Is it worth upgrading Universal tickets for the discounts?

[JLR1]

I've seen that it's possible to upgrade 14 day 3 park Universal tickets to annual passes. I was wondering whether if one of the four of us then opted for a Preferred annual pass it'd be worth the cost? We're unlikely to make a return visit within a year, so would just do it for discounts. We'd visit the parks two to three times, so there are parking fees and then the kids want to spend their birthday money on merchandise from the parks and wands from Diagon Alley, and we'd also eat there a couple of times and buy doughnuts and souvenirs from Voodoo Doughnut. Would all of these qualify for discounts with the Preferred pass? Just trying to work out if it's worth doing.

[teallach]

My husband and I upgraded ours...mine to seasonal, and his to preferred (for the discounts), both 2-park. His would have been $75 dollars but due to the seasonal being $18 cheaper, we only paid $57. I’m guessing that if you were to upgrade 3 to seasonal and one to preferred, it may only cost $21 (75- 3x18) but could be wrong. Def depends on cast member!
If this is correct, then I would think you’d make the money back on parking alone, although you still pay for the first day...it’s free after that.
For everything else, you’d be best to check the universal site for exclusions to discounts and then judge yourself whether you’d save. I’m sure at that price you would😉

[chmurf]

Originally Posted by JLR1

We'd visit the parks two to three times, so there are parking fees

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parking will be free once you have your AP
so you'll need to pay for parking on your first visit, and you won't get credit for that.

so that's $22 you won't save anyway.

you'll need to pay for parking on first visit, then get free parking on the second visit with a preferred pass, half off with a power pass

Regular parking is $22

if you visit 2 times you'll save $22 with a preferred, and $11 with a power pass
if you visit 3 times, you'll save $44 with a prefered and $22 with a power pass

but preferred is $40 more than a power.
so total cost for "free parking" (how much more you pay for AP + parking price) =
preferred : $40 + $0 = $40
power : $11 for 2 visits, $22 for 3 visits

so upgrading to a preferred pass for free parking for just 2 or 3 visits does not make sense, money wise.

now you need to compare, re:blockout dates, other discounts

That's assuming you go for 2 parks AP (not doing volcano bay)

Power pass is $60 more than seasonnal, and preferred is $100 more than seasonnal
your 14 days ticket will roughly get you a 2 parks seasonnal for a couple of quids

your realistic average discounts on merch and dining will be around 12% overall

so if you go for Power, you will pay at least $60
this means that you'll need to spend $500 on eligible merch and dining, just to break even
if you go to preferred pass, you'll need to spend $833 on eligible merch and dining to break even

that's a lot of money for 3 visits.


you might break even , but I doubt you'll come ahead, unless you plan on spending $1k in dining and eligible merch

you have the number, you decid when you're there
just drop by a guest services and see how much they quote for an AP

then take that number, say $75 (for example) divide by 12 and multiply by 100
in that example, a $75 upgrade will require you to purchase for 75 / 12 * 100 = $625 to break even

when you're quoted the price, do that maths, and if you think you will spend that much, then it's worth it. If you don't think or want to spend that much, it's just not worth it.