Deals on Universal trip

Find a local Universal/Disney Planner. They plan your trip for you at no cost to you usually. They know when most of the deals are available. They plan park days and most of your meals for you. The restaurants get booked up well in advance. Planner is the only way to go. Again most planners are paid by Disney/Universal.

One awesome thing too is that if you stay in one of the Universal Studios hotels, you get free front of the line passes. We stayed at the Royal Pacific recently and didn't find it to be too much more expensive than a regular nice hotel. They have a boat that will bring you right there so you don't have to drive to it and pay parking. The front of the line passes are worth their weight in gold especially if the park is going to be packed.