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Universal GB - Archived Post Announcement Discussion

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Harv said:
goodwill towards the Merlin parks has evaporated outside of enthusiast circles, and Universal have an opportunity to blow their competition in this country out of the water.
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Sorry, but it really hasn't.
Enthusiasts don't keep Merlin going, they are a tiny percentage, less than 1% of their custom base.
Merlin passes are bargain basement, and they know what they are doing.
The parks have been full over the last few weeks, Merlin remains a successful business, and Universal will be a single premium high end product, not direct competition.
There is easily enough room for both to thrive.
 
Ludus said:
Yes, I think many people are guilty of vastly underestimating what kind of an impact this would have for your typical non-enthusiast family audience.
People are not going to go to AT or other Merlin attraction if they can splash out that little bit extra and get a world-class full production immersive experience. Yes people here are focussing on how things may be different for your low income families or family of enthusiasts, but your bog standard British family will be poached by Universal. Speak to any non-enthusiast outside of these forums and social media and you'll see this is the case.
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Annual pass holders make up a very large percentage of the non enthusiast families. Universal annual passes will simply not be affordable for a lot of these. It’ll be a great park once a year at most for the vast majority of people.

Merlin also have a myriad of attractions all over the country so it suits a lot of people. Universal will have the one park.

Yes, it’ll affect Merlin, but it isn’t the death knell people think it is.
 
I could see this having a massive impact on AT and I could see this doing little to AT, I think it will come down to the price.

Birmingham is basically in the middle of the 2 parks, 2 hours to each so for the massive city not much change in terms of travel (although public transport is a different problem)

if universal UK is prices similar to universal orlando, and DLP (hundreds of quid per day) I think AT will be fine as the lower cost theme park as it is much easier to save for the £30 pp tickets but if it is priced more competitively (like £60) then I think AT will have more problems as it will come down to how much more people will be willing to spend to go to universal VS AT. although considering the amount of people around universal it will probably have high demand, so may be more expensive (making it more of a every couple of year attraction compared to yearly).

edit: either way I think AT should start to invest in brining up a lot of the poorer areas (e.g DF) to bring it up to the new FV standard
 
tech said:
Tricky. See, yes I follow AT closely, partially because it's my local park, partially because I used to work there, partically because its where I've been going since I was a kid, so yeah I keep up to date on here with new developments, new rides, etc etc.

Universal - we go there because its mutha-flippin-Universal and I'd go there a lot more often if my finances allowed.

So if Universal opens up in Bedford, better believe I'll be heading there a few times a year, and balls to whether they have new developments or rides - truth is, it'll be an outstanding experience every time and that's why I'll keep going back. Not because there's a little retheme or some new hessian or a 'worlds first' something or other.

Just a completely different ballgame.
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Don’t mistake hype of a new thing for reality.

It will however, require Merlin to change its investment and quality operation decisions unless they are idiotic about it, but Merlin have 6 years to work on it and you would think they have been planning somewhat already (though they repeated change of CEO won’t have helped them do that recently).

No legacy theme park closed when DLP opened, and even in Florida Cyprus Gardens kept chugging along until Lego bought it.

My personal opinion is the Merlin parks will all survive, how well they thrive will depend on how they respond to Universal in the quality stakes. Universal will be eye watering expensive and only add new attractions every 5 years or so, UK visitors will get bored between those investments and won’t have £1000 a head for an annual pass.
 
Ok not to throw an immediate dampener on that BBC article but it DOES reek of their source being internet enthusiasts. The bolded bit in particular seems a schoolboy error as Minions is surely a replica of Beijing. But I’ll cling on to the dream for now.

The BBC has been told that other themed zones and rides at the park will be inspired by Back to the Future, Jurassic Park and Minions.

The source insisted "contracts have been signed" and it would be unlikely things would change.

"At this point it will be little details they tweak, like 'Let's use a different shade of paint on that Lord of the Rings castle'," they said.

The locations can be seen on the map of what the site could look like, although specific details, such as the Hill Valley clock from Back to the Future, have been obscured.

Rides have already been designed, with the majority planned as indoor attractions.

Rollercoasters based on Back to the Future, Jurassic Park and Minions are among the few rides that will not be under cover.

There will be a stunt show based on 007, similar to the The Bourne Stuntacular in Florida.
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Bowser said:
Ok not to throw an immediate dampener on that BBC article but it DOES reek of their source being internet enthusiasts. The bolded bit in particular seems a schoolboy error as Minions is surely a replica of Beijing. But I’ll cling on to the dream for now.
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Or the artist just copied the Beijing Minions zone because they hadn't decided fully on the design yet. Frankly I find it hard to believe Universal would just copy and paste the weakest themed part of the Beijing Park for UGB. It doesn't feel like something the current Universal would do.
 
Clockwise;

The first 'land' is definitely Paddington. You can see a jar of marmalade (picture below), the chimney tops to the streets of London, and the little hexagonal street shop they used in the film. Makes sense for a baloon ride too with the adventurous forest theme. Possibly a kids ride in the building.

