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Universal GB - Archived Post Announcement Discussion

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Will be interesting to see how they deal with the RAP and FT issues that plague Merlin parks.

They haven’t had to deal with that in the Asian parks. Hopefully the combination of high capacity rides, good operations and price point mean we get a Disneyland Paris replication but that park has a LOT of rides and Universal historically have a much lower number of rides.
 
KolonelKlink said:
If Merlin challenge the Universal decision as the “BOO STATE AID” crowd here want them to do, that’s their lookout - but they won’t get anywhere. The Department for Transport had already committed to major improvements in rail infrastructure in the Bedford area anyway because of the East-West rail link between Oxford and Cambridge and this will be an important part of that.
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I couldn't care less about the decision, I want consistency. If the rulebook is being ripped up to build this, I expect it to still be in pieces when the other parks in the country try and build things from now on.

I'm already resigned to not getting it from the thoosie community - good luck finding any that'll complain about the lack of flat rides in that concept art for example and interest in the price of car parking, admission, fast tracks and food at theme parks is going to disappear entirely over the next six years. As long as you're being ripped off in Bedfordshire anyway.
 
Can't see how you can compare them, government greasing the wheels of progress for a project that'll employ nearly 30,000 and brings £50bn to the economy by 2055.

Or Alton Towers (and Merlin) who are sacking staff, outsourcing everything they can, and are adding a go gator for 2026.
 
Dobba said:
I'm already resigned to not getting it from the thoosie community - good luck finding any that'll complain about the lack of flat rides in that concept art for example and interest in the price of car parking, admission, fast tracks and food at theme parks is going to disappear entirely over the next six years. As long as you're being ripped off in Bedfordshire anyway.
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Flat rides don't tend to work that well at parks aimed at attracting 8m visitors a year.

Huge capacity coasters, dark rides and performance theatres are what's needed at places like this and the odd kiddie flat ride which won't get all the adults queuing for it making it a 3 hr wait.
 
GooseOnTheLoose said:
In both instances, both teams already had a stadium and an existing presence within the market. They were established, albeit on a smaller scale.
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Premier League football is about as self-interested an industry as you are ever likely to find, this was an organisation within which teams who would be at a disadvantage for the 2020 season to resume following the lockdown (ie those in a relegation fight) actively voted for it to be voided.

Man United may be an established club but they have a stadium already, albeit one which is need of major work. The government are now offering significant subsidies for local infrastructure/regeneration works in order for them to build a brand new, bigger stadium (when they could regenerate the current one). When the stadium eventually is built it will be of significant benefit to United given the extra income from the 25k new seats and the way that PSR rules work in the Premier League. If there were legal grounds to prevent that from happening on the grounds of anti-competition and/or favouritism I'd be stunned if those points weren't being raised on the grounds of the fact that they are already there - the issue isn't whether they are already there or not it's whether the new stadium (which isn't already there) poses a threat to the other club, which it does.

I've absolutely no doubt that Merlin will use whatever they can from this to try and cut themselves a better deal when it's in their interests to do so - they've already eluded to this when they had their general meeting last year, citing the new Universal park and basically how if they didn't get a better deal they wouldn't be able to continue to operate on their current level (which is laughable), but I cannot see any legal opposition to the Universal project itself which actually delays it other than the usual planning objections.
 
Bowser said:
Will be interesting to see how they deal with the RAP and FT issues that plague Merlin parks.

They haven’t had to deal with that in the Asian parks. Hopefully the combination of high capacity rides, good operations and price point mean we get a Disneyland Paris replication but that park has a LOT of rides and Universal historically have a much lower number of rides.
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They have to deal with in their American parks. Works well generally. Most rides and attractions designed so that people with mobility issues can still queue for example as they build queues etc so have wheel chair access etc so many guests don’t need it are issued with RAP in those cases. However they have RAP in place for those that do need it ie autism. I don’t need RAP and never had express at Universal and never noticed any real issues. They generally build very high capacity rides and much like Disney while they don’t have loads of rides in their parks- the rides are high capacity, they normally have high capacity shows, plus lots of street entertainment, meet and greets, interactive experiences, retail and dinning that guests spend time enjoying and not just going from ride to ride like you do at UK parks.

They sell express passes and vary from £120 ish -£300 per person a day depending on date visiting. However pricing at the American parks is different to other parks like their Asian parks and pricing is apdated to the local market.
 
Josh555 said:
Premier League football is about as self-interested an industry as you are ever likely to find, this was an organisation within which teams who would be at a disadvantage for the 2020 season to resume following the lockdown (ie those in a relegation fight) actively voted for it to be voided.

