Universal UK

[Jon81uk]

It wasn't a bad location, it was prime real estate in a busy heartland.

The London resort plan was a terrible location for a theme park with badly congested road links (due to being next to the only crossing of the Thames for miles) and not enough existing rail infrastructure. Compare it to the new Universal plan which is close to a main road links to a motorway that likely can handle some additional traffic and two rail lines nearby.

Same with the London Sphere, stopped because residents miles away didn't want Light - even though there was no residential building anywhere near it.

Plenty of residential buildings in the Olympic park and the wider Stratford areas. Why couldn’t the Sphere exist as just a venue without the screens on the outside?

The tunnelling to protect views for HS2 is stupid, but not the wildlife protection. Just because rail lines in the US don’t even have sufficient protection for humans doesn’t mean the UK shouldn’t look out for humans and wildlife.

 

[DonniePeverley]

The London resort plan was a terrible location for a theme park with badly congested road links

In regards to being in a prime location for any attraction, it was in a prime location. The reason it did not go ahead was not because of the location.

Why couldn’t the Sphere exist as just a venue without the screens on the outside?

Good grief. You'll be saying why can't Universal just build a theme park without coasters next.

The tunnelling to protect views for HS2 is stupid, but not the wildlife protection. Just because rail lines in the US don’t even have sufficient protection for humans doesn’t mean the UK shouldn’t look out for humans and wildlife.

Yes waste millions in tunnelling. Hold up the project for nearly a year to build a tunnel costing millions to protect bats. The same bats that cannot now not be found. Wildlife over jobs, and investment in the UK. These weren't some protected species. If a bat flew anywhere near a home in the UK people would scream the door down, yet here we were wasting tax payers money on bats. That's just an example too. I've seen projects being held up for months whilst a pigeons eggs hatched. That's rite, a pigeon.

 

[Jon81uk]

Good grief. You'll be saying why can't Universal just build a theme park without coasters next.

They did about 35 years ago. In fact they had two parks on opposite US coasts with no rollercoasters.

But in terms of The Sphere, if you are sat inside for a concert or game, what benefit does having a screen on the outside make? If it’s a good quality arena then the advert screen makes zero difference.

 

[DonniePeverley]

They did about 35 years ago. In fact they had two parks on opposite US coasts with no rollercoasters.

But in terms of The Sphere, if you are sat inside for a concert or game, what benefit does having a screen on the outside make? If it’s a good quality arena then the advert screen makes zero difference.

The whole point of the sphere is the outdoor screen.

 

[BrianLo]

So real talk. They are going to need to spend 10 billion dollars to do this well. I wonder if we’ll get a figure at any point. I don’t know if the UK requires any sort of disclosures upfront.

How much they clam up after Epic is going to impact how this ultimately comes off.

 

[FutureCEO]

UK Universal Studios theme park set to get go-ahead in market town within weeks

The four-zone park and 500 room hotel is expected to create 20,000 jobs during construction, boost local businesses and pump £50 billion in to the UK economy

www.mirror.co.uk

 

[Stitchon]

UK Universal Studios theme park set to get go-ahead in market town within weeks

The four-zone park and 500 room hotel is expected to create 20,000 jobs during construction, boost local businesses and pump £50 billion in to the UK economy

www.mirror.co.uk

Given the ongoing contraction within the UK amusement park industry, I'm really interested on seeing how operators (particularly Merlin) respond to this. And of course, this may also affect Disneyland Paris and other European competition somewhat.

 

[BrianLo]

Full warning, I'm about to read a whole lot into a whole lot of nothing. A couple of things stand out to me.

1) I wonder if they are using Epic's skeleton as a placeholder for approval. Four Zones, a central hub, a hotel with identical room count to Helios? Zones is an incredibly weird choice of word. Do we have a public Celestial park like space and then four actual gates?

2) Major Red flag; 500 rooms does not spark confidence in a new resort. I'm all for prudence following Paris. Hong Kong opened with 1000 Disney owned rooms and SDL 1220. Epic has 2000. Universal Kids 300.

