Universal Great Britain - Speculation & Rumors

[Mike S]

So a lot of the speculation talk of this Park has been on how this Park will seemingly have no cloned attractions from Universal Orlando Resort, as to not cannibalise British tourism to that Resort, but could and might include cloned attractions from other Universal Resorts like Hollywood and Japan

And so, as a fun excercise, I decided to round up and make a list of all the attractions unique to the other four current Universal Resorts, to see and discuss what could be cloned to the new Park

A note that the list does not contain ALL of the unique stuff from Non-Orlando Parks, as I've disqualified some based off of rumours of how the Park will be designed.

Given rumours and potential legal stuff, I've removed any DreamWorks Attractions since it seems they are off the table, which includes Beijing's Kung Fu Panda: Land of Awesomeness and all the attractions inside, Hollywood's DreamWorks Theatre, and Singapore's Far Far Away and it's unique attractions

I also excluded rides that don't fit how the Park has said to be designed, with many indoor rides and experiences, so primarily outdoor rides have been cut, which includes Singapore's Treasure Hunters, Canopy Flyer, and Jurassic Park Rapids Adventure

With all said, here's the list:

• The Secret Life of Pets: Off The Leash
• Loop-Dee Doop-Dee
• Silly Swirly/Super Swirly
• Freeze Ray Sliders
• Super Silly Fun Land Play Area
• SING: On Tour
• Jurassic World Adventure
• Jurassic Flyers
• The Flying Dinosaur
• Dino-Soarin'
• Lights, Camera, ACTION!!
• Space Fantasy: The Ride
• Sesame Street: Spaghetti Space Chase
• Battlestar Galactica: HUMAN
• Battlestar Galactica: CYLON
• WaterWorld

Of all these attractions I’d say the most likely could be Jurassic World Adventure, Pets, and Super Silly Fun Land.

 

[TheUniC6]

Of all these attractions I’d say the most likely could be Jurassic World Adventure, Pets, and Super Silly Fun Land.

It's obvious Minions/DM is going to be included. But I would hope instead of rehashing Minion Mayhem for the umpteenth time, they use this opportunity to create some sort of DM dark ride incorporating elements from the later films.

 

[Chessy]

Watched a video earlier from a Disneyland Paris fan/vlogger and he seems adamant UGB is going to be a Studios Park and not like IOA and EU. Asking those who might know, is there any indication of this outside of the domain they registered? If I recall we have it being a mix of IOA and EU and that came from Universal at the consulation.

I think it’ll have at least a Hollywood type entrance plaza and street. From there you’ll likely enter all the different worlds. I don’t think it’s going to be exactly like epic, I feel they’ll save different concepts for expansions. And maybe a 2nd gate in the future.

 

[Altonsky]

If this happens do we think the government will impose contractual obligations to open a second gate once visitor numbers reach a certain figure?

Similar to what the French government did with DLP and I think the Chinese government have done with Beijing.

 

[Jake S]

If this happens do we think the government will impose contractual obligations to open a second gate once visitor numbers reach a certain figure?

Similar to what the French government did with DLP and I think the Chinese government have done with Beijing.

I'd be surprised. I don't think the British government has the same kind of leverage or negotiating power as the French or Chinese governments did in their respective situations.

However, I would not be surprised to see them go after non-binding commitments to "future growth" or "resort expansion."

 

[Chessy]

If this happens do we think the government will impose contractual obligations to open a second gate once visitor numbers reach a certain figure?

Similar to what the French government did with DLP and I think the Chinese government have done with Beijing.

I’m not sure how the British government approach this kind of thing to be honest.

I did have a thought on why it may have taken Universal so long to come to the UK/European market. And I think that has a lot to do with DLP and how Disney handled it’s first venture into Europe.

So I think they decided to sit back for a while and see how things pan out. Presuming they’ve chosen the UK as it’s a safe market, in part due to the high influx of British tourists to Orlando?

