Money well spent

clipfert

Earning My Ears
Joined
Oct 9, 2015
First off, we will be visiting at the end of July. We are a family of 4, kids ages 5 and 9. I purchased the 3 park/3 day Tickets (including Volcano Bay) back in Jan via Undercover Tourist. Currently there is a deal to do the 3 park/3 day Tickets (including Volcano Bay) + 2 Days free Promo going on. Undercover Tourist will refund my tickets 100% if I want to exchange them for the +2 Day Promo but I have to pay an extra $100 more. We will only be able to use one of the promo days but I think it will be worth it for the $100. We are staying on site for one night so we'll get express passes for 2 days however on those two days we are planning on doing just Universal/IOA. The third day will be staying off site and visiting Volcano Bay (either a Sat/Sun) and then our extra promo day will go towards ??? My guess is the kids will want to do the water park again.

My question is should I buy express pass for Volcano Bay? It is worth it to do the premier seating instead? Where is the premier seating located? I don't want to go overboard with money so I'm trying to just pick one. My kids love wave pools and lazy rivers and could do that all day but I know they want to ride slides too. None of us care about the drop slide (except my hubby). Since we'll have an extra day via the promo I was thinking we would use that on Volcano Bay but the second day I probably wouldn't upgrade.. not sure how to utilize the extra day. Looking for tips on money well spent. Thanks!
 
The Volcano Bay Express Pass and Premier Seating are really two totally different things.

Here is what you get with the Premier Seating:
- They come in pairs (priced that way too) with a cover.
- A lock box between the seats that's decent sized
- A server that comes by to take food and drink orders from a limited menu. The menu has pretty much all of the adult beverages that they serve in the park, but it only has a limited number of food items. You can't order from any restaurant or concession stand. It's still a decent size menu though. I can't attest to how frequently they have been coming by, since I haven't done it since last July. I also don't know how food lines are now.
- Locations are all over the park. They ask which village you want when you purchase it over the phone. They do not tend to be at the entrance or exit of the lazy and not-so-lazy rivers though.

Express Pass:
- 1 rider per attraction (not unlimited)
- 2 types: one has less attractions

Some thoughts questions.

Do you need the features of the premier seating? If someone will always be at the seats, then probably not. I don't think there has ever been an issue with lack of seating, even when the park was reaching capacity. You will need to put your stuff in a locker if you leave your seats, because people can and do steal stuff. Premier Seating is really a convenience thing. The cover won't guarantee that your seat is free of sun all day, because it doesn't come all the way down in the front. Also, the end of the lounger is not covered by the cover. However, it generally provides good blockage of sun, especially if you also have a towel or scoot up into the lounger at bit. The premier seating is good when it rains. It generally keeps you dry if you sit back as far as possible. But hey, you are at a water park, so maybe you shouldn't care about being wet.

Express Pass could be more useful.

Also, you won't get early entry if you go to Volcano Bay on a day that you are not staying at a Universal hotel (mornings of checkin and checkout days). Early entry could be very useful. I don't know what the crowds have been like this summer.
 
Thanks for the info!

So I went ahead and exchanged my tickets, we now have passes for 5 days/3 parks. We'll be off site for 4 days and on site for one day so that gives us 2 days of express passes. Wed (off site) Thursday (RPR/Express pass early checkin), Friday (off site/Express Pass), Saturday (off site), Sunday(off site). My question is, where would early entry/express pass be most beneficial given our schedule and park crowds?

We get in late Tuesday night (flying from west coast) so Wednesday we'll be pretty jet lagged and won't want to get up early. I was thinking of getting groceries and relaxing at the condo during the day and possibly hitting a park after 3pm or so. Thursday we will need to get up early to checkin to RPR and get our express pass. We're staying 20 minutes away so I know it will be hard for us to be at RPR/park early that day.

Getting close.. 12 days until our vacation.. can't wait.
 


Using early entry at Volcano Bay saves you a lot of time.

But doesn’t that mean she’s throwing away one of her EP park days or cutting it short? May be I misunderstood but she’s got 2 days EP from onsite hotel and the other days she’s offsite. I’d think you’d use your both EE/EP days at the parks to get the full benefit of the EP and do VB the days you are offsite since hotel EPs are no good there anyway- the downside being you don’t have EE that day.

Even though EE is helpful at VB I wouldn’t think it offset an EP at the park.
 
I'm with gotomu212. EP hotel benefit is wasted at VB. Although, you could do EE at VB and only plan to stay at the water park for 2hrs, then go to hotel, change, and use the EP at the other parks. I'd actually be inclined to go to VB Wed afternoon, since the crowds will likely be thinking out for the afternoon/evening.

Plan your in depth exploration of HP areas for that early entry hour, and/or days W/O express passes. That way you can take your time and not be wasting valuable EP time that could be spent avoiding lines.
 
We never use early admission at the other parks because of express being available at those rides now. Early admission at VB lets you get a ton done in a very short period of time.
 


Hi I also vote for using EE for Volcano Bay. We have done this two years in a row and it is a life saver. This park can get very busy by 10:00 am.
 

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