Express Pass went up more than $20, yikes

I had been dragging my feet on purchasing an Express Pass for my mother in law b/c I wasn’t honestly sure if she’d get the value out of it b/c I don’t know yet how many rides she’ll join us on. Not smart. When I last looked the single use express pass for the day I wanted was $69.99, and now it’s popped up to $89.99. However, since the rest of us will have them, I am going to have to bite the bullet and buy hers so it doesn’t keep going up. BTW: the best deal around is booking a one night stay at the RPR using one of the Mousesavers Orbitz Discount codes. 5 of us will get two days of Express Passes plus Early Entry privileges for $392. If we bought the Express Passes separately, it would cost $450 each day (a total of $900), and it still wouldn’t get us early entry. This is Thanksgiving weekend, so we are really going to need those Express Passes.

We’re not even going to use the hotel to sleep, as the hassle of moving out of our spacious 2 bedroom condo is too great and it’s still a better deal to do it this way. Can’t believe how expensive Express Passes are.

Are you sure.? They don’t generally increase prices. Did you possibly look at 1 park price instead of 2 park initially. It can be confusing as there are 6 different levels.

I am pretty sure. I had created a spreadsheet b/c I was comparing and contrasting the cost of a hotel that included the passes versus the hotel (so my family wouldn’t think I was crazy for booking a hotel room we wouldn’t actually use). I also went to the Express Passes calendar several times over the course of a few days as I was working on our trip, as it took me awhile to commit to the hotel route.

Also, the difference between both parks and a single park was/is minimal - only$5.

I have heard that they change the price of it based on its expected use for that day. So a more crowded day justifies a higher price.

We are going to universal for the first time this April. In looking at all the options - if you plan on buying an express pass it seems to be a no brainer to just stay at one of the deluxe hotels. Yes they are more expensive - but if you have 4 people and the express pass is 60 each - that is 240 right there. so to add the price of the hotel is nominal. We are staying at Portafino - and with the price of the express passes - I look at it like the hotel is only costing me $95 / night.

This is very odd. I had looked into this before, and was told that although the prices are based on anticipated demand, they do not change once they are set (except for across the board price increases). Maybe the resident expert @Skubersky can chime in with more info.

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I went ahead and bought my mother in laws, since I didn’t want her to be odd woman out if they stop giving out passes altogether (we can get a max of 5 through our hotel room). With tax, it was $96 for a 2 park single use express pass for 1 day. The universal express would have cost $125 with tax.

The rest of us are essentially paying $39/day for universal express 2 park passes, and we get early entry. Hotel is definitely the route to go, even though we won’t need to stay the night there. Great discount codes on mouse savers. I saved 15% on my hotel booking thru Orbitz.