 

[Altonsky]

I'd be surprised. I don't think the British government has the same kind of leverage or negotiating power as the French or Chinese governments did in their respective situations.

However, I would not be surprised to see them go after non-binding commitments to "future growth" or "resort expansion."

Yeah I did think that’d be the case! Non binding agreements seem sensible.

 

[bedfordmassive]

What’s the benefit of that kind of agreement? Presumably it would be set at a visitor level which would make it sensible to open a second gate anyway or Disney/Universal wouldn’t agree to it.

 

[Chessy]

If it goes ahead then this park/resort would be wholly owned by Comcast/Universal?

 

[xtpower]

There won't be any type of DLP agreement with the gov if this goes ahead. Disney weren't even the full owners until 2017.

No, I expect it'll be wholly owned and operated by Comcast/Universal. So it won't be a co-ownership deal like Beijing or a licensing deal like Singapore.

This also doesn't feel like the gov have gone to Universal and sold them on building a Park here, but Universal doing it all on their own iniative. Of course that doesn't mean the Gov won't make life easier and contribute on infrastructure costs etc etc, just that at the end of the day this is 100% a Universal show.

 

[yepthatguy]

I think the UK government will absolutely flop this.

I wish I could think otherwise.

 

[TheUniC6]

If building a European Universal park in the UK gets knocked down by the British Government, I would like to think Universal must have some other backup locations in the cards. Maybe somewhere like Germany?

 

[bedfordmassive]

Evidence so far is that the government has, unbelievably, done a really good job. All levels (council, mayor, MPs, ministers) seem lined up, and both parties supportive. I don’t see them dropping the ball.

 

[rob@rar]

If this happens do we think the government will impose contractual obligations to open a second gate once visitor numbers reach a certain figure?

Similar to what the French government did with DLP and I think the Chinese government have done with Beijing.

I hope not, I think it would be a dumb decision by Universal to accept such a constraint. The UK government shouldn’t be in the theme park business because there is no way it could successfully determine when time is right to open a second gate. At best it would be an arbitrary future date, at worst a financial threat to the whole project. Look at what happened in Paris - to meet the 2nd gate deadline EuroDisney built the worst Disney park in the world, by some margin, which even today is a major disappointment. Fortunately TWDC and the French authorities have seen sense and keep pushing back the so-called deadline for the third gate in Paris. The best people to decide if the resort in Bedford needs expansion, and what that expansion should look like, is Universal.

Drove past the site yesterday, you can clearly see the archeological trenches from the A421. Made it feel a little bit more real!

 

[Scott W.]

Evidence so far is that the government has, unbelievably, done a really good job. All levels (council, mayor, MPs, ministers) seem lined up, and both parties supportive. I don’t see them dropping the ball.

I don't know if I'm surprised but there has been a far more positive reaction from both sides than expected. I can't think of the last time that a project of this size was even supported by both sides.

I'm about 95% certain that this is going to happen.

 

[rob@rar]

Spotted this on TikTok - not sure if they are also a member here?



Key points: nothing of significance has been found by the archeology team; they expect to be finished within a couple of weeks.

 

[GAcoaster]

 

[Altonsky]

Hopefully it all adds up for the bean counters, it should do.

 

[rob@rar]

I posted a reference to that question from Richard Fuller MP about a week ago. Not quite sure what is meant by the comment in the Instagram post that government is pushing for a response to Universal before the summer. Richard Fuller is a backbench MP not a member of the government, and when he asked the question of the Minister the reply was noncommittal, so it's difficult to conclude from that exchange that the government is pushing for progress before the summer. They might well be, but there's no indication in that particular exchange.

 

[xtpower]

I think we'll get no committed comments until Universal gives the project a greenlight. There's no point putting out a definitive comment about it until you know that it's getting the go ahead. But I am heartened that it is getting brought up and as much as her comment was just 'we're liasing', she did it call it exciting and specifically cited liasing with the treasury too.