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Potential New Universal UK Park

I think the biggest draw for many people will be the late night opening, entertainment, shows and City Walk. No other Theme park in the UK offers anything quite like this?

So for me personally I’ve never had the incentive to stay over at any of these parks, but this is a world class experience which is done at the highest level including the hotel experience, food and drink with different themed restaurants and bars to choose at City Walk which is open late with entertainment.

Even for family’s on a budget in the UK I feel if advertised right they will be enticed to stay for a weekend trip away. Especially ones that always wanted to treat the kids but couldn’t afford to go to Florida etc.

If they expand with a water park even more incentive too book at one of there hotel experiences.

I can tourists who have flown over will most likely stop over and travel to Thorpe Park maybe Chessington as nearby, if Universal Studios in its opening stage only offers enough rides for 1 day?

My family and I did the same when we was very young. Booked a flight to Florida as wanted to Universal but whilst there we went to Bush Gardens, some Disney parks and some iconic sights there. Just made sense to do this as we was never sure if we ever be lucky enough to have the option again.

I really see this as a positive for tourism and other sister Theme parks as well as spending in London to see specific landmarks and nearby attractions. The government should all be backing this and be fools not to in my eyes!
 
John_P said:
The on the day price for Alton Towers now is about £70.

Problem in the UK is everyone is so used to turning up to our theme parks with an empty packet of crisps or some vouchers from a newspaper and getting in for free they've lost perspective of how much going to a theme park should be.
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The "walk-up price" is listed as £68 but no one pays that, it is there for some of the discount vouchers.
But most of those discounts have changed to use the online price anyway, Kellogg's boxes give 25% off the online price now, which is £29-42 when booking at least a day in advance. Book right now and the only days that are £42 are fireworks anyway.
Even if they did still have one of the 2for1 based on the walk-up price that is still £34, which is the online price for a lot of days anyway.

But in Florida Universal & Disney have very high single day pricing, they rely on selling people multi-day tickets to get a discount. I also don't expect the UK park to be priced that high, it won't be £100+. Around £80 seems more likely and by that point I expect the Alton Towers tickets to be £39-55 anyway.
 
TBoy535 said:
I can tourists who have flown over will most likely stop over and travel to Thorpe Park maybe Chessington as nearby, if Universal Studios in its opening stage only offers enough rides for 1 day?
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I really doubt this myself. The notion of going on holiday to visit multiple theme parks is a habit almost exclusive to Florida.

It’s not what the UK is known for. If people are visiting then I think it’s much more likely they will use their trip to visit London and its historical attractions or other cultural landmarks of the UK.

Do people who go to DLP go to Parc Asterix too or are they more likely to spend time in Paris itself?

Park hopping outside of Florida is very much an enthusiast habit imo.
 
A lot of the newer Universal Studios parks aren't really two day parks. The notion of multi day visits i think is more aligned with Orlando given there are multiple Universal owned parks to visit and some of the queues in peak periods can be outrageous.

At Singapore (2011) and Beijing (2021) it's meant to be fairly easy to get all the main attractions done in the one day as long as you're well prepared. Looking on their respective websites there's probably only 4/5 rides in each I'd be not wanting to miss out on and possibly catch a show or two. These are not multiple day parks as thing stand.

I don't think the ride offering at the UK one will be much bigger when it first opens either. In time it will be get expansions and most likely an indoor water park too to increase the days people visit but at first i think one day will probably be all you'll need unless you visit on a stupidly busy day. The emphasis seems to be on quality over quantity with Universal too which is no bad thing in my opinion.

And people who travel from afar will 100% take in a visit to London to see the Palace, Tower of London, Big Ben etc. It's a win win all round really for both Universal and British tourism.
 
The Daily Mirror is suggesting that the project has been given the go ahead and will be announced “in the next few weeks”, with only financial arrangements still to be agreed with the Treasury: https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/polit...n=continue_reading_button#amp-readmore-target

A few points of interest from the article include:
  • The resort will take 6 years to build (inferring an opening no earlier than 2031).
  • The park will have 4 themed areas.
  • There will be a 500-room hotel, as well as a CityWalk that will not require a theme park ticket to enter. The number of hotels is expected to grow over time. (Phase 1 will entail the park, 1 hotel and CityWalk)
  • The development will include a new train station and two “transport hubs”.
  • The park is expected to operate for 365 days a year, with famous Universal events including Halloween Horror Nights and Mardi Gras expected to make their way to the UK.
Isn’t this exciting? If true, it’s so good to hear that this has been given the go ahead by the government!
 
