Questions about Universal annual pass benefits

Is there a change happening with the Universal annual passes right now? We’re planning on getting 1 annual pass for the benefits but have the rest of the family just get regular tickets. Both the Unofficial Guide for 2026 and the Universal website mention two types of annual passes. 2 park and 3 park. But when I click to try and buy a pass on the Universal site, it only gives the option to buy the 2 park pass. Even though it lets you compare 3 park versions, they aren’t available for sale.

This is making me wonder if there are changes coming and that there might soon be an option that also covers Epic Universe. But I don’t keep up with Universal info as much as I do Disney info so might have missed something. Should I be waiting a few weeks to see if new announcements are made? Our trip isn’t until Oct, but we were going to get the annual pass sometime in the next month so we’d be able to use it to get discounts on the hotel rooms.

I was also vaguely hoping that we could use the annual pass to get discounts on the regular tickets for the rest of the group. But there seems to be language in the details that says you can’t use an annual pass discount on tickets that include Epic Universe. When I look at multi-day tickets for Oct, most of the options are for 3 or 4 parks. Does that mean I can’t actually use the annual pass discount on any tickets? Or has that language not been updated for 2026 tickets that are now including all 4 parks as default?

The ideal situation would be if there were an annual pass that included all 4 parks and that got a slight discount on regular tickets (4 parks, 4 days) for the rest of the group. But it might still be worth it to get a 2 park annual pass, and use it’s discounts on 2day/2park tickets then buy EU and VB without the discount.

No annual pass grants access to EU. The third park pass means VB when it is available.

You can get a slight discount on EU tickets, but it isn’t much.

1 Like

They are not offering 3 park pass because Volcano Bay is going to be out of service for so long.

1 Like

You should wait until you are closer to your trip. You can book the passholder rate without having the pass yet. You’ll just want to have the pass when you check in. And depending on who you talk to, you might not even need that.

1 Like

People on Reddit have indicated that you can buy a three park pass if you call but Universal wants to make extra sure that if you buy and activate a pass right now, you know you will miss out on the months Volcano Bay is closed.

1 Like

Thanks! I was wondering if that might be the reason but when I was price checking single day tickets to Volcano Bay, it was showing tickets available in Jan and Feb. It didn’t make sense that they wouldn’t sell annual passes because it would be closed if they were still selling regular day tickets the whole time.