B and I really enjoy going to Universal Orlando Resort (okay definitely me moreso than B, but he always agrees to go along and really enjoys the food and drinks!) It’s been just about a year since we’ve gone and almost 7 months since our last vacation, so we decided to start planning our next trip. We’ve decided this time to do during the Universal Orlando Resort Mardi Gras celebration, which runs from February 4th to April 24th. The event included parades, concerts on select nights, and a huge food festival with themed food.

Looking at tickets and hotels, B happened to find a great vacation package deal through Universal Orlando that got us 3 nights at our favorite hotel - Sapphire Falls - as well as new Preferred Annual passes for just over the cost of the passes plus tax. At the beginning of the year, we had decided not to renew our APs to save some money and we weren’t sure if we would make it back to Florida for the rest of the year. However this deal was too good to pass up and we will hopefully be making 2-4 more trips down there throughout the year.

The biggest consideration for us is the cost of daily park tickets versus the cost of an annual pass. Daily park passes can cost anywhere from $109 (one park one day ticket) to $164 (two park one day ticket). Obviously the more days you buy, the cheaper the tickets. But with annual passes starting at $350 for the cheapest, it makes more sense if you are going for multiple days or might/plan to return to buy an annual pass. This is an even better deal if you are a Florida resident, as Florida residents get tons of special pricing from tickets to annual passes to hotel discounts.

For more thorough information about tickets and annual passes, check out the Orlando Informer website - they also host meetups a few times a year that are an excellent value with all you can eat food and all you can ride with extended park hours for attendees. One of these meetups is definitely on our to-do list and we might be able to get to one this year!

Another big perk was that we were able to book a room at Sapphire Falls, which is our favorite Universal Orlando Resort hotel. When we went to Universal Orlando last January, Sapphire Falls was still closed due to the pandemic and Universal Orlando had consolidated operations to a select few hotels. Since our original reservation was at Sapphire Falls, they kindly upgraded us to Royal Pacific, which is right next to Sapphire Falls but is a premier hotel, meaning that you get Express Passes included in your stay. The opportunity to stay at a premier hotel for the cost of a preferred hotel was great (plus we got our Annual Pass hotel discount which was, if I’m remembering correctly, almost 30% off) was great but we were very unimpressed with Royal Pacific as a whole. It is one of the older hotels on property and is in desperate need of cosmetic updates plus because of the pandemic they weren’t doing any daily room cleaning, which is normally fine because we usually don’t need new sheets or towels every day but my biggest issue was the general cleanliness of the rest of the hotel. While door handles and bathrooms in common areas, etc were cleaned profusely and temperature checks were done on hotel guests daily, the hallways where the rooms are located were so gross and people were leaving their trash bagged up in the hall (which is what the hotel management told us to do) but the bags would sit there all day, sometimes they tipped over and spilled, and there were crumbs and wrappers everywhere.

If you’d like to see a comprehensive review of Sapphire Falls, Molly from AllEars.net has done a great review!

The last consideration that we usually look at is flights. We exclusively fly Southwest (in the US) because I have the Southwest Rapid Rewards credit card and can usually use points to pay for flights. They have also expanded the benefits for the card, including getting 2 Early Bird check-ins per year and more points per dollar spent on things like rideshare, utility bills, and hotel/car rentals.

If you are interested in signing up for the Southwest Rapid Rewards Credit Card, I do have a referral link if you want to use it! I have had this card for 5 years and have been very happy with the perks - especially since I only buy airfare once every 4-5 trips because I accumulate so many points.

I also like that Southwest has direct flights out of Milwaukee. Since the pandemic, many of the options have decreased but there are at least two direct flights per day from MKE to MCO. I prefer direct flights so I only have to schlep my crap on and off once. Plus less worries about missing a connection!

Do you have any trips coming up? Do you do anything fun to celebrate Mardi Gras? Leave your thoughts and plans in the comments below!