I’m actually doing an article right now about when you should upgrade to a UOAP for savings! During my research I found they only released UOAP rates through the end of March so far.
My suggestion is book the hotel now and lock in the rate. You can cancel anytime prior to a week before the trip, so keep watching for UOAP rates. If they drop you can then book under that rate and cancel your old reservation. Also, you don’t need to have the UOAP at the time of booking, just at the time of check-in.
This is good to know! Do you have to activate your AP before checking in? Like do I have to go to the park in the morning and go through the turnstiles before I can go to the checkin desk?
We stayed at Royal Pacific in December. We checked in and I just showed my email confirmation for the AP. We then walked over to the vacation club desk right there in the same lobby to pick up our physical APs.
Good to know! I plan to pay up front, but I do have to go to Guest Services to exchange my one-day expired pass and upgrade to an AP. I asked in another thread and was told I could do this in the lobby to Hard Rock.
I just saved over $700 by booking with the AP rate for my rooms in May! And it was an upgraded view room, too!
By the way - here is the exact URL I used to find the AP rates - they were hidden and didn’t pop up / weren’t easy to locate when I prodded around the site.
From there I could enter my dates, occupancy, etc. and virtually all the hotels showed availability. From there it was the same as the normal booking process.
This not only covers the cost of my AP but also my copy of the Unofficial Guide to UOR and my TP subscription! Thanks Seth Kubersky, @len, @josephmatt, et al. This is why I’m a Liner.
I have a couple of follow-up questions that I’m hoping someone can answer. I will be at UOR in May, at which time I need to exchange my expired 1-day tickets for an AP for me and 3-day tickets for the rest of my party. I have to do this at guest services on site. Qeustions:
Can I get the AP discount on tickets during the transaction when I purchase my AP? Or would I have to purchase my AP then do a separate transaction to upgrade the other tickets? I guess as long as I can do it at a single visit to GS, that’s fine even if I have to ring it up twice.
Can I apply the cost of two 1-day tickets to a single 3-day ticket? Or does the cost application have to be one for one for each person’s ticket? I ask this because if the answer to 1) is No, I would buy an AP for myself ahead of time and then apply the cost of my expired 1-day ticket toward one of the other 3-day tickets.
I don’t know if anything has changed, but my experience in the past was that buying tickets in advance through Undercover Tourist (and bonus if you can get the additional Mousesavers discount!) was still cheaper than buying tickets on site with the AP discount. You might want to look into that.
I suspect the answer to this question is a no, but I cannot say for certain.
Ah, I understand! In your question, I thought you meant you had to purchase new tickets for other people at the same time that you get your AP. Then I am sorry to say that I am completely useless to you in this situation!
They released the June AP rates today. We just booked RP 6/14-6/18 for our first trip to Universal. I think we are going to buy the 3 park AP passes (1 premier and 2 preferred).
