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!

There are no "good deals." Maybe you can save 3-4% somehow on your $100 ticket.

You have to get a 4+day ticket to start getting a decent deal at Disney.

I don't think you're going to find any/many deals for the MK ticket, plus they just raised their rates. I believe it's now $100, maybe a bit more, for a one day non-park hopping ticket. None of the discounters carry the 1 days, of if they do, it's at full price.

I'm not sure about universal tickets. I have seen multi-day tickets at Costco at a discount, but not lately.

Thanks.... we just do not have the time to do more than a few day... appreciate all the feedback.

I do believe that Universal day passes can be purchased using UR points. So if you have access to those that might be an option. And for Universal, you think you might possilby come back within a year, you might want to look at either a Annual Power Pass or a regular Annaul Pass. (The Power Pass has black-out dates when it can't be used, but it does cost significantly less.)

Unfortuantely for the adoring public, there is such demand for the parks right now that they have no reason to discount. And in fact "inflate" the price of 1 or 2 day passes to "encourage" people to stay longer (and spend more.)

I may be dense, but I was curious regarding the universal passes on the UR site..

I can't find them anywhere. I'm probably missing something or not looking in the right place. I only use UR to shop to get points, and I've transferred once to UA, but that's about it. Can you point me in the right direction?

I know they're probably a lousy redemption value, but I'm curious just the same

Well I'm not finding them either any longer. It looks like Universal Studios tickets may have been dropped.

I bought a few for a family trip a couple of years ago and at that time I do believe they were 5000 points for a 1 day 2 Park pass (which was a great deal for a 1 day pass which was all we needed for that particular trip.)

Oh well. I haven't been to Universal in years, and if it were a good deal, may have done it.

Thanks!

Well I did a little digging around and found the following article from Nov. 2011: Chasing Harry Potter. It details how you "used" to be able to get Universal Studios tickets using UR points.

I don't know if Chase has permanently dropped Universal tickets or just temporarily while they re-price them. But I do apologize for mentioning UR points when it doesn't look like they are an option right now.

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

Sometimes Costco and/or Sam's in the Orlando area has Universal or Disney tickets/passes. Normally you can call and ask.

OP, I haven't tried this method so I don't know what the prices are like but you can get discounted tickets to attractions at the Orlando Premium Outlets:
http://www.premiumoutlets.com/outlets/outlet.asp?id=17

Join the Premium Outlets VIP club (which is free) and go to the "deals around town" link in the VIP club. They list discounts on tickets for lots of area attractions including Universal and Disney. You have to purchase the tickets at the Info Center booth in the outlet in order to get the discount, however.

Have a great trip. I have heard that Mythos at Islands of Adventure is supposed to be a great restaurant.

Thanks for all the advice.

We ended up getting preferred annual passes. They were running a promotion if passes activated by April 30th: gave us Florida pricing and added three free months. Also includes free parking ($17 each time) as well as 10% discount on most food and merchandise purchases. Roughly $260 per pass. We came down earlier so using 5 days this week. And will "force" us to visit again at least once in 15 months! :-)

Seemed like a great deal.

Wow.... And here I am on the fence about renewing my regular annual pass because they cost over $600 each! Note that some of those food discounts are 20% at lunch!

It's not a great deal - it's an unbelieveable deal.

Mary, this was for Universal Parks, not Disney.