During today’s earnings/investor call, Thursday October 27, Comcast CEO Brian Roberts confidently predicted that Epic Universe will transform Universal Orlando into more than a two or three day visit.
He commented “I’m especially excited for Epic Universe to open in the summer of 2025, which will transform Universal Orlando into a weeklong destination.”
Should Disney be worried, should they be announcing a fifth gate at Walt Disney World, personally we think they should be doing something, anything in fact!
Announcing at D23 some quickly thought up, back of a napkin blue sky beyond Big Thunder' sketches is not enough!
Already attendances at Universal Orlando are increasing quickly, more and more people are swapping out a vacation at Disney for Universal.
Where before visitors would spend their entire vacation in the Disney bubble, that is not happening so much now.
Disney only have themselves to blame, before they could control guests visiting, by transporting them straight to Walt Disney World from the airport via free Disney transportation, nobody can understand why (except to save money) they stopped it, but the upshot is, people are renting vehicles, and not just going to Disney.
Poor investment is also a major issue, lack of maintenance, lack of any sort of investment except in hotels, and even then...
We only have to look at the embarrassing length of time Tron has taken to be completed, its truly beyond a joke now!
Universal will have just about built an entire theme park in the time Disney will have opened Tron at the rate they are going.
Epic Universe is going to be a game changer for Orlando, and yet it seems Disney could not care less, as long as they are making money for their shareholders who cares?
Well we care, we care for the future of Walt Disney World, perhaps not this year, or next, but 10, 20 years down the line, it's scary to think what position the resort will be in by that point.
Universal have definitely increased the stakes here in Orlando, but will Disney respond, we can only hope they do and soon!
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