Inferno Posted April 9 Report Share Posted April 9 I can never tell if you're serious or just being sarcastic @Benin 😆 This is a very different situation to the London Resort though isn't it... And actually I'd argue that 6 years is not a long time at all when you consider what it is they're actually building. Construction is due to start next year, so really when you consider that in the meantime they will be arranging contracts with builders, engineers and suppliers etc, the project will be very much actively moving forward within months. Of course there's always the chance that it could be pulled, but really I think this is overwhelmingly positive and is looking very likely to go ahead. Very exciting! I honestly can't wait to visit, especially as my kids will be the perfect age for all this when it opens! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glitch Posted April 9 Report Share Posted April 9 Look forward to it and especially the vloggers economy it will create! I might consider going full time on tiktok live and live streaming the park daily updating everyone on each new piece of merch and food that becomes avalible! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benin Posted April 9 Report Share Posted April 9 27 minutes ago, Inferno said: I can never tell if you're serious or just being sarcastic @Benin 😆 Always assume sarcasm. Like any project anything could happen to it. But once Universal had to reveal their hand it had far more chance than London Resort ever did. Everything crossed. Inferno and Matt 236 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Inferno Posted April 9 Report Share Posted April 9 23 minutes ago, Glitch said: Look forward to it and especially the vloggers economy it will create! I might consider going full time on tiktok live and live streaming the park daily updating everyone on each new piece of merch and food that becomes avalible! I don't know what's real and what isn't anymore 😆 This would probably be quite lucrative honestly! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
planenut Posted April 9 Report Share Posted April 9 Much more chance of going ahead though I can't imagine many folks aiming to use Luton Airport to get there. Though this is not a Governmental project, their employment figures are a bit far-fetched. It will be interesting as to the source of the bricks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin Doyle Posted April 9 Report Share Posted April 9 I do look forward to seeing what excuses this country's famous exquisite collection of NIMBY's will have to try and stop it. However, this is exciting stuff and if/when it happens will majorly shake up both the UK and European theme park scenes!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Inferno Posted April 10 Report Share Posted April 10 8 hours ago, Martin Doyle said: what excuses this country's famous exquisite collection of NIMBY's will have to try and stop it. Ugh… Hopefully because of the site they’ve chosen this won’t be too bad an issue. There aren’t many housing estates close enough to really be too badly affected. They’ve also done a lot of work surveying the site, so hopefully the usual obligatory “rare wildlife” issue won’t come up. I think as well, just simply due to the state of things in the UK at the moment, the plans will all be waved through. We really do need this in the UK. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark9 Posted April 10 Report Share Posted April 10 11 hours ago, Martin Doyle said: I do look forward to seeing what excuses this country's famous exquisite collection of NIMBY's will have to try and stop it. However, this is exciting stuff and if/when it happens will majorly shake up both the UK and European theme park scenes!! Astoundingly, we have a project that the locals are heavily for. Don't bother reading social media comments though, complaints about muslims, poor pensioners and cost of living is all the blue ticks have. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattyB Posted April 10 Report Share Posted April 10 Post from the BBC - Bond and Paddington set to star at Universal park They mention Bond, Paddington and LoTR which is interesting.... Also says that Harry Potter will not be making an appearance Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benin Posted April 10 Report Share Posted April 10 The sources in that BBC article just sound like people who they probably found lurking around the fence trying to get first glimpses. Feel sorry for the security if/when construction gets started. Having to deal with certain influencers appearing almost daily. Glitch 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paultons Parkway Posted April 10 Report Share Posted April 10 10 hours ago, MattyB said: Post from the BBC - Bond and Paddington set to star at Universal park They mention Bond, Paddington and LoTR which is interesting.... Also says that Harry Potter will not be making an appearance Not surprising really. Harry Potter is only 30 odd miles away at Leavesden. Perhaps Universal and Harry Potter might offer joint ticketing to allow access to both on consecutive days. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glitch Posted April 10 Report Share Posted April 10 5 hours ago, Paultons Parkway said: Not surprising really. Harry Potter is only 30 odd miles away at Leavesden. Perhaps Universal and Harry Potter might offer joint ticketing to allow access to both on consecutive days. You’d think a combo ticket would work well here as long as WB want the collaboration seeing as it still sells out months in advance. In other news has Johnny B jumped ships yet to work on the you can do whatever you like no matter the cost project yet? