Universal's New Park/Site B Blue Sky Thread

[GAcoaster]

IOA is literally the opposite of a hub and spoke layout.

Right, IoA and USO are both Duell Loops: Total Landscape, Theme Parks, Public Space - Miodrag Mitrasinovic - Google Books

 

[Scott W.]

Right, IoA and USO are both Duell Loops: Total Landscape, Theme Parks, Public Space - Miodrag Mitrasinovic - Google Books

Interesting.

Us Brits almost always take the opposite route to people in the US. Our supermarkets are also set up differently as we tend to follow a particular path.

Could maybe be because we drive on the other side of the road.

 

[GAcoaster]

Could maybe be because we drive on the other side of the road.

I've noticed when there are a lot of Brits in the parks there tend to be more people walking on the WRONG side of the paths!

 

[Scott W.]

I've noticed when there are a lot of Brits in the parks there tend to be more people walking on the WRONG side of the paths!

If you’ve ever wondered why it’s because we had a road system way before the technology could catch up. With most people being right handed, we would ride on the left of the road so if we met anybody and needed to fight, our sword was in the correct hand.

As technology advanced and horse and cart became the norm, riders would sit on the left hand side of the car so that their right hand would be between the two horses up front and could be whipped with less effort. Sitting on the left, you drove on the right so that you could greet anybody passing by and gave you a better vantage point.

As the road system grew and was built on top of existing roads, things stayed the same. With the US being a newer country, it made more sense for them to develop all their roads to drive on the right.

 

[Mad Dog]

If you’ve ever wondered why it’s because we had a road system way before the technology could catch up. With most people being right handed, we would ride on the left of the road so if we met anybody and needed to fight, our sword was in the correct hand.

As technology advanced and horse and cart became the norm, riders would sit on the left hand side of the car so that their right hand would be between the two horses up front and could be whipped with less effort. Sitting on the left, you drove on the right so that you could greet anybody passing by and gave you a better vantage point.

As the road system grew and was built on top of existing roads, things stayed the same. With the US being a newer country, it made more sense for them to develop all their roads to drive on the right.

Now, tell me the background story about those Roundabouts that I get lost in.

 

[RevFreako]

Now, tell me the background story about those Roundabouts that I get lost in.

How in the hell do you get lost in a traffic circle?

 

[Disneyhead]

:thumbsup:Thank you. Confirms what I wrote about 6 months ago. That info had come from a prominent insider.

The Prop Shop Guy?

 

[Mad Dog]

The Prop Shop Guy?

Good one! :thumbsup:....Actually, in truth, from one of the few true Insiders that are strong on both WDW & Universal insider info. A beacon from a distant shore via a mutual friend ...

 

[Parkscope Joe]

I've received independent confirmation that the new park will in fact be a hub and spoke design, featuring a central icon.

It's me, I am the central icon.

 

[Mad Dog]

How in the hell do you get lost in a traffic circle?

When you're on the 'wrong' side of the road, driving in the 'wrong' side of the car, it can get a little crazy. Watch European vacation. It happened to me 10 years before the movie.

 

[RevFreako]

When you're on the 'wrong' side of the road, driving in the 'wrong' side of the car, it can get a little crazy. Watch European vacation. It happened to me 10 years before the movie.

Fair. I've been in the international car rental business for a decade. I've heard thingd

 

[truejonas]

Alright, lets guess about the hub. Alicia likes an observatory but Disney already made a very poor attempt at Disney Springs with that. Someone probably mentioned a plastic castle like the MK one, there is the concrete tree with plastic leaves that look painfully out of place between the natural green. So I think it's safe to say non of these will be presented in the center.
I propose a huge structure with multiple half globes with a representation of the worlds on top of them rotating around a huge world globe. The whole thing at night will have a show on it and around it. Anyone another idea?

I like the idea of having a night show in the hub, with my only fear being that it will need to be a pretty big space. Depending on the thematic layout, I'd sooner see a night show that operates out of the hub, with guests around the lands watching the hub (a la Illuminations).

It's me, I am the central icon.

Excellent. Take my money.

 

[Alicia]

Something I'm hearing from that Comcast meeting: the materials specifically say the new park will be one of the largest they've ever built, but will still have a large amount of room for future expansion, "allowing for the 'World' of any movie, television show, video game, or more, to be featured in our brand new theme park in the future."

This goes along with other rumors that the park may not open with as many worlds as one would assume, but also means any concepts we've drawn up for how to split the land may need to leave larger holes than we thought. Sounds like they may want to avoid the problems of prior parks, and leave clear expansion plots big enough for entire worlds in place, not just for new attractions.

