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Potential New Universal UK Park

jon81uk said:
Even if it will be an all year park, it would be 364 days a year, I can't see them opening Christmas Day.

I also wouldn't be surprised if it is more like Europa and is closed in January.
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The Florida parks open on Christmas Day, as does Disneyland Paris despite the cold climate. Resultantly, I wouldn’t be surprised if Universal also opens on Christmas Day.
 
They would be mad to try opening on christmas day over here. The entire rest of the country shuts down, including public transport. (Only emergency services, the odd corner shop owned by non-christians, and us TV folk work 25/12). And I very much doubt a staff made up mostly of younglings is going to want to spend that day away from their family (well, unless they have a family like mine).
At best they'd get about fifty geeks and a couple of youtubers turn up.
 
DiogoJ42 said:
They would be mad to try opening on christmas day over here. The entire rest of the country shuts down, including public transport. (Only emergency services, the odd corner shop owned by non-christians, and us TV folk work 25/12). And I very much doubt a staff made up mostly of younglings is going to want to spend that day away from their family (well, unless they have a family like mine).
At best they'd get about fifty geeks and a couple of youtubers turn up.
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But what about people from abroad? They may want to come for a Universal Christmas; people do it at DLP, and people do it in Florida, so I don’t see why they wouldn’t do it here.
 
Matt N said:
But what about people from abroad? They may want to come for a Universal Christmas; people do it at DLP, and people do it in Florida, so I don’t see why they wouldn’t do it here.
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I don't see that many people travelling from abroad to spend Christmas at Universal UK.

Its not like Florida where you have the warmer weather and multiple other theme parks and attractions to fill the time. Even at DLP they have their two parks and its more of a destination.

Also I think DLP is the outlier in Northern Europe, Tivoli Gardens is closed on 24 December, Europa on 24th & 25th, Phastasialand on the 24th & 25th too. Port Aventura is the only other one that also seems not to close at all. Parc Asterix is open 21 Dec to 5 Jan with no closure, but is closed the rest of December and January so only does the holiday period.

Maybe once established Universal UK will move to Christmas Day, but I doubt it initially, its not really part of our culture to go out Christmas Day.
 
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DiogoJ42 said:
And how witll those tourists get to the park? Trains don't run on christmas day here.
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If staying for multiple days, they would likely travel out before and travel back after.
jon81uk said:
I don't see that many people travelling from abroad to spend Christmas at Universal UK.

Its not like Florida where you have the warmer weather and multiple other theme parks and attractions to fill the time. Even at DLP they have their two parks and its more of a destination. Also I think DLP is the outlier in Northern Europe, Tivoli Gardens is closed on 24 December, Europa on 24th & 25th, Phastasialand on the 24th & 25th too. Port Aventura is the only other one that also seems not to close at all. Parc Asterix is open 21 Dec to 5 Jan with no closure, but is closed the rest of December and January so only does the holiday period.

Maybe once established Universal UK will move to Christmas Day, but I doubt it initially, its not really part of our culture to go out Christmas Day.
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I think it depends what they open with, really. If it is just the park and a hotel, then maybe not. But if they do have a CityWalk offering, and maybe some extras like an indoor waterpark, then I think that gives them enough of a compelling multi-day destination to sell.
 
Matt N said:
But what about people from abroad? They may want to come for a Universal Christmas; people do it at DLP, and people do it in Florida, so I don’t see why they wouldn’t do it here.
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Americans in particular have a history with seeking entertainment on Christmas Day, it's a regular tradition to go to the cinema on Christmas Day for many Americans. The yanks tend to focus on Thanksgiving as being the family and present day.

Because we have a state religion, the country pretty much shuts entirely on Christmas Day. Large shops are not legally allowed to open at all, loading and unloading is also prohibited during Christmas Day.

Many licenced entertainment venues also have restrictions on operating on Christmas Day. The council decide this at a local level.

Many staff members will see Christmas Day as sacrosanct, so encouraging enough to turn up to a large complex operation is going to be tricky. Workers are also protected from being forced to work on Christmas Day if their religious belief officially observes the 25th of December as a holy day.

Then you've got the issue of public transport. We do not operate public transport on December 25th at all and many places also don't operate public transport on Boxing Day either. The rail networks in particular use this time for infrastructure projects. Local bus routes are unlikely, outside of large cities, to operate on both days.

As large of an operator as Universal is, they're not going to be able to change an entire country's attitude toward Christmas.
 
I think a Christmas Day opening would be a big mistake, personally. Some parks in Europe do it - I believe Efteling is one of them - but there is a different culture around Christmas Day in Europe, with Christmas Eve being the 'big day' for a lot of nations.

Universal will - if they have any sense - consider the culture and traditions of the host country when deciding when to open. The British people stick to their traditions and Christmas Day is - for a vast majority of us - centered around big family gatherings, an enormous lunch, copious amounts of alcohol, board games and the inevitable family arguments. There's just no market there to open a theme park on that day.

It will be interesting to see if they open on Boxing Day or New Year's Day - days when families might be looking outside the home for things to do together. Still I'm not sure if a day at Universal will trump the traditional activities of freezing-your-bits-off country walks, ghastly Boxing Day sales and tedious extended family buffets!
 
