Orlando Crowning a New King?

Is it possible that we could be seeing movement towards Universal Orlando replacing Walt Disney World as the "King of Amusement Parks" in Orlando FL? I am not sure we are quite ready for that coronation yet, but I would be remiss if I didn't say we may be getting close to that?

Universal has officially announced their grand opening date for their 4th theme park, Epic Universe. Guests will officially be able to visit Epic starting May 22, 2025. In addition, Universal Orlando will also be opening all of three of their newest resort hotels officially by then. The demand for tickets and hotel reservations has been tremendous from all the reports we are seeing.

Meanwhile, over in the Disney camp, their news of taking out the Rivers of America, Tom Sawyer Island and The Liberty Belle was met with some of the most anger we have ever seen out of the Disney faithful. And now it seems that the start date for this renovation has been delayed for various reasons (i.e. permitting, funding etc). And now rumors are stirring that these delays are giving Disney Corp execs time for pause and maybe just maybe they are hearing and listening to their very disgruntled fan base.

Disney has to be noticing the excitement buidling over at Universal Orlando. It's also entirely possible that they are noticing that some of those most excited are the same fans that used to be more excited about anything Disney use to announce. Except for holiday weekends, crowds at WDW have been fairly low throughout the Fall. Needless to say the Disney execs are for sure noticing that and have to be wondering, "are more people putting off their Disney trip now until they get a chance to visit Universal's Epic Universe?" And will fans, who were once loyal Disney fans, start to shift their allegiance and money to UOR?

These are the questions a lot of people are asking and if ticket sales for Epic Universe say anything, they are saying people are are VERY excited about this brand new theme park coming to Orlando. So could this be the beginning of the end of Disney's dominance as the "King of Orlando?" We shall all see soon enough. 2025 will be "epic" no matter what.