My one trip to Epic Universe resulted in 9 visits to Disney World parks

I went to Orlando for the first time last summer for the primary purpose of visiting Epic Universe. After watching it be constructed for months, I was determined not to sit on the sidelines and wait years to actually visit.

In the runup to its grand opening, there was a lot of talk about how it was going to impact the Orlando theme park market. Would it siphon off attendance from Disney World or be a rising tide that lifts all boats?

My family is just one data point, but it was definitely the latter and then some. In the summer we spent 4 parks days at Disney World before visiting Epic Universe, and now we have another 5 days booked at WDW for February because we loved it so much. We're actually opting not to visit Epic Universe in February because it'll be Presidents' Day weekend, and the park couldn't even handle a weekday in the summer, and we feel WDW is better at handling crowds.

We'll get to Epic Universe again someday, but it ended up being Disney World's gain. Without Epic, we wouldn't have visited Florida, content with Disneyland and the other parks here in Southern CA. Despite Epic being the primary reason we visited, it ended up being the least enjoyable day. Epcot and Islands of Adventure were tied for the best day.

I do think 2026 is going to be a down year for Disney World, but that'll have more to do with construction than anything Epic is doing.