Every year is a good year if you're a theme park fan because every year there's something new. Every theme park in the country has to keep delivering new things in order to try to get guests to come back or show up for the first time. However, 2025 is going to be the biggest year in recent theme park history because not only are we getting new rides and attractions, we're getting an entirely new theme park.
2025 will be the year of Universal Experiences and Destinations. Not only will we see the opening of Universal Horror Unleashed in Las Vegas, but in just about six months we will get Epic Universe, the third gate of the Universal Orlando Resort. It simply doesn't get bigger than a brand-new theme park.
With three full theme parks, Universal Orlando will come one step closer to matching the size and the scale of Walt Disney World. It's been suggested that Walt Disney World simply isn't doing enough in 2025 to compete with Universal Orlando and that Disney needs something big to go up against Epic Universe. But that's not the case at all, and here's why...
Disney World Has Added Major Attractions Over The Last Few Years
Disney World may not have any E-ticket attractions coming next year, but part of the reason for that is that it's opened multiple attractions of that scale over the last several years. Post-pandemic, we have seen Walt Disney World open Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind at Epcot as well as the incredible Tron: Light Cycle Run at Magic Kingdom. On the smaller side, we got Remy's Ratatouille Adventure at Epcot and Disney World just opened Tiana's Bayou Adventure, an incredible evolution of the log flume.
For people who visit Disney World often, like Florida locals who live nearby or people like myself who visit as often as possible, all this may already seem like old news. That's simply not the case for your average guest. Even the stuff that's a few years old is still new to most people. It doesn't matter if Walt Disney World hasn't opened a brand new E-ticket attraction in 2025 if you haven't ridden the ones that they opened in 2022 or 2023.
Disney World Has Plenty Of New Stuff Coming In 2025
Walt Disney World may not have a brand new theme park or even a new land opening in 2025, but it's not like the resort is taking the year off. There are plenty of new things coming to Disney World in 2025. In fact, taken all together, Disney World is adding the equivalent of a major new land.
Magic Kingdom is getting an entirely new nighttime parade: Disney Starlight: Dream the Night Away. Fans have been clamoring for a new nighttime parade at Magic Kingdom for years, and they're finally getting it. Adventureland will also see a Pirates of the Caribbean-themed tavern opening late in the year.
Epcot will see its own lounge open next year inside the iconic geodesic sphere of Spaceship Earth. It should be the perfect place to watch fireworks. We'll also see a brand-new version of the popular Test Track attraction that is looking to impress both fans and those nostalgic for the original World of Motion.
At Disney's Hollywood Studios, a new show, Disney Villains: Unfairly Ever After, will bring several classic Disney villains together in one place. We'll also see a brand new version of The Little Mermaid - a Musical Adventure with new songs and new stage effects. Not to be left out, Disney's Animal Kingdom will be debuting a brand new movie Underneath the Tree of Life Zootopia: Better Together.
Certainly, a brand new lounge or a revamped existing attraction are not on the same scale as a brand new theme park, but each of these things is good and a net positive to their respective parks. Disney World will be a bigger and better place by the end of 2025 than it was at the beginning.
You Can’t Compete With A New Theme Park Anyway
But at the end of the day, the simple fact is Disney World Isn't trying to compete with Epic Universe because you can't compete with Epic Universe. It's a brand-new theme park, and short of Disney World building its own brand-new theme park, anything they did would be overshadowed by Epic Universe. It honestly makes sense for Disney World to do a little less in 2025, because "competing" is folly.
If Disney World was showing any indication of not investing in the parks over the long term, that would be one thing, but that's not the case. Over the next several years, we're getting a new Villains Land in Magic Kingdom, a Monsters Inc. land at Hollywood Studios, a revamped Frontierland, a new Tropical Americas land at Disney's Animal Kingdom, and who even knows what else? The idea that Disney World needs something particularly incredible during this particular year is nuts. The theme park business is a marathon, not a sprint.
When it opens next summer, Universal Orlando's attendance will see a significant increase. But the fact of the matter is Disney World is not in any major danger. While vacationers might be making a trip to Florida specifically to experience Epic Universe, there's a pretty good chance that a lot of them will stop by Disney World at least for a little while.
And Disney World Is still Disney World. it's still bigger and has more to offer anybody who is looking for a theme park vacation. Some experiences can only be had at Walt Disney World. The idea that everybody vacationing in Orlando is going to run off to Epic Universe and never visit Disney World again seems a little short-sighted.
How the opening of Epic Universe will impact Walt Disney World still remains to be seen. Personally, I'm still not convinced that Disney World won't see an increase in attendance and revenue next year thanks to the bump in tourists that are brought in because of Epic Universe. But even if Disney World sees a dip, that's likely to be a short-term problem and there was very little that Disney World was ever going to be able to do to combat it.
It's natural for there to be a little competition between businesses doing the same thing in the same place. Walt Disney World and Universal Orlando Resort will always be competitors, but the fact is that as long as they're both making money, they can both succeed. It's not a zero-sum game. There doesn't need to be a winner. The only real winners are the theme park fans, because we get it all.
