Ron DeSantis and big crowds welcome Epic Universe for its grand opening in Orlando

Epic Universe is officially open.

Universal Orlando’s new theme park built from the ground up is welcoming the public Thursday morning, 

Gov. Ron DeSantis, who visited the park Wednesday evening during private ceremonies, said the park will have a major impact for the state.

“Billions and billions of dollars have gone into it. It’s going to be a huge impact economically for Florida,” DeSantis said on X. “But I think even more importantly than that, it’s going to give a lot of memories to a lot of kids.”

Big crowds are expected to descend in Orlando, with some arriving overnight and in the early morning hours to be the first in line. The grand opening coin souvenir was already sold out, according to social media reports.

Universal, Disney’s rival, made the big announcement in 2019 that it planned to build Epic Universe. Epic is located near the Orange County Convention Center, a short drive away from Universal Studios and Universal Islands of Adventure, the company’s other two parks.

‘We are going to make the largest investment we’ve ever made in a park,” said Brian Roberts, CEO of Comcast Corp., which owns Universal theme parks, at a 2019 press conference in Orlando alongside DeSantis, Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings and other Universal leaders.

But Universal — and everyone else — could not have predicted what happened next.

The pandemic wiped out Orlando’s tourism industry in 2020. Universal, along with Orlando’s other theme parks, shut down for about three months before the tourism engine slowly restarted again. Epic Universe’s original 2023 opening got delayed, as Comcast leaders said in Spring 2020 they needed more certainty before they restarted the project.

By early 2021, the dirt was flying and the construction crews were back at work.

“We had paused that during COVID until we felt confident enough that we could see a resumption of a great business,” Roberts said in March 2021. “(Now) we feel that way.”

Epic Universe’s portals will take visitors to lands themed from How To Train Your Dragon, Super Nintendo World, a monsters-themed Dark Universe, Harry Potter and the scenic Celestial Park that Universal advertised as putting the “park” back in a “theme park.”

Epic Universe has been in soft opening for weeks with some waiting up to five hours in line to ride the new Harry Potter ride, according to theme park blog reports.