Disney World President Jeff Vahle Sends Well Wishes to Universal for Epic Universe Launch

16 days ago in "Universal Orlando Resort"

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Epic Universe

Posted: Wednesday May 21, 2025 10:50am ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

With just a day to go before the official opening of Universal Epic Universe, Walt Disney World Resort President Jeff Vahle has publicly offered congratulations to the Universal Orlando team—a notable gesture between two of Central Florida’s biggest theme park competitors.

Vahle shared a post on Instagram featuring a stylized image of Florida with a sunburst backdrop and wrote:

“It takes great passion and dedication to bring new projects to life. Best of luck to the Universal Orlando team with the opening of Epic Universe! Another big win for tourism in Florida.”

The message arrives as Universal prepares for a week of high-profile events celebrating the launch of its fourth Orlando theme park, Epic Universe, which officially opens to the public on Thursday, May 22, 2025.

SUPER NINTENDO WORLD – Super Mario Land

Virtual Grand Opening Events Announced

Universal has invited fans around the world to join in the celebration via two live streams:

Wednesday, May 21 – 6 p.m. to 10 p.m.

Epic Universe Grand Opening Nighttime Celebration Event
A virtual look into the exclusive VIP party, including celebrity arrivals on the “Celestial Carpet,” interviews with creators of the park, first-look footage of the park’s lands and attractions, and a special commemorative finale moment.

How to Train Your Dragon — Isle of Berk – Hiccup’s Wing Gliders

Thursday, May 22 – Beginning at 7:30 a.m.

Epic Universe Grand Opening Day Live Stream
Coverage of opening day as guests are welcomed into the park for the first time, along with a celebratory moment marking the official debut of Epic Universe.

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter — Ministry of Magic

Central Florida Impact

Vahle’s acknowledgment is not just recognition of a major competitor’s milestone, but also underscores the significance of Epic Universe’s opening for the broader tourism industry in Florida. With both Disney and Universal continuing to invest in large-scale projects in Central Florida, the competition is expected to drive increased visitation and spending throughout the region.

Universal Epic Universe features five themed lands: Celestial Park, The Wizarding World of Harry Potter – Ministry of Magic, SUPER NINTENDO WORLD, How to Train Your Dragon – Isle of Berk, and Dark Universe. Guest previews began on April 17, and demand for access has been strong in the lead-up to the full opening.

Dark Universe

As the park opens its gates this week, all eyes—including some from within Disney—will be watching.

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MrPromey3 hours ago

To be fair to Disney face characters where the longer the interaction, the greater the chances of them saying/doing something that would contradict their established character, most of Universal's face walkarounds are not a-lister characters. That's why I liken them to Citizens of Hollywood. They're more like background characters you'd imagine being in their respective things. They can make up their own back-story to stick to and own rather than memorize the one from half a dozen movies. You'll occasionally run into the exception like a Doc Brown wandering around World Expo at Studios but we came across an older couple in the Potter area of Epic and weren't at first certain they weren't just really elaborately dressed fans. They were looking in the windows, he pulled out a wand to do one of the activations. She was seriously reading something on a wall and then people walked up and asked if they could take pictures and - boom, they were on, starting with wanting to know why these strangers would want that and going into a whole conversation about where everyone was from, how it was uncharacteristically warm that day (since, you know, it's not Florida)... and then doing the picture at the end. Obviously, if it was a Harry or Hermione or Dumbledore, that wouldn't have worked and there would have been a mob or a handler managing a line and it would have been just a photo op.

mkt6 hours ago

That’s one of the big differences between Disney and Universal. At Walt Disney World, with a few exceptions, face characters who do meet-and-greets are typically drawn from the general character performer pool. They passed a face character audition, but that’s mostly to confirm they match the physical look of the role. The same performer playing Cinderella on Monday might be suited up as Pluto on Tuesday. They basically get paid the same hospitality industry wages as Pluto or Goofy, with a slight differential for face character that day. At Universal Orlando, face characters are actors. They audition specifically for those roles, often performing monologues and participating in improv exercises. They’re expected to stay in character and improvise on the spot. They have contracts and earn fairly decent salaries. Many also act in local theater productions, and outside of their non-union work at Universal, some are active members of SAG-AFTRA or AEA.

