I will be turning 40 in April, and for my birthday I think I'd like to go to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Naturally I'd like to do this with as little cash outlay as possible, and I have time to plan ahead so I'm starting to think about it.
Looking for advice on how to do Universal as cheaply as possible.
Factors to consider: Likely this trip will include me, my husband (MrV), my brother & SIL, and parents. No kids, each couple paying their own way. Bro and I are pretty gung-ho about the whole HP experience. Everyone else will have varying levels of enthusiasm, with my parents pretty much wanting to come just to spend time with us. (We get together several times a year so I'm not holding companionship hostage to theme park visits or anything.) Given this, how many park days are optimal? Better to stay on or off property? One major advantage to on-property seems that it would make it easy for my parents to bug out and not spend the whole day at the park. But off property I'm assuming I could get a hotel credit card and use points to cover the whole stay. Does that seem accurate?
MrV likes water parks, so he might be into going to Volcano Bay. Have you been? Worth it?
My parents are FL residents, so there are possible discounts to consider from that, and they will be driving. The rest of us will fly. I have already got the flights covered having qualified for a SW companion pass this year.
We are new to the travel hacking thing, so I have opened the 2 cards to get the companion pass, and we have opened none for MrV in recent years, so should reasonably be able to open any cards which would help with this endeavor.
Also from cursory research, I see that food is crazy expensive (naturally) and one of the best ways to save is to bring your own, and it will be easy for my parents to bring a soft sided cooler. So, good to know there.
So lay your best tips and advice on me. I get that theme parks are not mustachian, and my best choice would be not go. I definitely won't go so far as to say I need Harry Potter like a grindylow needs water, but I really do want to see WWOHP.