• ℹ️ Heads up...

    This is a popular topic that is fast moving Guest - before posting, please ensure that you check out the first post in the topic for a quick reminder of guidelines, and importantly a summary of the known facts and information so far. Thanks.

2026: General Discussion

Although on the app

It states:
Runaway Mine Train
Monorail
And Skyride as down for opening

Could it be simply they were like this for last weekend and simply hidden on the app. Furthermore haven't been updated on the app for this weekend.
 
Hid said:
Although on the app

It states:
Runaway Mine Train
Monorail
And Skyride as down for opening

Could it be simply they were like this for last weekend and simply hidden on the app. Furthermore haven't been updated on the app for this weekend.
Click to expand...
It could be, but it's quite unlikely. Given that this is basically now how every season starts, I wouldn't be expecting to ride any of these if you're visiting this weekend.

Maybe the week after, if you're lucky.
 
Mick said:
I imagine the freedom of designing a brand new Universal theme park or some of the areas and attractions inside it slightly outweighs the attraction of spray painting some letters and numbers on the side of shipping containers.
Click to expand...
There may not be any more freedom in designing a new area at Universal compared to designing one at Chessington, Gardaland or Alton Towers.
 
jon81uk said:
There may not be any more freedom in designing a new area at Universal compared to designing one at Chessington, Gardaland or Alton Towers.
Click to expand...
True, freedom probably wasn’t the correct wording as I imagine Universal has to follow very prescriptive measures. A bigger company sometimes means more autonomy and less individual creativity.

I meant more along the lines of being able to showcase something of the quality of, say, Isle of Berk, and be like ‘I helped turn this into reality’ - compared to A World of David Walliams which had to be delivered to a shoestring!
 
Nerdsticks said:
Shame, as a fellow Level Four Guest ™, I was hoping for more meta references very subtly sprinkled across all Merlin parks.
Click to expand...
The interview that he did with The Guardian to promote Hyperia was the first time that I had ever heard of 'levels'; is this an industry-wide term, or just one that is specific to JB and/or Merlin?

I am probably a Level 0 or Level 1 (if not a negative 1) as I am mainly just interested in the ride hardware; if anything, some of the 'theming' actually makes the rides worse at times - such as the painfully loud laughter on The Smiler, and the unskippable - albeit entertaining - pre-show for Wicker Man.
 
KolonelKlink said:
Imagine pretty short odds on John having joined the Bedford brigade:


From: https://x.com/olibarnacle/status/2031755431220044193?s=46&t=OuG-53CJRHzzDVEPmDXGSg
Click to expand...

It seems that the tweet has been deleted, for some reason?

For what it's worth: I believe that Bradley Wynne helped to recruit John Burton into the Merlin creative team, and Bradley joined Universal a few months ago, and so it's not inconceivable that Bradley might help to bring John Burton into Universal as well (although - as others have pointed out - John Burton also has connections to Bianca Sammut in the UAE as well).

The only caveat is that Bradley Wynne is apparently the Creative Director, and thus John Burton would presumably be taking a demotion from his current position in Merlin if he were to join Universal?

Also: Universal may be different from Merlin in that I assume that many of the ideas come directly from the corporate overlords in America, and so I'm not sure how much input the British branch has? But maybe I am wrong.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top