TAMPA, Fla. — Universal Orlando is conjuring up more than just another wizard-themed land for Epic Universe, the first new theme park in Florida in more than 25 years. When it opens in May 2025, Walt Disney World should be worried, analysts say.
The new park, estimated to cost more than $6.6 billion including the adjacent hotels, is a “game changer,” according to analysts, giving tourists a reason to visit Central Florida without the draw of the Mouse. They will get to play inside a Nintendo game, ride a dragon, get spooked by classic monsters or visit Harry Potter.
It is designed like a hub with spokes that lead to five immersive lands. Fans enter through a tunnel (or “portals,” as the park calls them) that allows for a wow factor as it leads into a highly themed world.
And those themes are more current and relevant to millennials, Gen Z and younger generations, with a Super Nintendo World, a Viking world from the “How to Train Your Dragon” movies, a land of classic monsters and horror and the Wizarding World of Harry Potter — Ministry of Magic.
Universal is spending big on this park. Rather than putting it next to the rest of Universal Orlando Resort, it will be located near the Orange County Convention Center, the second-largest convention center in the nation, giving conventioneers a convenient stop.
They hired “Batman” composer Danny Elfman to create music for the park’s Dark Universe, the land themed for Universal’s classic monsters like Dracula and Frankenstein. It’s set in the dreary Darkmoor Village, where Victoria Frankenstein has followed in her family’s footsteps of monster-making.
One of the rides will be Curse of the Werewolf, a launched spinning coaster with elements similar to the technology used on Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey, the highly lauded motion-based ride set in Hogwarts Castle at Islands of Adventure.
You can already book a room at the new Stella Nova and Terra Luna hotels near the convention center, but the Universal Helios Grand Hotel, opening May 22, is a Vegas-style palace — and it’s the only hotel in the country that is placed within a theme park, where guests can just walk out the door and into the park.
The first portal will take you into Celestial Park, with lush greenery and dancing fountains. It will have the dueling coaster Stardust Racers, a Constellation Carousel, shopping, dining, a splash area for kids to play in and 26 individual gardens, each with unique theming and plants.
Celestial Park is the central point that leads to the four other themed lands. Besides Dark Universe, fans can enter the Viking Isle of Berk from “How to Train Your Dragon.” A swirling portal acts like a magic gateway to find an interactive boat ride, called Fyre Drill, and thrill rides Dragon Racer’s Rally and Hiccup’s Wing Gliders and an interactive play area called Viking Training Camp.
Another portal leads to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter — Ministry of Magic that will span the magical London offices and the streets of Paris in the 1920s from the more recent “Fantastic Beasts” movies. It has “the most ambitious, groundbreaking ride Universal has ever created,” the park said, where riders are chasing the infamous Dolores Umbridge.
And for the most highly anticipated land, guests will enter Super Nintendo World through the iconic green pipe into the immersive land, where you’ll feel like you have been transported right into the video game with Mount Beanpole, the majestic Peach’s Castle, the swaying Piranha Plants, pacing Goombas, spinning coins and more.
“This is probably the biggest challenge Disney has ever had,” said theme park analyst Dennis Speigel, founder and CEO of International Theme Park Services, an industry consulting company.
Robert Niles, creator of Theme Park Insider, said Disney will always be the dominant player with four theme parks in Florida, and it has added new cruise ships every year to the market. But this big investment by Universal is the company’s best shot to “close the gap” with Disney and maybe become the destination of choice for some families.
Walt Disney World remains the world’s most-visited tourist attraction, with more than 50 million visitors in 2023. Universal is estimated at a distant second at 21 million. But ever since its first Harry Potter land opened in 2010, Universal has been closing in.
For Epic Universe, they are adding a twist to the ticketing mix. You can’t just buy a one-day ticket to see the park. You have to get a multi-day Universal park package, in which only one day is spent at Epic Universe.
Speigel said that’s a smart move. It helps contain the crowds that are expected for a new theme park, and for out-of-state visitors a multiday Universal ticket might make them less likely to view Universal as just an add-on to their Disney trip.
“Disney still is the big 300-pound gorilla, but as Universal continues to expand, it will gnaw into that. It is going to have an impact, no doubt,” Speigel said.
He continued: “Disney is 69 years old with Cinderella and Snow White and Pinocchio, but those are getting old and Universal is coming in with Mario and dragons and the Minions and all those more recent intellectual properties they have grown up with.”
This is why Disney CEO Robert Iger moved the company to snap up Star Wars and Marvel in recent years to refresh their properties, Niles said.
“They knew they had to move to be more relevant to tweens and teenagers beyond the female-driven princess franchises,” Niles said. He said it’s notable how many of Universal’s properties, from the Minions to Harry Potter, Nintendo and How to Train Your Dragon, are more gender-neutral brands.
“It doesn’t skew to gender, which is not necessarily the case with Cars or princesses that have strong gender segregation,” Niles said. “Universal is brilliant at that.”
A year from now, if the Nintendo land draws the record crowds like it has in California and Japan, it may be apparent to Disney that they need to step things up, Spiegel said.
“Disney is desperately in need of a fifth gate with new content to keep up with that.”
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