Will Disney World Actually Benefit From Epic Universe? | Epic Universe Update

[@remyd8767]

As a theme park fan who loves both Disney and Universal equally, good times are coming between 2025-2030. We get to enjoy Epic Universe and all the new attractions for the next 2-3 years. When that gets "routine" (i won't say stale or old), then the new Disney attractions will show up potentially back to back to back. Along the way, Epic and the legacy Universal parks will get updates themselves. It will be glorious. I cannot wait to plan for the epic (pun fully intended) 14 day vacation , where we spend a week at each resort. Maybe sneak in a day at Sea World and a day at Busch Gardens Tampa. Gotta save up now.

[@cmo0307]

That is a big hope for Disney. Unfortunately Disney is scalping prices and have lost imagineers to Universal and a park that’s going to be built in OK. I don’t see Disney coming back unless they change leadership.

[@remyd8767]

@@cmo0307 hey, life moves on if they are delayed by a few years. It is what it is. There are other theme parks out there that I haven't been to, like Silver Dollar City. I got a huge backlog of parks. I can wait.

[@stephanievitale-ur1vo]

Agree so much money

[@CobbleBompster]

Disney doesn’t have anything promising for this decade.

[@remyd8767]

@@CobbleBompster you're probably right, but I hope you're wrong.

[@tarazieminek1947]

I like everything about Galaxy's edge - I just wish it was bigger with more rides. And I wish they maintained their rides more proactively and I wish they were able to get them consistently working as intended (Rise, especially).

[@jaykay8144]

Also let’s not forget the Galactic Starcruiser “experience” that all said and done, closed in 1.5 years and was at the very least a $300M loss.

[@ninabeena83]

I’ll be very interested to see the DIS financial statements released after Epic opens to see if they mention its impact positively or negatively

[@AmyFedele]

Good points. I also think it may affect Disney hotels. If people spend more time at Universal, they may just Uber over to Disney for a day or two vs staying on site. Esp since Universal hotels are so much cheaper.

[@cameronsommers2784]

Disney had the opportunity to remain on top but threw that down the drain by waiting Universal took that opportunity in 2020 by opening their parks during Covid and now is most likely going to skyrocket because of Epic Universe

[@dorothysmum2016]

Havent been to disneyworld since 2018, have a handful of things my husband and i havent seen. Planning on going to universal for a week in 2026 and then 2days at disney, just to try the new things. The construction is a big eyesore. Looking forward to epic universe!

[@EnzoHenry-xt6mq]

I'm planning for 2039 💀

[@JacxonLRyan]

Omg, Im so glad I found your channel. Wait, so Disney thinks a few new rides over the course of the past decade is supposed to compare to immersive lands with live shows and new innovative rides ? 😂😂😂. Wow, they’re taking reaching to new levels. I was just talking to a Disney fan about epic universe and they were going on about attendance and I had to remind them ‘looking at the overall quality of a themepark by looking at attendance only, is like judging the quality of a movie solely off of box office” 👀 you cant do that 😂 Also initially, I was kinda thrown by the decision to make a How to train your dragon land, but now that I know a live action movie is coming out next year (just saw the trailer, if you havent checked it out, it looks great) but now I get what they’re doing and since it opens next Summer - this land is a perfect addition to that. I truly cant wait for this to open!

[@ducktails1695]

Internally I think Disney is worried about WDW because of Epic Universe. Of course they'll never admit it. I feel confident in saying that if Epic Universe didn't exist Disney wouldn't be releasing a Cars Land and Monsters. A Villains Land I think would have existed anyways. I still feel like they're scrambling and just pulled some already developed shelved rides off the shelf, dusted them off so they had "something" to announce at D23 in August. IMO you can tell these projects were designed to go where they were initially designed so now WDI has to shoehorn these into areas they weren't intended for. It'll be interesting to see if WDW's attendance declines, stagnates or increases. I tend to believe they will either decline or be flat overall. UO is being smart with their ticket packages by forcing families to get multiple day packages in order to get a chance to go to Epic Universe. This will eat into WDW's attendance as there's only so many days people are on vacation (5-7 days). Universal will offer different packages later on, possibly with more EU days. People will also have limited spending and Disney is making it more and more expensive to go to their parks so this could determine how long people go to WDW. It may only be a day or two now instead of 4-5 days during their 7 day stay.

[@kaijuguy19]

If I gotta be honest I doubt Disney's going to benefit that much if at all from Epic Universe given their current reputation's down the toilet. They may have benefitted from Universal's past ambitions but that was back when Disney still had it's park reputation intact. Something that they don't have much anymore.

[@CobbleBompster]

It was back when Disney wasn’t screwed over. Ever since 2020, Disney’s been constantly cutting corners and making wrong moves.

