My DD9 and I are starting to read the Harry Potter books and she LOVES it! Of course that has me thinking about taking her to Universal. It would be probably one day in a long weekend trip with Disney, but being over the July 4th holiday I would want express pass. Considering buying an AP to save on a hotel that includes EP…but I can’t tell how much it would save me. Would anyone have a minute to look up AP rates available on 7/1 or 7/2 of 2022?
The cheapest rate for 7/1 or 7/2 is a king room at Portofino Bay for $561.33 plus tax. You can get a rollaway so can sleep 3. There are no discounted queen rooms available.
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Wow, that’s not much better than I was seeing for regular price. I guess it is a holiday. It would be just the 2 of us and we could do a king, but we might be better off just staying at Disney and buying EP. Very helpful info, thank you!!
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The AP discounts are pretty terrible this year (but so are the rack rates). We are booked at Portofino Bay at the end of July and for 3 nights with AP discount it is $1550. Same room rack rate is almost $2400 total, so definitely some savings but rack has just gotten so much higher this past year. Last summer we were booked in late July at Portofino, for $279 plus tax a night with AP discount. If you only want 1 park day, buying express outright might be cheaper.
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As stated in the past out here. If you could consider Aug. Oct. Nov. or Dec. Magical Vacations Travel has some 50% off specials for Hard Rock, Portifino, and Royal Pacific. On the questions about AP’s, did you notice that they sell for a little more than a 5 day ticket? Just say’in
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You don’t need an AP to look at the rates…
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Ahhh…I did find this page on google but thought it was bouncing me to the non-AP search page since the rates were so high 
. Now I see there is one “discounted” rate.
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Good point…her Disney AP expires early Oct and I’m trying to use holidays to strrreeetch my vacation time. Annoying job gets in the way of my vacation goals!! And one day at Universal is all we need, I don’t care for the virtual rides that much and she is not a thrill-seeker so there won’t be a lot we want to do besides HP.
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One other thing to keep in mind about the APs is that the seasonal pass has the month of July blacked out. So you would have to get the power pass. Only about a $50 difference I think, but something to consider if doing the math
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We actually upgraded from seasonal to premier- no blackouts
We get the it includes the early opening, late afternoon Express and valet parking.
For us it means we can stay at any other property - and bop over for some Universal time.
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Ain’t that the truth.
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I think Universal is reaping the benefits of so much dissatisfaction (and limited availability) at WDW right now…but the downside is that it will drive up demand and therefore prices. I think it won’t take very long for UOR to be in the same boat, in terms of pricing and crowd issues, as WDW is in.
I find it ironic that UOR pokes fun at WDW for some of their “issues” right now, when I expect in the next few years, UOR will be having to effectively make the same kind of changes to accommodate the increasing crowds.
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I’ve seen this coming and have the same fear. Maybe the third gate will help?
Maybe…but it might make it worse. People will start to plan longer vacations for the third gate, and more people who haven’t been in a while will want to come and experience the new park. I’m curious to see if it ultimately helps or hurts!
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I’m hoping it will get so bad it will give me the kick in the backside I need to take a trip to Tokyo. Maybe Shanghai and Hong Kong if I can get past the whole authoritarian regime thing.
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