.

But, they want a trip in December. These parks aren’t open then.

[Anonymous]

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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?

Dafuq is wrong with Olive Garden

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don’t buy what you cannot afford.

Go to six flags or Hershey park, pack sandwiches and call it a day.

Dorney Park is also a good option.

Disney/universal is for the rich.

But, they want a trip in December. These parks aren’t open then.

Hershey definitely is open over Christmas, as is Busch Gardens -- we've done it multiple times (although only a few rides are open because of the cold's effects on the rails of many rides).

I didn't read the whole thread, but I think it would likely be cheaper to stay at Royal Pacific and get the free Express pass that comes with that. That's what we typically do. And we have definitely fit 4 people in a family into one of those rooms. I think we've even fit 5 and gotten a roll-out bed. They have family suites that are a bit bigger, but those are probably booked by now. I also think 3 days is a lot of Universal. I would do 2 park days -- that's more than enough. You can take another day and hit the pools and drive over to Disney Springs or something like that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Don’t buy what you cannot afford.

Go to six flags or Hershey park, pack sandwiches and call it a day.

Dorney Park is also a good option.

Disney/universal is for the rich.

Six Flags no.
Kings Dominion

[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.

Really why? We want our kids to have the experience and that what it costs so...we're going. We can easily afford it.

[Anonymous]

Did similar last year for $6k around same time frame. EVERYTHING travel wise and otherwise is getting more and more expensive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Did similar last year for $6k around same time frame. EVERYTHING travel wise and otherwise is getting more and more expensive.

Kids loved it better than our last Europe trip. Was well worth it.