When and where to buy park only tickets for March Trip

[aug17girl]

We live in Canada will be in Florida in early March. Planning our first visit to Universal among other activities and will be staying off site at a timeshare (yes, we know - no express passes for us at a busy time of year - we will be standing in lines).

We are planning to take advantage of the buy two days get two days free offer. We may consider upgrading to annual passes at some point.

Is there any advantage to buying our tickets ahead of time before we travel to Florida? Either way we would buy our tickets before our first park day to save time the day off.

Is there any advantage to buying our tickets from Undercover Tourist versus from the Universal site?

 

[georgina]

I have never bought tickets from the Universal site, so have no idea how they are delivered. I do know UT sends me actual tickets that can be used immediately (not sure how it works in Canada though). Often UT is a few dollars less expensive.

Crowds may not be too bad in early March - just go early in the day.

 

[TommyJK]

Canadian Resident here. We've always used UT to get our tickets as they tend to always be the cheapest. Also we buy them as soon as we see the best deal since you never know when they might up the price.

We select the "Print at home" since it's instant instead of waiting for them to ship (they say 12 days to Canada via USPS but I always get paranoid they'll get lost in the mail).

While big (since it's a full sheet of paper) I've always been able to fold them up to stick in our lanyards so the barcode is showing (as that's what they scan), but I know others who print at home have also been able to swap them for the smaller "credit card" sized tickets at one of the customer service booths just next to the main gates to either park.

 

[mernin]

Same at TommyJK, we have used UT for tickets too. The last few years, we've been using Airmiles (if you have them) for Universal & Disney tickets. Just redeemed for 4 tickets for Universal in March from them (the 2 day + 2 day free). They came within the week from airmiles.

 

[glocon]

We also always use UT for both our UO and WDW tix. Never had a problem. Great prices!

 

[FishyMom]

Another Canadian here who has ordered from UT twice and had actual tickets mailed to me. No problems at all with getting them on time.

 

[SA mom]

I just priced a bunch ofdplaces that were listed in the unofficial and Orlando Ticket Connection was the cheapest. However, I did not price the 2 for 2 because it doesn't cover out dates. The Unofficial Guide to UO lists the following ticket brokers as reputable:

Undercover Tourist
Orlando Ticket Connection
Best of Orlando
Official Ticket Center

 

[CyndiLooWho]

To address staying offsite, we are Wyndham time share owners and stay 100% of our Orlando vacations offsite. Since we drive from KY anyway, we have a car. It's GREAT. No trying to fit our HS / college age sons and us in a room with 2 double beds and 1 tv (our "baby" is 6'2" and still getting taller - think he wants to share a bed with his brother or a bathroom with mom?). We have 3 BRs, a full kitchen (mostly used for breakfast and snacks, but the table that seats 8 and the barstools for 3 is great!), 4 TVs, 2 lazy rivers, 5 pools, and we eat dinners offsite at table service or fast casual restaurants for a fraction of the cost of a theme park meal. We get Redbox movies and play them in the dvd player on rainy days, or we borrow games from the front desk. It's soooooo relaxing. You'll enjoy what you get by not being on property.

Now, we always stay at Bonnet Creek, which practically IS on Disney property, so our drives are very short (USO is a 15-20 min drive); if we were driving 45 min each way, it might not be as nice. But I'm not sure we'll even stay onsite.

 

[jacksdadcan]

Our tickets for our most recent trip were purchased through visitorlando. They had a 10% savings for black friday at the time, which worked out well!

EDIT: Canucks as well, got emailed tickets that we printed.

 

[aug17girl]

Thanks everyone! Looks like we will be getting our tickets at Undercover Tourist.

 

[aug17girl]

To address staying offsite, we are Wyndham time share owners and stay 100% of our Orlando vacations offsite. Since we drive from KY anyway, we have a car. It's GREAT. No trying to fit our HS / college age sons and us in a room with 2 double beds and 1 tv (our "baby" is 6'2" and still getting taller - think he wants to share a bed with his brother or a bathroom with mom?). We have 3 BRs, a full kitchen (mostly used for breakfast and snacks, but the table that seats 8 and the barstools for 3 is great!), 4 TVs, 2 lazy rivers, 5 pools, and we eat dinners offsite at table service or fast casual restaurants for a fraction of the cost of a theme park meal. We get Redbox movies and play them in the dvd player on rainy days, or we borrow games from the front desk. It's soooooo relaxing. You'll enjoy what you get by not being on property.

Now, we always stay at Bonnet Creek, which practically IS on Disney property, so our drives are very short (USO is a 15-20 min drive); if we were driving 45 min each way, it might not be as nice. But I'm not sure we'll even stay onsite.

While this will be our first visit to Universal, it will be our fourth visit to the area and renting a timeshare unit. We love having a full kitchen, lots of space for the kids, the lake, and all the timeshare amenities. My in-laws own a unit on the same property and we go during their weeks. It is a great way to spend time with them yet everyone has their own space.