CoastalElite6413 hours ago

wdwfan4ver16 hours ago

While I didn't go to Epic yet, I understand why Yoshi's Adventure so low. The problem is people complain about the length of the ride itself based on what I heard. Those opinions though don't affect me wanting to try the ride in the fall.

JusticeDisney16 hours ago

It’s subjective. I prefer TOT as well.

lazyboy97o16 hours ago

It also includes the previous three world’s most expensive theme parks: Universal Studios Beijing, Shanghai Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySEA.

DarkMetroid56716 hours ago

I don’t think “best park in 25 years” is a particularly bold take. Your competition there is DCA and parks that are the first in their respective market.

MrPromey17 hours ago

For the younger "Disney Adults" who never got to meet Jack Diamond or any of the other Citizens of Hollywood at HWS, this is going to be a difficult concept to grasp because they see a character interaction as that 30 second photo op you wait in line 45-60 minutes for. The idea of coming across a trio of girls from different wizard schools in different uniforms and completely in character wandering around the potter area marveling at what they see in the store windows without a handler and who will stop and have complete conversations with people who walk up to them, basically until the natural end of their conversation is going to be a difficult thing for them to imagine. Similar to those characters sprinkled around isle of Burk who again, will basically improv with anyone who talks to them. Interactions with the monsters are a little less personal but it's pretty obvious that as monsters, they're a bit less approachable in general. The Mario characters you wait in line for but with everything else in that land, I basically had to drag my son out of it both days we were there. He'd have been content spending hours doing the mini games and collecting stamps around the land if left to his own devices.

CntrlFlPete19 hours ago

I think what is missing (when one just looks at Epic) from an attraction stand point is the emersion/entertainment aspect of what Epic captures well. 'Theme park' fans might not rate Mario Kart high but families are spending time in Nintendo land, they are buying power up bands and playing games throughout the land, eating themed food, buying themed merchandise. One thing that SHOULD worry other area destinations, is I hear families saying that the kids don't won't to leave Epic at the end of the day. When I hear a term like 'Disney Adult' and then I see how adults seem to like to dress in theme to things like Vikings and Monsters and then they Harry Potter folks -- Epic seems to give this crowd a wonderful play ground as much as the kids -- the kids, the adults, they all seem to enjoy meeting dragons and Vikings. There are many stories one can learn speaking to the villagers of Darkmore. Anyway, I think there is a lot more to Epic than just the rides that make it tough (for me) to experience it all in a day.

JusticeDisney22 hours ago

To each their own, but absolutely nothing special at all about anything other than the big 3, in my opinion anyway.

ThemeParkTraveller23 hours ago

It's not better than Tokyo DisneySea—but for me, nothing is. That said, I agree otherwise. I do think Epic Universe has the best opening-day attraction roster of any theme park in recent memory—not in terms of quantity, of course, but in quality. Monsters and Ministry alone are worth the price of admission for me.

mkt1 day ago

I've got a kid who doesn't meet the height requirement for many rides. I still stand by the D rating.

Purduevian1 day ago

Yeah, I'm sure everyone's list is a little different, but looking at EPIC, vs DHS, vs AK attraction line up my personal rankings Attraction RankEPICDHSAK 1BATM🥈ROTR🥇FOP🥉 2Monsters🥈ToT🥇Everest🥉 3Stardust🥇MMRR🥉Safari🥈 4Mario Kart🥇SDD🥉Dinosaur🥈 5Hiccups🥈RNRC🥉FotLK🥇 6Minecart🥇MFSR🥈Na'vi🥉 7Untrainable Dragon🥇Toy Story Mania🥈Nemo🥉 8Circus 🥇Indy🥈Gorilla falls🥉 9COTWW🥇 Mermaid🥈Jungle Trek🥉 10Yoshi🥇 Frozen🥈Kali🥉 11Fyre Drill🥇 BATB🥈Feathered Friends🥉 12Dragon Racer's 🥇 Villains🥈Animation class🥉 13Constellation Carousel🥇Vacation fun🥉Affection section🥈 14Viking Training camp🥈Walt Disney Presents🥇Boneyard🥈 15Astronomica🥉Launch Bay🥈 Conservation Station🥇

Agent H1 day ago

I’m still surprised that people rank yoshi’s adventure and Mario kart so low. Yoshi’s adventure is a really cute people mover ride and Mario kart is chaotic and fun in the same way runaway railway is. I think it definitely deserves to be considered an e-ticket and will definitely function that way for the general public.