Anonymous wrote:You are literally going THE most crowded and expensive time of year and you are booking at the last second. There are many less expensive ways to do it, you just aren't choosing those ways.

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

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.

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?

Anonymous wrote:Get the preferred annual pass tier.

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?

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.

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.

And that, btw, isn't even counting the free parking, 15-20% food and merchandise discount, etc. For most people, most of the time, the annual pass is actually the more economical option.

I don't see how the annual pass is cheaper, it is $900/person without express pass

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.

And that, btw, isn't even counting the free parking, 15-20% food and merchandise discount, etc. For most people, most of the time, the annual pass is actually the more economical option.

Anonymous wrote:Hello everyone,

I'm planning a 3-night, 3-day trip to Universal Studios in Florida this Christmas, flying out from DCA, and I'm experiencing some sticker shock with the prices. I don't recall it being this expensive in the past, even before the pandemic. I would love to get your opinions on whether these costs seem typical or if I might be overlooking more economical options.

Here's the breakdown:

- Accommodation: Either 2 hotel rooms for $1,800 total or an Airbnb for $1,400.
- Universal Tickets: $1,700 for 3 days.
- Express Passes: An additional $2,400.
- Airfare: $1,900 for regular economy.

This puts my total at $6,800 - $7,200, depending on whether we choose a hotel or Airbnb. Does this range sound about right for a trip like this during the holiday season? I'd appreciate any insights or tips on how to maybe reduce these costs without compromising too much on the experience.

Thanks in advance!