Universal AP / Annual Pass activation for use at Epic Universe for discounts?

[DisneyMom93]

Hi. We bought APs a few years ago and plan to activate and use them in Jan 2026. We were told we can pick them up at Helios so that we can use them for discounts at Epic Universe (dining and merchandise). The problem is we will be spending the first four days of our trip at Helios/Epic and didn't plan to leave the property. On the fourth day we will be transferring to Portofino Bay and going to IoA and US for five days. That's when we planned to activate the APs.

Will we not be able to use the APs for discounts at Epic if they aren't yet activated? Can they only be activated at IoA or US? How do we use them for discounts at Epic?

 

[CAPSLOCK]

Do you have plans to be back during those last 4 days in 2027, right at the end of your AP use year? If not, no reason not to activate the AP early for the discounts. I believe once you pick up the physical AP, it is activated. Obviously if you haven't picked up the AP yet, you are not eligible for food/merch discounts.

You should still be able to use an AP discount on the Helios stay, if it will be an active AP on your checkout date.

 

[DisneyMom93]

Do you have plans to be back during those last 4 days in 2027, right at the end of your AP use year? If not, no reason not to activate the AP early for the discounts. I believe once you pick up the physical AP, it is activated. Obviously if you haven't picked up the AP yet, you are not eligible for food/merch discounts.

You should still be able to use an AP discount on the Helios stay, if it will be an active AP on your checkout date.

We actually have the one that is valid for 15 months and we plan to go back in Jan 2027 so it will work out if we activate it earlier, however, we didn't plan to leave the Helios / Epic area so wasn't sure how to activate it. My understanding was it has to be activated at a gate for entrance to the park. I thought it was gate entry at US or IoA only. We won't be at either before Epic or before checking out of Helios. Does that mean we have to run over to one of those parks and activate them before Epic/Helios?

 

[CAPSLOCK]

Not sure - I believe if the AP is paid in full (not on the monthly pay plan) you can pick it up at the hotel desk.

I picked ours up at a hotel desk 2023. The activation date shows 10/30, but we did not go to the parks until 10/31. So it must have activated on the pickup date, even though we didn't use it until the next day.

 

[DisneyMom93]

Not sure - I believe if the AP is paid in full (not on the monthly pay plan) you can pick it up at the hotel desk.

I picked ours up at a hotel desk 2023. The activation date shows 10/30, but we did not go to the parks until 10/31. So it must have activated on the pickup date, even though we didn't use it until the next day.

Thank you. Yes, (ours were paid in full) we were told we could pick it up at Helios, so that’s good. We were also told it was good for discounts at Epic.

I just have to figure out if it has to be activated first and if we can do that without leaving Helios / Epic area.

I was hoping to get an answer here from someone that maybe did the same… but I guess I’ll have to contact them again.
And of course sometimes you get the wrong answer from customer service anyway.

 

[Minnie1222]

I have no idea if the act of picking up the AP will automatically cause the activation, but..

Unlike Disney, you can still show the physical pass at Epic to get the discounts. I don't see how anyone can tell if the plastic pass is activated or not. You won't get discount through the app until you have a linked & activated AP though.

Do you have a Premier or Preferred pass? You only get food & merch discounts with these two.

 

[DisneyMom93]

I have no idea if the act of picking up the AP will automatically cause the activation, but..

Unlike Disney, you can still show the physical pass at Epic to get the discounts. I don't see how anyone can tell if the plastic pass is activated or not. You won't get discount through the app until you have a linked & activated AP though.

Do you have a Premier or Preferred pass? You only get food & merch discounts with these two.

Thank you!
We have one Preferred that we use for the discounts and the rest are Seasonal (?).

 

[GhostHost24]

I was always under the impression activating the Ap is scanning into park not picking it up. But it may depend too if flex pay or pay in full

 

[CAPSLOCK]

I was always under the impression activating the Ap is scanning into park not picking it up.

I thought that too. But my activation date was definitely the pickup date, not the park entry date. Maybe it has changed since 2023?

 

[mamapenguin]

That was not my experience. I picked up a paid in full AP at Aventura in September of 2023 for a family member. It was activated in June of 2024 and had 15 months, it expires this month.

 

[tony67]

Also - I have always seen them scan them for the discount and at epic you have to use mobile ordering so the AP has to be scanned for that as well.

I would assume if its not active you wont get a discount.

My recommendation is pick it up at Helios and go to guest services before you enter Epic.
How many days are you doing at Epic and what type of ticket do you have?
If they are single day tickets while at guest service sorting that out if they are available they can convert your single day tickets into AP single days tickets. Its well worth it and they can probably sort out activating your AP as well.

 

[DisneyMom93]

Also - I have always seen them scan them for the discount and at epic you have to use mobile ordering so the AP has to be scanned for that as well.

I would assume if its not active you wont get a discount.

My recommendation is pick it up at Helios and go to guest services before you enter Epic.
How many days are you doing at Epic and what type of ticket do you have?
If they are single day tickets while at guest service sorting that out if they are available they can convert your single day tickets into AP single days tickets. Its well worth it and they can probably sort out activating your AP as well.

Thank you!

We arrive on a Tuesday night and will just relax and have a pool day on Wednesday and visit Epic on Thursday and Friday and check out on Saturday. So we can hopefully go to guest services that Wednesday and sort it out. If we can’t use the discount for food I guess it’s not the worst but we definitely want it for the room discount.

The Epic tickets are 2 separate one day tickets. Since our APs are not activated yet, we did not get the AP discount on them.

What are AP single day tickets? Just discounted tickets?

Worst case scenario is we have to leave the Helios resort and go to one of the other parks to activate them on the Wednesday. Was just hoping not to have to.

I did email Universal last night specifically asking. Hopefully I get a reply. I can post it here once I get it.

Thanks again everyone for your replies.

 

[tony67]

Thank you!

We arrive on a Tuesday night and will just relax and have a pool day on Wednesday and visit Epic on Thursday and Friday and check out on Saturday. So we can hopefully go to guest services that Wednesday and sort it out. If we can’t use the discount for food I guess it’s not the worst but we definitely want it for the room discount.

The Epic tickets are 2 separate one day tickets. Since our APs are not activated yet, we did not get the AP discount on them.

What are AP single day tickets? Just discounted tickets?

Worst case scenario is we have to leave the Helios resort and go to one of the other parks to activate them on the Wednesday. Was just hoping not to have to.

I did email Universal last night specifically asking. Hopefully I get a reply. I can post it here once I get it.

Thanks again everyone for your replies.

So the AP single day tickets are about 25 less per ticket so try to get those - they are really good about refunding those - as long as they have the tickets available.
In general (95% of the time) guest services will do a lot for you. Sometimes you get a bad person and maybe just find someone else - I've seen a few things about a specific GS person being a problem. I assume Universal will sort that out.

As far as the AP discount for the hotel - I've never been asked to show my AP - but for that they don't scan it so you should be OK.
The food is not cheap at Universal so the discount does help.

One last thing - its possible that an AP will be available by then (I hope) that includes Epic - so keep an eye out for that - you can always get the tickets refunded and put towards an AP with Epic if it becomes available.

As far as emailing Universal - Ill be interested to hear about your response - I feel like they are using AI now and respond within 24 hours - but not usually in a way that is useful.