By coinnews 
00:00 Speaker A
Universal Studios Epic Universe park is officially open for business. The first guests entered the park this morning. The 750 acre expansion costs an estimated $7 billion and adds five themed worlds to the company’s Orlando Park. Here to break down everything you need to know. We’ve got Yahoo Finance senior reporter, Allie Canal and our resident amusement parker.
00:22 Allie Canal
Yeah, I wish I got to go to the opening, Brad.
00:25 Speaker A
Why? Why aren’t you here?
00:27 Allie Canal
I know, come on, Yahoo! Finance. Send me to the opening, but, no, this is the most aggressive and ambitious theme park expansion for Universal to date. You mentioned those five immersive worlds or lands. That includes Super Nintendo World, Dark Universe, How to Train Your Dragon, Ministry of Magic, which is a Harry Potter themed world, along with Celestial Park and that will be the central hub. And this really positions Universal as a direct competitor to Disney here instead of it just being a two-day add-on for your Disney vacation. This can now be a week long vacation destination because the park now includes three new hotels that adds 2,000 rooms here in Orlando and that brings Universal’s total to around 11,000 compared to Disney’s roughly 30,000. So still very small on a relative basis, but it is expected to attract over 5 million visitors in 2025 and nearly 10 million by 2026. So this is a big deal for Comcast. We are seeing shares off a bit down around 1% at this point, but it’s going to be interesting to hear the commentary over the coming months and see how people really respond to this.
01:54 Speaker A
Is Disney shaking in their big ears right now?
01:58 Allie Canal
That’s the big question and it’s been a question for a few months, and the biggest risk would be cannibalization, right? Between the two parks. Uh, on the Disney front, park chairman Josh tomorrow, he really shrugged that off saying that they actually think Epic Universe is going to expand the Orlando market, not take away from Disney’s share. He emphasized the fact that the park’s business and the studio side of the company, they’re very linked. So people go to the parks to see the characters, to be reminded of the stories, and that’s a competitive advantage for Disney. And then overall, they have ambitious plans on their park side as well. They plan to invest $60 billion in experiences over the next decade. They say there’s significant land opportunity, they have cited strong return on investment there, new technologies along with some operational flexibility as well. And we talk a lot about the consumer and the potential squeeze back there when it comes to discretionary spending, but so far, forward bookings, especially in Florida, they’ve remained very strong. And then for on the ticket price front, Epic starts around $139. That’s very comparable to Disney. So it shows that premium positioning there. So we’ll learn more in the coming months and really into the fall how these parks are performing, but analysts seem to be bullish on both opportunities, right? That the live experience, those types of events, going to these theme parks, that’s what consumers want right now. A big risk to that though, of course, is if there’s any, you know, further, I guess deterioration on the economic front.
04:04 Speaker A
Yeah, 15 seconds or less pricing front. How do we see this kind of competing long term knowing consumers are kind of pulling back a little bit.
04:14 Allie Canal
Yeah, there’s multi-day ticket pricing, $140 to enter the park. I mean, it’s not cheap to do these types of experiences, but even if you look on the cruise side of the business for Disney, that’s sold out considerably every single time. So, people are still spending at least on these experiences. We’ll see if that changes.
04:37 Speaker A
Sounds like I’ll be heading back to Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. Allie, thanks so much for taking the time.
04:43 Allie Canal
Of course.
04:44 Speaker A
Appreciate it.