Jeff Polk was born and raised in Orlando, but he never fantasized about running a new theme park someday.
Despite being a professional clarinet player and cheating, an early park gig that dabbles in multiple majors at UCF and selling fish food, Polk is executive vice president and general manager of Epic Universe.
He began working at Universal Orlando in 1990. For the past eight years he has focused on making the epic universe a reality. The park’s official grand opening will arrive on May 22nd.
Looking back, there were signs from his childhood living at Lake Conway. At about the age of seven, he produced puppet shows for children in the neighborhood, using a wagon tied to a tricycle to transport audiences, a kind of shuttle starter set.
“I enjoyed the aspect of bringing it all together, but I really didn’t have that before other than enjoying the creative endeavor,” Polk said in an interview at the Atlantic Restaurant, near the centre of the epic universe.
“Looking back now, that’s what this is,” he said.
Photo: The first look of the Universal Epic Universe
As a teenager, he got a job at Sea World Orlando. He swept the sidewalks, worked on rides and interacted with park guests.
“Like a lot of people who grew up in Orlando, it’s like you’re the kind of thing that ends up, because tens of thousands of people work in theme parks,” Polk said.
After graduating from Oak Ridge High School in Orlando, he enrolled at the University of Central Florida with a double major in music performance and civil engineering, and was later considered photojournalism and computer science. Ultimately, he played for the UCF Wind Ensemble and pondered his career as a professional musician.
“But I was also a math kid and I loved engineering,” he said.
While registering with UCF, he began working for Universal. It was the opening year for Universal Studios theme park.
“I started working as an operational supervisor, and it took over my life. …I was here for a few months, 15 hours a day, seven days a week, when we were open,” Polk said. “1990 was a great learning experience.”
He was promoted to run the main gate of the park.
“I sold fish from SeaWorld’s Igloo coolers, and that was within my range of cash processing expertise,” Polk said. He suspects that his boss praised his accidental head.
“It takes a lot of time to really get me rolled up,” he said. “I think they liked it, especially in business back then. … it was exploding in all directions.”
Work-life disrupted his higher education and spread UCF’s research over nine years, he said.
“I was in the ‘U Can’t Finish’ category overall. That was true,” he said.
Polk’s career path took him to a universal project in Japan and Dubai. After returning to Orlando, he gave Wet and Wild Water Park a stint in preparation for the development and opening of the Volcanic Bay Water Park, where he served as general manager.
A few months after Volcano Bay debuted, he joined Team Epic.
“I think I’m now a park opener guy,” Polk said.
He was embedded in the creative design team and began “programming” the park, he said. It includes essential questions and details for both mega and mandan, including the width of the sidewalk, the modernized front gate experience, interaction with on-site hotels, the ability to ride cues, and the appearance of the toilet.
His background in arts and engineering and previous park experiences has served his role.
“I’m taking all of these creative efforts that have an opinion on the colour of things and the colour of things and the appearance of things and how they make you feel,” Polk said. “But I was like, “What is the chemical composition of the water in that pool? And where does that water go down that drain?”
When the spectacular preparations were ready, he said he was coordinating several experts in entertainment, merchandise, food, retail, technology and other areas.
“I always talk to the creative team. I’m here to help you get what you want in the way you can provide to the consumer. And we can maintain and run it, but at the same time provide a creative experience,” he said.
In the weeks leading up to the opening of Epic, Polk took on a morning walking tour of Epic Grounds and produced a visual progress report. He liked what he saw.
“When we make something new, if we’re 70-75% of what we really imagined, we usually feel good,” he said. “This park is almost 100% like 95 years old, what we imagined.”
His happy place within the epic universe is the spot for the first time where visitors will see how to train the world of Super Nintendo and the island of Berk, a way to train your dragon.
“My satisfaction comes out of this place and sees it grow into what it is,” he said.
But wait, there’s more, Polk said.
“We have a lot to do here over the next five or ten years and there’s a lot to make that even better,” he said. “It’s never finished, so for me it’s just an unfinished business.”
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