Cheap Tickets?

Does anyone have a secret you want to share?? We are planning a trip to Universal (Orlando) and need CHEAP tickets. I can get 2 if I sit through a timeshare presentation. Any other suggestions? Has anyone sat through the presentations before?? Thanks!

Lol, timeshare presentations...reminds me of South Park... just be sure you know what you're getting into!

...and how to get out of there...Redwife and I went to one of those and it took us 2+ hours to finally get out of there with our freebies....(we could have left at any time, just not with the goodies because the manager was busy with buyers. --allegedly)

Maybe its time to resurrect this helpful thread??

My mother-in-law swears by sitting through time share presentations for freebies.

My mother-in-law is also one of the cheapest psychotic people I know.

Doesn't seem worth it to me.

After years of her telling us about how great it is, we actually got solicited by a local company here in PA and strapped with one of those "nothing better to do" days, decided to see what it was all about - especially since the 'incentive' was free theme park tickets and a hotel stay.

A 45 minute hard sell presentation made even better, by the fact that they went from 'these are great to buy' to turning it into a weird MLM scheme with 'if it's not for you, they're great to sell' - truly hilarious stuff with some of the most creative math I've ever witnessed someone try to pass off as legit.

Long story short, the incentive was indeed 2 tickets and hotel accomodations to just about any amusement park you could name right now. The catch? A bunch of 'acceptance fees' and processing fees' and crap on top of paying when you took the trip. It was then up to you to request a rebate special form and submit it within 30 days of your trip. After that, you'd wait 6-8 weeks to recieve the money you spent. Minus the 'fees' of course.

The fine print read like a legal novel.

To be honest, I don't understand the mentality that goes to those extremes to save money or get a freebie. You lose a lot more in time, effort, hassle, etc. than you would in just finding a decent deal and going for it - assuming the 'incentive' is something you might even want in the first place.

My advice: Understand that these tickets are $60 a day (or $99 a week) and that's the price to play. With a little luck you might run across a AAA discount or FL resident discount or something you can use, but in general, unless it's a SF park - you gotta pay to play.

I hate to say it, but I'm one to just spend what I have to spend and enjoy myself. That's probably not the best attitude at times like these, when I'm kind of poor, but vacation is supposed to be vacation.

I fell for this crap out here in Vegas one day. I wasted 3 hours of my life and got two free plane tickets to anywhere in the USA that had so much red tape and untold fine print, that I never used them.

I assume this is how the game is played everywhere!

I sat through one of those timeshare presentations in Orlando for cheap tickets and it was awful. It was like they were trying to assimilate you into the borg in Star Trek. I barely escaped - I would pay full price to miss that.

There seems to be plenty of dodgy places selling tickets with unused days but I can't vouch for whether you would get busted at the gate.

The Wife and I have a vendetta against time shares and refuse to do them, based just on what everyone here has been saying so far about them. For us, we would rather pay the money than have a couple hours of our day wasted, hours that could be spent in a park or doing something else on our vacation. Back to the original question, check out AAA for reduced price tickets (they still won't be "cheap" though) or the Universal website on possible deals on multi-day ticket options. Pretty much the same stuff Moosh says in his thread (which after going back through and reading again, I must admit is pretty darn good):)

I remember my parents went through one of those "presentations" at Myrtle Beach one time when I was a kid. I think the only freebies was a free dinner, Ripley's Believe It or Not tickets, a free (very cheap) camera, and about $20 worth of tickets for the Pavillion.

All I remember is it was the longest, most boring 3 hours of my life. We get those $99 deal faxes at work all the time. They are hilarious to read.

-Tina

Join the military. I get into just about any park for half price and every once in awhile (like this year) I get into parks like Busch Gardens for free.

Kind of an extreme career move for the sake of discounted tickets, don't you think?

Ya Jeff, I wouldn't recommend quiting your job to join the military just for discounts. But I guess since I'm already a member, the discounts are nice to have.

The other good thing about the military is that I have been able to go to a bunch of parks that I would never have gone to otherwise. I was able to choose to come to Ohio and now I've been able to visit a bunch of the parks here and with the training I've done I have been able to visit Visionland, SFNO, SFFT, SFAW, and SFOT just to name a few.

They had a timeshare presentation here in Minneapolis and since almost no one wants Valleyfair! tickets, they gave 50 bucks in a Target giftcard, 50 bucks in a Timberlodge gift card, and a bunch of other crap that did not matter. My friend referred me to it, said it was the easiest 100 bucks she ever made, and gave me some tips.

