Daily Getaways: Universal Orlando Packages On Sale Today

Today is Day 2 of Week 2 of the US Travel Association’s Daily Getaways.

For those not familiar with Daily Getaways, over the next three weeks, travel deals and packages will be available on a first-come first-served each weekday from April 4, 2016 through May 6, 2016. For a look at last week’s offers click here.

Today’s deals are for Universal Studios packages –

Four 3-Day admission tickets to both Universal Studios Florida and Universal’s Islands of Adventure for $850 (34 packages available)
Universal Orlando Resort Private VIP experience for $3,500 (1 package available)
Universal Orlando resort vacation package for $2,397 (10 packages available)

The packages go on sale at 1pm EST today.

To purchase the deal today, click the individual links above or follow this link to the calendar for the week of April 4, 2016 and select the package you are interested in. Here’s a look at the different packages available –

1. Four 3-Day admission tickets to both Universal Studios Florida and Universal’s Islands of Adventure for $850

If you were to purchase Four adult 3-day admission tickets to both Universal Studios Florida and Universal’s Islands of Adventure on UniversalOrlando’s website, the price comes out to $919.96 (plus $59.80 in taxes) for a total of $979.76.

That is a savings of just under $130 for four adults.

If you happen to live in Sunny Florida, prices are often cheaper if just buying online rather than at the gate. Here though, the choice isn’t so easy. Four Florida Resident adult 3-day admission tickets to both Universal Studios Florida and Universal’s Islands of Adventure if purchased through the same website comes to $851.96, just $1.96 higher than the deal. If you purchase a Florida Resident ticket though, it comes with blackout dates of Jun 11– Aug 15, and Dec 17– 31, 2016. So if you were thinking of just buying the tickets on Universal Orlando’s website, you wouldn’t be able to use them for pretty much the entire summer, or during Christmastime.

The Daily Getaways tickets don’t have any blackout dates, so even though the price is almost identical to what Florida Residents can get elsewhere, this one thing makes this deal attractive.

2. Universal Orlando Resort Private VIP experience

With the Universal Orlando Resort Private VIP Experience package for $3500, you get complimentary valet parking for up to 12 cars, continental breakfast, a personal escort for your group (up to 12 people), skipping the lines and priority ride entry, lunch at an in-park restaurant, and savings on food and merchandise.

You can hop between both Universal Studios Florida and Universal’s Islands of Adventure, and you get up to 8 hours to pick and choose the attractions that your group wants to see.

Universal Orlando’s website has adult single day tickets at $155 and child tickets at $150 (excluding tax). If you had 6 adults and 6 kids, the price would be $1,830 for admission alone. General parking is $20 per vehicle but if you wanted to do valet it is $40 per vehicle for over 2 hours, and $50 for “Red Carpet”. That’s $200 if you had 4 cars.

You can pay to skip the lines with any ticket and pricing varies by date, but selecting a random date in the summer the price was $109 per person. Multiply that by 12 and you get $1308. Lunch in the park would no doubt be pretty expensive to the tune of at least $20 a person so you’re looking at a total of $3578 on the conservative side (the Daily Getaways page says the package is valued at $6,619.

Skipping the lines and having a private escort is where this package really shines. If you’re in the parks for just a day you’d spend most of your time standing in lines if you didn’t pay for line skipping in some fashion. Little ones try but often just don’t have the stamina, and it sure isn’t fun for the adults either.

3. Universal Orlando Resort Vacation Package

According to the Daily Getaways page, the Universal Orlando Resort Package for $2,397 includes –

– Round-trip coach airfare for 4 people between your local major airport and Orlando.
– Round-trip ground transportation between the airport in Orlando and your hotel.
– 3-night, 4-day hotel accommodations for 4 people (in 1 room) at a Universal Orlando on-site hotel, either Universal’s Cabana Bay Beach Resort or Loews Sapphire Falls Resort at Universal Orlando® (opening July 2016).
– Complimentary 3-day park admission for 4 people to both Universal Studios Florida® and Universal’s Islands of Adventure® theme parks.

This package has the potential to give you a ton of savings depending on where you live and when you want to go. As we learned above, tickets for 4 to both parks can be around $1000 alone, not including airfare, transportation, or hotel stay. There are 10 packages available, and if you purchase one it must be used by May 26, 2017. There are blackout dates for this package – July 1-31,2016; November 23-26, 2016; December 19, 2016-January 5, 2017; April 9-23, 2017.

Will you purchase one of the Universal Orlando packages today?