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[🌎 Universal GB] General Discussion

The BBC's war on the Universal theme park


Someone has written a brilliant piece on why the BBC's local coverage of Universal has been so negative despite the national papers and local community being so positive about the developments. The piece also goes into why local media loves to jump on ride breakdowns from time to time, it's because the local data for such events is so abundant that it makes it easy to write a dramatic piece about the local attraction when something does occur.

In regards to any Universal opposition, some community groups are trying to leverage themselves to get a few bonuses, such as free passes, in exchange for planning support rather than the supposed issue being an actual concern. This opposition is logged by the council and is freely available for the BBC to write about, and misframe the threat of local opposition.
 
On a random note; is it only me for whom the proposed location of Universal is an absolute pain in the backside?

By car, only Blackpool is a consistently longer drive, out of the biggest parks in the country. All 4 Merlin parks are equal or closer, with even Towers and Chessington mostly working out closer than Bedford. And compared to Blackpool, Bedford is also a really awkward drive from my location; Blackpool is all one relatively straight motorway, as are Chessington, Legoland and Thorpe, whereas Bedford is either a cross country drive along A and B roads through Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and Northamptonshire, a drive up to Birmingham and down again, or a drive across to London and up. My location to Bedford is 2h 45m on a good run in the car.

And by train, I reckon I’d be looking at a minimum of 2 changes to get to Bedford. If they did something with Milton Keynes, though, that would reduce to 1 in Birmingham.

I get that it’s good for the Northerners and all that, but purely from my own personal, selfish standpoint, I’d have much preferred somewhere along the M4 corridor like Reading…
 
AT86 said:
Or from the other perspective…you will soon have a Universal theme park just 2hrs 45mins from your home.

I think if any of us suggested such a thing a couple of years back we would have been considered bonkers.
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Very true!

I was more referring to how everyone else seems to rave about how brilliant the location is for them, and I couldn’t disagree more… then again, I guess I’m probably on the non-London motorway corridor within closest reach of Legoland and Thorpe, so you can’t have everything!
 
Matt N said:
On a random note; is it only me for whom the proposed location of Universal is an absolute pain in the backside?

By car, only Blackpool is a consistently longer drive, out of the biggest parks in the country. All 4 Merlin parks are equal or closer, with even Towers and Chessington mostly working out closer than Bedford. And compared to Blackpool, Bedford is also a really awkward drive from my location; Blackpool is all one relatively straight motorway, as are Chessington, Legoland and Thorpe, whereas Bedford is either a cross country drive along A and B roads through Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and Northamptonshire, a drive up to Birmingham and down again, or a drive across to London and up. My location to Bedford is 2h 45m on a good run in the car.

And by train, I reckon I’d be looking at a minimum of 2 changes to get to Bedford. If they did something with Milton Keynes, though, that would reduce to 1 in Birmingham.

I get that it’s good for the Northerners and all that, but purely from my own personal, selfish standpoint, I’d have much preferred somewhere along the M4 corridor like Reading…
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In the planning docs there is mention of shuttle buses from MK, so there's your reduction to 1 in Brum.
 
Matt N said:
I get that it’s good for the Northerners and all that, but purely from my own personal, selfish standpoint, I’d have much preferred somewhere along the M4 corridor like Reading…
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A quick Maps check shows a 3hr7 drive from my Northern house to the site. And these drives for some of the major Northern (including Scottish) urban areas:
Manchester: 2:47
Liverpool: 3:10
Leeds: 2:46
Bradford: 3:07
Sheffield: 2:10
Newcastle: 4:10
Teesside: 3:36
Edinburgh: 6:23
Glasgow: 5:52
Aberdeen: 8:19

So, it’s not as though it’s built to be great for Northerners. Just less terrible than it could have been.
 