When I called to set the appointment, they asked me a bunch of personal questions that were none of their business. Of course my salary went up about double, and I was in a family of 5 (I'm single) that loved to travel a lot. I showed up in my MF sweatshirt.

After the group presentation, they ask a lot of obvious questions where you rank aspects of the presentation on a scale of 1-5 based on how much you liked it. My friend said they pick and choose the ones who rank the presentation the highest and the ones who made the most money to take back for the one on ones first. I had the salary thing already and I really loved that presentation. ;)

Once we got to the ones on ones, I told the guy I did not like the location (at the mountains) and he tried to push the points/trade thing. I asked what they had near Cedar Point and the closest was like 2 hours away. Every time he tride to talk about some awesome country to go to or some beach, I told him about how awesome some CP coaster was. Each time I got more excited about it and described it in more detail. Of course I kept asking him to double check to see if they had anything closer to CP. He tried to sell me on commuting 2 hours to CP from a timeshare (the dude was obviously new) and I made fun of him for it. They brought in 2 managers to "close me" but I kept frustraiting them by talking about how much better MF was than the beach. It actually got pretty funny and they finally gave up and I was the first one out with my gifts.

We went to one and my parents had to go to an hour presentation and we got a hotel room for $15 bucks a night. 5 star right outside Orlando. That one was worth it.

If you are going to Universal They have the 15 dollar a month annual pass (billed to credit card) or just buy an Ap for the discounts on almost everything in park(lunch at the hard rock for 45.00 for 4 with 20%discount)

Even if you are only going this one time buy one AP for the discounts and free parking. It is 189.00 I think (mine is 99 to renew) Universal does discount these even I got mine with a buy one year get second year free that is cheaper than a couple of 4 day passes.

They offer ticket discounts mostly during slow times(between spring break and summer break for schools) I got mine in september Before HHN.

As far as timeshare presentations they can only make you stay for 90 minutes to get your tickets but that time doesn't start till after the free breakfast . So do you want to spend the time that the park is not busy listening to some guy try to sell a timeshare when almost all the rides are walkon.Most people try not to be rude and let them spiel on and get stuck for longer.

If you want to save buy the refilable cup for 10.00(approx) refills are 1.50 or so also some of the combos are big enough for two people to share.

I think IOA/Universal is the best theme park (for adults and teens) in the world.Disney maybe better for 6 year olds but they make you pay a lot but they are always busy so it must be working for them.

Beware of ebay tickets most multiday ticket are only good for 4-5 days from first use and they have no dates on them and the first user has to sign their name on first day and sign in on clipboard on the days after that.

there are some good discount ticket places in orlando but if the deal sounds to good it probably is a scam.the most you can save is 4 or 5 bucks a ticket thru them they buy bulk and pass a little saving on to you. *** Edited 2/26/2005 9:00:17 PM UTC by kevin38***

I find feeding kids lots of sugar, taking them with you to the presentation and sending the wife to get a spa treatment nad makeover works reall well.

First, the kids running all over the place become the center of attention and now the person making the presentation. Second, the presentation is going to be geared towards the wife, hook the wife and the wife then hooks the husband. So don't bring the wife and they probably willn't even want to talk to you.

Most of the timeshare places by rule won't talk to you and won't even maje a pitch to you if you are single or don't have a spouse with you. And they won't give you the freebies, either.

Well, this one has worked for me:

If you can say in ANY way that you are reviewing a ride or the park for the web, you can generally get discounted/free tickets. Florida is tricky, but Busch tends to be good about it (the other parks I can't honestly tell you about, as I haven't tried it). Call ahead, and try to get a discount on the hotel (should be able to get hte business rate if you are writing a review lol) and then call the park and see what sort of policy they have. Just don't lie and say you're with a big site if you aren't--there's really no reason to. Giving away two free tickets for a review *somewhere* on the web in a prominent location on its own site = free publicity 90% of the time for them, so it's worth a shot.

Barring that (if you're honest, or just don't want to have to bother writing up something for your own site or blog or whatever) there are combo passes for multiple parks down there that I've heard about, so you might be able to hit several parks for the price of one. I know one of them only works if you stay at the Hard Rock, but there are other ways...

Probably won't help for universal, but our local parks and recreation department has discount tickets available for regional parks. Also, some employers have discount certificates available for local parks.