Universal's $7 Billion Theme Park Sparks Arms Race With Disney

Epic's Debut Comes as Some Americans Are Scaling Back Vacation Plans Amid Economic Concerns

- Jacob Passy

It was an experience straight out of a fairy tale: the chance to meet a dragon.

One by one, visitors walked up to an inky black creature named Toothless. When a visitor stroked the top of his head, Toothless closed his eyes and sighed a calm, blissful sound that prompted smiles, laughs, and even tears from the crowd.

There was no puppeteer pulling strings, no human inside a costume. It was just like being in "How to Train Your Dragon," and that is the point at Epic Universe, a new theme park that opens Thursday.

Toothless is the first theme-park character guests can interact with and touch that is animatronic, like the realistic robotic figures often used in rides and other attractions.

Another dragon flies above the park via drone.

Riding a carousel feels like floating among the night sky's constellations.

Flying on a magic elevator alongside Harry Potter to escape a charging Erumpent, a magical creature that resembles a rhinoceros, is stomach churning.

Punching power-up blocks while walking through Super Nintendo World is a video gamer's fantasy.

For about $7 billion, Universal's parent, Comcast, has built the first major U.S. amusement park to open in over two decades.

It is trying to feel like the theme park of the future.

The company invested in the highest-end technology to create immersive experiences and rides that make Walt Disney World's Jungle Cruise and Pirates of the Caribbean seem like museum pieces.

Universal secured over 160 patents in developing the park.

The goal in the theme park arms race is vacation-destination supremacy.

The new park sits on a 750-acre site and is part of an effort to transform the existing Universal Orlando Resort into a weeklong destination, said Mark Woodbury, chief executive officer of Universal Destinations and Experiences, the division of Comcast NBCUniversal that operates the company's theme parks around the globe.