Common Orlando Resort is opening the gates to its Common Epic Universe theme park on Thursday, simply in time for Memorial Day weekend. 

The fourth addition to Common Orlando’s Florida portfolio, Epic Universe will open to the general public on Could 22, immersing guests within the worlds of Harry Potter, Tremendous Mario, “Find out how to Practice Your Dragon” and different beloved franchises. Situated southwest of downtown Orlando, Epic Universe is the primary main theme park to open in Florida in additional than 25 years and is predicted to ramp up competitors with Walt Disney World Resort, a fixture in Orlando, Florida, since 1971 when it first opened. 

“Is Epic Universe going to place Disney out of enterprise? Completely not,” mentioned Dennis Speigel, founder and CEO of consulting agency Worldwide Theme Park Providers. “Is it going to place a chink of their armor? Yeah.”

Although official figures haven’t been launched, Speigel estimates that bringing Epic Universe to life value NBCUniversal dad or mum firm $7.7 billion. Comcast posted $8.6 billion in income for its theme park section in 2024, in keeping with a regulatory filing. 

Common Orlando didn’t reply to CBS MoneyWatch’s request for remark.

Although Common announced the launch of Epic Universe in 2019, the idea for the 750-acre theme park was “impressed by the heavens, stars and constellations,” in keeping with the leisure resort chain.

Celestial Park, the “cosmic coronary heart” of the brand new Epic Universe, in keeping with the web site, options “lush greenery, tree-lined walkways and dancing fountains.”

Epic Universe is predicted to be a boon for the native financial system in Orlando, which is known as The Amusement Capital of the World, with deep roots within the tourism trade. In 2024, the amusement park hub welcomed over 75 million guests, in keeping with Visit Orlando, a commerce affiliation. Casandra Matej, president and CEO of Go to Orlando referred to as the opening of Epic Universe an “vital milestone” for the Orlando neighborhood.

Common Orlando has not launched particulars concerning the capability of the park, however Speigel estimates Epic Universe can accommodate roughly 45,000 to 50,000 folks.

With that in thoughts, he tasks the brand new park will draw at the very least 6 million guests a yr, presumably extra, particularly if the financial system settles and other people’s concern about tariffs abates, he mentioned. Nevertheless, different elements might have an effect on these numbers. A brand new survey from Bankrate exhibits that over half of Individuals anticipate to spend much less on journey, eating out or leisure this yr. 

“The park truly has the bodily capability to attract at the very least 8 million folks,” Speigel mentioned. 

This is a glance inside Common Orlando’s latest theme park.

Inside Epic Universe

Guests to the Orlando vacation spot could have the chance to go to 5 completely different “immersive worlds,” every with their very own particular themed eating places, rides and leisure:

• Celestial Park. The primary world visitors will enter and the gateway to different sections of the park, Common Orlando calls Celestial the “coronary heart of Common Epic Universe.”
• Wizarding World of Harry Potter – Ministry of Magic. Set in Nineteen Twenties Paris, the wand-waving world merges particulars from the “Improbable Beasts” movies and the “Harry Potter” movie sequence. The park builds on two different Harry Potter points of interest provided by Common: Diagon Alley at Common Studios Florida, and Hogsmeade at Common Islands of Journey.
• SUPER NINTENDO WORLD. From the second they make their method by way of inexperienced warp pipe, guests can be met with quite a few sights, sounds and characters of the Nintendo online game. Whereas there, they will additionally participate in a Mario Kart race, a experience that provides augmented actuality headsets.
• Find out how to Practice Your Dragon – Isle of Berk. This “rugged, rocky world” inhabited by vikings and dragons is modeled after the DreamWorks film sequence.
• Darkish Universe. Described on the Common web site because the “most mysterious world” of the Epic Universe, Darkish Universe will immerse visitors within the storylines of Dracula, the Wolf Man, Frankenstein and different spooky creatures.

Costs and hours

Ticket costs for the brand new theme park begin at $139.00 for adults and $134.00 for teenagers, earlier than tax. Costs can range relying on the day, the Common Orlando web site notes. 

Theme park hours are someplace between 9 a.m.-10 p.m. EST, according to the location, however fluctuate day by day, so guests ought to examine forward when planning.

An in any other case bizarre business constructing on the nook of eleventh and Most important streets in downtown Los Angeles captured the eye of Los Angeles officers just lately for blasting “Child Shark” to discourage homeless folks.

Shalom Kinds, proprietor of Kinds Barber Lounge and one of many constructing’s tenants mentioned the owner started taking part in the tune on Thursday over a speaker on Most important Avenue only a few ft from a homeless encampment that’s been in place on the sidewalk for greater than a yr. The scenario marks the newest try by property homeowners to maintain homeless people from loitering or sleeping in business zones, a difficulty they are saying threatens enterprise.

“These are thriving companies, we don’t have to have that stuff over right here,” he mentioned of the homeless encampment.

However by Monday, the kids’s tune—a frequent earworm—was no extra. Kinds mentioned the owner instructed him that police had obtained complaints in regards to the music and was prone to being cited for disturbing the peace. He mentioned the owner wished to satisfy with metropolis officers earlier than agreeing to show the music off.

The owner couldn’t instantly be reached for remark. The Los Angeles Police Division didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.

However a spokesperson for Councilwoman Ysabel Jurado, whose district consists of the realm in query, mentioned a gathering with the owner and LAPD had taken place however supplied no additional particulars.

