[🌎 Universal GB] Planning, Transport and Infrastructure

[Quantum]

There will eventually be a large amount of people staying on site so as more hotels are built the late night offerings begin to make more sense. The site also has the advantage of being well served by road and rail, something neither Thorpe or Alton Towers have. Part of the reason late opens struggle at Towers is it's location, it's a mission to get to unless you are really local.

The late night openings at Universal may start as a limited offering but is definitely something they can expand as the site grows. They will also have the advantage of a City Walk that have food and drink to keep people on site later on into the evening.

 

[tech]

They will also have the advantage of a City Walk that have food and drink to keep people on site later on into the evening.

And the food will be edible too! Stuff of dreams that!

 

[Hid]

There will eventually be a large amount of people staying on site so as more hotels are built the late night offerings begin to make more sense. The site also has the advantage of being well served by road and rail, something neither Thorpe or Alton Towers have. Part of the reason late opens struggle at Towers is it's location, it's a mission to get to unless you are really local.

The late night openings at Universal may start as a limited offering but is definitely something they can expand as the site grows. They will also have the advantage of a City Walk that have food and drink to keep people on site later on into the evening.

Another good thing Universal will have great roads with Black Cat Roundabout being overhauled and other junctions being overhauled it should be better journey.

 

[Dave]

And the food will be edible too! Stuff of dreams that!

Well, unless they decide to sell those hideous Turkey Legs the Americans are fond of…..

 

[DiogoJ42]

Well, unless they decide to sell those hideous Turkey Legs the Americans are fond of…..

Sure.... "turkey"......

 

[Ben]

I’ve never done a HHN in America, I’m not sure I’d fancy a full (let’s say 8 hour 10-6) theme park day, leave to city walk for food, back on park 8pm to 1am. 13 hours in october in the uk is definitely not the attraction 13 hours in Florida or California. I’ve randomly thrown these timings together but my point remains.

 

[jon81uk]

I’ve never done a HHN in America, I’m not sure I’d fancy a full (let’s say 8 hour 10-6) theme park day, leave to city walk for food, back on park 8pm to 1am. 13 hours in october in the uk is definitely not the attraction 13 hours in Florida or California. I’ve randomly thrown these timings together but my point remains.

A lot of people don’t do a full park day and the HHN, they arrive just off the separate ticket evening event. Also if you do have a day ticket then better to stay in the park for the transition into HHN and then you are closer to queue lines when they open.

 

[SuperMuscleMan]

This feels very off topic but as of right now we're importing nearly 20% of our total usage, that's not insignificant. Source: https://grid.iamkate.com/

I would not read too much into that, France has alot of nuclear and needs to get rid of it. We buy it when they have excess or are even paid to take it on. I live in an area where the cables come into the country and about 3-5x a week I'm given power for free or paid to take it. Just look into octopus power ups if you don't believe me. I'm also on agile and on a day like today I'm paid to use the excess power... Making my bill about 33% cheaper than the standard fixed tariff.

 

[Blackrock]

I’ve never done a HHN in America, I’m not sure I’d fancy a full (let’s say 8 hour 10-6) theme park day, leave to city walk for food, back on park 8pm to 1am. 13 hours in october in the uk is definitely not the attraction 13 hours in Florida or California. I’ve randomly thrown these timings together but my point remains.

That’s true, also we have the benefit (that Florida doesn’t) of the sun setting at 4:30 ish so we get a few hours of extra darkness earlier anyway

 

[Quantum]

What if the 1am opening is for a new year's eve event. It's not necessarily for HHN

 

[Bowser]

What if the 1am opening is for a new year's eve event. It's not necessarily for HHN

It specifies “seasonal events such as Halloween Horror Night”.

 

[Dave]

New year would be seasonal as well.

I can’t see why they wouldn’t do HHN as a 1am finish as it will be a separate ticketed event anyway.

 

[Bert2theSpark]

What I find interesting is that they’ve also listed Diwali and Chinese New Year in the last opening hours in addition to Fan Fest and Halloween Horror Nights. That shows that across the board there’s so much diversity in terms of audience for late night openings.