 

[truejonas]

Something I'm hearing from that Comcast meeting: the materials specifically say the new park will be one of the largest they've ever built, but will still have a large amount of room for future expansion, "allowing for the 'World' of any movie, television show, video game, or more, to be featured in our brand new theme park in the future."

This goes along with other rumors that the park may not open with as many worlds as one would assume, but also means any concepts we've drawn up for how to split the land may need to leave larger holes than we thought. Sounds like they may want to avoid the problems of prior parks, and leave clear expansion plots big enough for entire worlds in place, not just for new attractions.

I'm fine with this. As long as it is still a solid park on opening day, I don't mind not having all of the worlds (be it a full land, or just part of one) fully fleshed out.

 

[tielo]

Something I'm hearing from that Comcast meeting: the materials specifically say the new park will be one of the largest they've ever built, but will still have a large amount of room for future expansion, "allowing for the 'World' of any movie, television show, video game, or more, to be featured in our brand new theme park in the future."

This goes along with other rumors that the park may not open with as many worlds as one would assume, but also means any concepts we've drawn up for how to split the land may need to leave larger holes than we thought. Sounds like they may want to avoid the problems of prior parks, and leave clear expansion plots big enough for entire worlds in place, not just for new attractions.

I mentioned that before. It is valuable for the current en new parks to have expansion (or replacement) space to keep guests coming back. But I'm positive it will be close to a full day although that is not saying anything. I know people who can do a week strolling the Potter lands and hardly do anything else the parks have to offer. That is alright. I'm sure I can spent at least 2 days in Mario World alone.

 

[quinnmac000]

Something I'm hearing from that Comcast meeting: the materials specifically say the new park will be one of the largest they've ever built, but will still have a large amount of room for future expansion, "allowing for the 'World' of any movie, television show, video game, or more, to be featured in our brand new theme park in the future."

This goes along with other rumors that the park may not open with as many worlds as one would assume, but also means any concepts we've drawn up for how to split the land may need to leave larger holes than we thought. Sounds like they may want to avoid the problems of prior parks, and leave clear expansion plots big enough for entire worlds in place, not just for new attractions.

So the current one largest park they are building is 300 Acres....so I'm guess it will be at least 150 acres starting.

 

[Happytycho]

Something I'm hearing from that Comcast meeting: the materials specifically say the new park will be one of the largest they've ever built, but will still have a large amount of room for future expansion, "allowing for the 'World' of any movie, television show, video game, or more, to be featured in our brand new theme park in the future."

This goes along with other rumors that the park may not open with as many worlds as one would assume, but also means any concepts we've drawn up for how to split the land may need to leave larger holes than we thought. Sounds like they may want to avoid the problems of prior parks, and leave clear expansion plots big enough for entire worlds in place, not just for new attractions.

Going back to a picture that I've posted before:

The area inside the red outline is about 155 acres. The ponds are a bit more than 20 acres combined, so the park theoretically could be as large as slightly over 130 acres. There will also likely be a hotel that takes up some of this, meaning that the final size will probably be less than 120 acres.

Given the wording about being able to add "any world", I wouldn't be surprised if much of the northeast section (what I've labeled with a green 6) is reserved for future expansions, leading to an opening day park size of only 70-80 acres. Leaving wide open expansion space for additional worlds also probably means that there won't be many smaller attraction-sized expansion plots within the phase 1 worlds, which makes smaller lands and a smaller initial total park area more reasonable. However, the likely ~80 acres it opens with is nowhere near enough to be considered one of the largest they've ever built in terms of land area, so I'm not sure what that comment is supposed to mean.

Edit: I'm interpreting Alicia's statement as that the main priority is Comcast wanting to keep short term capital expenditures under control, and putting off the construction of the last couple of worlds for 5-10 years is a really effective way of doing so. It could be that the intent really is about preserving the ability to add a future IP, but that isn't the impression I'm getting, especially given the lack of planned water lines and driveways in the large area 6 on my map.

 

[Mad Dog]

If the ponds, or where the water features are located or relocated to, are within the park boundaries, that will probably be counted as the total acreage size of the park, ie. IOA, USf, Epcot MK etc. So, Universal may be looking at that as a 155 acre park .

 

[natespf]

Depending on the methodology used the size of a park can very quite a bit.

To be fair the pond in the 5 square is in the corner of the property, and looks to be on the other side of a road. A little different than ponds surrounded by guest areas.

 

[JungleSkip]

I'm not convinced there will be any resorts on the big plot of land, personally. If there is, I think it will be built into the park someway.

EDIT: I think the resorts will be where I highlighted red. You can already see the car entrances for them.