“Our housing and homelessness crises impression everybody on this metropolis—as we navigate this, I implore everybody to steer with care and compassion,” Jurado mentioned in a written assertion. “My crew and I are centered on tackling these points holistically and plan to create long-lasting options to help our unhoused inhabitants nevertheless it’s essential that as we transfer by way of this we don’t lose sight of one another’s humanity.”

Daniel Cruz, a barber at Kinds Barber Lounge, stands outdoors throughout a break at Kinds Barber Lounge on Monday, Might 19, 2025 in Los Angeles, CA.

(Carlin Stiehl/Los Angeles Occasions)

It was a sentiment echoed by Dennis Oleesky, chief government officer of the Los Angeles Mission, who on Monday introduced that it deliberate to crew up with Kinds to host an occasion to supply free haircuts and grooming companies to unhoused folks in downtown.

“We all know the homelessness disaster has created pressure on all sides — for people dwelling on the road and for the enterprise homeowners attempting to function in difficult situations,” Oleesky mentioned. “We commend Shalom for turning a second of frustration into a chance to serve.”

Oleesky mentioned outreach employees will probably be on the occasion to assist individuals who need to get off the road.

“All of us see what’s occurring downtown and typically it feels overwhelming,” Kinds mentioned. “That is our manner of serving to, not simply speaking.”

Tensions between enterprise homeowners and the homeless inhabitants have grown over the previous few years. In 2019, 7-Eleven made headlines when it started taking part in loud classical music to chase away homeless people from its stores. Different companies have deployed planters and fences.

Though the unsheltered inhabitants within the metropolis of L.A. decreased final yr from 32,680 to 29,275, and is projected to decline again this yr, residents and enterprise homeowners proceed to specific frustration with the town’s dealing with of the homelessness disaster.

These frustrations reached new ranges just lately with the findings from a court-ordered audit of the Los Angeles homeless services that discovered the town and the Los Angeles Homeless Companies Authority lacked satisfactory information programs and monetary controls to watch contracts for compliance and efficiency.

Latest investigations by the Occasions into Skid Row Housing Trust and Aids Healthcare Basis revealed properties managed by the 2 nonprofits had been tormented by heating, elevator and electrical energy failures in addition to vermin infestations.

Greater than every week in the past, tenants from a constructing offering everlasting supportive housing in Westlake filed a lawsuit towards the present and former landlords and property managers for creating what they described as “abysmal living conditions.”

Nonetheless, metropolis officers preserve progress is being made.

Kinds Barber Lounge on Monday, Might 19, 2025 in Los Angeles, CA.

(Carlin Stiehl/Los Angeles Occasions)

When Kinds arrived in L.A. to open his barbershop in 2020, the pandemic stymied his plans. A yr later, he mentioned he was capable of begin reducing hair, however by 2022 he and different barbers at his store started to have points with homeless folks within the space.

He mentioned the kids’s tune that the owner had been taking part in was an try to carry the town’s consideration to homelessness drawback within the space.

Close by, at Rage Ground, the place folks pay to vent their anger by breaking dishes and smashing automobiles, at the least one homeless man has defecated and urinated outdoors the enterprise.

Karla Maldonado, 25, an worker on the enterprise, mentioned the person additionally tried to begin fires utilizing trash throughout January’s Palisades and Eaton fires.

“We tried to name 911 however they only hung up on us,” she claimed.

Maldonado mentioned she used buckets of water to douse the flames. She mentioned different homeless folks within the alley alongside the warehouse have stolen brooms and coveralls that she mentioned price as much as $100 every. She estimates at the least 20 have been stolen.

Across the nook from Kinds’ barbershop there’s a small encampment the place about half a dozen folks have been dwelling. Bicycle elements lay in a pile on the sidewalk.

Kenneth Moore, Chy And B Daniels sit at their encampment across the nook from Kinds Barber Lounge on Monday, Might 19, 2025 in Los Angeles, CA.

(Carlin Stiehl/Los Angeles Occasions)

Kenneth Moore, 68, expressed anger and frustration that the enterprise was casting blame on him and others on the encampment for issues that he says don’t have anything to do with the group.

“If it’s in regards to the break-ins, that’s not us,” Kenneth Moore, 68, mentioned. “We don’t tolerate that over right here, we repair bikes to outlive.”

Passing by way of the realm together with his canine, Billy Copeland, 55, got interested within the group’s dialog over homeless companies.

Copeland mentioned just a few months in the past he was sleeping on a avenue between Pico Boulevard and fifteenth Avenue when cleansing crews got here by his block. Fed up, he refused to maneuver.

“All they do is come by and clear up and doc the place individuals are,” he mentioned.

Copeland mentioned he didn’t budge till employees may assist him entry a shelter. He mentioned he’s now at a tiny residence in Eagle Rock, awaiting everlasting housing.

“That was the one manner I may get assist,” Copeland mentioned. “I used to be out right here endlessly, giving my data and all that occurred was them popping out to take my stuff.”

Moore and others say they’ve been ready to be positioned into everlasting housing in some instances for greater than two years.

A spokesman for LAHSA mentioned an outreach crew was on the encampment a month in the past. He mentioned some folks had been positioned in interim housing however left. It was unclear the place they went. LAHSA is anticipated to return to the encampment on Tuesday.

Moore has grown bored with sitting on a wait checklist and being shuffled round by the town.

“You assume we like dwelling like this?” Moore mentioned. “We don’t.”

A homeless man infamous for carrying a loud boombox within the neighborhood stands down the road from Kinds Barber Lounge on Monday, Might 19, 2025 in Los Angeles, CA.

(Carlin Stiehl/Los Angeles Occasions)