Next land is Hill Valley for sure. As people have pointed out, you can see the movie theatre that also features in Gremlins (snow white anyone?) - and clock tower square. The possibilities for the storyline with this coaster are exciting. Huge indoor scenes before blasting back in time, onto a gigantic spike and through inversions etc - as a huge BTTF fan this could be spectacular.

walking then across a bridge into 'Jurassic World'. Can spot two possible drop towers, and a huge indoor ride similar to the one in Beijing. This land looks to be the largest, as I belive the green coaster also to be part of Jurrassic World - and not Wicked has some have mentioned, as the foliage carries on into this area, and has no similarities in theme to the 'Oz' world at all. With the station looking like it's at the back of the park in the forest, this could be the UK's version of Velicicoaster.

The large outdoor show looks like waterworld, and that wouldn't surprise me as it's been a success at other parks. But a 007 show would be a more exciting and better fit IMO - hopefully it's the latter.

The next land looks like Shrek, as you can see the poison apple and what looks like a 'swamp' area. The path dissapears at the back as you walk into the forest and a large indoor area themed to Shreks swap or something along those lines.

Illumination pier/Minions land is pretty evident. But with additional IP's such as 'Sing' etc having possibly a ride or theatre experience.

The last small land/area looks like Amity Cove. (pic below) that could have the famous shark photo spot. This area wouldn't even need a ride, just restaurants etc. The large building behind this area looks like it will be for the theatre attatched to the main street. I doubt there would be an indoor Jaws ride?
 

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BBC claiming there is going to be LOTR at the park, either BBC is talking nonsense or there's a bit of smoke and mirrors going on with parts of the map. I do think that the vast majority of it is correct however the stunt show area and Shrek are still look like place holders to me but I guess we will.know more once planning documents are submitted
 
Imagine we get the Kuka arm ride from Forbidden Journey and Monsters Unchained but themed to Lord of the Rings...... WOWZERS!!!

Add that to BTTF launch coaster and presumably the Jurassic World ride from Beijing then this easily becomes my favourite park on the planet.

😍
 
Benjsh said:
Imagine we get the Kuka arm ride from Forbidden Journey and Monsters Unchained but themed to Lord of the Rings...... WOWZERS!!!

Add that to BTTF launch coaster and presumably the Jurassic World ride from Beijing then this easily becomes my favourite park on the planet.

😍
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Imagine if we get the Beijing JP Dark Ride and the Osaka JP rollercoaster...

Wrestlemania Vii Crying GIF by WWE


I am definitely getting my hopes far too high this morning.
 
I don’t want to re-open the IP dialogue around HP, but the Waterworld stunt show arena bit would make a great Quidditch pitch/dragon challenge in HP4 show
 
rob666 said:
Sorry, but it really hasn't.
Enthusiasts don't keep Merlin going, they are a tiny percentage, less than 1% of their custom base.
Merlin passes are bargain basement, and they know what they are doing.
The parks have been full over the last few weeks, Merlin remains a successful business, and Universal will be a single premium high end product, not direct competition.
There is easily enough room for both to thrive.
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Of course enthusiasts are a tiny percentage of visitors, that's why my post is specifically about members of the public who actively frequent theme parks but are not enthusiasts.

Merlin parks might be busy right now but Universal isn't an option yet. It's naive to believe that a chunk of these patrons won't choose to visit (or become pass holders for) Universal when it opens. We can predict that Universal is going to be more expensive, but also more accessible, well-presented and enticing for new visitors.

Universal will absolutely directly compete for customers with Merlin's theme parks.
 
Quantum said:
BBC claiming there is going to be LOTR at the park, either BBC is talking nonsense or there's a bit of smoke and mirrors going on with parts of the map. I do think that the vast majority of it is correct however the stunt show area and Shrek are still look like place holders to me but I guess we will.know more once planning documents are submitted
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They claim they have sources but I don't know whether these are actual sources or just someone speculating like the rest of us. If LOTR is in the park then the only space I see it going is between Jurassic and Shrek with the green coaster. The waterfalls on the buildings there remind me of Rivendell from the Hobbit.

That being said, I really doubt LOTR. It doesn't have a mainstream appeal that many are interested in. It would clash with the fantasy theme of Wizzarding world. I know many are saying it won't come because of the studio tour but I think the studio tour is restricted as to what it can do. It's essentially a museum that can never change, once you've seen it once you've seen it all.

I think Universal will hold out until an expansion, let the tour fade away a little to the point where WB will give up the licence to generate more interest in the Studio Tour.
 
ACX96 said:
They claim they have sources but I don't know whether these are actual sources or just someone speculating like the rest of us. If LOTR is in the park then the only space I see it going is between Jurassic and Shrek with the green coaster. The waterfalls on the buildings there remind me of Rivendell from the Hobbit.

That being said, I really doubt LOTR. It doesn't have a mainstream appeal that many are interested in. It would clash with the fantasy theme of Wizzarding world. I know many are saying it won't come because of the studio tour but I think the studio tour is restricted as to what it can do. It's essentially a museum that can never change, once you've seen it once you've seen it all.

I think Universal will hold out until an expansion, let the tour fade away a little to the point where WB will give up the licence to generate more interest in the Studio Tour.
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It's got more mainstream appeal than Wicked. I do think the park is lacking another grown up IP of it does end up being Shrek. Even though the BBC is not what it was I would still hope Thier source has some degree of credibility.
 
ACX96 said:
That being said, I really doubt LOTR. It doesn't have a mainstream appeal that many are interested in
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This is a mad take. The books and films are incredibly popular, some of the most successful of all time. The franchise has numerous notable spin offs, be it figures, video games, Lego etc. And of course there’s an upcoming film.

It’s far more popular than some of the other franchises not being questioned.
 
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