Paywall / Give up your tracking privileges link removed:

It's very much a stump article, without any real news that hasn't already been part of the public discussion.
Matt N said:
The resort will take 6 years to build (inferring an opening no earlier than 2031).
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The planning process will take at least 2-3 years before any construction starts. This is merely the potential end to the negotiations of how much state assistance is required to incentivise a multi-billion dollar corporation to build a theme park.
 
Interesting that the park will only open with 4 themed areas, given the recent treads at other Universal parks, I expect this will be:

  • Entrance Area - Think Celestial Park or TowersStreet, probably the only original themed land in the park.
  • Dreamworks/Illumination Area - Kids area of the park, wouldn't surprise me if this area is fully indoors like in Beijing.
  • Fantasy Area - Heavily-themed with big e-ticket, an IP such as Wicked, Potter, Lord of the Rings or Zelda.
  • Thrill-based IP Area - Featuring the park's signature thrill coaster, maybe an IP such as James Bond with a big multi-launch coaster.

Also not expecting the park to open until 2032 at the earliest, which sounds like ages away but scarily we've been waiting longer for Towers to build a new large coaster. Excited to see this park get developed, let's hope the process goes relatively smoothly like we've seen so far with Epic Universe!
 
GooseOnTheLoose said:
The planning process will take at least 2-3 years before any construction starts. This is merely the potential end to the negotiations of how much state assistance is required to incentivise a multi-billion dollar corporation to build a theme park.
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I don’t think this will be the case here. The project is allegedly using an SDO, which allows for a lighter planning process, so while I don’t deny there will likely be some sort of planning process, I don’t see it taking multiple years. I wouldn’t be surprised if Universal have hashed out many of the details in private with the government already.
 
Bowser said:
Do people who go to DLP go to Parc Asterix too or are they more likely to spend time in Paris itself?
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I did both on my last visit. I'm sure most don't but I'm also sure I won't have been alone in doing so. This has the potential to be an absolute boon for UK parks as long as they offer something vaguely worth visitin, which currently imo they don't.
 
Like @pluk, I too intend to visit both DLP and Asterix if/when I go to France later this year.

I’m hesitant to say that many non-enthusiasts do that… though with that being said, I remember a Geography teacher I had in Y8 telling us they’d been to both DLP and Asterix, and my parents also knew about Asterix without me telling them about it.

I don’t see Universal UK causing a huge surge in visitation to existing UK parks; I’d imagine most will go exclusively to Universal or do it as part of a London break. The London area Merlin parks might get a small number of additional visitors, but I absolutely don’t see, say, Alton Towers benefitting.
 
I'd imagine those who train it to DLP don't bother with Asterix unless they're faffing in central Paris on top of their trip. Especially with it (at least a while ago) not being the easiest by public transport.

By car it's completely doable en route.


It'll mostly boost cred hunters initially. Unsure if it'll cause a general rise in numbers at the other parks though.
 
Matt N said:
I don’t think this will be the case here. The project is allegedly using an SDO, which allows for a lighter planning process, so while I don’t deny there will likely be some sort of planning process, I don’t see it taking multiple years. I wouldn’t be surprised if Universal have hashed out many of the details in private with the government already.
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Whist a Special Development Order can significantly speed up the planning process, it doesn't mean planning becomes instantaneous and they are not a magic bullet. Planning permission, even with an SDO, can take years. Whilst it means that not every structure needs to go through the planning process, the entire project will do.

After an SDO has been drafted, it needs to go before Parliament before it can be granted. Environmental impact studies and further public consultation will still need to be made.

Even once an SDO is granted developers will need to comply with any conditions and limitations set out in the order.

The Cardiff Bay Development Corporation had several SDOs granted for the Cardiff Bay regeneration project. The project still took 13 years. It's difficult to put an exact time frame in how long planning took, even with the SDOs, because of overlapping projects, but it's a decent comparison.
 
pluk said:
I did both on my last visit. I'm sure most don't but I'm also sure I won't have been alone in doing so. This has the potential to be an absolute boon for UK parks as long as they offer something vaguely worth visitin, which currently imo they don't.
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I’d say the only park offering anything is Legoland purely because of the IP. Anecdotally it’s by far the park I see with the most tourists already.

Potentially Minecraft will be an attraction but that’s tbd.
 
On a side note, I’m honestly surprised that Merlin doesn’t make more of their South East parks’ proximity to London and the public transport links.

All three parks have regular direct rail services to nearby railway stations from London Waterloo, and Chessington is walking distance from said railway station and Thorpe and Legoland have bus services serving them. To me, it seems like Merlin are missing an opportunity to tap into this somehow.

If they did tap into this, maybe the London parks could benefit from Universal. But I certainly don’t think Alton Towers will benefit, unfortunately.
 
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