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattyB Posted April 11 Report Share Posted April 11 I would expect a lot of the Merlin staff are probably eyeing up a potential move over to Universal at some point. Considering the redundancies the company is going through, I wouldn't be surprised. Inferno 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benin Posted April 11 Report Share Posted April 11 Depends. Given most will work in and around Midlands, you'd have to move closer to Bedford, and would the wages be better or as good as anywhere you could get nearby? Universal have their own creative team. They don't need the minds behind Hyperia. Glitch and Coaster_Contrarian 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoshC. Posted April 11 Report Share Posted April 11 I can definitely imagine some UK theme park staff will be tempted by a move. Moving from (say) the Surrey parks towards Bedford isn't a huge distance / upheaval. Prices for rent etc will be similar. Salary will probably be similar. But the draw for UK people to be able to say they work at Universal will be big. When I worked at Thorpe, which is when the London Resort park seemed potentially possible, I know people were saying they would be looking to move if it happened. I especially think your middle-manager folk will be tempted. It could represent career progression, that opportunity to be a part of something new and big, and look at going somewhere else if they become disgruntled with Merlin. Same could also be said for engineers and maybe even those slightly higher up. Universal will have their own Creative Team, Senior Leadership, etc in mind and happy to relocate as necessary. But they'll need plenty of people from the UK, and I'm sure they wouldn't grumble at people who have multiple years at the top UK theme parks coming over. This is what I've always said is the biggest risk for Merlin: the short term loss of staff. I think they'll be fine with visitation, and the premium price and product of Universal will just add a layer to the dynamic of the UK industry, rather than completely change it. But they will struggle if there's an exodus of staff looking to see if the grass is greener. I also think staffing for Halloween will become significantly harder. I can imagine loads of scare actors will have their heads turned at the prospect of saying they worked at Halloween Horror Nights for example. Even ones who live in Surrey (for example) will be happy to relocate for a couple months if needs be. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
planenut Posted Thursday at 08:03 AM Report Share Posted Thursday at 08:03 AM Todays BBC article has some interesting info on this, "only Universal park to be in Europe", talking with local educational establishments, https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c5yrg95rp5wo The site is far more suited as a "brownfield site", which will help with planning/development, and lack of massive industrial employers suggests more potential workforce. Inferno 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Inferno Posted 22 hours ago Report Share Posted 22 hours ago Shots fired! I mean they aren’t wrong are they! It seems that Universal are planning on arriving and very much staking their claim as THE theme park resort in the UK. There are also suggestions in local council meetings that there is talk of extending the Eurostar line to Bedford - which would be absolutely massive for the UK as a whole to be honest. Cal 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benin Posted 11 hours ago Report Share Posted 11 hours ago Extending the Eurostar would be very interesting. Especially when they recently killed off the direct to DLP line. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoshC. Posted 9 hours ago Report Share Posted 9 hours ago The reality of why there's no top worldwide theme park in the UK is a little more nuanced to be fair. All our major parks were first built 40+ years ago. Their locations aren't designed with being a big big hitter park in mind. None of them have the associated infrastructure outside the park to cope with more than 3-4 million a year, let alone more than double that. Imagine what the roads around Towers would be like with those numbers. What the public transport would be. What Thorpe would be like, with queues of cars backing up to the M25 from both directions. You could argue why haven't Merlin tried to utilise their understanding of the UK market to push and create that big hitter park from scratch. But equally, you then ask, do they need to, and is the UK the right place to do that. And then, until recently, no big non-UK operator has had any success inside the UK. It's a difficult nut to crack. Universal will have spent many years researching this, planning this, etc, long before we even got a whiff of the idea a couple of years back. Which is why it'll undoubtedly be a success. But yeah, whilst the "no top theme park" line is a dig at Merlin, it is probably backed up with a deep understanding of why that is the case, and it's not just 'lol Merlin suck' Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benin Posted 7 hours ago Report Share Posted 7 hours ago Think the problem is more that beyond Thorpe's initial rush in the 2000s post buy-out the UK parks have stagnated. Other mainland European parks have expanded (much like peak UK in 90s) and pushed the limits of what their parks could achieve. Unless its DLP. When was the last truly successful innovative addition? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoshC. Posted 6 hours ago Report Share Posted 6 hours ago 51 minutes ago, Benin said: Think the problem is more that beyond Thorpe's initial rush in the 2000s post buy-out the UK parks have stagnated. Other mainland European parks have expanded (much like peak UK in 90s) and pushed the limits of what their parks could achieve. Unless its DLP. When was the last truly successful innovative addition? Oh 100% agree there. Big problem. But even if the UK parks continued to develop / expand like they did during their peak / like European parks are doing now, they would still hit a natural ceiling. Thorpe could never really get beyond 2.5 million visitors, for example, I'd say. The reason, in my opinion, that there is no Top 25 theme park worldwide in the UK is because no one - until now - has set out to build one. As for the last successful innovative addition in the UK...I'd argue one of Saw, Thirteen and Smiler. Only Thirteen is truly innovative there. But all 3 of them bought huge attendance boosts, which were maintained, and have lasting power. -Saw worked because of the IP, gave Thorpe the best 3 years in terms of attendance. And it's still a big name for the park. -Thirteen saw Towers go above 3 million visitors for the first time since Nemesis opened. Has the innovation. And it still has that "gotcha" moment for guests. Not a headliner for the park though. -Smiler's obviously been plagued with issues, but so many people know it, and it's branding is super strong. But yeah, the fact that it's been about 15 years since anything truly, successfully innovative washed up on these shores tells the story. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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