# Harry Potterland



## slomac (Apr 13, 2015)

We are going to orlando in June.  We will be doing Disney but my daughter wants to go to Harry Potter land.  Any tips on discount tix for at least one day?  Also we are staying at a Disney resort and were planning to not rent a car since we hate drivign on vacation so was wondering if it will be easy and inexpensive to get to Universal.


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## brigechols (Apr 13, 2015)

Check out Undercover Tourist for a discount ticket. 
Consider booking an onsite hotel for one night to take advantage of early admission to The Wizarding World Harry Potter and/or free Universal Express Unlimited ride access.
Taxi is around $40 one way. Uber is probably half that amount.


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## rickandcindy23 (Apr 13, 2015)

The Harry Potter Wizarding World addition to Universal is amazing.  It's also packed every day.  If you choose to go, plan to spend the entire day, going way before opening time, and then hit that part of the park toward the end because everyone goes there first thing and hangs around until the afternoon, then it clears out when most folks leave.  

The train has a different ride each way, so don't ride it one way and not the other.  You need the two-park pass.

Better yet, stay at one of the hotels on Universal property for one night (Hard Rock, Portofino or Royal Pacific) and enjoy the rides on which you can use the Universal Express.  

Costco's website has some tickets.  Don't know what kind of value those are.


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## MichaelColey (Apr 13, 2015)

We avoided Universal for many, many years, because the cost for a single day was pretty outrageous.

Then, last year, at the very end of our WDW annual passes, we bought Universal annual passes.  They're not much more expensive than two days at the parks.  We were originally looking a single day, then two days, then three days (buy two days, get one free at the time), and when I saw the AP rates and considered the advantages of free parking (if one of us had a mid-tier AP) and AP rates for a night on site, it was really the best choice for us.

Not sure if the prices have gone up, but ours were about $200 (and one higher one for "free" parking).  We ended up going two or three times for a couple days each time.  Although we stayed off-site at a timeshare, we made a one-night on-site reservation (not too expensive in the scheme of things, off-season with AP rates) so that we would have two days of Unlimited Express Passes and early entry.

It's really hard to do the parks justice in one day, unless HP is all you're interested in.  And if you can schedule a trip back before the year is up, APs are only a bit more than the (park ticket) cost of a single 2 day trip.  It's like a bonus vacation.

FWIW, we were VERY impressed by the Express Passes (especially compared to Disney FP+).  Almost every ride is included, and most will have very minimal lines when using it.  Read up on it.  If you know the 3 or so rides that aren't included and the 1 or 2 where the lines still might be long with the Express Pass, you can knock those rides out earlier in the day.  Other than that, you can just go to whatever rides you want, in whatever order you want, without having to plan anything, and ride with almost no wait.


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## brigechols (Apr 13, 2015)

MichaelColey said:


> We avoided Universal for many, many years, because the cost for a single day was pretty outrageous.
> 
> Then, last year, at the very end of our WDW annual passes, we bought Universal annual passes.  They're not much more expensive than two days at the parks.  We were originally looking a single day, then two days, then three days (buy two days, get one free at the time), and when I saw the AP rates and considered the advantages of free parking (if one of us had a mid-tier AP) and AP rates for a night on site, it was really the best choice for us.
> 
> ...



The free parking is sweet. Bear in mind that it is not offered during peak days at the parks. 

Gringott's Bank is not included in the Express Pass. Use the early admission option for that ride.


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## MichaelColey (Apr 13, 2015)

I'm not sure that's accurate about free parking not being offered on peak days.  Their web site doesn't say anything about that.

It looks like their base AP is now $214.99 and their Preferred Pass is $294.99.  The extra $80 (which we just did on one pass) gets you no blockout days, free parking ($17 otherwise) and food & merchandise discounts.

Also, check AAA if you're a member.  We got our passes at a discount there.


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## brigechols (Apr 13, 2015)

MichaelColey said:


> I'm not sure that's accurate about free parking not being offered on peak days.  Their web site doesn't say anything about that.
> 
> It looks like their base AP is now $214.99 and their Preferred Pass is $294.99.  The extra $80 (which we just did on one pass) gets you no blockout days, free parking ($17 otherwise) and food & merchandise discounts.
> 
> Also, check AAA if you're a member.  We got our passes at a discount there.



