I’m looking at the Annual Passes in case we decide to go that route if Epic is added to AP’s. The prices! Wowser! I bought the 3-park premier pass in 2019? for 500-ish. We’d liked the EA and free parking that came with Premier so I looked at the 2-park premier and it was $905. I know the future version that includes Epic will cost even more.
Disney World annual pass was 1500-ish the last time I looked.
Anyone know why they are so expensive? If someone gave me the choice of a free annual pass to UO or DW, I’d pick Universal, but I think most would go for Disney.
Is there a reason you need the premier? I downgraded to the Power Pass, it did not have that crazy increase the two higher level passes had a couple of years ago.
While parks like to make money, they also have a love-hate relationship with annual passholders because they can add to the crowds of the parks, which has the potential to impact non-AP guest satisfaction. So, parks may raise the price to reduce the number of AP holders in general.
However, since there are tiers, they can also push those AP holders down into tiers that allow them to still come often, but just not on the busiest days when it matters.
Of course, the obvious answer is that market demands mean they can charge more, and make more, and people just keep paying for it!
As @PrincipalTinker suggests, you should look at the lesser APs and see if the blackout dates/limitations they add actually impact you! You might find you will be perfectly happy with a less expensive AP.
My (currently unactivated) pass is a power pass. My last two were preferred. I didn’t think I would buy enough that the discount was worth the higher price of the preferred currently, and I usually don’t need to park. If I did find myself parking in the garage, I would look into upgrading. I’ve never bothered with the highest tier because lately I’ve been staying at the hotels that included express passes.
I would definitely look into paying for parking separately depending on the number of days attendance. It might be cheaper to pay out of pocket.
For me as an out-of-towner, I had a Seasonal Pass for a few years and it was a great value. But I was only there a handful of days a year so didn’t miss the lack of free parking at all.
Having the car is mandatory for DH. I recently tried to convert the family to the train when we went to Chicago, and they never want to do it again. DH said it was like being a passenger with an old lady driver, and he hates to passenger. We all find flying to be unending misery. So, the parking was why I was thinking of a premier.
We did end up getting a lot of use out of the previous pass, so I guess I can’t blame Universal. The price difference between the seasonal and premier is $480 which is 15 days parking. Probably more than we’d be there.
Oh, well, I guess we’ll just get a long ticket and make this a Last Hurrah for Universal trip. DD just turned 15 and in a few years she probably won’t want/be able to take multiple trips a year with her old folks.
Also, at the moment I am leaning toward an airBnB. If we get a two-bedroom we each have our own room to decompress in.
Have you thought about 1 preferred pass, and the rest lower tier? The preferred pass gives free regular parking, and a 10% discount. A power pass gives 50% off parking, and no discount. As long as the pass holder with free parking is in the car with ID, you only need one pass for parking.
The difference between a power pass and a season pass is $50, which is about 4 days of half price parking. The difference between preferred and season is $205, which is seven days of standard parking. Depending on how much you buy/go, 1 preferred pass can give you pretty decent discounts.
This is a good middle ground - person driving and paying has the upgraded pass for parking & food/merch discounts while the rest of the family has a downgraded pass.
Also if you’re not using the HHN free ticket then the Premier pass is not a good value.
For some reason I was thinking that only the top tier pass got the regular parking for free. So, thanks for pointing out that the Preferred got that also. Preferred 2-park pass is $630. I was thinking somewhere in Jan 2026 before the 20th (when DD’s college class starts). Even the Seasonal Pass can be used starting Jan 5th. Even when we had premier passes I preferred the seasonal pass allowed days since I looked at those as the days Universal expected to be low crowds.
We have done both stayed onsite and airBnB, and we’ve liked both options. Onsite we’ve done Cabana Bay, Hard Rock and Pacific Resort. The theme of portofino appeals to me. But, I’m thinking this will be a longer more relaxed trip. Maybe a couple of weeks. We might even throw in Discovery Cove. DH has a rule that anything more than a 5-hour drive away should be a one week trip minimum. When we went to Disney World that was a two-week trip with 10-day tickets, that was a nice length. One other trip we did my favorite things in CA and that was 2.5 weeks and we were ready to go home at 2 weeks. So, thinking two weeks.
The three-park preferred is $740. We won’t be going when VB is open (although we love it) I just look at that as a gauge of how expensive the Epic park add-on might be. So, maybe $800 for preferred 3 dry park pass?
But then we’d have to pay the hotel parking, which was low-20’s last time I looked for Portofino. Philosophically I don’t have a problem with paying for parking at the parks. But, last time I got it included so my brain is trying to figure out a way.
On our previous passes we took a trip with another family and stayed in the same hotels. DD went in their car to the parks so they got free parking too.