Man United may be an established club but they have a stadium already, albeit one which is need of major work. The government are now offering significant subsidies for local infrastructure/regeneration works in order for them to build a brand new, bigger stadium (when they could regenerate the current one). When the stadium eventually is built it will be of significant benefit to United given the extra income from the 25k new seats and the way that PSR rules work in the Premier League. If there were legal grounds to prevent that from happening on the grounds of anti-competition and/or favouritism I'd be stunned if those points weren't being raised on the grounds of the fact that they are already there - the issue isn't whether they are already there or not it's whether the new stadium (which isn't already there) poses a threat to the other club, which it does.

I've absolutely no doubt that Merlin will use whatever they can from this to try and cut themselves a better deal when it's in their interests to do so - they've already eluded to this when they had their general meeting last year, citing the new Universal park and basically how if they didn't get a better deal they wouldn't be able to continue to operate on their current level (which is laughable), but I cannot see any legal opposition to the Universal project itself which actually delays it other than the usual planning objections.
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Like or not, premier league football brings a huge amount of money into the country and if it boosts regeneration of an area the government will be all over it with their sticky tax fingers.

I have no doubt that if Merlin bought up a 500 acre parcel of land somewhere and offered up billions of investment for a new park the government would go through the same motions however they aren’t so the government won’t.

It could however be used by them as a tool to try and stop their pesky neighbours blocking everything over the height of a pine tree from being built and unlocking more local development opportunities.
 
Maelstrom said:
They have to deal with in their American parks. Works well generally. Most rides and attractions designed so that people with mobility issues can still queue for example as they build queues etc so have wheel chair access etc so many guests don’t need it are issued with RAP in those cases. However they have RAP in place for those that do need it ie autism. I don’t need RAP and never had express at Universal and never noticed any real issues. They generally build very high capacity rides and much like Disney while they don’t have loads of rides in their parks- the rides are high capacity, they normally have high capacity shows, plus lots of street entertainment, meet and greets, interactive experiences, retail and dinning that guests spend time enjoying and not just going from ride to ride like you do at UK parks.

They sell express passes and vary from £120 ish -£300 per person a day depending on date visiting. However pricing at the American parks is different to other parks like their Asian parks and pricing is apdated to the local market.
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It’s a lot easier to build attractions to cater for all needs from scratch than it is to shoehorn and adapt existing attractions to allow RAP users to ride. Something that Alton struggles with.

Excellent news, competition for our over powered one-sided industry will give Merlin a kick up the arse hopefully, or a kick out. Will bring extra footfall to all parks too. Everybody wins with this.
 
Benjsh said:
Looking at comments on socials from the non thoosies it seems to be Jurassic World that is getting the most mentions. Probably shouldn't come as any surprise really given how popular it still is. Just something about the GP and dinosaurs isn't there?
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Because dinosaurs are cool.

My 2 year old has liked dinosaurs for a while already. Not like we directed her to them either. They just have an aura.
 
Blackhole_Sun said:
It’s a lot easier to build attractions to cater for all needs from scratch than it is to shoehorn and adapt existing attractions to allow RAP users to ride. Something that Alton struggles with.

Excellent news, competition for our over powered one-sided industry will give Merlin a kick up the arse hopefully, or a kick out. Will bring extra footfall to all parks too. Everybody wins with this.
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All those people made redundant from MMM will be dusting off their CVs now won’t they
 
dave___ said:
All those people made redundant from MMM will be dusting off their CVs now won’t they
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Probably not yet. Most of the people at Studios North were prop and model makers. This park likely won't need those kind of services for a few years. Better to get a job with a decent prop maker so that the company is contracted to do work for the new park.
 
I know this is a contrary view. But I just don't buy the argument that this place will make other UK parks buck their ideas up in any major way.

Is there any evidence of this happening, anywhere? Efteling's response to DLP opening was to build this. Asterix did nothing. It was only decades later that both those parks started to seriously invest, but it doesn't seemingly have anything to do with DLP.

I basically think Merlin will be largely unaffected. There'll just be a realignment of the market where Alton Towers goes from being the premium product to being a mid-range product. I don't think this will really dent the Merlin parks as it's aiming at a different market.
 
John_P said:
Can't see how you can compare them, government greasing the wheels of progress for a project that'll employ nearly 30,000 and brings £50bn to the economy by 2055.

Or Alton Towers (and Merlin) who are sacking staff, outsourcing everything they can, and are adding a go gator for 2026.
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I guess it depends on how this impacts places like Alton Towers, it’s a huge employer locally, nothing to be sniffed at and supports jobs all around this area in other markets
 
Sam said:
I know this is a contrary view. But I just don't buy the argument that this place will make other UK parks buck their ideas up in any major way.

Is there any evidence of this happening, anywhere? Efteling's response to DLP opening was to build this. Asterix did nothing. It was only decades later that both those parks started to seriously invest, but it doesn't seemingly have anything to do with DLP.
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Obviously there can be no guarantees but in 1992 Alton Towers opened RMT & Haunted House, likely a direct response to Big Thunder & Phantom Manor.
 
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