I think one of the reasons Merlin’s late opening event dissipated was because Mardi Gras, Oktoberfest and the summer events were just attracting the same crowds. Whereas this offers something for UK residents and international travellers that wouldn’t visit for rides alone. Truly a theme park that offers something for everyone and harkens back to the roots of a public park. I’m just as excited for the shows, events and atmosphere as I am for the rides themselves!

 

[Quantum]

There will be far more to keep people on site later into the evening be it dinning, shows, special events etc. if your local City Walk is going to be great

 

[jon81uk]

There will be far more to keep people on site later into the evening be it dinning, shows, special events etc. if your local City Walk is going to be great

We don’t know what CityWalk is going to offer yet. It might not be designed to attract that many extra people and could just be a few restaurants for on-site guests.
Think about places like Europa Park and Disneyland Paris, there isn’t anything really for locals, Disneyland Paris just really is shops and restaurants outside the park. Unlike Florida where both Disney Springs and CityWalk have large cinemas which attract more locals.

 

[AT86]

Disneyland Paris, there isn’t anything really for locals, Disneyland Paris just really is shops and restaurants outside the park. Unlike Florida where both Disney Springs and CityWalk have large cinemas which attract more locals.

Disney Village has a cinema

 

[flyingguitar]

Am I reading this right or could the rumours of a direct Eurostar service directly to the site be true?

Page 41 -

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/685ebd943e6b7941f4e00bbd/01_-_6.1.0_Planning_Statement.pdf#page38

That direct Eurostar purple line goes all the way to Bedford and there’s definitely no Eurostar service to Bedford atm.

It could be possible, the lines that connect through Bedford do go to St. Pancras International, so they could pull in do a quick turn around and head out, other services throughout the UK do it, however some infrastructure would be required (I think a set of points connecting the other line to the Eurostar platforms at St. Pancras International and a passport terminal at Bedford would be required.)

If there is demand, I could see it happening, however due to the stupidly expensive cost of Euro star (I mean seriously, it is like 3 times the price of catching a flight) I really doubt many people would actually catch it, unless if a competitor came in and pushed UK-Euro train prices down.

TBH I would imagine they were referring to the line connecting directly to St. Pancras International

We don’t know what CityWalk is going to offer yet. It might not be designed to attract that many extra people and could just be a few restaurants for on-site guests.
Think about places like Europa Park and Disneyland Paris, there isn’t anything really for locals, Disneyland Paris just really is shops and restaurants outside the park. Unlike Florida where both Disney Springs and CityWalk have large cinemas which attract more locals.

I think eventually there would be a City walk like, I think it would probably be taken slow to avoid the mistakes of DLP where Disney just sprinted straght into the Euro market and crashed. I think there may be a few places, that expand as hotels and restaurants get added

florida I would agree is quite differnt to DLP village, there are similarities but disney springs and city walk are more like shopping centers, they are massive compared to DLP (which is more like a high street)

 

[The Big Mack]

Eurostar there would be nice but not essential... the Thameslink is just downstairs in St Pancras.

 

[Bowser]

If there is demand, I could see it happening, however due to the stupidly expensive cost of Euro star (I mean seriously, it is like 3 times the price of catching a flight) I really doubt many people would actually catch it, unless if a competitor came in and pushed UK-Euro train prices down.

I’m not sure this is true in terms of price. There are so many other factors and variables to consider with the cost of travel (booking in advance, transport to airport, luggage fees etc). Yes you can probably sometimes get a £10 flight to and from various provincial airports but there are always additional costs associated with that, both literal and physical.

Personally I have never been on a Eurostar that isn’t almost completely full. We booked our recent DLP trip 2 months in advance and the cost was competitive, especially in relation to the convenience it provided.

Conversely evidently the direct DLP service wasn’t popular enough to maintain and with an existing interchange already in place it seems somewhat redundant to attempt similar for Universal.