DiogoJ42 said:
They would be mad to try opening on christmas day over here. The entire rest of the country shuts down, including public transport. (Only emergency services, the odd corner shop owned by non-christians, and us TV folk work 25/12).
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Come on now you pontificating pirate!
Around a million people round here work on Christmas Day.
Care services, hospitals, power, water, highways, catering and many many people of other faiths, or no faith at all, work at Christmas.
Get on the plank.

If it is to a long term visit, in a whole scale resort, Christmas opening may happen.
The far east market is really blooming, they like western festive fun.
 
NuttySquirrel said:
It will be interesting to see if they open on Boxing Day or New Year's Day - days when families might be looking outside the home for things to do together. Still I'm not sure if a day at Universal will trump the traditional activities of freezing-your-bits-off country walks, ghastly Boxing Day sales and tedious extended family buffets!
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Several Merlin parks already open on New Years Day so i'd say it's very likely they will (already one of my favourite days to visit alongside Christmas Eve).

I wouldn't rule out Christmas Day either though. The trend in the UK has been increasingly for things to be open. I know last Christmas when i had forgotten to defrost the turkey i was amazed at the number of shops open but there are also already options such as Center Parcs that cater for many wanting a domestic Christmas holiday so the lack of public transport on one day doesn't strike me as deal breaker by any means.

We're at a point now where millions of people in the UK either don't celebrate or work that day (or both). We would certainly be doing a Christmas Day trip if it was an option!
 
Efteling is open at Christmas (I'm going this year).

Unsure if they'd open Universal at Christmas here. It's a big cultural shift there, even London on Christmas Eve is absolutely dead and given there doesn't seem to be a big "resort" push as of yet with this project it might be a while away.

Would also need to convince the "traditionals" that it would be an acceptable situation.
 
DiogoJ42 said:
They would be mad to try opening on christmas day over here. The entire rest of the country shuts down, including public transport. (Only emergency services, the odd corner shop owned by non-christians, and us TV folk work 25/12). And I very much doubt a staff made up mostly of younglings is going to want to spend that day away from their family (well, unless they have a family like mine).
At best they'd get about fifty geeks and a couple of youtubers turn up.
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Money talks.

Pay them above and beyond for special days such as Christmas and people will work.

Me and my family have always gone out for lunch on Christmas Day, the pub as well. It used to be quite rare years ago but more and more people are going out and doing different things.

I had an Indian the year just gone.

So traditions do change and tbh if there’s something decent on offer then I personally wouldn’t say no to attending on Christmas Day.
 
As said, places like Center Parcs open on Christmas Day for domestic breaks, so I don’t see why Universal couldn’t operate on Christmas Day in theory.

Also, with changing religious attitudes and such in the UK, we may not see such a forced closure of society over Christmas in years to come.

On a different note, Universal have begun purchasing the residential properties that lie within the proposed site: https://coasterforce.com/forums/thr...me-park-in-bedford.46632/page-17#post-1175782
 
Blackrock said:
Money talks.

Pay them above and beyond for special days such as Christmas and people will work.

Me and my family have always gone out for lunch on Christmas Day, the pub as well. It used to be quite rare years ago but more and more people are going out and doing different things.

I had an Indian the year just gone.

So traditions do change and tbh if there’s something decent on offer then I personally wouldn’t say no to attending on Christmas Day.
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That may work for the park staff, but the lack of running trains to bring guests there is not so simple. The network-wide down time is used for essential maintenance. (Add Network Rail staff to the list of people who don't get xmas off!)
 
DiogoJ42 said:
That may work for the park staff, but the lack of running trains to bring guests there is not so simple. The network-wide down time is used for essential maintenance. (Add Network Rail staff to the list of people who don't get xmas off!)
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I don’t think they’d be expecting to be at capacity on Christmas Day though would they.

They’d still have hotel guests on park and off, locals and those who don’t mind driving there within 90 minutes etc.

Trains (or lack of) granted would be a pain for those in London etc but I assume those who’d want to visit will make sure they’re either staying close to the park, or they’ll have to find some other mode of transport. I’m sure buses from central locations will be a thing even when the trains are running.
 
Blackrock said:
I’m sure buses from central locations will be a thing even when the trains are running.
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Public transport of any description does not operate on Christmas Day. There are no trains, there are no busses, there are no coaches.

Private hire vehicles, like taxis, are of course available.

Outside of London, on Boxing day, some large cities will run a near Sunday service, but it's inconsistent. Trains also don't run on Boxing Day anymore either, apart from some private airport transfers.
 
GooseOnTheLoose said:
Public transport of any description does not operate on Christmas Day. There are no trains, there are no busses, there are no coaches.

Private hire vehicles, like taxis, are of course available.

Outside of London, on Boxing day, some large cities will run a near Sunday service, but it's inconsistent. Trains also don't run on Boxing Day anymore either, apart from some private airport transfers.
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National express busses run on Christmas Day.

But I was more thinking busses owned and run by Universal or a third party they’ll use themselves.
 
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