Epic Universe opens as Universal leans into parks, takes on Disney

ORLANDO, Florida — With the grand opening of Epic Universe on Thursday, Comcast is positioning its Universal Studios Orlando Resort as a destination, not a pit stop.

For years, Universal’s Florida-based resort has played second fiddle to rival Disney. While it boasted three theme parks — Universal Studios Florida, Universal Islands of Adventure and water park Volcano Bay — and a handful of hotels, it wasn’t viewed as a destination.

“This fourth gate changes everything,” said Karen Irwin, president of Universal Orlando Resort. “It not only cements us as more than a full-week destination vacation, but it also adds three hotels to the resort.”

Epic Universe opens at a time of economic uncertainty in the U.S., as President Donald Trump has instituted a wide range of ever-changing tariffs that have stoked fears about a global trade war, sent the stock market on its own roller-coaster ride and has threatened to tip the American economy into a recession.

The U.S. has already seen a slump in air travel, particularly from international travelers. While those guests are small subset of overall visitors to central Florida, they often spend a longer period of time staying at hotels and visiting theme parks and spend more money on food and merchandise.

“When there’s consumer uncertainty, the parks tend to feel it,” Jason Armstrong, chief financial officer at Comcast, said during a MoffettNathanson conference last week. “They tend to snap back really quickly, but they do tend to feel that.”

“On parks, whether it’s current attendance trends or bookings — which, bookings aren’t a perfect window, but they are the window you have — there’s nothing that’s showing up in the bookings trends so far that would indicate any pressure,” he added. “That’s true in Orlando. It’s true internationally.”

Those who are most budget-conscious may have already been priced out of the theme park market, Craig Moffett, co-founder and senior analyst at MoffettNathanson, told CNBC.

“There was a time when visiting a theme park was a mass-market vacation,” he said. “It’s arguably too expensive for that to be the case anymore. The tickets alone can run a family a thousand dollars or more for a multiday visit, and that’s before hotels and meals. Perhaps that’s why we’re not seeing as much economic sensitivity as we might have expected.”

In spite of these economic headwinds, Epic Universe is expected to draw in millions of visitors, bolster theme park revenue for Universal, as well…