 

[lazyboy97o]

1) I wonder if they are using Epic's skeleton as a placeholder for approval. Four Zones, a central hub, a hotel with identical room count to Helios? Zones is an incredibly weird choice of word. Do we have a public Celestial park like space and then four actual gates?

I don’t think they’re that stupid.

 

[mkt]

Full warning, I'm about to read a whole lot into a whole lot of nothing. A couple of things stand out to me.

1) I wonder if they are using Epic's skeleton as a placeholder for approval. Four Zones, a central hub, a hotel with identical room count to Helios? Zones is an incredibly weird choice of word. Do we have a public Celestial park like space and then four actual gates?

2) Major Red flag; 500 rooms does not spark confidence in a new resort. I'm all for prudence following Paris. Hong Kong opened with 1000 Disney owned rooms and SDL 1220. Epic has 2000. Universal Kids 300.

They don't have near enough land to do a big resort.

 

[BrianLo]

They don't have near enough land to do a big resort.

Is there significantly less land than Hong Kong? Asking, I don’t know.

 

[Agent H]

I don’t think they’re that stupid.

Why would that be stupid?

 

[mkt]

Is there significantly less land than Hong Kong? Asking, I don’t know.

More actually.

 

[BrianLo]

Why would that be stupid?

It’s terrible operational design. You’d need banks of gates in front of every land.

 

[lazyboy97o]

Why would that be stupid?

It’s terrible operational design. You’d need banks of gates in front of every land.

I was referring to the idea of using Epic Universe as a planning placeholder. It’s both too big (physical size) and too small (capacity). The scale is just not the same and using it would rightfully be seen as a bait and switch.

Celestial Park being a sort of CityWalk with the other lands requiring admission was a real idea. It just didn’t actually last that long. It was dead by the time the project was really moving forward. I’d be surprised to see it considered again so quickly.

 

[Agent H]

So here’s an interesting conversation starter. There’s almost certainly going to be a Jurassic World land in this park. Do we think that they will clone the ride from Hollywood the ride from Asia or design something new entirely?

 

[Robbiem]

So here’s an interesting conversation starter. There’s almost certainly going to be a Jurassic World land in this park. Do we think that they will clone the ride from Hollywood the ride from Asia or design something new entirely?

I suspect something like the Jurassic World ride from Beijing.

Does anyone know what the Harry Potter situation is? We already have a Warner Bros Harry Potter studio tour nearby so I don’t know if Uni can have a Potterland. They do have both in Japan but the tour is in Tokyo not Osaka.

If Uni could do a deal with Amazon for James Bond or maybe ardman for Wallace and Gromit and combine them with some classic Uni like Jurassic World, Minions, monster verse you could have an interesting park with local and international appeal

 

[Agent H]

I suspect something like the Jurassic World ride from Beijing.

Does anyone know what the Harry Potter situation is? We already have a Warner Bros Harry Potter studio tour nearby so I don’t know if Uni can have a Potterland. They do have both in Japan but the tour is in Tokyo not Osaka.

If Uni could do a deal with Amazon for James Bond or maybe ardman for Wallace and Gromit and combine them with some classic Uni like Jurassic World, Minions, monster verse you could have an interesting park with local and international appeal

What keeps me from thinking that they will just clone the ride from Beijing is the fact that it’s that parks only exclusive E-ticket ride.

 

[mkt]

So here’s an interesting conversation starter. There’s almost certainly going to be a Jurassic World land in this park. Do we think that they will clone the ride from Hollywood the ride from Asia or design something new entirely?

What keeps me from thinking that they will just clone the ride from Beijing is the fact that it’s that parks only exclusive E-ticket ride.

I'd lean towards saying there will be minimal, if any clones of US attractions.

 

[lazyboy97o]

What keeps me from thinking that they will just clone the ride from Beijing is the fact that it’s that parks only exclusive E-ticket ride.

That’s not really a concern.

I'd lean towards saying there will be minimal, if any clones of US attractions.

Except Minion Mayhem which someone has somehow decided to be at every Studios park. Can’t let this park be left out.