I seem to have caught the window for AP rates for my surprise upcoming January trip! My dad decided out of the blue that he would like to take me and my kids to Universal, he and my stepmom love Harry Potter and so they're gifting us a trip as a Christmas present. We were going to do at least 3 park days anyway, which is at that break-even point for an AP, so I checked APH rates and it looks like we've gotten lucky. Interestingly I checked rates on both my desktop browser and my ipad browser and the AP rates only showed up on the ipad, so if anyone is having a hard time finding rates try using different browsers/devices I guess?
We're doing 2 family suites at Cabana Bay for 5 nights, and I managed to grab one night in the middle at RPR as well if we decide we want to use the express pass benefits. It was $269 for the night at RPR for all 5 of us, so if we need the passes those two days it will be a huge savings. We're going late January, after MLK Day, so I know we may not need the passes...I may let the room go when we get closer to the date, we'll see. But it's a Friday night, so we'd get the EP benefits on a Saturday, which might be useful?
My oldest son and I did one day at Universal this past spring as an add-on to a family Disney trip, but this will be the first time for everyone else and the first time staying on site/doing a longer trip, so I'm excited to get planning!