I was there during Spring Break this year and there were a couple of days when free parking was unavailable.


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## MichaelColey (Apr 13, 2015)

And you had a Preferred or Premier Pass?

I would be raising a stink if they did anything like that to me.  There's nothing anywhere I can find on their web site or anywhere else that indicates that the free parking perk has any restrictions.

I do so that they offer free parking for Florida residents after 6pm, and that there are restrictions with that (not valid during special events).

I do see that the free valet and self-parking for Premier Passholders does have some restrictions.

But they have no restrictions listed for the regular free parking.


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## brigechols (Apr 13, 2015)

MichaelColey said:


> And you had a Preferred or Premier Pass?
> 
> I would be raising a stink if they did anything like that to me.  There's nothing anywhere I can find on their web site or anywhere else that indicates that the free parking perk has any restrictions.
> 
> ...



There were restrictions on the free valet parking for the premier annual pass.


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## Talent312 (Apr 13, 2015)

We've used our current AP for two visits to each Universal park so far - 2 full-days at IOA and 2 full-days at Studios. It took both days at each to cover all we set out to do. But there's still a few items we missed at each, and so, we'll be returning before this year's pass is up.

Yes, we repeated all the HP stuff, and ponied up the P2P price to ride the train. We even tried the butter-beer ice cream in Studios, although its way-overpriced. We did not buy a wand - cute, but we're not made of $$.

Bottom Line: Even if you get a 2-day ticket (with or w/o P2P), you'll likely cover just the highlights and want to come back for more... At that point, an AP makes a lot of sense, if that is -- you can come back at least once inside a year.
.


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## MichaelColey (Apr 13, 2015)

I know I mentioned it above, but let me just point it out again...

Especially if you have a family of 4 or 5, and especially if you have an AP, seriously consider getting an on-site hotel for one night for 2 days of Unlimited Express Pass.  For our family of 5, even a $200/night room works out to $20 per person per day of having the Unlimited Express Pass for two days.  It's WELL worth that, to be able to pretty much walk on just about every ride in both parks.


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## Detailor (Apr 16, 2015)

slomac said:


> We are going to orlando in June.  We will be doing Disney but my daughter wants to go to Harry Potter land.  Any tips on discount tix for at least one day?  Also we are staying at a Disney resort and were planning to not rent a car since we hate drivign on vacation so was wondering if it will be easy and inexpensive to get to Universal.



This thread is turning into an Annual Pass discussion but to go back to your question on discounted tickets...

Universal has a two day park to park pass with a free third day promotion for $194.99 + tax/adult, $185.00 + tax/child which effectively takes the per day cost from $97.50(plus tax) and $92.50 (plus tax) to $65 + tax and $61.67 + tax.  This is a good deal if you plan to go all three days but don't plan to return within a year (going back again would make the annual pass a good option).

Undercover Tourist (a very reliable source, by the way) has the same 2+1 deal at a lower price that include taxes - $192.77/adult, $182.76/child.  UCT is a trusted ticket source and they've been doing business with the theme parks as a ticket seller for many years.  I like the quick turn-around time from order to receiving tickets and that both taxes and shipping are included in the posted prices.  We've tended to use them more often for Disney tickets but this deal looks good, too.  If you're a member of MouseSavers.com, they have an arrangement with UCT that gives members a small additional discount over their already discounted pricing.  You gain access to this discount through a link in the MouseSavers monthly newsletter which comes out on the 15th of the month. 

Cindy mentioned, on this thread, that Costco has some online options for Universal but I'd suggest stopping by a Costco store if you're a member.  Costco stores sometimes have a discounted multi-day Universal ticket with an expiration date that is much longer than the "regular" Universal multi-day tickets have.

Dick Taylor


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## MichaelColey (Apr 16, 2015)

Detailor said:


> This thread is turning into an Annual Pass discussion but to go back to your question on discounted tickets...
> 
> Universal has a two day park to park pass with a free third day promotion for $194.99 + tax/adult, $185.00 + tax/child which effectively takes the per day cost from $97.50(plus tax) and $92.50 (plus tax) to $65 + tax and $61.67 + tax.  This is a good deal if you plan to go all three days but don't plan to return within a year (going back again would make the annual pass a good option).


