Upgrading to Universal Annual Pass

thelegalbeagle · 22 May 19, 08:54 PM

We're only doing Universal this year, and I was thinking of upgrading to a Preferred Annual Pass to take the parking costs away.

We've got three park tickets, but I'm not a water park person so had no interest in Volcano Bay. I was interested, however, in not being forced to upgrade to a three park annual pass, so I emailed Universal, since I'd seen posts where people had found that they had to upgrade to 3 park tickets when they had three initially.

Here's Universal's response, which seems to make it clear that if I go on day one I can upgrade from a 3 park 14 day ticket to a 2 park AP.

soraia · 23 May 19, 08:56 AM

Yes you definitely can - I have just done this a few weeks ago at IOA. I had a 3 park ticket and asked if I could upgrade to a 2 park AP. The guy at gues services was really nice and explained that the official line is that they should only do like for like (eg 2 park tickets to 2 park AP or 3 park tickets to 3 park AP) but I told him I don't do water parks and he said there is a work around and if the guest insists, they can do it. So of course I then "insisted" and he did it no problems. It did take about 10 minutes for him to process everything but managed to get upgraded to a 2 park Seasonal AP for just over $7.

PoohBears#1fan · 23 May 19, 09:45 AM

I believe it's only if you've already been to VB with your 3 park ticket that you have to upgrade to a 3 park.

We upgraded to Preferred APs last October (we wanted the 3 parks), remember that if the black out dates don't affect you, you can just get one preferred for the parking and discounts and get the rest of the family lesser (cheaper!) passes.

We were back at Easter so needed the Preferred but usually we just get one, and Power passes for the other 3 people.

deanobrown · 23 May 19, 02:46 PM

Originally Posted by soraia

Yes you definitely can - I have just done this a few weeks ago at IOA. I had a 3 park ticket and asked if I could upgrade to a 2 park AP. The guy at gues services was really nice and explained that the official line is that they should only do like for like (eg 2 park tickets to 2 park AP or 3 park tickets to 3 park AP) but I told him I don't do water parks and he said there is a work around and if the guest insists, they can do it. So of course I then "insisted" and he did it no problems. It did take about 10 minutes for him to process everything but managed to get upgraded to a 2 park Seasonal AP for just over $7.

That's great to hear!

Really annoying though as I wanted to do the same but got some miserable woman who wouldn't look up from the computer as she told me sternly, "It's ONLY like for like. Our computer system doesn't let us downgrade to a 2 park anymore"!

Jane3865 · 23 May 19, 02:48 PM

We upgraded last year and were told its only like for like. We tried several different guest services and they were all the same, we had to have the three park annual ticket even though we only wanted the two park one.

Floridaagogo · 23 May 19, 05:07 PM

We upgraded last October .tried several locations but finally got. 3 park to a 2 park annual pass (we hadn�t been to volcano bay) I paid $15 for 2 seasonal and 1 preferred x

Rafiki22 · 27 May 19, 11:44 AM

Originally Posted by PoohBears#1fan

I believe it's only if you've already been to VB with your 3 park ticket that you have to upgrade to a 3 park.

We upgraded to Preferred APs last October (we wanted the 3 parks), remember that if the black out dates don't affect you, you can just get one preferred for the parking and discounts and get the rest of the family lesser (cheaper!) passes.

We were back at Easter so needed the Preferred but usually we just get one, and Power passes for the other 3 people.

That's clever I never thought about that. We are hoping to do the same when we go in October, upgrade the 3 park 14 passes to AP's so that will be a good saving thanks

nitram64 · 28 May 19, 11:16 AM

Things must have changed since we upgraded. We had used the tickets at all 3 parks and went to upgrade before they ran out and went from 3 park to a 2 park annual seasonal pass. As i say it must have changed we upgraded in october 2017.

gismo1554 · 28 May 19, 11:35 AM

Originally Posted by nitram64

Things must have changed since we upgraded. We had used the tickets at all 3 parks and went to upgrade before they ran out and went from 3 park to a 2 park annual seasonal pass. As i say it must have changed we upgraded in october 2017.

Yeah they got tight last year. From around Feb I think if I remember right they brought in if you had used 3 parks you had to have 3 park then in around August they brought in the must be like for like product whether you have used the water parks or not. There still appears to be inconsistency with this being applied however.