[@Corkyjay]

So depending how word of mouth spreads. 1) epic universe is massively successful and given praise extremely highly and universal becomes the forefront and disney is the secondary 2) epic universe is average but even being new will give a temporary bump in attendees to both 3) epic universe is given bad word of mouth and both lose attendance

[@sarahbennett7235]

It seems like Disney is less interested in maintaining and fixing things that are not working well and just continuing to increase the price of everything. For example ROR- it debuted in 2019 and in every trip we have taken since (4 trips) then we have yet to ride it because it is constantly experiencing shut downs- why would I jump in a long line and then have the ride go down. It has been about 5 years- why has this not been improved??? The last trip in Feb 2024 it went down multiple times per day on both our HS days. We did get a survey and I did indicate cost of ILL and breakdowns/long waits for reason not riding. If they invested money in park maintenance the cost of going would seem more "worth it". I have never been to Universal as we do not ride coasters/big thrill rides. Instead of being ahead of the curve they seem to be reactive to Universal and now we wait 2 years for new lands. Universal seems to making some good choices- loosening disability access in response to Disney's tightening and a better deal by booking a deluxe resort and getting a skip the line pass included. Instead Disney is offering a high priced pass to those that are already paying the most to stay. They could probably make more money in the long run by offering it "free" to deluxe resorts- it may push more families to save and book the higher end room. So instead of a $250/night room they book a $700+/night room. Seems like simple math. I understand there may be more deluxe rooms at WDW so it might not work, but did they even think to look at this? From the outside it looks like more money grabbing and catering to those with higher disposable incomes.

[@stephanievitale-ur1vo]

I think I would go to epic 2 days, universal other parks 3 days and 2 days at Disney magic kingdom and animal kingdom

[@jaykay8144]

At this rate, Universal will surpass Disney in Orlando. Universal has been building new immersive “lands” with tons of new rides and hotels; while Disney is just reskinning old rides and their new “lands” only have like 1 ride and are made solely to try and squeeze money out of the guests with exorbitant price increases for the same (if not even lesser quality) things like ticket prices, food, merch, ect.

[@TheLastJayL]

I don’t think so this time. We are going to Disney this weekend, but only for one day. We are going to Universal as well. We bought passes for Universal and this is our first time going as a family. Disney is losing its mind thinking I’m going to keep paying like they and Universal is practically begging me to come to their park. Universal it is.

[@Nygon08]

i think it will benefit disney in the short term but in the long term it wont

[@GothicNightmareProductions]

I don't think 2025 is going to be that year Epic shines. It's definitely going to be 2026 when Epic has a full year to start flexing. The bookings in 2026 will determine if Disney can innovate and be ambitious like Universal. I love both parks yet I'm more so a Universal stan than Disney because I'm a thrill seeker. Universal interests me more and has been ever since I was a kid. I'm a movie fan especially physical movie fx and make up. Epic Universe is going to be huge in 2026 for vacations and Universal banking on it being a week long thing is something to consider. Universal is no longer going to be that two day visit anymore because with Epic those days are a thing of the past. You got three main parks and one water park (one of the ticket packages includes a day at Volcano Bay). That's already four days. Disney may be the two day visit. Only Disney die hards won't be convinced to visit Universal for that long. Universal is going after the ones who know Disney to be expensive and unaffordable to come to the parks (which is a lot of people because lately people have been disenchanted with Disney).

[@tulinfirenze1990]

I hope not. They don't deserve it.

[@captainAlex258]

there is no pressure on epic universe, disney is done and as for their stock on disney well it should fall

[@tulinfirenze1990]

@@captainAlex258 I want Universal to benefit since they've put in all the work and spent all the money.

[@yankeesusa1]

Disney hasn't done anything meaningful because current execs are cheap and don't care about guest experience. They are only focused on immediate money making by removing things that costs them money. But now that they know Epic is actually looking good and will impact them they are throwing stuff at the wall and trying to make sure they start catching up. Will more people coming to Orlando to epic help Disney, for sure, many people have credit cards and will go to both parks. But there are those that won't. The question now is, how many of those are there?

[@sky0kast0]

I say no I won't go that's my chant on the subject

[@OakForestBoys]

This is called cope lol

[@RealRobGregoire]

I'd tend to agree they will see a rise. People get those 14 day passes for all the parks routinely. Can only go to Epic once.

[@thewalkingdad68]

Well, that's as of right now. Between now and June that could possibly change. Universal themselves has worded on their website that they are open to change their strategies on tickets and passes between now and then. If they aren't selling enough, I'd bet single day tickets do become available for non pass holders and possibly even passes for out of state and Florida residents.

[@RealRobGregoire]

@@thewalkingdad68 still single day though.