Yep, this is exactly what encouraged us to do annual passes.  One day wouldn't have been enough.  Two days was good.  Then I saw the 2+1 day promotion.  Then I realized that annual passes were only marginally more than that ($200 at the time, $215 now).

Definitely the best deal if you want more than one day, and are able to plan a second trip less than 365 days later (even if it's just a week earlier next year).

Another thing to consider (once you get to the park) is their Photo Connect pass.  As a passholder, I was able to buy an ANNUAL Photo Connect pass for something like $59.  (It may be more now.)  You get free digital copies (which is all we're ever interested in) of all of the photos you have taken for the whole year.  Although there aren't as many photo opportunities as at Disney, there are several dozen (including some rides) and many of them are pretty cool.  Here's our favorite, which was actually the picture that convinced us to buy the pass:


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## planzfortomorrow (Apr 21, 2015)

*tickets are just expensive*

I see that the AP prices are only $215 for Florida residents.  Which I'm not.  For non residents it's $240 from the website--other places might be a bit cheaper.  Unless there's some trick to getting the cheaper Florida prices even if you're not a resident.  

We're also going in June, and while I'd probably love to spend all week there, my husband put his foot down.  So, for us, 3 days out of our 7 is fine.  We've never been, and I'm really looking forward to it.


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## amycurl (Apr 21, 2015)

Once, in a time long, long ago, my spouse and I attended a timeshare spiel in Orlando, and got two free, two-day, two-park tickets to Universal. The time was 2001, but we already had tickets, and didn't use them. We tucked them safely away for the "next time."  We spent a few years not going to FL, and, when we did, we used up our 8 day, no-expiration Disney tickets that we had purchased back in 1996.

Then we had a young child, and decided during our first FL trip with her, that she was too young for Universal (we mostly did Sea World.) My mother kept her for one day while my spouse and I did the park. Since we were only doing one day, we just purchased cheap AAA tickets because we didn't want to "waste" a day.

14 years later, when we went the week after New Year's this year, we used our two-day, two-park passes, and just purchased a AAA discounted pass for our daughter, who grew up to be a *huuuuuuuuge* HP fan (she's 8.) My mother picked us and up and dropped us off (with incredibly timing) and we had a fantastic time. I was very, very impressed that Universal still honored those passes, no questions asked (we did have to trade them in for the fingerprint-enabled ones, though, at no extra cost.)


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## planzfortomorrow (Apr 27, 2015)

amycurl said:


> 14 years later, when we went the week after New Year's this year, we used our two-day, two-park passes, and just purchased a AAA discounted pass for our daughter, who grew up to be a *huuuuuuuuge* HP fan (she's 8.) My mother picked us and up and dropped us off (with incredibly timing) and we had a fantastic time. I was very, very impressed that Universal still honored those passes, no questions asked (we did have to trade them in for the fingerprint-enabled ones, though, at no extra cost.)



That's GREAT!  I was afraid to buy my tickets too early, because I wasn't sure if they'd honor them if it was more than a year.


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## hhoope01 (Apr 28, 2015)

I will echo those who replied about trying to get early access to the parks.  I've been a few times this past year (usually when the parks aren't as crowded), but even then the HP sections of each park can still have hour or longer lines.  Even the stores and the walkways will get very crowded.  

Being able to get into the HP sections an hour before the normal park open can mean a world of difference in your experience there.  And one benefit is that Universal recently opened up their first "moderate" on-site hotel, the Cabana Bay.  I might suggest getting a one night room there.  While staying there won't get you the Unlimited Express Pass (like staying at one of the other 3 on-site "Deluxe" hotels), it will get you early access to the HP section where you could actually ride the Gringott's Bank ride a couple of times and walk through the whole HP section before the park opens to the general public (and then just before the normal park opening head over to the train ride to get over to the older HP section in the IoA park to ride those rides before the lines get too long.)

If your primary purpose for visiting Universal is to see the 2 HP sections, then I would suggest doing the above as you will be able to do that without quite as much waiting in lines.  Also, as noted most the "major" ride in each HP section does NOT have an Express Pass entrance.  So other than getting in early, an Express Pass doesn't help quite as much in the HP sections as it will in the other parts of each park.

The nightly rates for the Cabana Bay can found for less than $130/night (and even lower if someone in your party has an Annual Pass.)  And they even have "family rooms" that can hold more family members fairly comfortably and they aren't unreasonably priced either.


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