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[🌎 Universal GB] General Discussion

Dave said:
It’s not top 25 in the world, it’s not top 20 in Europe.
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I’m not sure I’d personally go that far. As much as there are some great parks in Europe, I do feel that Alton Towers remains one of the more significant parks in Europe. I would struggle to think of 10 parks in Europe that I would have said seemed more significant than Alton, let alone 20.

The thing that always stands out to me is how international folk are often still blown away by Alton Towers when they come here. I sometimes think a bit of the moaning about Towers on here is overblown by virtue of overfamiliarity. If you’re coming here from afar and visiting Towers for the first time, or even if you don’t visit as often, I think the experience is still quite special.
 
Before this goes on further, please can we not turn this in to a debate about whether or not Alton Towers (or any other UK) park is a top 25 in the world/top 20 in Europe park.

Page Thompson was trying to point out that based on population and tourist numbers the UK should in theory have some of the most visited theme parks in the world. It currently does not, and that is party why he feels there is going to be plenty of demand for Universal.

Of course everyone has their own opinions on what their own top parks are, but that's not what he meant!
 
I think this quote was the most important one -

"This is just the start of the development in the Bedford area on our land that we're going to own."

He’s speaking as if there’s land they have their eye on that they haven’t yet purchased but will be purchasing. Obviously right now they’re 150-200 acres short of the 700 that has been mentioned by them and that parcel of land is where the road spurs are and a little south.

But will they be purchasing even more than that?

The whole article gives me hope that they hopefully see this as a multi gate resort over the next few decades, also puts to bed the consistent rumours that they may open up shop in Spain or elsewhere and this would be a regional park.

If that’s the case and it will be the only Universal park serving all of Europe why should it not be a multi gate park within a few decades.
 
Quantum said:
I can see them purchasing the land near the roundabout that was once earmarked for housing. It future proofs the site and rounds off the area nicely for development purposes
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I think ideally (and imo their long term plan) is to own as much of that land between the train station at Wixams and the main Road at Wootton.

They’d have a large parcel sandwiched between road network and train line then which would square out their property.

I can definitely see them purchasing the land your on about but also the land that those two big warehouses sit on.

That then means that funny shaped parcel of land at the top becomes a lot more useable
 
It's interesting as i continue reading the Unofficial Universal Orlando book to see the history of their construction/projects in comparison to what we might expect in the UK.

In yesterdays BBC article they still maintained construction would begin in 2026, which potentially means 5+ years of building before opening. As far as i can see this would be unprecedented (if we exclude Epic Universe due to Covid delays). It will be interesting to see how long it actually takes once approvals are granted. Presumably the variable weather makes things trickier than some of their other projects (though arguably we are less extreme than Beijing in terms of climate)

Of course the UK is notorious for bureaucracy and delays on all major projects so it's prudent of them to allow longer than other territories.

They also mentioned long term expansion plans in the article which mirrors the early Orlando plans. As early as 1990 before the first park even opened there were plans for further parks and 35 years later we have the opening of the 4th park. By that precedent it's not unreasonable to think that even before the park opens we will have planning proposals for the next stage revealed, though you'd expect them not to be acted upon until they have some idea of the first parks performance.

Finally it will be interesting to see how the actual opening is handled. For Epic we are seeing a fairly prolonged soft opening with access to the media/influencers and season pass holders. Obviously the latter won't really exist here but perhaps there will be some kind of pre-sale registration nearer the time.

Most of us have not experienced a new theme park opening in the UK so i can't wait to see how it all unfolds. Legoland was probably the most recent and that was almost 30 years ago now!
 
The whole point of the special development order is to speed up the planning process. If they are submitted plans in the next two months then the project is pretty far along, the amount of paperwork and boxes to tick is huge so it's clear they have been working on it for a while. They have probably has assurance from the government over processing times. Taking out of the local authority hands will help as well. Once building work starts it won't be different to any other large construction project, despite the doom and gloom the private sector is more than capable of delivering especially when it's not a government project
 
Benzin said:
I doubt it would bother. Christmas time events sure, but actually open on Christmas would be a push to get people to come.
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Christmas Day at DLP is typically very busy so i don't see why it would be any different here. London in particular is generally heaving with tourists and/or non Christmas celebrators. And of course all the existing Universal parks are open and very busy on Christmas Day.
 
Hid said:
Okay so we do have some top 25 Parks, Alton Towers is a special park very unique to most with beautiful landscapes. Thorpe Park has unique thrill rides with majority of having one of a kind layouts and Paultons is a very pretty park in of itself.

People forget Towers is actually a great park
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There's no way that either Thorpe or Paultons scrape their way into any top 25 list
 
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