It's a good 3 and a half hour drive for me but we would probably stay over somewhere anyway. It's also far away from the two worst roads in the UK the M6 & M5
 
Matt N said:
On a random note; is it only me for whom the proposed location of Universal is an absolute pain in the backside?
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Bowser said:
Welcome to a southerners experience of Alton Towers for the past 40+ years ;)
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Ahem...Scotland calling. Anyway, if this has a rail connection then I'm taking the train as I can't imagine driving that far down and to pay for that parking cost.
 
Alton Towers is 51 miles and takes an hour and a half. Bedford is 124 miles and takes 2hrs 20. A lot further away on the map but in reality worth getting up an hour earlier for!

Although a lot can happen in the years it takes to build it, I can imagine it’ll be the sort of place I visit annually, for a one or two day trip, can’t see myself getting a pass.
 
I can see all this discussion being moved to the dedicated transport thread forthwith however I think it's fair to say that barring only a couple of other possible locations, this one couldn't be more perfect for something on a huge scale - two major rail links, the motorway spine of the country and a junction literally next door and an airport half an hour away too. Plus the A1 equidistant in the other way as well.
 
Universal will be about 30 to 40 minutes by train from St Pancras, so about an hour door to door, with train tickets at ÂŁ20-30 and Thameslink trains running 24 hours. Alton Towers is about 3 hours and over ÂŁ100 when you factor in a taxi from the train station, Thorpe Park is about 90 minutes as I have to get to Waterloo and then normally cycle from Chertsey. So yes, an annual pass will be purchased!
 
I'll definitely be visiting in the first few years but I will 100% be lowering my expectations a bit after just visiting Epic.

Whilst I enjoyed my two days at Epic Universe I was honestly expecting more. Stardust Racers and Monsters Unchained aside (both my number 1 coaster and dark rides) I wasn't blown away really with the rest of the ride line up or even the two major shows. Not even Battle at Ministry had me itching for more. I think the mistake I made, and it's very easy to do, is that you think you're entering the perfect park as it's brand new. However major new theme parks in opening years are not perfect. They haven't ironed out the teething issues yet and also the ride line up starts off quite basic and grows over time.

Definitely eager to find out what the major IP will be that replaces Potter also. If it's Middle Earth / LOTR then I will 1000% be visiting within the first few weeks. If it's not something I'm overly bothered about then I could definitely hold off 12-18 months before making my first trip down to Bedford.
 
Benjsh said:
I think the mistake I made, and it's very easy to do, is that you think you're entering the perfect park as it's brand new. However major new theme parks in opening years are not perfect. They haven't ironed out the teething issues yet and also the ride line up starts off quite basic and grows over time.
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Riffing on this, it is worth noting that Universal's planning submission stated that they estimate that the park will not be "complete" until 2050.

I can only presume that "complete" refers to a similar current state of both Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure.
 
GooseOnTheLoose said:
Riffing on this, it is worth noting that Universal's planning submission stated that they estimate that the park will not be "complete" until 2050.

I can only presume that "complete" refers to a similar current state of both Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure.
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Feels like theme parks on this scale will never truly be "complete" - eg Disney Paris adding Frozen and Lion King worlds, and Epic already prepping their expansion plots for construction.
 
Yeah what i meant by that point above is the Universal GB park will definitely start out small and grow over time. Similarly to Epic, I think you will see a decent starting off point with a very obvious expansion pads ready to go for the following decade / two decades.

The issue i found with Epic is because there's not a huge quantity of E ticket style rides yet.....the queues can get ridiculous for the rides everyone most wants to do and obviously they haven't been helped by the persistent breakdowns which have been excessive so far to say the least.

One thing I'd hope they learn from is throughput mistakes. We probably won't get a Super Nintendo World at Universal GB but if we do, they really need to have a rethink about capacity. Both Mario kart and Minecart Madness are not particularly great at getting people through the queues and quite frankly both attractions are frankly underwhelming and not worth the queues they get either. I haven't heard a single person yet rave about either attraction which speaks volumes.
 
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