Gone is the "Buy a Day, Get the Year" free promotion that Universal has been running in the LA market for several years. Instead, USH will offer three annual pass tiers.
Hmmm... I wonder what could be happening the week of March 21, 2016? This black-out calendar suggests mid-March as a smart guess for the opening of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Hollywood. But let's talk about value, and compare Universal Studios Hollywood's new AP structure with two benchmarks: its nearest competitor, Disneyland, and its sibling, Universal Orlando.
The most striking difference with USH is that none of its passes offer 365 days of admission (well, 366 days in 2016) and free parking for passholders, both of which are available on top-level passes at the Disneyland and Universal Orlando resorts. In addition, USH's pass includes admission to just one park, not the two parks available at DLR and UOR.
In fact, for $36 more than USH's Gold Pass, anyone could buy a Universal Orlando Preferred Pass, which includes two parks (and two Wizarding Worlds), admission everyday and free parking.
With its black-out dates, USH's Gold Pass is perhaps most comparable to Disneyland's Deluxe Annual Pass, which offers a similar number of blockout dates, and no parking benefit, either. That pass costs $599, almost exactly twice the cost of Universal Studios Hollywood's Gold Pass — appropriate given that the Disneyland pass covers two parks to USH's one.
Given the big AP price increases at both Universal Studios Hollywood and Disneyland, it appears that demand far outruns supply for highly-themed parks in the Southern California market. AP rates per park in Southern California far exceed those rates charged by the Orlando parks, as you can see clearly in the USH-UOR comparison above. (Want to consider Disney? Disneyland's no-blockout annual pass costs $1,049 for its two parks, while Walt Disney World's costs $749 for four parks.)
Will these higher prices do anything to diminish that demand? Or will another theme park (Knott's?) decide to get in this game by offering more highly-themed, IP-rich environments in the years to come, adding to the supply in the market?
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I'm bummed about the lack of a parking option. I thought they were adding another parking garage to handle the demand. I'd imagine the park will reach capacity before the new garage fills up, although I wonder if they are expecting a lot of the after 5pm crowd. I was hoping to get an AP to deal with my butterbeer addiction, but I can't image paying an extra $20 every time.
I'm just surprised USH didn't include a pass with no black out dates but at a significantly higher price, like $800 since it only covers 1 park to Disneyland's 2 parks for $1000+.
With or without a no-black-out pass, people will still buy annual passes. Not everyone works Monday through Friday, so if someone's work schedule & lifestyle allow it, these passes are still a good value. Heck, if I always had a random weekday off every week and lived in LA, I would definitely get an AP.
And since they've never offered tiered AP's, I think USH has the "convenience" to instantly apply the fact that locals just don't spend money like tourists do. Disney has to slowly increase black out dates to prevent weekends from being jam packed with AP's. It will still make people angry, and reduce the number of AP's, but in the end it's probably their goal.
Caveat: March 21-25 of next year is spring recess for LA Unified School District's 650,000 students.
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