Destination detour

Wearing a thin black T-shirt and denim shorts to beat the May humidity, Orlando local and mother of five Amber Shimel walked through the freshly painted green-and-gold gates of Epic Universe, Universal’s newest theme park.

“I’ve been to so, so many theme parks … and I really was speechless when we walked into that Ministry of Magic,” she said, referring to a Harry Potter–themed attraction. Inspired by franchises like How To Train Your Dragon and Nintendo, the five-world park officially opened several weeks after the seven-member Shimel family visited during one of its preview days.

The entire Shimel family already has annual passes to Disney World, but only Amber’s two sons have annual passes to Universal. But if Epic Universe becomes part of Universal’s annual pass package, Amber thinks she might get her own.

The new theme park is the latest salvo in the long-standing rivalry between Universal and Disney for American family vacation dollars. But as the rival resorts keep one-upping each other with new rides and lands, prices continue to rise. That has prompted some theme park lovers to opt for smaller, more affordable destinations.

Universal has long been Disney’s main theme park competitor. Disney opened its first park in Anaheim, Calif., in 1955. Universal Studios Hollywood opened nine years later.

But it’s the rivalry in Orlando that’s really heated up. Disney ruled the central Florida theme park scene for 18 years, but in 1990, Universal opened Universal Studios, just a year after Disney showcased MGM (now Hollywood) Studios. In 1998, Disney opened Animal Kingdom. A year later, Universal opened its second Orlando theme park, Islands of Adventure.

Disney is still the largest player in the theme park industry. Compared with Universal’s 19.7 million Orlando visitors in 2023, Disney World hosted 48.6 million tourists.

That’s not quite back to pre-pandemic levels. Disney’s Orlando theme parks welcomed about 58 million tourists in 2019. But visits to Disney World are climbing. During an earnings conference call in May, Disney CFO Hugh Johnston announced Disney World bookings for this year’s third and fourth quarters were up 4% and 7%, respectively.

That’s still a modest rise, partly by design. During the same earnings call, CEO Bob Iger said the company intentionally limits the number of visitors, “because we don’t want to decrease the guest experience.”

Some families may be visiting less frequently because of the sheer expense of a Disney vacation. According to FinanceBuzz, average ticket prices for Disney’s North American parks have gone up 69% since 2015. “Disney is mostly concerned with maximizing revenue, not maximizing visitor volume,” said Len Testa, president of TouringPlans, an agency that helps families schedule trips to Disney and Universal attractions.

Amy Lee / Alamy

A family of four can expect to spend between $6,000 and $10,000 for a seven-­day trip to Disney World.

Until now, families traveling to Orlando for theme parks might spend a day or two at Universal and the rest of the time at Disney World. With the addition of Epic Universe, Universal now has three theme parks and a water park, enough attractions for a multiday getaway.

Some industry insiders speculate that Epic Universe could snatch about 1 million visitors from Disney World over the next two years.

To upgrade its theme park game, Disney announced plans in 2023 to spend $60 billion over the next 10 years to improve its experiences. Those upgrades likely will drive up costs even more.

That may be why some families are gravitating to smaller destinations.

In 2023, Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio; SeaWorld San Diego; and Six Flags in Valencia, Calif., all reported crowd surges of over 8% from the previous year. That same year, visits to Disney World’s parks grew by just 4% while attendance at Universal’s two Orlando parks dropped by 9%.

“Where these smaller parks are most successful is actually away from the larger parks,” said Beth Novak, a professor of media arts at Ohio State University. “Not only are the large parks expensive, but getting to them is expensive.”

Since 2015, parks like Kings Island, Busch Gardens, and Hersheypark have either increased their ticket prices by less than 10% or discounted them.

Hersheypark in Pennsylvania was packed with families when Carissa Baker, a professor of theme park and attraction management at the University of Central Florida, visited in July.

Although smaller parks may see some attendance gains from families who can’t swing frequent Orlando excursions, Baker says trips to Disney World and Universal have long been a once-in-a-childhood experience, and that isn’t likely to change. She says it’s too early to predict how the addition of Epic Universe will affect the price tag of a Disney World vacation. But Universal’s newest park, which she has visited eight times already, probably won’t affect prices enough to deter most die-hard theme park lovers from planning at least one trip.

“The reality is, the families that really want to go to these places, they will save up,” Baker said.