How to Choose Your Universal Orlando Park Tickets

Which Universal Orlando theme park tickets should you buy?

Understanding how Universal Orlando park tickets are priced can drive a lot of decisions about your vacation. Which tickets you choose will impact the number of days spent at Universal, whether you’ll want to stay on-site, and even which hotel you ultimately select. Therefore it’s very important to begin early on in the planning process to decide which park tickets you’ll need.

With a seemingly bewildering array of options, Universal Orlando’s ticket site can be quite overwhelming. In this post and podcast episode I break down each option step-by-step so you can get the right tickets at the best price. And make those delightful decisions about how much time to spend in the parks and where to stay.

These are the show notes for Go Informed Podcast episode 65. Click below to hear the show now, or search for Go Informed: Build A Better Vacation on your favorite podcast app!

Universal Orlando theme park ticket options

At Universal Orlando, you’ll need to decide more than just how many days you want to visit. Tickets are priced based on which parks you want to include and the dates you intend to use them. When you purchase the tickets, you’ll need to know the answers to these questions:

• How many days do you need admission? Click to jump to this step
• How many parks would you like to visit? How many on any given day? Click to jump to this step
• What is the first date you’ll spend in the parks? Click to jump to this step
• Do you want to add Universal Express to your tickets? Click to jump to this step
• Is an annual pass right for you? Click to jump to this step

Let’s take a closer look at each of these options, so you can be ready with the right decision when you buy your tickets.

Three theme parks

Universal will tell you they have three theme parks: Universal Studios Florida, Islands of Adventure, and Volcano Bay.

Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure are traditional theme parks, Volcano Bay is a highly themed modern water park. All are worth a visit and you will need to determine how much time you wish to spend in each.

Now’s the time to get familiar with what’s at Universal Orlando. Check out Go Informed Podcast episodes 3, 4, and 5 for audio park tours. Another great resource is the Unofficial Guide to Universal Orlando.

Here’s my 60-second guide to Universal Orlando

How many days park admission do you want?

Universal offers park tickets ranging from one to five days. Beyond that, you’ll be looking at an annual pass.

Unless you’ll be staying off-site and know for sure you only need a one-day ticket, there are a few things to consider here.

Look for ticket promotions

When deciding how many days to spend at Universal Orlando, park ticket pricing should be one of the first things you consider. This is because Universal often offers ticket promotions that include free days in the parks. This should be especially true in 2021.

For instance, under the promotion running at the time of this post, if you purchase your park tickets by April 27, 2021 you will receive a 4-day park ticket for less than the standard 2-day price. This is valid for admission up to December 17, 2021.

Even if you don’t intend to spend four days at Universal, this deal can make a multi-day visit much more feasible.

Where to find park ticket discounts on the Universal Orlando site

On Universal Orlando’s website, the promo tickets are usually listed right on the main park tickets page. The site will sometimes automatically give Florida resident pricing first – so be sure you unselect this if you notice anything that says “Florida resident”. (Unless of course you live in Florida and have ID to prove it).

One-day park tickets are always the most expensive option

On a per-day basis, tickets that are only good for one day’s admission are always priced the highest. Here’s an example:

• One-day one-park ticket for March 17, 2021 is $140
• A two-day one-park-per-day ticket starting March 17, 2021 is $249
• A three-day one-park-per-day ticket starting March 17, 2021 is $270

You can see in the example above that as more days are added to the ticket, the incremental increase goes down. Here the cost to go from two days in the parks to three is only an extra $21. Twenty-one dollars for an entire day (or even part of a day) in one of the Universal Orlando theme parks is a heck of a deal.

Note that these are not the promotional discount ticket. At the current promo offer, a four-day one-park-per-day ticket starting March 17, 2021 is actually $225!

Staying on-site? Get a park ticket to cover your arrival or departure day

Depending on your travel plans, you may be able to spend time in the Universal Orlando parks on the day you arrive or the day you depart. Especially if you stay on-site, this can be a great way to take that last extra ride on a favorite attraction or get a jump on your vacation.

Guests staying on-site get early admission to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter on every day of their stay. So if your flight leaves Orlando late in the day you can still have lots of park time even on that departure day. Same for your arrival day, if you arrive into Orlando early enough or split your stay from another destination.

As you can see from the example above, it doesn’t cost that much more to include that extra day or two in your park ticket. And if you can score a multi-day promo deal it’s almost a no-brainer to spend that extra few hours in a park.

Multi-day tickets don’t have to be used on consecutive days

If you purchase a multi-day park ticket from Universal, you will have a few extra days to use it up.

• 2-day ticket must be used within 5 days of start date
• 3-day ticket must be used within 6 days of start date
• 4-day ticket must be used within 7 days of start date
• 5-day ticket must be used within 8 days of start date