Is universal really worth it?

[taylaboo]

We love Universal as much as Disney. We get 21 day Disney and 14 day Universal tickets and make good use of them. We also have few down days to chill and shop. Grandaughter has no fear and wil be tall enough for all the rides next month. I can't imagine going all that way and not doing both Universal and Disney. We haven't been since 2015 so have lots of new stuff to see.

[mickeyspal]

Originally Posted by salmim

We got 2 day park to park from orlandoattractions for 220 each if it helps?

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We Did this last year as well and It saved us a bit, not massive amounts but every little helps , you need park to park if you want to ride Hogwarts express , or you can save about £30 each if you don't

[Moorlandman]

Originally Posted by taylaboo

We love Universal as much as Disney. We get 21 day Disney and 14 day Universal tickets and make good use of them. We also have few down days to chill and shop. Grandaughter has no fear and wil be tall enough for all the rides next month. I can't imagine going all that way and not doing both Universal and Disney. We haven't been since 2015 so have lots of new stuff to see.

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For a family of 4 those tickets are not far off £3000 to attend those theme parks

Used to cost less than £2000 back in 2014

[NewtoOrlando]

Were going in 4 weeks time, and we have Disney 4 day base tickets which were complimentary (we wouldn’t be doing Disney at all otherwise) and sea world 3 park tickets, so will be doing the 4 Disney parks and Busch gardens, possibly aquatica. We decided to give universal a miss this year and we’re goinh to book tickets for next summers trip but looking at the prices, £1200 for a 3 park ticket ticket for the 4 of us so we won’t be going next year either. Add 1 night at a express pass hotel and you’re looking at £1500 for 2/3 days? No thanks. I know prices go up, but in 2016 we paid £580 for universal (granted VB wasn’t open so only 2 parks) so it’s more than doubled in price. We’re onsite at Disney for 5 nights next year and will more than likely get DC non swim ultimates which are good value for money considering they offer free parking, a day of unlimited food and drink plus access to 3 other parks, we would get far more use out of them than universal tickets!

It’s all that works for you, we used to have merlin passes here but the kids outgrew chessington and legoland, is we just bought Thorpe park passes instead which were great value (we have no passes now as it’s a dump!)

[Squidgyness]

Originally Posted by Moorlandman

For a family of 4 those tickets are not far off £3000 to attend those theme parks

Used to cost less than £2000 back in 2014

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True, but in that case they'd still cost ~£2300-2500 with 5% basic rises in price. Assuming 2 adults 2 kids, current 2020 cost (so with another years rises factored in) is £2850 appx. That's more than inflation yes, but not fantastically so imo. My pay has increased by just over 20% in that time, so in real terms I'd guesstimate its a 20% price increase on 2014 relative to what I'm earning.

At least at Universal you get something for the increase (new water park, recently announced third theme park.) What do you get for the increase in transport/food/technology costs over here? Nothing. The same products but sometimes less of them for more money. I like fancy computers for instance - the costs of a graphics card for one have increased up to 40-50% for one of the same market position in just a couple of years.

A few years back I'd have said the same applied to Disney mind. It's better now they have some investment going on, but for a while it was only Universal that was building truly large scale projects.

[Sandra & co]

Universal and IOA are our favourite parks, depends on what you like x

[Billy Beatnik]

I have to do Universal, Seaworld etc as the Disney ‘Magic’ gets on my nerves after a while.

[Nimbus]

Originally Posted by Moorlandman

For a family of 4 those tickets are not far off £3000 to attend those theme parks

Used to cost less than £2000 back in 2014

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In addition to what Squidgyness said above, there's a noticeable difference in the exchange rate from 2014 to 2019. In 2014, the exchange rate varied between $1.55 and $1.7 to the pound. Now it's $1.24 to the £.

So £2000 in 2014 is equivalent to around £2600 now, even without factoring in inflation.

If you assume 2% inflation a year and the difference in the exchange rate then that increases £2000 to about £3000 over 5 years. (Note that prior to 2014, tickets prices increased by around 8% to 10% a year).

And, yeah, a significant proportion of a Florida holiday's costs goes on tickets. It can be the most expensive part of the holiday.

[vampiress88]

How is everyone getting such low prices?

Just looked on this Orlandoattractions and it’s £284!
That’s about £1100 roughly for our family.

Paid £1769 for Disney for our family (includes car parking as annual pass upgrade)

So for us it’s (excluding water parks)
It’s £137 per park for universal
Then it’s £110 per park.

There’s not a massive amount of difference per park but it all adds up and it was all dependent on the kids heights.

There wasn’t enough rides my littlest could go in universal. I think we would wait for that for quite a long time. Least until they Harry Potter mad

[Squidgyness]

Originally Posted by Nimbus

In addition to what Squidgyness said above, there's a noticeable difference in the exchange rate from 2014 to 2019. In 2014, the exchange rate varied between $1.55 and $1.7 to the pound. Now it's $1.24 to the £.

So £2000 in 2014 is equivalent to around £2600 now, even without factoring in inflation.

If you assume 2% inflation a year and the difference in the exchange rate then that increases £2000 to about £3000 over 5 years. (Note that prior to 2014, tickets prices increased by around 8% to 10% a year).

And, yeah, a significant proportion of a Florida holiday's costs goes on tickets. It can be the most expensive part of the holiday.

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A very good point - I did indeed forget to factor in the fact that the exchange rate is in the toilet.