Epic Universe: Exec mixes arts, engineering in theme park roles

[Disney4me]

Jeff Polk was born and raised in Orlando, but he didn’t daydream about running a new theme park one day.

Despite flirtations with being a professional clarinet player, dabbling in multiple majors at UCF and an early park gig selling fish food, Polk today is executive vice president and general manager of Epic Universe, the first theme park to open in Orlando in a generation.

He started working at Universal Orlando in 1990. For the past eight years, he has been focused on making Epic Universe a reality. The park’s official grand opening arrives May 22.

In retrospect, there were signs from his childhood living on Lake Conway. At around age 7, he produced puppet shows for neighborhood kids, and he’d use a wagon tied to his tricycle to transport audience members, a sort of shuttle starter set.

“I didn’t carry any of that, really, forward in my mind, other than I enjoyed the aspect of putting this whole thing together but then having a creative endeavor in the end,” Polk said during an interview at the Atlantic restaurant, which sits near the center of Epic Universe.

“If I look back on it now, that is what this is,” he said.

Pictures: A first look at Universal Epic Universe

As a teenager, he landed a job at SeaWorld Orlando. He swept sidewalks, worked on rides and interacted with park guests.

“Like many folks that grew up in Orlando, that’s kind of where you end up — because there’s tens of thousands of people working in theme parks,” Polk said.

After graduating from Orlando’s Oak Ridge High School, he enrolled at the University of Central Florida with a double major in music performance and civil engineering, then considered photojournalism and computer science. Eventually, he played in the UCF wind ensemble and pondered a career as a professional musician.

“But I also was a math kid, and I liked engineering,” he said.

While enrolled at UCF, he started working at Universal. It was the opening year of Universal Studios theme park.

“I started working as an operations supervisor, and it took over my life. … I was here 15 hours a day, seven days a week, for months at a time when we were opening,” Polk said. “1990 was a great learning experience.”

He was promoted to run the front gate of the park.

“I sold fish out of an igloo cooler at SeaWorld. That was the extent of my cash-handling expertise,” Polk said. He suspects that his bosses admired his even-headedness.

“It takes a lot to get me really wound up,” he said. “I think they kind of liked that, especially in a business at that time. … It was exploding in every direction.”

Work-life disrupted his higher education, spreading his UCF studies over nine years, he said.

“I was in the whole ‘U Can’t Finish’ category – and it was true,” he said.

Polk’s career path took him to Universal projects in Japan and Dubai. After returning to Orlando, he had a stint at Wet ‘n’ Wild water park in preparation for the development and opening of Volcano Bay water park, where he was general manager.

A few months after Volcano Bay debuted, he joined Team Epic.

“I’ve become kind of the park-opener guy now, I guess,” Polk said.

Jeff Polk, general manager of Epic Universe, talks about the theme park at Atlantic restaurant. He has balanced artistic interests with engineering and operational ones in his Universal roles. (Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda/Orlando Sentinel)

He was embedded with the creative design team, and he started “programming” the park, he said. That included essential questions and details both mega and mundane, such as the width of sidewalks, a modernized front-gate experience, interaction with the on-site hotel, the capacity of ride queues and the look of restrooms.

His background in the arts and engineering plus previous parks experience have helped him in his roles.

“I’m taking all of these creative endeavors where I have opinions about the colors of things and the looks of things and how they make you feel,” Polk said. “But I also am very into ‘What is the chemical composition of that pool water? And where does that water go when it goes down that drain?’”

As Epic geared up, he was coordinating several experts in entertainment, merchandise, food, retail, technology and other fields, he said.

“I always tell the creative team, I’m here to help you get what you want in a way that we can provide to the consumer … and we can maintain it and operate but at the same time delivering a creative experience,” he said.

In the weeks leading up to Epic’s opening, Polk took morning walking tours of the Epic grounds, making visual progress reports. He liked what he saw.

“When we go build something new, we usually feel good if we’re at 70-75% of what we really envisioned,” he said. “This park is at like 95 to almost close to 100% of what we envisioned.”

Epic Universe visitors take in the surroundings of the Super Nintendo World. during a preview day for the park. (Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda/Orlando Sentinel)

His happy places inside Epic Universe are spots where, for the first time, visitors see Super Nintendo World or How to Train Your Dragon – Isle of Berk.

“My satisfaction comes out of this place, and seeing it grow into what it is,” he said.

But wait, there’s more, Polk said.

“We have a lot of stuff we want to do here over the next five, 10 years and to make it even better,” he said. “It’s never finished. So, for me, it’s just unfinished business.”

Epic Universe preview: An early walk (and rides) in the park

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