Originally Posted by
wharvey
Gang,
We just decided that I will be joining my partner when he goes to Orlando for a medical conference in two weeks.
IT is a milestone birthday for me... and he wanted me to be with him.
We were thinking about doing Universal Studios for two days (never been there) and perhaps Magic Kingdom again for one day.
I have never tried to get US tickets... and have not actually bought MK tickets in over a decade.
Any advice on where I should go to get the best deals? Not looking to do a timeshare... we have our rooms already booked off priceline.
Thanks!
Your best bet is to check with the conference organizers and see if they offer any local attraction tickets. Most conferences in the Orlando area are either tied in with a travel agency or the Orlando tourism bureau to offer discounts or specialty tickets. Many conferences offer "after four" tickets for the Disney theme parks, designed to be a less expensive alternative to buying a full-price ticket when you're only going to the parks for a few hours after conference functions end.
Outside of the conference itself, you have two options: direct from Disney and Universal, or an authorized ticket reseller.
To buy direct from either, just go to their respective web sites.
You can buy Disney and Universal tickets at a discount from AAA if you're a member, and sometimes the AAA discount is better than the other brokers' discounts on multi-day tix. I don't think AAA even offers 1-day tix, but if you're a member, you can check into it.
For a one-day Disney ticket, you're going to pay full price. There simply aren't any (legitimate) discounts available on 1-day 1-park tickets. Don't buy any partially-used tickets on eBay or Craigslist or any other place, either - Disney tickets are non-transferable and use biometric identification to prevent transfer. Also, the vast majority of Disney tickets expire 14 days after first use, so any leftover days are generally not valid any more.
And no, you can't buy a 2-day ticket and each use one day of it on the same day; the gate system is computerized and locks out that option.
For your Universal ticket, you can get about a 10-12% discount by going to one of the two major authorized ticket brokers, Undercover Tourist, and Maple Leaf tickets. Both are located locally in Orlando and offer various discounts, sometimes free extra days, and once in a while specialty tickets that Universal itself doesn't sell directly.
Both brokers handle tickets from other Orlando attractions, such as SeaWorld, Wet N Wild water park, and several dinner shows, and they offer tickets to Blue Man Group at Universal and Cirque de Soleil at Downtown Disney.
Naturally, their biggest sellers are Disney tickets, and I typically buy my multi-day tickets from them, but as said, there are no discounts for 1-day tickets.
http://www.undercovertourist.com/orl...s-florida.html
http://www.mapleleaftickets.com/orderform.htm